Scotland's Economy

Scottish Enterprise Business Plan 2012-15

April 5, 2012 by Lena Wilson No Comments | Category Business

I’ve been delighted to see such a positive response in the press about the launch of our new Business Plan for 2012-15.

In the plan we’ve tried really hard to strike a balance between the focus on our long-term goals for Scotland, and the need to do something extra to respond to the conditions here and now.

And a key part of this will be an increase in our intensive support for companies over the next three years.

This will see us work with up to 400 more companies with significant growth potential through our account management programme – the part of our business which allows us to work intensively with a company to help them achieve their growth opportunities better and faster than would otherwise have been possible.

The feedback we’ve had from the companies is that this approach works and is really impacting on performance. A recent independent report also found that these companies are more productive and experience higher growth than in the economy as a whole.

To launch our plan I visited a high growth company we are already working closely with, Calnex Solutions in Linlithgow. It has seen a 42% increase in turnover over the last year and has ambitious growth plans, including setting up subsidiaries in India and the USA.

Calnex is a fantastic example of our approach in action. It is an innovative and ambitious company which has gone from strength to strength over the last six years, and despite the obstacles of a world-wide recession, has experienced phenomenal success.

It is exactly the type of company Scotland needs more of if we are to see strong economic recovery and future growth.

As well as increasing support for growth companies, we’ve also set ambitious targets around our wider work with companies on specific areas to help accelerate Scotland’s recovery – particularly in exporting, innovation and leadership.

Given the increased drive to improve Scotland’s export performance, for example, we will help up to 10,000 companies develop their capacity for exporting and improve international sales by up to £1.7 billion by 2015.

These are really challenging targets, but it’s no more than we are asking Scottish companies to do in raising their goals. We know that our businesses have ambition and growth, and it’s our job to support them wherever and whenever opportunities emerge. I believe this plan will enable us to just that.

Tags: innovation

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