chapter three 

collaborate 


to

compete


“When giants dance, they must have 
partners. They must become intimate with 
customers, turn suppliers into collaborators, 
and find venture partners to combine 
offerings or grow markets.” 
Rosabeth Moss Kanter: 
“Can giants dance in cyberspace?” 
3.1 
Successful businesses compete aggressively. 
The next chapter describes the regime the Government 
is putting in place to encourage such competition. But 
alongside competition, businesses need to be willing 
to collaborate – to learn from others, including their 
competitors. Successful businesses improve their 
performance continuously, through adapting ideas 
and techniques developed outside the business and 
promoting co-operation within the business. Even 
businesses that regard themselves as world-class 
have made extraordinary improvements in productivity 
and profitability from benchmarking and as a result of 
changing the ways they work. 

3.2 
In a knowledge driven economy, partnership 
is essential to competition. To exploit our capabilities 
in people and technologies, businesses have to 
collaborate across sectors, throughout regions and 
with education. 

. 
Few companies have all the skills needed to develop 
technologically complex products and to market 
their products and services effectively. 
. 
Businesses are increasingly involving suppliers and 
allies in product design, development and delivery. 
. 
The most dynamic regional economies, such as 
Silicon Valley, have businesses which rely on 
each other to solve shared problems while still 
competing intensely. 
. 
Networks which link businesses to universities and 
research institutes are an increasingly important 
source of innovative ideas in all industries (covered 
in more detail in Chapter 2). 
. 
Modern and successful businesses are already 
drawing competitive advantage by adopting 
co-operative approaches to employment relations, 
which unlock the skills and knowledge of their 
workforce. 
“The most powerful process any company 
can adopt which delivers immediate, 
measurable and sustained productivity 
improvements is the transfer of Best 
Practice. 
If manufacturers adopted this easily 
understood principle and secured only the 
average best practice levels achieved by 
our leading competitors, the UK could 
achieve an increase in GDP of around 
£60 billion. 
If the balance of the economy adopted the 
same guiding principle the increase in GDP 
could be around £300 billion.” 
“Fit for the Future. How competitive 
is UK manufacturing?” 
CBI National Manufacturing Council, 
September 1997 

3.3 
Improving company performance is a job for 
business not Government. However, it is not always 
easy for business to see the benefits of networks and 
collaboration when they are focused on short-term 
competitiveness. Government has an important 
practical role in helping to promote partnerships. 

. 
UK companies need to match the best in the world, 
by learning from the best in the world. They need 
to benchmark their performance and adopt best 
practice. 
. 
Government has an important role in helping 
business collaborate sectorally, regionally and locally 
to raise performance to these exacting world-class 
standards. 
. 
Successful businesses need the right environment 
within the business to engage in these activities 
and unlock the talent of their employees, for 
example, through Investors in People. Government 
can promote best practice here too. 
3.4 
The Government’s strategy – collaborate 
to compete – starts with learning from the best 
in the world. 

Learning fromothers:best 
practice 


Businesses need to benchmark their 
performance to help identify world-class performance 
and best practice. However, many businesses do not 
recognise the need for best practice, do not know 
where to start or how to build it into the business. 

A sustained effort is needed to spread the culture of 
benchmarking and best practice throughout the UK. 
The Government is providing substantial funding for 
the CBI’s Fit for the Future campaign which aims to 
stimulate a massive increase across the country in 
the number of businesses adopting best practice. 
The campaign will provide an “umbrella” for national, 
regional and sectoral best practice initiatives. 

3.6 
The Government recognises that benchmarking 
and best practice cause particular difficulties for 
smaller businesses. Business Links and the equivalent 
support organisations in Scotland, Wales and Northern 
Ireland, and trade associations already give special 
help to encourage the use of these techniques. The 
Government is updating the UK Benchmarking Index 
and expanding the Inside UK Enterprise and Connect 
for Better Business services. The Government’s aim 
is to ensure that 50,000 businesses a year, including 
the 10,000 new innovative start-ups helped by 
Business Links (see paragraph 2.17) undertake some 
form of benchmarking or other best practice activity for 
the first time. The Government is supporting the use of 
the Business Excellence Model as a framework for 
businesses to adopt a systematic approach. It also 
supports benchmarking of energy and raw materials 
use through the Energy Efficiency and Environmental 
Technology best practice programmes. Within this 
framework and Fit for the Future, the Government will 
encourage improvement in individual processes such 
as marketing and people management. 


casestudycasestudyBased in Sussex, 
Servomex employs 
300 people in the 
design and 
manufacture of 
advanced gas 
analysers and 
monitoring systems. 
These are used in the 
process, medical 
A commitment to 
best practice 
equipment and 
environmental 
industries to improve 
plant efficiency and 
product quality, 
maintain safety and 
help meet demanding 
environmental 
standards. 

The company attributes 
their success to a 
commitment to best 
practice over a five 
year period. The basis 
of this approach has 

40 

been a concentration 
on key strategies, 
focused marketing, 
fast track product 
development, lean 
manufacturing and 
strong financial control. 

Underpinning this 
strategy is off-line 
technology 
management and a 
total quality culture. 
The on-going 
programme is being 
maintained by use 
of the Business 
Excellence Model to 
highlight scope for 
progress. 

After an initial period 
of investment in better 
practice, the company 
can show consistent 
profit growth and 
they have generated 
£2 million cash from 
improved control of 
stocks and work-inprogress. 

Learning fromothers: sectoral 
partnerships 

3.7 
Sectoral partnerships, including supply chain 
initiatives, networking and clusters play a critical role 
in sharing knowledge and upgrading skills among 
complementary businesses. Government support 
includes Regional Supply Offices which work with 
development agencies to help supply chains develop 
clusters of businesses to meet the needs of client 
purchasers and to understand the benefits of sharing 
market knowledge and best practice. 

3.8 
An excellent example of how world-class best 
practice can transform manufacturing quality and 
productivity can be found in the automotive sector. 
Supported by the industry and DTI, the SMMT 
Industry Forum is helping businesses in the automotive 
supply chain to achieve dramatic improvements in 
performance, for example, doubling of productivity, 
stock turns improved by 260 per cent and defects 
reduced by 65 per cent (see box). The project uses 
hard quantitative measures, based on those used by 
the vehicle manufacturers, to assess the performance 
of participants’ manufacturing processes and measure 
improvements following the activities. 


networks 

South Wales 
Forgemasters show 
how they can learn 
from local and national 
networks; such as the 
SMMT’s Industry 
Forum, the Cardiff 
Innovation Network, 
Welsh Automotive 
Forum, South West 
Wales Suppliers 
Association, the Welsh 
Automotive Training 
Consortium and Borg 
Warner’s Supplier 
Association Initiative. 

Membership of the 
Confederation of 
British Forgers/ 
DTI-sponsored 
Forging 2000 has 
opened their 
eyes to the culture 
of continuous 
improvement, 
collaborative 
partnerships and 
the adoption of 
lean manufacturing 
techniques which they 
witnessed on Forging 
2000 overseas 
benchmarking 
missions. 

The benefits of this 
investment and their 
work with Borg Warner 
is beginning to show 
through – in the last 
18 months turnover 
has increased by 
15 per cent. 

Learning from 


casestudycasestudy 
As Managing Director, 
Roger Meacham says 
of the Borg Warner 
collaboration “the aim 
is to create a sense of 
purpose, strategy and 
policy; to help each 
other develop and 
learn together by 
sharing knowledge and 
experience to eliminate 
wasteful non-value 
activities inside and 
between companies. 
This applies to all our 
networking activities.” 

41 


DTI wants other sectors to learn from this 
impressive example. DTI is therefore making a major 
commitment to helping sectors which want to improve 
their performance by funding up to ten proposals 
to adapt the Industry Forum model to meet their 
particular needs. 

The SMMT 
Industry Forum 
The SMMT Industry Forum is an industry-led 
partnership involving many of the best-known 
names in the automotive industry. It aims 
to raise the sector’s competitiveness by 
delivering shop-floor improvement 
programmes based on world-class best 
practice, led by expert engineers from 
major vehicle manufacturers. 
One of the companies that has benefited 
from Industry Forum is Isringhausen GB 
in Wrexham. It manufactures seats for 
commercial vehicles and has 130 staff and 
a turnover of £15 million. Although the 
company had made some progress in 
improving productivity on its own, major 
opportunities for improvement were identified 
by a small team from Industry Forum. Sixty 
wasteful activities were identified, of which 
the most important was excessive walking 
due to poor layout. After an in-depth 
examination of the work during a one week 
workshop, two lines were reconfigured. As 
a result, the number of operators on one 
line was reduced by 33 per cent (to be re-
deployed in other areas) and output was 
increased by 20 per cent – a productivity 
improvement of nearly 45 per cent. 

3.10 Other sectors are also looking at how 
collaboration can improve performance. The cross-
Whitehall Creative Industries Task Force is looking 
at ways of encouraging take-up of business support 
among creative entrepreneurs and at the impact 
of many of the issues raised in this White Paper 
on the creative sectors. Early in the New Year, the 
Government will publish a tourism strategy, developed 
in partnership with representatives of the tourism 
industry. This will set out a raft of proposals to improve 
the competitiveness of tourism businesses, such as 
enhancing management skills and training and 
promoting better use of new technology. 
Strong regionalpartnerships 

3.11 Collaboration at regional level is vital in order to 
create regional strength. The right local environment 
for business success requires strong regional 
leadership to: 
. 
develop a strategic long-term vision for promoting 
competitiveness in the region 
. 
ensure national support for competitiveness is 
tailored to regional and local needs 
. 
support the development of clusters, networks 
and other partnerships. 
3.12 In Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland the 
devolved administrations will lead these efforts, 
building on the long track record of Scottish 
Enterprise, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, the 
Welsh Development Agency and the Northern Ireland 
Department of Economic Development. In England, 
where regional economic leadership has been weaker, 
the Government is establishing the Regional 
Development Agencies (RDAs) to promote economic 
development in the regions. 
3.13 Business-led RDAs will be lead bodies at regional 
level for co-ordinating inward investment, raising skills, 
improving the competitiveness of business and for 
regeneration. They will develop and promote a strategy 
for improving regional economic performance and 
enhancing their region’s competitiveness. RDAs will 
have an important role to play in taking forward many 
of the priorities identified in this White Paper: raising 
regional skills, encouraging links between business and 
higher and further education, working with Business 
Links to develop regional centres of expertise, 
encouraging business collaboration and facilitating 
the development of clusters. 
3.14 The English regions have prepared 
competitiveness strategies which benchmark regional 
performance, often against regions in other parts of 
Europe, and propose action plans for promoting 
growth. The RDAs will build on this work in developing 
and implementing their own regional economic 
strategies. DTI will provide an extra £10 million over 
three years to the Agencies to spend on priorities they 
identify for increasing competitiveness, such as 
promoting innovation and supporting business 
partnerships, networks and business clusters. 

collaborate to compete


3.15 To make sure business support in England is as 
effective as possible, the Government has asked the 
RDAs to review the coherence and quality of business 
support in their area, against the local and regional 
priorities they identify in their regional economic 
strategies. Sectoral organisations will be able to do 
the same. DTI will work with the RDAs and sector 
organisations to develop a coherent framework for 
business support. DTI will evaluate, on a continuing 
basis, the effectiveness of support by measuring 
the percentage of businesses participating in DTI 
supported activities which report beneficial changes 
in their business practices as a result. 
3.16 In June 1997, the Secretary of State for Scotland 
asked Scottish Enterprise (SE) and Highlands and 
Islands Enterprise (HIE) to bring forward their planned 
review of strategy to take account of the Government’s 
new priorities. The SE emerging strategy has involved 
extensive consultation and identifies four key goals 
for the Scottish economy; innovative and far-sighted 
businesses, positive attitudes to learning and enterprise, 
economic development and inclusive process and 
competitiveness. It also contains encouraging 
messages on skills, inclusion and the “knowledge 
economy”. Similarly, HIE’s review has taken account 
of local authority and partner agencies’ views. Their 
revised framework for development will continue 
to pursue three current objectives; strengthening 
communities, developing skills and growing 
businesses. The HIE network is committed to a set 
of principles which include sustainability, working in 
partnership, accountability and value for money. Both 
strategies are expected to be launched early in 1999. 
3.17 In July this year, the Secretary of State for Wales 
published Pathway to Prosperity – A New Economic 
Agenda for Wales. Its objective is to build a high quality 
economy and to spread prosperity throughout the 
whole of Wales. It stresses the importance of lifelong 
learning, entrepreneurship, innovation, social cohesion 
and equality of opportunity. Pathway to Prosperity 
recognises that good quality business support services 
and access to venture capital are vital to the 
development of SMEs. Business Connect, which 
delivers business support in Wales, is being reorganised 
and strengthened. Know-How Wales will promote 
technology transfer in Wales (see paragraph 2.41). 
3.18 In Northern Ireland, a fundamental review of 
economic development strategy was launched by the 
Northern Ireland Economy Minister in January 1998. 
It will produce a new strategy to accelerate economic 
growth over the next ten years. The review is being 
carried out as a collaborative exercise; well over 300 
representatives of the private, public and voluntary 
sectors have been actively involved in the process. 
The findings of 18 different working groups are currently 
being distilled into a single draft document for 
presentation to the new Northern Ireland Assembly. It is 
the intention to have the strategy in place by mid-1999. 
National backing for local strategies 
3.19 The Government will ensure that local economic 
development efforts get strong national backing by 
refocusing Regional Selective Assistance (RSA) to 
support the policy of developing forward-looking 
regions. The main features will be: 
. 
focusing support more on high-quality, knowledge-
based projects which provide skilled jobs; this applies 
equally to inward investment and domestic projects 
. 
introducing a new Assisted Areas Map, taking 
account of the responses to the recent public 
consultation. 
43 


casestudycasestudy 
Exploiting research 
through collaboration 
Project Alba is a 
unique collaboration 
between public and 
private sector, industry 
and academic partners 
which will propel 
Scotland to the 
forefront of world-class 
research and design 
of next generation 
semiconductors. 
It aims to create a 
working environment 
which helps business 
turn such 
developments to their 
competitive advantage. 
The project has 
attracted a major 
investment by 
Cadence Design of the 
US, which should 
create up to 1,900 jobs 
over the next seven 
years, the involvement 
of four major Scottish 
universities and the 
establishment of an 
Institute to facilitate the 
trading of intellectual 
property. 

3.20 The Government will consider new measures to 
support the growth of smaller businesses in selected 
areas with particular needs, such as those which 
suffer from severe economic downturn, coalfield 
communities, cities and towns with severe joblessness 
and coastal towns and countryside areas suffering 
from a particularly steep decline in traditional 
employment opportunities. Links will be developed 
with other Government programmes that are designed 
to combat deprivation in these areas such as 
Employment Zones, Health Action Zones, the New 
Deal for Communities, the Single Regeneration Budget 
and the new Coalfields Enterprise Fund. This will 
complement action to tackle social exclusion. 
3.21 Local authorities also play a key role in 
collaboration and have a responsibility for taking a 
comprehensive overview of the needs and priorities 
of their local areas and communities and working 
with local business to create an environment where 
people want to live and work. The local government 
White Paper14 envisages that councils will develop an 
increasingly close relationship with the business 
community, taking their views into account and 
responding to their needs and demands. Local 
authorities will work with RDAs to increase local 
competitiveness. DTI will look at specific ways to 
work more closely with local government to support 
new investment and business competitiveness. 
3.22 New Business Link “Centres of Expertise” will 
enable Business Link Partnerships to provide local 
businesses with access to specialist services which 
have not previously been provided locally. These will 
include specific services for the ceramics, aerospace, 
defence and printing industries and micro business 
benchmarking and waste/environment/energy 
efficiency management. Working with the RDAs, 
44 


Business Link Partnerships will continue to improve the 
range and quality of expertise which small and medium 
sized businesses can use to help them grow and 
become more competitive. 

3.23 Inward investment will help build the UK’s 
knowledge driven economy by bringing in the best 
ideas from abroad. The Government is determined to 
maintain the UK’s position as the number one location 
for inward investment in Europe, including US and 
Japanese investment. The Invest in Britain Bureau 
(a DTI/FCO partnership) will therefore increase its 

focus on attracting high-value projects, including 
those which support the development of strong 
sectoral or technology-based clusters, or build on 
centres of scientific excellence. 

3.24 It is also important to attract bright people with 
scarce skills to work for UK businesses and to set up 
businesses of their own which create jobs. This requires 
a positive attitude to immigration. The Government is 

already taking action to ensure that the process of 

obtaining work permits is as smooth and simple as 

possible. Government will examine whether there is 

scope for lowering barriers that prevent entrepreneurs 

or skilled professionals from coming into or remaining in 
the UK. The Government would welcome suggestions 
from business for improvement. 

Encouraging clusters 
3.25 Business development is often strongest when 
businesses cluster together, creating a critical mass of 
growth, collaboration, competition and opportunities 
for investment. Venture capital and business advisors 
are attracted to the area. Local education and training 
institutions can help create a pool of skilled labour to 
meet the cluster’s needs. 
14 Modern Local Government: In touch with the People, July 1998. 


casestudycasestudyChemicals clusters 
l facilitate 
collaboration in 
areas such as 
maintenance, 
waste treatment, 
education and 
training programmes 
Bob Bew, Chairman 
Teesside Chemical 
Initiative. 
The original impetus 
for location of the 
chemicals industry 
around the Tees was 
based on access 
to raw materials 
and customers 
and a supportive 
infrastructure. The 
industry however, 
recognised it could 
further exploit the 
advantages of 
co-location and 
formed the Teesside 
Chemical Initiative 
in 1995. This is an 
industry-led body, but 
with DTI and other 
public sector agencies 
it works closely in 
partnership to: 

and community 

development 

l monitor manpower 
requirements and 

technical capability 

. 
act as a focus for 
new investment 
. 
identify weaknesses 
in local infrastructure. 
45 


3.26 Clusters cannot be created by public policy. 
They must be business-driven. However, Government 
can create the conditions which encourage their 
formation and growth. In England, the RDAs can 
facilitate the development of clusters. In Scotland, 
Scottish Enterprise is currently working in partnership 
with industry, academia and others to develop cluster 
strategies and action plans for food, oil and gas, 
biotechnology and semiconductors. 
3.27 In a few cases, where a cluster could be of 
national significance, a Government Minister will 
help to co-ordinate action across Government and 
with business. The first of these teams will look at 
biotechnology clusters and build on the DTI’s current 
activities to promote regional initiatives. 
3.28 The Government is determined the UK should 
not lose its European lead in the commercial 
exploitation of biotechnology and genome research. 
A large number of businesses are already clustering 
around centres of research excellence in the UK, 
including Oxford, Cambridge and Dundee. A working 
group will report to the Secretary of State in January 
1999 on how to develop “Genome Valley” in several 
regions in the UK with the kind of university-business 
links, entrepreneurial spirit and investment of Silicon 
Valley. This report will inform the work of the Ministerial 
team. Early in the New Year, DTI will also launch a major 
successor to the Biotechnology Means Business 
Initiative which raised wide-scale awareness 
of biotechnology’s potential. The new programme 
will build on this success by focusing on the 
implementation of biotechnology by industry. 
3.29 The Government is overhauling the planning 
system to fit better the needs of enterprise while 
still meeting wider environmental objectives. The 
Government has already set about reducing planning 
delays. It will be consulting in England on a range of 
measures aimed at providing more efficient procedures 
for major projects and strengthening strategic regional 
planning. In addition the Government is reviewing 
how the planning system can best help promote the 
needs of clusters of businesses in growth industries; 
and the implications for their expansion for other land 
uses such as housing and transport infrastructure. 
The devolved administrations in Scotland and Wales 
will continue working with the economic development 
agencies to ensure the planning system is responsive 
to the needs of new industries, including the 
development of clusters. In Northern Ireland, economic 
development and planning strategies are being 
developed for consideration by the new Assembly. 

A new culture 
within 
companies 

3.30 Key features of top performing businesses are 
the effectiveness and quality of their management 
and the commitment which that inspires in their 
workforce. A culture of flexibility, underpinned by 
principles of fairness and trust, creates the right 
conditions for a creative workforce and for business 
success. Minimum decent standards, consulting and 
informing the workforce, and a real commitment to 
training can bring benefits for everyone: wider choice 
in recruitment, reduced absenteeism and staff turnover 
and greater job satisfaction leading to increased 
productivity. The CBI also has a key role to play – by 
developing a clear code of conduct on partnership 
at work for employers to follow. 
3.31 The Government is committed to improving 
the framework of law for employees and employers. 
This framework reflects the Government’s vision of a 
corporate culture in which fairness is second nature 
and underpins competitiveness. The National Minimum 
Wage Act, the Working Time Regulations, and the 
legislation foreshadowed in the Fairness at Work White 
Paper will strike a scrupulously fair balance. The 
Government announced in the Fairness at Work White 
Paper that it would be making funds available for the 
training of managers and employee representatives 
and to help develop and assist partnerships at work. 
Detailed proposals for the scheme are currently being 
worked up. 
casestudycasestudyIn ten years, Perween 
Warsi has grown her 
company, S&A Foods 
from a business she 
ran from her own 
kitchen to one that 
now employs more 
than 700 people. In the 
process, S&A Foods 
has won 21 individual 
awards and accolades 
for its products, 
innovation and 
business success, 
including being 
ranked 14th in Price 
Waterhouse’s Top 50 
Fastest Growing 
Middle Market 
Companies in 1998. 
Perween attributes her 
success in part to the 
team of people she 
employs. She believes 
in developing “a strong 
family structure” 
amongst her 
employees. This 
environment allows the 
workforce to feel 
ownership of the 
success of the 
business, which in turn 
encourages 
commitment and 
enthusiasm 
throughout. This flows 
into better service to 
the customers, 
ensuring they receive 
excellent cuisine 
throughout the year. 
Creating a 
collaborative culture 
47 

3.32 Unlocking employees’ special knowledge is 
also a valuable source of innovation and competitive 
advantage. This is recognised by some larger 
businesses which have appointed a knowledge 
manager, but it is also important for smaller 
businesses. DTI is supporting a pilot at Business 
Link Kent to identify the knowledge management 
needs of different types of SMEs and identify 
best practice. 
3.33 The Government is also committed to joint 
action with employers and trade unions to ensure 
occupational health and safety activities provide a 
skilled, competent and productive workforce. The 
Health and Safety Commission’s Good Health is 
Good Business campaign is a good example of this 
partnership in practice. 
Working withthe local 
community 

“The 21st century company will be different. 
Many of Britain’s best-known companies 
are already re-defining traditional 
perceptions of the role of the corporation. 
They are recognising that every customer is 
part of a community and that social 
responsibility is not an optional extra.” 
The Rt Hon Tony Blair MP, Prime Minister, 
24 February 1998 
3.34 Research by the Centre for Tomorrow’s 
Company suggests that a successful business will 
better serve its shareholders by focusing on the needs 
of its customers, employees, suppliers and the wider 
community15. There is also a growing acceptance by 
business of the importance of its licence to operate. 
According to evidence from MORI and the Centre 
for Tomorrow’s Company, 44 per cent of business 
leaders surveyed agreed with the proposition that a 
business cannot succeed without recognising that 
it is accountable to other stakeholders as well as 
shareholders16. Commitment to the local community 
and its economic, social and environmental concerns 
builds reputation. The Government believes that it is 
for business itself to consider how, by developing 
partnerships with the local community, it can achieve 
the best results. 

But the Government can promote best practice, for 
example, Business in the Community’s Awards for 
Excellence which reward social responsibility and 
promote best practice and which DTI sponsors 
together with the Financial Times. 

3.35 The Government’s Social Exclusion Unit is 
leading further work following the report Bringing 
Britain Together: a national strategy for neighbourhood 
renewal. It has set up 18 Policy Action Teams to 
tackle particular issues that affect people who live 
in deprived neighbourhoods. The teams will aim 
to develop innovative solutions to the problems 
identified. DTI leads on the Information Technology 
team and is closely involved in the teams covering 
jobs, skills, business, shops, access to financial 
services and making government work better. 
15 The Inclusive Approach & Business Success: 
the Research Evidence, 1997. 

16 Sooner Sharper Simpler, 1998. 

casestudycasestudyWinning business: 
community 
involvement 

U Products, a small 
Manchester-based 
company, won an 
important order after 

Race for Opportunity 

introduced them to 
Littlewoods. As part 
of that programme, 
Littlewoods helped 

them upgrade their 
facilities to meet 
Littlewoods’ standards. 
U Products plan to 
build on this success. 
They want to create 
job opportunities for 
young people in inner 
cities and to create a 
national distribution 
network and plough 

back the profits 
back into a trust 
for developing the 
inner cities. 

49 


Collaborative projects around the UK 

Northern Ireland Growth Challenge 

A private sector initiative to stimulate growth 
in Northern Ireland. It combines economic 
analysis, with actions at sectoral level, 
including projects to promote clusters and 
networks. The project includes crosssectoral activities in education, training, 

The Technology Ventures Initiative Technology 
Ventures is a Scottish initiative being led by the 
Scottish Enterprise Network and partners to increase 
the commercialisation of science and technology 
from research in Scotland. The network has 
dedicated over £8 million towards this aim and last 

year supported the creation of over 30 

Mid-Glamorgan Education Business 
Partnership The World of Work programme aims 
to provide every schoolchild in the central Welsh 
Valleys with a chance to enhance their awareness 
of business and entrepreneurship first hand. 
employment and innovation. 
Life and Health Technologies Partnership 
Launched this year with DTI backing, 
the initiative has brought together 
universities and the NI Growth 
Challenge to provide a forum for 
networking, education and 
co-ordination to encourage technology 
transfer and innovation. 
The IGD Food Project is supported by over 100 
technology businesses. It also helped 
academics and researchers realise the 
commercial potential of their expertise. 
The Aberdeen Offshore 
Technology Park was established 
specifically for businesses committed 
to carrying out technology development 
for the oil and gas industry. Forty 
businesses have already located there. 
The expertise now found in the park 
should encourage further R&D, 
increasing the sector’s 
competitive edge. 
Wales Entrepreneurship Action Plan The 
initiative is designed to ensure that everybody in 
Wales recognises and, where possible, realises 
their entrepreneurial potential. 

leading businesses and organisations across the 
agri-food sector. Its key objective is to distil knowledge 
and expertise about consumer requirements and raise 
standards throughout the supply chain. 

The Construction Industry Movement for Innovation 

is carrying forward the work of Sir John Egan’s client-led 
task force. Its aim is a deep cultural change in the 
industry with partnership between clients and contractors 
all the way down the supply chain. The work will be led 
by demonstration projects and dissemination of best 
practice on innovatory working practices. Over 90 
projects, totalling £1 billion have been nominated so far.