Since school, I’ve found learning about places fascinating – specifically how they work in the context of the world around them.
I did a degree in Geography at Liverpool University and I really enjoyed the economic, human geography aspect of it. From this, I became interested in economic development and I did my undergraduate dissertation and spent time in South Africa understanding the role government was playing improving housing in the extensive squatter camps that surrounded Cape Town. I learnt how these community groups could work together and how different government policies could impact in different places.
You know when you find something that lights you up? That’s what it was to me… the thought that my work could have an influence on places and the people within them. So, after some great advice from a careers advisor, I decided I needed to have some specific skill sets that would enable my longer term plan to embark on a career in economic development.
My early career and learnings
After a year of travelling, including some picking fruit across Australia, in 1997, I applied for a job at University of Leeds as a Research Consultant in a research centre in the Department of Textiles. It involved regular reports for a group of manufacturers – including market insight reports. The following year, in 1998 I took a graduate role at a Manchester consulting firm, David Rigby Associates for the next 5 years, specialising in the textile and fibre sector – working with firms around the world to help them introduce new products, and work out their new infrastructure plans. The firm also very kindly paid for me to do a part time Business Masters at the University of Salford.
Over time I realised that with every project I was doing abroad, we seemed to be opening new firms, new plants and creating new innovations. Meanwhile, every project I was doing in the UK seemed to involve closing factories, or consolidating firms. I thought… why is it that firms in similar geographies across Europe were making investments and growing, but that was at the time not being replicated in the UK?
I gaining experience working on consultancy projects for international firms such at BASF, Cargill Dow, Burberry, etc across a range of international markets. I then began to focus my energies into winning some work with the Regional Development Agency to help get them thinking about their strategies – and how they could better support the fibre and textiles sector, with a particular focus on technical textiles. This led to me taking a role working on a project for the Northwest Development Agency, and then from 2005 as Head of Internationalisation Strategy for the Agency.
Joining GC, first impressions and fresh perspectives
Through the Northwest Development Agency, I’d been doing a lot of work with GC (then Manchester Solutions), which led to me joining the group and setting up the Business Growth Hub in 2011. This was a fantastic opportunity to create a business support infrastructure for Greater Manchester and it was my focus of most of the first ten years at GC alongside running services such as the Manufacturing Advisory Service, Access to Finance, the innovation services and a range of sector cohort programmes. The Hub has obviously gone on to become quite an institution, and it’s a model that's been used across the country – so I’m really proud of what the team have achieved.
My focus moved towards more national work and the expansion of what we do on business support. This led to the development of GC Business, a consultancy (due to become part of GC Insight) providing a set of tools that we can offer and deliver to businesses nationally. It felt like starting again, but it definitely gave me a fresh perspective. It made me sharper because I had to move away from people management and fronting activities, to actually doing-the-doing – which was great.
Thinking back to when I first joined GC, what really struck me then and is still true today, is we’re a very entrepreneurial place and if you have an idea and you want to pursue it, GC can enable that to happen. If I look back throughout my time at GC, it's maintained the support for new projects and we've had lots of other areas where we've been able to go and take an idea and develop it and take it out to market. A great example of this is the launch of ‘Growth Flag’, which I co-founded and is a collaboration between GC and Red Flag Alert.
In my time here I’ve also had many learnings on a personal level. A big one for me was figuring out my work / life balance, and that involved re-organising and re-prioritising as a team. I've now got the work life balance I need. At GC, you’ve got to work hard and it's demanding and challenging at times, but you are given the support to get the balance right for you. And over the years I’ve learnt, and I can’t stress enough that it’s about getting the right people in the right place at the right time and keeping one step ahead where possible.
A rewarding place to work
The support at GC is huge, and I think that's what's refreshing about this place. The way we treat our people reflects our values and our core goals. GC really does exist to help others, enable growth, create jobs and improve lives. Helping other businesses to do that better, helping others make better decisions.
GC is a really interesting organisation to work for because it enables you to actually have a positive impact at that local level. We haven't always got all the answers, and we can't change everything, but we can make an impact on people, places, business and the planet and ultimately that's massively rewarding.