Chamber Staff Blogs
Howard Gannaway Blog 1st July 2010
By Laura Stanley, 2010-07-01
So what else did “The Man from Doncaster” say for the Newsnight cameras? (See BBC2 Newsnight 30th June)
We spent a very busy few hours with Ian Watson from the BBC interviewing Mike Wilkinson from Business Award-winning company, i-education and then visiting Sentry Doors in Carcroft. The subject of the programme slot was whether the private sector is going to be able to take up the slack and find jobs for those who are forecast to lose jobs in the public sector. Yours truly (“The Man from Doncaster”) was interviewed for over 5 minutes, which, as is usually the case, was cut down to one comment taking a few seconds. The broadcast comment suggested that the private sector in Doncaster is up for expansion but, as much of the customer base is dependent on the public sector, we may need a period of transition with support to make the changes to a fully private sector economy.
What else did TMFD say? Well, we all know that the default position of business is to be optimistic. Give us a challenge and we’ll take it. (Example, the BBC rings up and asks if we can have our Chief Executive and two other businesses prepared to be involved in an interview feature for Newsnight in half an hour and what do we say? We say yes!)
However, we also made the point that the private sector is not a Government department that can just be directed to take on more staff. Businesses are usually fully prepared to take on extra staff where there are real revenue-earning jobs to be done but this is always in response to market demand or in preparation for real anticipated demand. So what would be the best way of helping the business community make this transition, a) providing support to take on more employees or b) helping companies win more business through innovation and exporting? Discuss!
Mike at I-Education is interviewed by BBC Presenter, Iain Watson
Howard Gannaway is interviewed at Sentry Doors, Doncaster
