Business and Politics sharing messages!

Had a very interesting hour this morning at an IBEC event with Nicola Sturgeon - First Minister for Scotland - very engaging and intelligent speaker and a pleasure to listen to. What came across very strongly is her common sense approach and her appeal for others (including the Prime Minister) to have the same!

Ultimately we all want the best for our countries - we want to be able to build relationships with other Countries, to be able to maximise trade, to provide opportunities for our people in work and whilst they study so that we can develop them to be the innovation that we need for the future success of our countries.

In business as well as in Government, relationships are absolutely key - we need to know our people and to get to know they people in other business that will support our strategy. It was interesting that the media accused Nicola of trying to undermine the UK strategy on Brexit - as she retorted, if only she knew what the strategy was!!

We can learn from this, all businesses need a clear strategy that is communicated and that every individual understands the part that they play - that we have objectives that link to overall business goals and that we get feedback on how we are supporting this.

Another thing that I found really interesting was the 4 pillars for their economic focus -

• Innovation
• Investment in People and Infrastructure
• Inclusive Growth
• International links

Again, these are all areas that in a business we should focus on - innovation is key if we want to continue to progress and build our businesses - keeping ahead of the competition, keeping our products or services fresh and meeting the needs of our customers, without our people we would have no business so investing in them is essential - developing talent, growing people into roles, working with Universities and institutions to develop the skills that are needed for the future. And it is the same with the Infrastructure and inclusive growth - creating opportunities that will create the foundation for the future, building physical and digital systems to support what is needed for the future. And for many businesses having International links is what will continue to make them a success, be it in imports/ exports/ the movement of talent or learning from what others do well.

I learnt a lot from a Politician this morning and my over-riding thought is that common sense is so important in business and in Politics - if we could only find more of it!