We need to help each other out for recovery
Matt Weston is one of the founders of Stone’s Throw Media, a video and animation production company based in the West Midlands.
He explains why it is up to all business leaders to ‘keep it local’ as we attempt to recover from coronavirus.
Companies across the West Midlands are planning for an uncertain future following the deep shock to the economy delivered by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Lockdown and the continued impact of coronavirus on everyday life have meant business leaders are rebuilding while surrounded by more challenges than they have ever faced.
Coupled with significant changes to the way companies operate, such as increased home working and continued social distancing, they are having to look increasingly at technological solutions.
With digital transformation moving up the business agenda, along with new ways of communicating with audiences, it is vital business leaders look to local partners to help them innovate following the economic downturn.
West Midlands Mayor Andy Street has called on the Government to back up its “levelling-up agenda” by providing the funding over the next three years to boost economic recovery in the region.
The big vision is there, with £3.2 billion earmarked for a new gigafactory, investment in healthcare innovation and major infrastructure and transport investment, all with the aim of increasing employment and improving local life.
But every company must play their part in “levelling up” our own region by engaging with local creative and technological partners for their work.
Frustration
In 2019, digital and tech was reported to be the fifth largest sector in the West Midlands, comprising 14,000 businesses and worth around £5bn – while employing 70,000 people.
Companies in the creative sector, including marketing and PR companies, added a further £4bn of “gross value added” in the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) area, including around 50,000 jobs.
Yet the biggest frustration for many of us working in these areas is seeing the number of decision makers who default to selecting suppliers from the capital or elsewhere, without exploring the services available locally. Of course, every company needs to pick the best partner available.
But paying London prices in the belief nobody within a 30-mile radius can meet the same standards only adds to the drain away from our region.
It is a shared complaint that sizeable contracts go south to the capital or further afield without local providers being given the chance to show what they can do.
There are tremendous creative agencies, tech innovators and digital leaders in the West Midlands. If our region is to recover, we need firms to look local and to make the most of talent in this region to help their growth.
Companies like Stone’s Throw Media, the video and animation production company I set up with fellow University of Wolverhampton graduate Mike Chinn, have shown commitment to providing employment in the creative and tech sectors in the West Midlands. We know of many similar business owners working in the digital industry, who could have moved to London or Manchester but wanted to stay here to provide opportunities for young people to shape their careers.
Starting out with just the two of us, Stone’s Throw continues to employ seven staff despite the recent downturn in the wider economy, which has seen many local marketing budgets cut.
Habit
Companies like ours share goals with those who join forces in bodies trying to shape growth, like Wolverhampton City Council’s economic growth board, and WMCA’s Creative Scale Up programme.
We all want to put the spotlight on our business success stories in growing fields, like tech and digital, to drive more growth in the region’s economy.
Simple things can make a big difference. In my company we have given more than 100 people work experience, including one young man who has gone on to not only get qualifications in video production but now works on productions that appear on Netflix.
We are proud to have helped him on his way to such achievements.
Every digital, creative and tech company will have similar stories. There is nothing more rewarding than taking on a local person and seeing them deliver something creative or innovative for themselves.
The economic benefit of using our talented businesses is obvious but it should become a regular habit for everyone looking to overcome the challenges caused by the pandemic.
This region has, since the industrial revolution, shown it can develop the skills to bring business success.
As companies find new ways of working, we will all benefit from local talent being used to deliver the growth that benefits the entire West Midlands together.
