Outsiders’ Views by David Parrish
‘Know yourself’ is a useful maxim in life and in business.
So what do we in the Northwest know about ourselves? Well, we can all agree that it’s a great part of the world. And it’s a fact that we’re a friendly lot. In the creative industries we’re sure we’re really good at what we do. Even if some people don’t think so. Londoners, for example. (Yes, we have our prejudices too.)
“Oh, that God the gift would give us. To see ourselves as others see us,” wrote Robert Burns.
As a marketing consultant I emphasise the importance of ‘looking at things from the customers point of view’. So if we want outsiders to be our customers, we need to know what they see. What are outsiders’ views about creative businesses in the Northwest?
A more worrying question is: Are they even looking? In other words, maybe it’s not that people don’t think much of us - they just don’t think of us very much.
When I’m working overseas it irritates me that people assume I’m from London. It also worries me (a bit) that people might think that because my business isn’t in London then it’s somehow second rate. Though my heart tells me differently, my head says that it might be a good idea to have a London address on my business card as well as a Manchester one.
I talked with Chris Morris about the possibility of using the Russian Club Studios in London as a business address plus hot-desk facilities for a number of Northwestern creative enterprises who want to get into the London market. Chris runs Peppered Sprout in Liverpool and its sister company, Tomorrow Studios in London. “We tell our Northern clients we have a London connection because it adds to our credibility, but it doesn’t work the other way around”, he told me. With advertising agencies in both places, Chris can compare and contrast the business scene in London with the Northwest. “London is more expensive but on the upside business there can be quicker. In my experience Londoners get straight down to business”, he says.
The implication of this is that our Northern friendliness might seem just ‘slow’ to others. Chris’s remarks about London reminded me of my own experience of doing business in the United States, where commercial matters are dealt with in a more direct and rapid fashion. As Karen Holden from UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) says “We’re not as forthright as the Americans”. She advises Northwestern businesses on how to succeed in overseas markets, including the United States - for example at SXSW in Texas. We Brits need to speed up a notch when operating in the USA, and be well prepared with elevator pitches, offers and contracts.
In contrast, business culture in the Far East can seem ‘slow’ (even to us) because it involves building friendships and trust as a basis for commercial relationships.
Back home, we can toe the party line and talk up the benefits of the Northwest. But when looking at the region from other continents, are we really so different from the rest of the country? Not really. However we might think of ourselves, foreigners see us as English, not Northwestern. On a global scale, it’s a fact that we are indeed ‘just outside London’. And the Northwest is an integral part of UK plc.
If we are to become even more successful, we need to rethink our definitions of ‘outsiders’ and challenge the boundaries we choose to draw between ‘them’ and ‘us’.
Copyright © David Parrish. 2010.
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