Customer and 'people-centricity' in focus at Chamber report launch
Customer focus and "people-centricity" were in the spotlight as Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce launched its Quarterly Business Report (QBR) for the third quarter yesterday, writes Feron Jayawardene.
The event - hosted by GBCC CEO Henrietta Brealey - was sponsored and held at Birmingham City University, with the participation of Chamber members and patrons.
The QBR offers an up-to-date snapshot of the performance of the Greater Birmingham business community It is the most comprehensive, regular report of its kind in the region. Underpinning the report is data gathered from quarterly surveys on key indicators such as sales, exports, investment intentions and the workforce.
GBCC head of policy Raj Kandola briefed the audience about the latest findings. He said: “Profitability and turnover projections have oscillated markedly since the start 2020. The time spanning the pandemic has seen both record highs and lows for business confidence, perhaps evidence of the uncertainty that businesses in the city-region have felt during the period.
“Since the lifting of initial Covid-19 workplace restrictions, we have seen business confidence
steadily increase to a balance score peak at a figure of 82 (in Q4 2021) for turnover predictions and 75 (in Q3 2021) for profitability. However this figure has dipped markedly in the current quarter as businesses struggle to navigate an uncertain economic terrain.
“In light of these results, it is clear that businesses are craving a period of stability in order to plan ahead with a degree of certainty looking ahead to 2023.
Speeches were also given by Jo Birch from Birmingham City University, Doug Wright, chief executive officer of Wright Restaurants t/a McDonalds and Debbie Lewis, regional ecosystem manager of NatWest for Midlands and East of England.
Doug Wright spoke about the importance of being customer centric for business growth. He said: “If a company needs to be successful, it needs to be digitally led and be customer centric. In our business, we had to find unique selling points in order for business to be successful.
“During this time, we realised some of our customers prefer to stay in home and eat and we introduced McDelivery. Although there were some doubts about this new venture, we were able to deliver 44 per cent of the sales through the delivery platform. ”
Debbie Lewis introduced the support provided by NatWest to businesses.
She said: “It 's tricky for small businesses to gain new learnings and development. NatWest offers different types of support to small and medium scale businesses including a business builder portal with 24/7 access to educational resources, access to expert events and six months of bespoke coaching.
Jo Birch outlined the challenges that Birmingham face as a city.
She said: “The challenge here in Birmingham is that we were trailblazers in the past, but our innovation capacity has been stifled. One of the reasons for this is innovation now requires collaboration, conversation, experimentation and an ability to work horizontally across disciplines to solve complex challenges, which is why we developed the Steamhouse building. ”
Read the full report here.
Pictured from left to right: Jo Birch from Birmingham City University, GBCC head of policy Raj Kandola, GBCC CEO Henrietta Brealey, Doug Wright, chief executive officer of Wright Restaurants t/a McDonalds and Debbie Lewis, regional ecosystem manager of NatWest for Midlands and East of England.