Fusion & WBEC – raising the bar

The first conference for women-owned businesses in science, engineering, construction and technology – Fusion – was held in Birmingham last week. Chaired by Maggie Philbin, a real champion for women in SECT, and facilitated by UKRC (the resource centre for SET gender issues – http://www.setwomenresource.org.uk/) and Prowess, it was a lively event. Dawn Gibbins, CEO and Chairman of Flowcrete, inspired and energised the audience with her success story.  Since introducing Feng Shui to the business, turnover has increased by more than 30% and when you listen to Dawn’s passion and genuine enjoyment of her business, you don’t doubt that Flowcrete will continue its worldwide manufacturing success. UKRC & Prowess launched two new publications at Fusion – ‘Under the Microscope: Female entrepreneurs in SECT’ and ‘Women-Friendly Incubators and Managed Workspaces’. Both are downloadable in pdf format from: http://www.prowess.org.uk/publications.htm

The conference was also attended by three of the founding members of the Women’s Business Enterprise Council (WBEC UK) – Gwen Turner of Pfizer, Sarah Bates of New Technology Steel and Marianne Schoenig of Accenture. WBEC was announced formally on the 12th July in Birmingham – it aims to generate business partnerships between women-owned enterprises and private sector corporations. Based on a successful supplier diversity model in the US (WBENC – http://www.wbenc.org/), the UK body will be fully launched in partnership with Prowess in November. Even in the States, less than 5% of corporate and public sector procurement contracts go to women or minority-owned business and, although its difficult to uncover the stats here, the UK equivalent is probably less than 2%. Apart from Accenture, NTS and Pfizer, Bank of America and Microsoft are also founder members of WBEC UK and they’re all clear that diversifying their supplier base is about increasing their market share and shareholder value – ie its good for business and reflects their targeted markets.

These are exciting developments for the development of women’s entrepreneurship in the UK and we hope our new Government Ministers will support and assist us in ‘raising the bar’.

Political winds of change………

We shouldn’t really be surprised at the extent of Gordon Brown’s changes to the faces of government last week – but it means that everyone we’ve got to know, and who have supported women’s enterprise development over the last few years, is now in a different place. Margaret Hodge, who in her short tenure was an energetic and committed champion, is replaced by Stephen Timms in the re-named DTI – the Dept of Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (DBERR). Patricia Hewitt is out altogether and with Ruth Kelly’s departure to Transport, we have yet another Minister for Women team – Harriet Harman and Barbara Follett.  A former women’s enterprise Minister, Jacqui Smith, has been elevated (with a baptism of fire) to Home Secretary.

Other points of interest: an all-women team in the Treasury (apart from Chancellor Darling of course); a new department for innovation, science, universities and skills (and an all-male ministerial team); Ed Miliband in overall charge of Cabinet Office (good news for his former colleagues in the Office of the Third Sector (OTS))?; Hazel Blears in charge of Communities & Local Government.

So a few challenges ahead but we have confidence that a combination of Stephen Timms (who ‘gets’ the enterprise agenda) and the Ministers for Women will ensure that women’s entrepreneurship is still a priority issue. Barbara Follett will sit in the Dept of Work and Pensions, and with Harman’s cross-government reach, they will bring passion and commitment to the role.

The big disappointment has been the formation of a new ‘Business Council for Britain’ – with only one female business member – Marjorie Scardino of Pearson (FT etc) - and the remainder mostly representing the pale and the grey. See full list at: http://www.number-10.gov.uk/output/Page12224.asp. Am I being too pessimistic? Let me know what you think of the list.