Strategy and policy work matters – if done well, the benefits can last for years, and establish your organisation or endeavour as a serious, creative endeavour which is attractive to major stakeholders

Sometimes the strategy development work you commission as local government business representative organisation or national government will be foundational and last many years. A really good quality programme of work communicated effectively and involving stakeholders – will put down strong foundations and bring further benefits in terms of buy in and advocacy. Such work builds trust.

What I’ve learnt from leading foundational strategies and policy work

As a guest in the UK Innovation Corridor’s board meeting yesterday (22 April), I was reminded of two high quality research, policy development and strategy programmes that I produced 9 years ago, and were the foundation of activities and collaborations which have developed in scope, scale and impact.

#1 The London Stansted Cambridge Corridor Growth Commission

The London Stansted Corridor Growth Commission was an independent commission established by the London Stansted Cambridge Consortium (LSCC).

Its final report, titled The Next Global Knowledge Region: Setting the Ambitions and Delivering the Vision, was published in July 2016.

The Commission, chaired by Sir Harvey McGrath, comprised independent figures from economics, academia, business, investment, and finance. Its purpose was to:

• Objectively assess the economic potential of the London-Stansted-Cambridge Corridor.
• Develop a long-term vision for the Corridor over the next 20 years.
• Provide recommendations on how to foster and accommodate further growth.

I played a leading role in setting this purpose, and in designing and conducting a research, policy and strategy development programme to give the corridor some major ooomph and profile. Ultimately this led to the rebranding of the London-Stansted-Cambridge Corridor into the “UK Innovation Corridor.”

Some of the main lessons I draw from this experience are:

• To increase profile and reach – get some high profile expert speakers and commentators. I recruited several high profile speakers into a series of 4 inquiry events.
• If you want to be a global tech region – start talking about your peers, and comparing yourself to them. I profiled the major tech regions as part of the report series – Silicon Valley, Route 128, The North Carolina Triangle, the Oresund Region, Greater Munich, Greater NY.
• To gain attention – you need to get attention with high impact reports, and significant potential impact. Talk about your region’s importance to the future of the national economy, and its role in the global economy.
• The more intellectual depth behind the work programme – the more longevity and meaning it has. It provides “glue” for a compelling strategy and vision, it is backed by a major work programme.
• Model your approach on good practice elswhere. In my case, I looked at the Manchester Independent Economic Review and the Royal Society’s programme on city regions. The Bay Area Council Economic Institute also provided inspiration.

To this day, this work forms the core of the economic growth narrative for the UK Innovation Corridor.

#2 The Growing Together Alliance

I was listening to Dan Thorp , CEO of Cambridge Ahead present yesterday on the recent, great report Connected Clusters by the Growing Together Alliance and I thought “blimey I workshopped and wrote the foundational report which kicked the Growth Alliance off!”

In 2016 I was asked by London First (now Business:LDN) to help put together the initial founding proposition for collaboration by regional business leadership organisations (initially London First, The Northern Powerhouse, The Midlands Engine, and the North West Business Leadership Team) which would present a powerful joint statement of business ambitions for local and regional devolution in England.

The main lessons I drew from this were:

• If you are the expert advisor – provide good advice and stand your ground when you need to. There was a fixation on transport and infrastructure devolution. My feeling was that this was actually progressing and the Growing Together agenda needed to take on another big issue – skills. I put my foot down about this at the time.
• Know your support base and what issues they care about. For businesses, skills and the workforce are often the top priority that the public sector can do anything about.
• Identify the big prizes. People coalesce around big impacts and pay-offs. When the mission is national prosperity, people pay attention and join in.
• Focus. I knew the potential scope was huge, but also know that business stakeholders like focus, pragmatism and practicality. So I ensured that the final report was focused on a few high impact priorities that businesses could strongly relate to and were also high priorities in the national policy agenda.

The Growing Together Alliance now comprises of six leading employers groups, chaired by the Northern Powerhouse Partnership and also including BusinessLDN, Business South, Business West, Cambridge Ahead and the North West Business Leadership Team.

Final thoughts

My main takeaways are that – in-depth, high quality policies and strategies backed by robust evidence and analysis and skilful, engaging events, inquiries and consultation pay dividends for many years.

You can set down some great foundations for your locality or region, if you put in the work and make it relevant and engaging.

If you need help with a strategy, policy advocacy, or want to reach higher and further with your policy and strategy development – get in touch.