Scotland will in the near future have a single system for business support, according to Scottish Enterprise chief executive Steve Dunlop.
This would mean SE working more closely with local authorities, Business Gateway, Highlands and Islands Enterprise and the emerging economic partnership in the South of Scotland.
He told an editors’ briefing today: “We have agreed, through direction from government, to create a single point of entry. That will have the effect of democratising access to business support.
“So no longer do you have to be a business of a particular scale to get access to advice and information. And in the not too distant future you will be able to get financial product through that portal as well.”
He said this would create a dataset and give sophisticated insight to the business base in Scotland for the economic development agencies to tailor the support that they offer to businesses.
“One of the emphatic shifts for me is that we will go hunting and gathering as an organisation for talent. We will find talent, we will not be passive in waiting for people to come to us for advice.”
Dunlop said that SE need as an organisation and an economic development system to stimulate demand for investment. He said the current Scottish Investment Bank would become part of the new National Investment Bank when it was launched next year.
He added: I see us in having a crucial role in creating businesses that are investment ready for the bank.”
Dunlop said Scottish Enterprise would have a new focus on capital – financial and human capital.
He said: “We know that the business community are deeply worried about holding on to staff and talent – attracting and retaining – and therefore we want to work in concert with all our partners across the Scottish landscape in making sure that out messages around attracting and retaining talent are very clear.”
On financial capital, he said: “We want to build prospectuses, opportunities to invest in, to go deeply into what Scotland has to offer – a sharper focus around that.”
He also said that he wanted to build the international GlobalScot network – increasing its number from the current 700 to 2,500.
“What is important there is that we are able to curate that talent, organise it, point it in the directions we want to to gain maximum benefit from it. We are building capacity, an engine room behind it that will mean if you are a Global Scot you are well informed and you know want you can contribute, and that work is well under way.”
He said that he had integrated Scottish Development International into Scottish Enterprise “in a much closer way.”
He said: “We need to go beyond saying that Scotland is a great place to live and work and to invest, we want to show that.”
He said that Scottish Enterprise wanted to bring all the agencies together, the planning community, the regulators, the agencies who can help stimulate and incentivise and attract – we want to bring that whole system together.”
Each part of Scotland would have its clear offering in seeking new investment. He said he believed there was a “new maturity” amongst different areas in Scotland with the realisation that they had to collaborate more to compete.
He said he wanted SE to work together in a much more strategic way with the universities and colleges. “There are some great examples of wonderful projects that are underway but I would like Scottish Enterprise to be building long-term strategic partnerships with the universities across Scotland and so too with the colleges.”
He said when he talked to businesses the number one issue was skills, “the agility of our workforce to make sure it is fully optimised and ready to be able to react to economic shock but take advantage of the economic opportunities that we have to offer.”
He said the other key community to work with was the entrepreneurial community. “If we aspire to being the most entrepreneurial small country in the world then what does the infrastructure look like for that, what are the support mechanisms that need to be in place to enable that to happen? We want to be part of the glue that brings that together.”
Robert Smith, Lord Smith of Kelvin, the recently appointed chairman of Scottish Enterprise said: “I have been really impressed by the quality of Steve and his top team and I don’t say that lightly.”
He said it was important that Scotland made better use of its GlobalScot network.
“It’s all very well to have a list of 3,000 Scots who have made it internationally, what are they doing for Scotland. I know they want to do something. We need to do more in developing that.”
He said that in the past the economic agencies had not worked together as well as they could. I”m pleased to say that in the last couple of years, that’s got better. It needs to get even better.”
