I’m really pleased that over the last few months our events at Iod Surrey seem to be hitting the mark and delivering value to members.
Of particular note I was enthused that over 75 members and guests braved the traffic to attend our “Business Risk” event in Croydon recently. It was particularly gratifying that so many of the members came up to me afterwards and told me how much they had enjoyed it and perhaps more importantly how much they had learned. This mirrored the feedback I received after the “Meet the economists” event we held back in the spring at Canon UK HQ in Reigate. The good news is that will be repeated this year on March 20th.
Meeting like minded people at these events has been proven to enhance business innovation. Both listening to our speakers and then discussing and sharing opinions over a drink or coffee should make us reflect on what we are doing in our day to day operations and perhaps change the way we do things. It can even open up a business opportunity or at least create some demand that wasn’t there before.
One thing seems to remain constant in the media for as long as I can care to remember these days and that is the economic circumstances we find ourselves in. The recent IoD Surrey breakfast briefing with the Bank of England confirmed that the prospects look gloomy for the foreseeable future, particularly for those businesses reliant on trading within the UK or in the EU region. Of course certain sectors will always buck the trend or work in different economic cycles to the mainstream of the economy but for the majority of companies 2012 looks very flat indeed. Incidentally these will now continue on a quarterly basis so check out the IoD Surrey website for further information.
Of course with all the doom and gloom around one can easily forget that not all the world is in recession or “zero growth”. Countries such as Brazil and India are ploughing ahead and even China is falling back on domestic demand to sustain itself. So as always the message has to be “follow the money”. There are lots of programmes around to support businesses with exporting- not just products and widgets but also business services and UKTI is doing a great job in helping businesses venture overseas. So as we start 2012 I urge all companies not exporting to at least give it some thought and see what possibilities may be out there.
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