I retired from personal blogging in July 2008.
But you can find me over at http://blog.xero.com.
We had a number of good seminars back in Cardiff today around doing business in the UK.
It was interesting to find a bit more about the Welsh strategy to attract inward investment. 20 years ago economic development in Wales was focussed on increasing employment. They understood that the opportunities for relocating companies with several thousands of jobs at a time would eventually slow down. So the Welsh strategy is now to attract a higher value workforce, which is why they are focussing on Technology.
They have a very coordinated model. International Business Wales has outposts around the globe that look for companies that have potential - and encourage them in.
There are a number of agencies and programs that assist once you go onshore. The Techniums are a network of specialised incubators around Wales. This top to bottom integration through the programs is impressive and seems to be very effective.
Here are some points around doing business in England and Wales I took note of:
- Company law is very similar to NZ
- There is a new Companies Act (2006) that codifies Director duties
- There generally isn’t a standard form Office Lease (e.g. like Auckland District law Society Lease)
- UK Annual Leave increasing from 4 weeks to 28 days over the next 2 years
- Unfair dismissal eligibility comes after 12 months. This means Employers can dismiss Employees that do not work out in the first year. (Wouldn’t get away with that in NZ)
- You can set up a company in the UK within days
- VAT registration is compulsory at GBP61,000 in a 12 month period. Registration occurs within a week.
- UK is 60m people. 5th largest GDP in the world
- EU is 456m people, from the UK you can export to the EU market without hinderance
- English is the predominant business language and you can operate in the region with just English, though it is always good to be able to communicate in the language of the people you are doing business with
- Eurostat is a useful source for statistics and general data (www.epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu)
- European Information Centres (www.eic.cec.eu.int) will help you find partners
- There are many agencies available to assist you be successful
- The European Patent Office is not a fan of entirely software based systems unless they have a technical effect. Which means that you need to think hard about IP strategy for software. Method of Business patent claims are also normally excluded in Europe. Europe is very different from the US in this regard. Copyright is used for protection of software, databases and websites.
In the afternoon, we headed to the Business School at the University of Wales in Newport. Some notes:
- All countries are focussed on the Global Knowledge economy. No country has a differentiator here.
- It stuck me that in the few days I’ve been here, I’ve never heard the word Export. In the UK all talk is participating in the global economy. I think that shows how far we are away from our markets, and our international business maturity. Perhaps because of English history they are concerned that exporting would appear to be cultural imperialism
- There is an insatiable global demand for human talent
- The Higher Education market is set to triple by 2020. The UK will put themselves forward as providing HE for the Global Economy. Globalisation of (Higher) Education is an example of how Universities are gearing up to exploit the Global Knowledge Economy. Does this mean that we’ll send our kids to the UK to finish school in 10 years?
- WOM = Word of Mouth. WOMAs = Word of Mouth Ambassadors
- Big focus at Newport was digital infrastructure and exploiting the phenomena of Web 2.0. They have their own MySpace site with Communities, Blog Hosting etc. These guys got it.
blog
I think the “being part of the global economy” issue is particularly pertinent. We’re far away from everyone and everywhere, but maybe some of that isolation is self-inflicted?
I’m deriving much vicarious enjoyment from Rod’s travelogue. Do I detect a subtle but significant mindshift? Participating in the global knowledge economy, rather than being an “exporter”? I like it.
Back home, Fonterra have reminded us just how invested in the commodity “exporter” mindset we still are. They announced a huge increase in projected payout to dairy farmers off the back of higher global demand for dairy products and the fact that Australia has no water (or milk) left. Predictably, the news media are abuzz with negativity around the implications for inflation, interest rates and the cyclical shift out of sheep growing. But the dairy farmers are smiling and talking about repaying debt and buying tractors.
I hope we don’t become too complacent about our success however. We still need a depth of diversity in the economy and we still need to remain committed to growing the research, technology and added value component.
Hi Rod, long(ish) time reader, first time commentor. Love your work - and appreciate these tips from on the ground in Exportville :)
“Participating in the global economy” vs “exporting” is a very interesting distinction, and it really works with technology products, because it’s easy to almost accidentally export when you’re working over the internet.
I appreciate not just the facts you’ve posted, but also your first hand observations. Nothing beats being there, but reading someone who is there is pretty good.
One last thing - forgive my ignorance, but what’s the difference between 4 weeks and 28 days?
Rod - love your posts and your enthusiasm.
I must take issue with the following: “English is the predominant business language and you can operate in the region with just English, though it is always good to be able to communicate in the language of the people you are doing business with.”
I’ve taken (great) Aussie software to Europe for four years and have learnt (painfully at times) that Europe is not a common market - to sell anything it needs to be able to be used locally and sold locally. To compete in Germany (or France, Spain, Poland etc) against a German product, your product must speak German, as must the sales guy.
Non-native English speakers on the Continent view it as arrogance when someone flies in from the UK for a sales call, forces them to rely on their High School English, leaves them sales material and a proposal in English and flies out again.
So the question is: am I happy to set up in the UK to address the UK market only? If yes build the business case based on servicing that market. If Continental Europe is to be included then some hard yards need to be done to find, recruit and continually energise individual sales channels for the additional countries you want to cover. Not impossible but very expensive and tough on the liver!
BTW it’s not just the language, there are cultural minefields everywhere if you don’t do your homework.
Good luck and have fun!
Hi Rod
Can you explain a little bit more on the GBP61000 VAT fee you mentioned, whats that about? Is it percentaged based, or per company registration etc
cheers
Dean
Simon: 4 weeks allows for part timers. So if you work for 3 days a week, you get 12 days off.
Dean: GBP61k is the turnover threshold before you need to be VAT registered
good meeting you yesterday, Rod. What I took away from the presentations by the NBS yesterday was the fact that ‘us’ the presenters got as much, if not more, from the process as ‘you’ the audience. That’s the way that I and colleagues here like to do things: students and teachers are artificial constructs and we all have something to learn from each other. Takes guts to do that, but I have never been disappointed. Hope the rest of your trip in Wales is as fruitful for you as yesterday was for me.
Mike Reddy, Newport Business School
Nice post, but I think you were a little mislead about the VAT process. I applied 6 weeks ago and am still waiting!
Dont forget the Red on the Union jack is tape!
I forget the name of your friend who gave you the advice about using apostrophes, but I’m very sure she’d also take you to task about your use of the word “around”. You mean *about*. If you talk around something you don’t mention it, which would be counter productive in a seminar.
I highly recommend contacting these guys http://www.write.co.nz/ when you get back to Wellington and organising some plain English courses for you and your troops.
Having been through three RFPs on the customer side in the last year I can tell you how much you appreciate coming across vendors who can write plainly and clearly. It goes a long way to wanting to actually work with them.
Hey guys, I think the whole apostrophe thing is getting out of hand, this is a blog, its quick and dirty, plus he is doing this from Wales while travelling.
Rod is not responding to an RFP or selling something, it is feedback and comments from the frontline.
Hi Rod, good to hear you had a great trip and congratulations on the Technium win. Let me know if UK Trade Investment can help you from here in New Zealand or the UK - or if other readers want to find out more about UKTI assistance into Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland or the 9 English Regions, north / south / east / west - and then outbound from the UK and into those global opportunities. Cheers David (Inward Investment Manager, UKTI).