by Dominika Jankowska

Introduction

On 31st March The Studio in Birmingham city centre hosted an event entitled Crunch Time and was organised by Screen WM and Creative Republic. The debate undertook the topic on how the organisations within creative industries can beat the recession. Among the creative guest speakers there were such personalities, as: Suzie Norton (CEO, Screen WM), James Meadway (NESTA, co-author of “Attacking the Recession”), Helga Henry (Creative Republic), Lara Ratnaraja (Sector Development Director Creative, Cultural and Digital, Business Link), Chris Unitt (Editor, Created in Birmingham) and Ruth Ward (Managing Director, Rewired PR). Despite different backgrounds, all of the appointed entrepreneurs had something in common; fresh and innovative ideas on how to face credit crunch and not only survive within this time but also progress, as this is the key to success for each organisation.

“Attacking The Recession”
West Midlands region accounts 10% of total unemployment which is the highest in the UK. Cultural and Creative industries which are characterised by innovation, risk taking and creativity, are probably most vulnerable to economic changes. The co-author of Attacking The Recession, James Meadway recognises the importance of enhancing innovation through public funding and partnerships with businesses and enterprises, ‘The UK will need new growth sectors to make up for the dynamism that has been lost from financial services. The development of those growth sectors will require a mix of intelligent public investment, partnership with business and entrepreneurship. Decisive government leadership and public investment will be critical to innovation in many fields, from scientific research to cultural funding.’ Moreover, the biggest gains for society, he adds, will be found in those sectors that both offer the most immediate growth potential, drawing on the UK’s existing strengths, and help meet long-term challenges, such as green energy, environmental services, biotechnology, and services for ageing society. These need to form part of national economic strategy and be able to set long-term goals along with the political credibility to help deliver them. However, this approach needs to be combined with a mass of entrepreneurial activity which searches for new markets, opportunities and is characterised by innovation. James Meadway also adds that the recession will create a new platform of growth if business entrepreneurs emerge to take opportunities in new growth industries and social entrepreneurs address emerging social challenges.
Strong emphasis has been also put on networks and how people relate to each other. NESTA’s policy analyst argues that lack of these was one of the main reasons for collapsing of the global economy. Through digital networks and strengthening business-client relations creative industries can start breaking through the economic downturn. Recent statistics showed that Internet and BBC iPlayer account of 10% of the UK’s total internet usage which characterises the national market as driven by technological changes. Therefore, he finds the importance of using the technology as a main objective in companies’ strategies which help them meet their goals. Finally, cultural and creative industries will be driving the UK’s economy forward. It’s just the case of experimentation and creativity as long as these two work and bring the expected results.

Show me the money
Thomas Blount (Fund Manager, Advantage Proof of Concept Fund) supports small businesses and recognises the importance of innovation as well as intellectual property. As all of the guest speakers, he also supports social media which are necessary in formation of a long tail and organic growth of enterprises. However, he argues that the biggest block in growth is the access to finance – more specifically – to funding.
Skills development and Train to Gain
The panel strongly emphasised the development of skills and gaining new qualifications. This could be done, for instance, via Train to Gain, a joint investment – organisation and Government working together to boost business by improving the skills of the individual staff members. In the collaboration with Business Link, Train to Gain is a perfect tool for the business to use in the times of recession. It not only helps improving business performance and efficiency towards increasing profits but it also help the staff grow in motivation and confidence.
Summarising was the massive figure of 60% given by the panel which represents total percentage of graduates within creative industries who have, at least, gained BA degrees. This means that it is highly important to gain extra qualifications and training in this pretty competitive industry. Multi-talented qualified people represent another element of succeeding in the current economic climate.  Ergo, skills and qualification development and apprenticeships will help reach this goal.

No Budget Marketing
The panel’s guest speakers were Chris Unitt and Ruth Ward. Both guest speakers emphasised the importance of online media, direct marketing and direct mail, and social networks, such as Twitter, as keys to maintaining business-client relations. Surprisingly, there are still many creative enterprises which don’t really employ these tools in their overall business strategy. That’s one of the reasons why they don’t succeed these days.
Another useful point was that the organisation must not follow the crowds but be more innovative through using different tools of communicating with clients. Ruth also mentioned her PR organisation and how they communicate with their clients. Be different, innovative and remarkable are key elements for the current and future growth. Ruth mentioned the main steps to success and these were as follows:
•    You are biggest asset
•    Bring back bartering
•    Become your own broadcaster
•    Get creative (!)
•    Listen to what people say
•    Don’t be afraid to ask for leads
•    Be a connector
•    Become an authority on your industry
•    Ask clients for endorsements
•    Be the best at what you do

Change or die?
Tom Lawes (Electric Cinema) and Paul Davies (Television Junction) drew my attention to a very simple and how successful tool within the organisation. Diversity. ‘If you diversify your day you diversify your skills too’. Anything you do during the day at work; meetings with your clients, conferences, training they will be a good opportunity for diversifying your skills as well. One of the biggest skills, however, is to figure out where the money is and try to get it. It can be easily done through recognition of consumer preferences and current trends in the market. Once recognised they should be implemented into action and maintained.
Another crucial point was passion. The passion to work comes from skills and creativity. If you’re a creative person you will find fulfilment in anything you do (Tom Lawes).

I hope all of the above will help understand the importance of application of various approaches during the current economic situation and I will be looking forward to hearing from you what you think about it.

P.S Sorry for expanding my word count but I realised that everything discussed during Crunch Time was equally important =P

Good grief that went quickly…….on the 24th February, a group of eager students listened attentively…Ollie Leggett founder of IE Design, Birmingham, Rachel Hargrave, Phoenix Partners Leicester and freelance producer- Alan James.

Ollie Leggett of IE Design, was totally inspiring from how he obtained his first client, to his approach in running his business. His personal values have shaped his business ethos. When Ollie started his company he created his core values which he still works by today however he did say that it’s a daily struggle to keep to them when he has to let someone go etc. His ‘Key Values’ are non negotiable and suggested that to ‘Be true to yourself and live it’

Ollie stated that he lead not managed his company and went on to say that only 3% of us are ‘Natural Leaders’ however the good news is that you can learn to be one!!!!! He referred to a book ‘Developing the Leader within You’ by John C Maxwell.

Most of what Ollie spoke about reflected current management thinking……I really think he should write it down!

Second up was Rachel Hargrave with a totally different approach to her business. Rachel, is a partner of Phoenix Partners based in Leicestershire which she set-up 7 years ago. Organic strategy comes to mind in how Rachel approaches her business, responding to clients needs with ‘Yes we can do that to’ then finding a way! Moving from live events and film and video into different areas such as PR and graphic design has been a business strategy that has benefitted the company in the downturn as the projects and budgets have been slashed in Live Events. Rachel recognised that she has to be more structured since the early days where she was very much hands on, she now finds herself managing and moving the company forward. Something she admits seems at times rather alien to her. How she wins work is being really good a what you do – helping people to communicate their story in a variety of multi platform and cross discipline work, that is memorable and full of impact.
Alan James, a freelance producer shared with us his experience of producing a unscripted improvised live band with an orchestra and live writing composers. The Band –“The Bays” based in London.
10 years ago, a group of session musicians from well know acts came together and decided not to make records but only play live totally improvised with no rehearsals and no vocals. The four piece, The Bays, are drums, bass, keyboards and ‘science department’ – effects with a special guest each night. Alan explained the difficulties in working with an improvised band with an orchestra and how it was overcome by the use of technology.
All these speakers had qualities of passion, commitment and creativity in what they produced and how they ran their business or project. I would like to thank all of them in taking the time to come and talk. Thank you for reading…

In this post I will analyse the unique characteristics of cultural entrepreneurship in relation to the musical instrument inventor Bob Moog and the wider impact of one individual’s creative enterprise since the 1950s.What is an entrepreneur?There are many wide-ranging definitions of an entrepreneur, with connotations of city slickers focused on profit-driven financial deals, or geniuses or hapless inventors being grilled over IP registration and profit projections in the BBC series “Dragon’s Den”.The term entrepreneur was first used by French economist and journalist Jean-Baptiste Say during the French Revolution to describe one who unlocks capital tied up in land and redirects it to change the future. Say was the first economist to recognise change and uncertainty as normal and positive in business¹.The Beermat Entrepreneur’s describe entrepreneurs as confident, charismatic, have bags of energy, obsessed with work, ambitious, in a hurry, arrogant, manipulative, lack focus and are obsessed with the competition².The risk-taker, the go-getter, the manipulator, the charismatic leader, the opportunist and the serialist are all types and characteristics of the typical entrepreneur. Read more »

1. Howkins, J (2001) The Creative Economy, Penguin Press pg129 [↩]
2. Southon, M and West, C (2002) The Beermat Entrepreneur, Prentice Hall pgxvi [↩]

What makes a cultural entrepreneur? First, we should clarify the characteristics of entrepreneurship. The popular press and television programmes such as Dragon’s Den usually define it as starting new business ventures. Fillis and Rentschler portray it as “creating value…by bringing together unique combinations of public and private resources to exploit economic, social or cultural opportunities”¹ According to them, the essential capabilities of entrepreneurship are:

• innovation
• risk-taking
• pro-activeness

Cultural entrepreneurs are people who work in the creative and cultural industries and establish an enterprise focusing on media, design, music, film, fashion or other related sectors. But what distinguishes cultural entrepreneurs from the classic entrepreneurial model?
Read more »

1. Fillis, I. and Rentschler, R. (2006) Creative Marketing. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. p10 [↩]

A huge ad on the back of the Midem pull-out in this week’s Music Week asks the question:

“Are you the UK’s young music entrepreneur 2008?”

This is a British Council/Nesta inititative and is open to 25-35 year olds with at least 3 years experience and a track record in innovation. Applicants must be “pushing the boundaries of the industry and have a vision for extending international business and cultural relations through music.”

The prize is to become one of the British Council’s network of young creative entrepreneurs and to go on a tour of India’s music industry.

Applications open on 7th March 2008 but you can register now by visiting:

www.creativeconomy.org.uk/ukyme08