It was a pleasure to see so many delegates from the West Midlands business community and beyond. The presentation has certainly captured the imagination of many who attended and I'm delighted that so many organisations have been in touch with me since.

In essence, what I was laying out before the distinguished panel and audience were a number of factors that we simply can't ignore.

The nature of brand communication has changed - not merely from "producers" to "consumers" but actually to "collaborators".

That mass to niche is now the name of the game - you don't have to be a giant multi-national to compete.

 

 

And we need to look beyond our own backyard for commerce and innovation, as recent research by Cambridge Judge Business School, Vivaldi & Partners, World Economic Forum and the IMF all testify.

That sustainability is also driving innovation as witnessed by projects such as The Green Exchange and growth sectors for the future include women and an ageing population.

 

 

Size doesn’t matter - just be relevant and niche to compete. Learn from examples like Threadless T-shirts which invites customers to submit a design that, if chosen, results in a $2,000 reward and a share of royalties (which is now seeing £1billion turnover) or Metro Bank, designed as a retail space like the Apple i-store in New York which will stay open after work and at weekends.

Both companies are working collaboratively with the customers to deliver what they actually want. Make customers ambassadors for your brand, like Go Ape, which won a National Business Award for being SME of the year in 2009 because it took the time to understand their customer. It’s word of mouth for the 21st century but a very sophisticated word of mouth.

Feedback

Many thanks to everyone for the tweets, email messages and messages via LinkedIn!

Here are some comments:

"Just thought I'd send you a brief note to say thank you for yesterday - I found your presentation very informative and relevant."

"Interesting business growth summit with great speech from @ardikolahuot;

"Just wanted to say a big thank you for your time, energy and insight you put into your presentation. It was excellent, and inspirational and a perfect scene-setter for the panel. Much appreciated."

For further information on The National Business Awards and the Growth Summits during 2010 visit: www.nationalbusinessawards.co.uk

 

 

 

 

 

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