With a panel & speaker that expressed over 100 years of business & entrepreneurship experience the delegates of the

The Real Seminar Team, Speaker & Panel

first Real Seminar knew they would be engaged in inspirational conversation about how businesses use collaboration to encourage growth. Organised by Spot On event s & communications & partnered with the Centre for Enterprise at University of Glamorgan the event hit some high notes with the SME delegates.

The panel of Matt Burge, CEO of COMMSCORP, Paul Ragan Founder Collateral Thinking, Gerald Hughes GM Sony UK & Dr Gary Packham Director of Enterprise at University of Glamorgan and guest speaker Tom Ware of Rondo Media debated the advantages and some cons of working in collaboration.

How it works for a real business

Speaker Tom Ware spoke of the aims for 4 broadcast production companies coming together to form a more marketable strength selling to the likes of the Discovery Channel in America.  Revealing a staggering business case these small companies would sell their exiting & new ideas and concepts to a market that has a 6 fold increase in available budgets.  Explaining the reason for a collaboration Tom said “in the UK there are only 4 major buyers, ITV, BBC, S4C & Five. With new broadcast commissions coming to a complete stop this year, we have had to look elsewhere for work” After an International Business Wales trade mission to America this year Tom & the other programme makers saw themselves in a really surreal scenario of pitching ideas to the Discovery channel in the same room at the same time, “you never get to hear other people’s ideas, this was a completely new experience… towards the end we where pitching each other’s ideas which built a really strong case for Welsh programming overseas”. After the mission it was clear that together the businesses where stronger, so a collaborative venture was established.

Many questions & throughout his talk he emphasised the power of working together. “Each company still owns it’s own identity, and we discovered that in the UK we may be viewed as competitors, when it comes down to actual output we deliver, we are very different… it’s in all of our interested to support & promote each other overseas by having one big voice rather than lots of little ones.”

From the story to the discussion

Paul Ragan’s was the first to comment on the topic of collaboration & on Tom’s case study “all entrepreneurs are in collaboration” the fact that anyone with entrepreneurial sprit will look to collaborate in order to be productive, “collaboration is learning, sharing & pooling resources.”  Paul who is a co-founder of Collateral Thinking helps businesses to maximise their potential. After selling Motaquote in 2008 he has experienced the trials and success of collaborative working practices. “We have all made mistakes in the past & personally its been the detail that I have fallen down on.” Explaining that entrepreneurs often get over excited about new prospects he reconciles this with the reality of projects that come to the table “For every 10 I got excited about only 1 will come off, the same for every £100,000 projected we can see only a 10^th come to fruition”.

Protecting our IP & Brand

Delegates, who are representative of the South Wale SME market, often came back to the panel with the question of protection of their own ideas & brands, something they have worked hard to create & keep. Gerald Hughes of Sony, one of the biggest global technology brands, comments “when you think of collaboration and the idea of working with competitors, you instantly think risk.

What entrepreneurs should think is what can I gain.” Gerald explained that Sony UK now has a programme of working with Techniums & Universities to produce the concepts that come out of that process. “Collaboration has worked really well for us, after a period where our market shrank, making the move to work with smaller companies & individuals by producing their ideas & making them a marketable product, helped us as a business. We also off set risk by both parties by being clear from the outset of who has what role in the operation.”

Matt Burge, whose company COMMSCORP runs 20 businesses in the communication & marketing arena internationally, added “by understanding your end game you can successfully protect your own brand and ideas.”  He continues “we work hard to keep the identity of individual brands, there can be some confusion when collaborating that a merger may have taken place, but it is usually not in the interests of the organisations to be perceived so.”

A grant led culture

A great discussion swept through the room surrounding the idea that Wales & Cardiff in particular is a fantastic breeding ground for collaborative projects. Speaking after the event Matt Burge commented “its true, Cardiff is like a village, everyone knows everyone and that is why collaboration of ideas and recourses is easy to achieve.” Returning to the room the delegates brought up the fact that SME’s in Wales are more used to looking for and accepting grants rather than make moves to seek advice & resources from other businesses. Paul Ragan was first to comment “We are a grant led culture where we should be mentor led” The evidence is there that there is more worth in working with a larger or similar business who share ambitions and values. The idea of mentoring smaller businesses rather than simply handing out cash is key to the regions success. Company infrastructure and methodology is essential. Gerald Hughes added, “personally I think that corporate’s should be legislated by government to help smaller companies & entrepreneurs.” Dr Gary Packham of the Centre for Enterprise suggested that “there is significant value in working together, whether that be from a corporation or university assisting small businesses or for individual companies working together. What we put into collaboration make us more efficient”.

From all this insight and discussion the mood in the room was high. Gareth Morgan of Cardiff based online marketing agency Liberty Marketing said “Collaboration with other companies has never really entered my head, but coming away from this evening I think there are some real opportunities out there.”

Overall the first Real Seminar offered both delegates and the speakers a chance to learn from experiences & also talk about what the real issues are that face small businesses. When it comes to collaboration, the issues are fear of risk rather than what the panel suggest is the richness of gaining.

The next Real Seminar is planned for the 10^TH February 2010. Following the same format the topic is to be decided by the delegates who came & those interested in attending. Please visit www.realsemianrs.co.uk/topic-section/ to influence the next event.