Fusion, the organisation which encourages entrepreneurship in the Highlands and Islands,  today held a business debate about the future of entrepreneurship in the Highlands and Islands, following presentations by keynote speakers at Eden Court Theatre, Inverness.

More than 140 people attended to hear from Alan Savage of Orion Group, Entrepreneur of the Year, 2007, Dr Jonathan Levie of the Hunter Centre for Entrepreneurship, Glasgow and Georgina Cairns from the Institute of social marketing University of Stirling.

There was general consensus from all speakers that there is great entrepreneurial spirit in the north of Scotland. William Roe, Chairman of Highlands and Islands Enterprise who chaired the day, said that unemployment across the region has never been lower. The challenge here is more one of lack of people than lack of jobs.

“The population of the Highlands and Islands is growing faster than other parts of Scotland, which is a good indicator of a flourishing region “ he said, but he went on to comment that to create an entrepreneurial culture, you need to raise the population in an entrepreneurial environment. On a recent trip to Iceland, Mr Roe had observed they start creating that culture within their families from the age of 3, with innovation education. This has resulted in a huge transformation in that country.

Dr Jonathan Levie from the Hunter Centre for Entrepreneurship in Glasgow said that entrepreneurs need to learn from each other and praised the work of Fusion for encouraging this.

“New business starts up need opportunities, the right environment and the right skills, along with knowledge and motivation and are affected by the entrepreneurial framework, finance, government policy, R&D etc they are surrounded by” DR Levie said. He added that the quality of post secondary education was an important factor and people’s perceptions of opportunities. These were deduced from a project which surveyed over 800,000 people worldwide. He praised the region for having an impressive number of people starting businesses. “Five per cent of the UK population is an established business owner that is they have been in business for over 3 years. In the highlands that percentage jumps to 6.1 per cent.”

Alan Savage was interviewed on stage by Fusion’s chief executive Bruce Morrison. He said that his wife had been his biggest driver when he set up his hugely successful business Orion in 1987. “She believed I could do it!” he said. He was critical about the amount of red tape there is for businesses today.

Georgina Cairns cited similarities between Singapore and Scotland when it comes to entrepreneurial culture and encouragement of start businesses. She said in her international roles she had met as many Scots abroad, as at home. In Singapore as in Scotland, networking between business owners is important -  “bamboo networks” as is a positive outlook. David Fraser, a global Scot recently return to the highlands after 10 years working in Singapore, speaking from the floor during the debate, added that in Singapore they do something extra, not done in Scotland, which is to encourage businesses to work together.   He has seen small companies combining to pitch for government contracts together.

The session ended with an extraordinary presentation to the 90 year old Gordon Baxter of Baxters Foods fame. He was presented with an Honorary Patron title from Fusion for his contribution to networking for them as an organisation, and introducing them to high profile entrepreneurs, elsewhere in Scotland, and for his entrepreneurial role model to others.

Gordon Baxter said he was honoured to receive the award. “I am awfully proud of the Baxter business. We have turned down 189 take over bids. I value our independence which gives us the opportunity to achieve great things. When we started, there were 40 manufactures of soups, today there are only two – Heinz, the big one, and Baxters the good one!”    He went on tell delegates Baxters has factories in Canada, Poland and Australia.  For more information about Fusion visit http://www.fusionlinking.co.uk/