This is the first in a four-part series of articles looking at the issues currently preventing the Manchester tech scene from reaching its full potential. In this article, Manchester-based Nikki Scrivener, director and co-founder of Fourth Day PR, explains how those in the city are a little too modest when it comes to promoting the local tech industry.
Manchester doesn’t really have a problem with bragging about its brilliance in general terms. It’s a ‘city of firsts’ and the birthplace of industry, renowned for its scientists, engineers, musicians and footballers. “On the Sixth Day, God created MANchester” is even emblazoned across Affleck’s Palace in the city’s Northern Quarter.
This is a city bursting with pride in its achievements. But, despite this, why aren’t we hearing more from Manchester or North West business leaders about how brilliant their businesses are? And why aren’t we seeing tech unicorns emerging right across the region?
“Manchester is quietly inventive,” says Rupert Cornford from business psychologists Carter Corson. “We just get on with stuff without necessarily shouting about it.”
That attitude, symbolised by Manchester’s iconic worker bee emblem and immortalised in words through Tony Walsh’s This Is The Place poem, both capture that ‘heads down, keep going’ approach.
Paul Billingham, partner at Knight Corporate Finance, which has offices in the North West and London, agrees: “I think it’s the nature of Manchester and Mancunians to be a little more reserved and that is reflected in the lower profile Manchester has as a tech hub,” he says.
“In contrast, London has promoted ‘Silicon Roundabout’ as its tech centre, even though, in reality, London’s tech firms are spread right across the city. Berlin is also promoting itself as the leading tech city in Europe, but it’s probably no more tech focused than any other European capital.”
But are there other things about the Mancunian way that are holding us back? Martin Balaam, CEO of SaaS firm Pimberly, which has based its headquarters in Manchester city centre, thinks there may be more ingrained differences between the North and the South – primarily in attitudes towards credit.
He argues that the higher prices of everything from property to salaries in the South of England mean that entrepreneurs are much more prepared to take on debt to fund a venture or startup. Likewise, Rob Booth, CEO of global communications software firm Invosys, which is also based in Manchester, believes our attitude to failure is very different to our US counterparts. “They don’t see failure of a business as the end of a career; they just see it as an opportunity to learn,” he said.
Daniel Keighron-Foster sold his hosting business Melbourne Server Hosting to Iomart in 2012 and has since launched Manchester-based cloud consultancy Steamhaus. He says: “In the US, entrepreneurs are seen as risk takers. And risk takers are celebrated.” He adds that, culturally, we are a bit more suspicious of entrepreneurs and less likely to celebrate their achievements.
Dare to fail
So, perhaps it’s our attitude towards failure and risk taking that’s holding us back, a symptom of the stereotypical British reserve rather than just being a Northern issue.
“You’re never going to create an amazing company if you’re scared it’s going to fail,” warns David Grimes, CEO of Sorted Group, a delivery management company with a Manchester HQ, but global ambitions.
Martin Balaam goes further, believing you’ve got to be prepared to risk things three or four times over to become a unicorn. “Failure is something to learn from, not wallow in,” he adds.
Certainly, everyone believes we have a lot to learn from Silicon Valley, hence a recent trade mission from Manchester to San Francisco by a group of North West business leaders. The feeling of Damian Hanson, CEO of CircleLoop, who was part of the delegation, was that US businesses think on a much larger scale from day one. CircleLoop is a new online phone system aimed at startups and small businesses with plans to shake up a tired telecoms industry. The overwhelming impression Hanson took away from Silicon Valley was that of a business community with a sense of collaboration and genuine support – rather than one worrying about how and when a business might fail.
“If you’re running a business, you face challenges every day of the week. As Northerners we have a head-down mentality which prevents us from sticking our head above the parapet. But what we really need is support from our peers. We should also be passing anything we’ve learnt on to the next generation,” he concludes.
Keep your eyes peeled for the next article in this series: ‘Tech investment in Manchester is improving, but still has a long way to go’. This series is from the What’s holding us back? report by Fourth Day PR.