Contents

1. Introduction .................................................................................. ..........................32. Methodology............................................................................................. ...............33. What is enterprise culture and what are the policy drivers for it?............................34. What is the rationale for action? The Enterprise Challenge....................................45. Strategic Framework: Rising to the Enterprise Challenge........................................5

13h November 2007

Phil Kerr

Saleha Sheikh

Jackie Cuthbert

Robin Gower

Stephen Bibby

Economic Development

EnterpriseConsulting

Hough End Hall

Nell Lane

Manchester

M21 7AZ

T 0161 860 0344

F 0161 860 0888

stephen.bibby@enterprise.plc.uk

www.enterprise.plc.uk

1. Introduction

In January 2007 EnterpriseConsulting was commissioned by the Northwest Development Agency (NWDA) to conduct a study of the region’s ‘Enterprise Culture’ activity. This ‘Rising to the Enterprise Challenge’ research has helped the agency to determine what the enterprise landscape looks like within the region and how the agency and it's partners can establish a successful enterprise culture in the Northwest.

Aims of the research have been to:

o Produce an enterprise framework that will provide a coordinated approach to creating an enterprise culture with the Northwest.

o Research the key components:o Mapping the supply of educational enterprise activities to understand

the co-ordination of this activity within the region.o Identifying entrepreneurial hot spots and the reasons behind these

areas.o Identifying good working practices that currently exist to encourage

enterprising cultures.

o Provide a clear evidence base to guide the role of the agency in influencing, coordinating or lobbying support for an enterprise culture.

The remainder of this executive summary explains our method, defines enterprise culture (to explain how this approach differs from traditional business support), describes the extent of the enterprise challenge, and sets out a strategic framework for rising to the enterprise challenge.

2. Methodology

This research combines the rigour of statistical research with a consensus for action borne of primary consultation. We have reviewed the policy and socio-economic context and mapped enterprise culture in comparison with the all enterprise activities from educational support activity that takes place across the region to identify gaps and opportunities around which a strategic framework has been built to address enterprise culture.

The evidence base draws on the involvement of more than 40 delivery partners, a database of 400 education and business support providers, interviews with over 250 business leaders and a survey of over 850 householders.

3. What is enterprise culture and what are the policy drivers for it?

The Government's over-arching productivity framework identifies 5 drivers of

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success: investment, innovation, skills, enterprise and competition. This sets the national context for the regional enterprise policy agenda.

Typically public intervention in enterprise development has taken the form of traditional business support that looks at assistance for start-up and growing firms. Although such support is necessary, it is not sufficient. The traditional approach fails to capture the pervasive nature of enterprise as a cultural factor in regional economic development. Our research indicates that policy ought to recognise the role played by enterprise culture in increasing productivity through competition, science & innovation, skills, and investment.

We propose a definition which reflects the contribution of enterprise culture to all the drivers of productivity and moves away from the notion that enterprise culture is something that only needs top-down intervention through direct public-sector management.

Being enterprising is about risk-taking in all areas of society. It is about competing in schools, innovating in business and challenging the status quo in government.

Enterprise culture therefore contributes to closing the productivity gap in more ways than just increasing the level of entrepreneurship and enterprise activity. It provides the bottom-up impetus from citizens that is necessary to drive innovation in the region, and increases the regions skill levels through better performing schools and innovative approaches to teaching and learning.

To bring clarity to the question – ‘how enterprising are people in the region?’ – we have described individuals’ position on stages of an ‘Enterprise Journey’. We have asked people about their beliefs, approaches and activity to quantify their progress. The journey begins with enterprise awareness and progresses through aspirations, attitudes, and ability to action. This model has been used to compare cohorts and sub-regions and will be used to track progress as the region rises to the enterprise challenge.

4. What is the rationale for action? The Enterprise Challenge

We have found that the region suffers from poor enterprise growth (in terms of low business stock and start-up/ survival rates), over-dependence on manufacturing, low productivity, low skills attainment and poor rates of innovation. There is also dramatic variation across the region particularly between urban and rural areas.

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The cultural picture is quite unexpected and clearly demonstrates that socio-economic deprivation and poor enterprise culture do not always go hand-in-hand. Greater Manchester for example, exhibits a strong culture despite low enterprise growth rate and Cheshire displays poor attitudes despite a high growth rate.

We find that a wide-ranging definition of enterprise culture creates an enormous scope for what might be considered support (e.g. from mainstream business support to confidence building work in youth centres). Indeed we propose that an ongoing review of activity be included as an on-going exercise within in the strategy (under the knowledge portal action).

We surmise that each locality must be considered in the context of it’s historic legacy and it’s relationships with it’s neighbours and, therefore, that it is more meaningful to focus upon the need of individuals (e.g. the disenfranchised, the complacent, the unskilled) in order to build a consistent picture for the region. Based upon the concentration of these needs we suggest a tailored approach priorities for each sub-region/ locality.

The key challenges that have emerged from the above analysis that represent the basis of the strategic framework for rising to the enterprise challenge are as follows:

o Existing policy and provision focuses too much on 'business' awareness and skills and too little on encouraging enterprising attitudes and behaviour

o Existing support is often misaligned with the needs of individuals

o There exists a plethora of activities occurring in isolation with little coordination and knowledge sharing

o Enterprising culture in excluded groups and the informal economy is being wasted

o Enterprise education is not continuous or consistent with the needs of a modern economy

5. Strategic Framework: Rising to the Enterprise Challenge

We have proposed solutions for each of the above challenges in terms of the actions that must be undertaken in order to rise to the enterprise challenge. The framework is documented in the form of a single plan which identifies the synergies between the solutions.

The region will rise to the enterprise challenge by:

o Changing enterprising attitudes, capabilities and behaviours

o Coordinating activity & sharing knowledge

o Ensure enterprise education is lifelong in education, business and the

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community

o Effective targeting of activity where it is needed

o Un-tapping the potential of excluded groups and the informal economy.

The plan explains how these solutions will be achieved in terms of the specific activity that is required. Each activity will help to achieve each solution. The strength of this driving influence has been scored 3, 6, or 9 as indicated by the matrix of grey boxes.

Although we have developed specific actions to bring about each solution there is potential for synergy. The single page plan helps to identify where a given action has potential to cut-across multiple solutions. Each action has a driving influence on more than one solution.

The plan describes the agency's role in terms of either action or influence. Action refers to those activities we will require a direct funding and/ or management commitment from the agency. Influence refers to activities where the agency may add strategic value through encouragement; thus this role may include influencing the policy or funding of other organisations.

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