To help Scotland increase its employment and productivity we focus on three areas: Growing Business, Global Connections and Skills and Learning – which are all vital to developing a strong Scottish economy in the long term.
Scottish Enterprise’s work in Skills and Learning is to help more people into work and increase the productivity of people in work.
Scottish Enterprise’s work under Global Connections aims to help Scottish business internationalise and establish Scotland as a vibrant, attractive place to invest, live and work in.
Scottish Enterprise’s role under Growing Business is to help improve business competitiveness and increase Scotland’s productivity.
Scottish Enterprise Borders has its own set of targets and projects which fit with the overall targets of the organisation to help achieve this strategy.
The Parliamentary Act below sets out the function of Scottish Enterprise and forms the blueprint for what we do.
Enterprise and New Towns (Scotland) Act 1990 (c. 35)
(a) A body to be known as Scottish Enterprise, which shall have the general functions of—
(i) furthering the development of Scotland's economy and in that connection providing, maintaining and safeguarding employment;
(ii) subject to section 2(1) of this Act, enhancing skills and capacities relevant to employment in Scotland and assisting persons to establish themselves as self-employed persons there;
(iii) promoting Scotland's industrial efficiency and international competitiveness; and
(iv) furthering improvement of the environment of Scotland;
Scottish Enterprise National (SEN) – SEN influences the operating plan, targets, budget and spend of all of the local enterprise companies. All of our reporting systems feed ultimately into the systems of SEN. SEN draws up a strategy for Scotland nationally and each of the local enterprise companies interprets their own strategy locally that will complement this. New Ways is the economic development strategy for the Scottish Borders and outlines the way forward for the region.
Devised in partnership with organisations in the private and public sector, New Ways reflects the challenges, opportunities and priorities facing the local economy and sets out a shared vision for economic prosperity. The strategy has 5 aims
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Getting people to their full potential recognises that real success will be driven by the energy and talents of local people.
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Thriving organisations sees the need to develop the wealth-creating and innovative organisations and businesses that create economic success.
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A connected place accepts the need to make the Scottish Borders outward looking and an active player both nationally and internationally, with improved physical and ICT infrastructure.
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Vibrant communities aims to build on the deep sense of community that exists in the area, and to build communities of interest.
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Leadership in partnership is more the way to make the strategy work than a theme. Strong partnerships involving the public and private sectors have to be built.
Scottish Borders Council – Scottish Borders Council is committed to the improvement and development of the local economy. Services to business offered by the council run in parallel and in partnership with the services of Scottish Enterprise Borders. Scottish Borders Council along with Scottish Enterprise Borders are the lead organisations in the partnership needed to deliver New Ways.
Local authorities play an important role in local economic development through their responsibility for education, planning, transportation, housing, social services, and community development and through delivery of direct business support services. The influence of Councils in relation to spending and employment is also significant to the local economy. The range of functions undertaken directly in support of economic development does however closely resemble that of LEC’s -business competitiveness, business infrastructure, training, economic inclusion therefore it is important that we have good partnership working strategies.
Academic Institutions – Borders College and Heriot Watt are the two higher education providers in the Scottish Borders. In addition both of these institutions are partners in the New Ways strategy. For Scottish Enterprise Borders these linkages are important as if we can educate and keep our graduates locally we may be able to impact on the trend to leave the area once graduated. The problems faced by Scotland as a whole and the ageing population are widely documented.
Private Sector – Scottish Enterprise Borders has to operate at a level of efficiency that taxpayers expect. How we do our business, communicate with customers and are perceived by the media has a major impact on our private sector stakeholders. Private Sector stakeholders are surveyed yearly by the Enterprise Network to monitor their perception.
Scottish Enterprise Borders has a Board made up of representatives from local businesses, local authorities, the education sector and partner organisations. Project approvals are discussed first by the Scottish Enterprise Borders management team which meets immediately prior to a monthly Board Meeting. The Board discusses the detail of proposals and makes a recommendation to the management team regarding their decision. As a body charged with spending public money it is important that we are robust in delivering our responsibilities. The board seeks to represent the views of the local community and has processes that are open to public scrutiny.
- Pest Analysis
Political factors can have a direct impact on the way Scottish Enterprise an in turn Scottish Enterprise Borders operates. Decisions made by the government have an impact on business and can come in the form of policy or legislation. Examples of these could be the minimum wage, data protection legislation and health and safety compliance.
Economic factors affect business nationally and globally. The state of the economy i.e. booming economy, recession or recovery has a direct effect on consumer confidence and behaviour.
As society and behaviours change, business must be able to offer products and services that enhance and benefit the lifestyle and behaviour of the consumer.
The advancement of technology is changing the way businesses operate. An example of this would be the way in which the internet is having a huge impact buyer behaviour.
- The main functional areas within Scottish Enterprise Borders are broken up into directorates. The organisation as a whole recently underwent massive change due to the Modernising Government agenda. A direct result of this was change was centralisation of some of our core functional areas. These are noted below.
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Enterprise Development – The key activities for this business area relate to High, Medium and low impact businesses. Account managers and client managers look after the needs of high and medium impact businesses. Businesses that are recognised as having high growth potential would be account managed. This means that high growth organisations get a one to one relationship with a manager who looks after only 5 other similar growth potential companies. Account managers also work to an inward investment agenda and would deal with potential investors in the Borders. Medium sized business are client managed, this means that although they have a named contact within the organisation a less hands on approach is adopted and client managers would look after a portfolio of approximately 50 businesses. The ambition for these types of business is to move them up through company growth to account managed status. Business Gateway is part of enterprise development and this is where the volume type enquiries from small business and business start up would filter to.
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Physical Business Infrastructure – The business function of Physical Business Infrastructure is to deal with the property, tourism, ICT and transport infrastructure of the Scottish Borders. This function of Scottish Enterprise Borders could mean working directly with clients, inward investment approaches, local council and other stakeholders such as BT.
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Strategy & Corporate Services – This area of business function deals with our strategy, business support, European applications/claims, rural issues and stakeholder relationships. The key function for this area would be to produce our Operating Plan and monitor our performance against key indicators.
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Partnerships, Skills and Learning – This core function deals with national programmes such as Skillseekers and Modern Apprenticeships. Workforce and market development and regeneration of outlying market towns.
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Administration – Each of the functional areas has 1 administrator who looks after the needs of the team. The administration function is wide and varied and could involve anything from manning reception to small scale project management.
- HR – centralised
- Marketing - centralised
- Finance - centralised
- ICT – centralised
