Meeting of the Parliament 02 June 2015
I support the motion, of course. I do so because I am passionate about my nation and about its performance. I have been somewhat lucky in my past to have run international businesses, to have helped small companies to start up and to have turned round companies that have been in trouble. I have never been disappointed, in the challenge that they have faced, by those with whom I have been involved at home. I also highlight the acceptance of Scotland’s position in supporting, managing and skilling international businesses. I support the motion, and I am passionate about the subject.
There are many ways to define the success of a nation. Whether that success is financial or to do with security in relation to the environment, energy supply, healthcare and education—or, more certainly, an amalgam of all of those—there can be only one certainty if we are to distribute wealth and prosperity fairly: the need to create it. Enterprise, growth and prosperity should be there for the benefit of all, but that will come about only with a focused economic strategy that has a defined sectoral approach, where we have—or can have—competitive advantage; with improved productivity and outcomes; with innovation; and with the work done by the R and D departments of our universities and the technology transfers that flow from that.
Also required are inquiring and solution-driven minds across our nation. There is increasingly a partnership of Government, business and communities, and also an increasing partnership of capital and labour. We have some internationally competitive entrepreneurs, and I applaud the work that Scottish Development International does to support them. We have creative, educated and skilled people. The challenge is that we need more of them, and that is where I believe the framework provides a foundation stone upon which to build.
Those people and growing businesses are significant assets, as are our natural assets and resources, and we should not diminish their importance. Only two weeks ago, I was happy to bring together investors and developers to look into our natural mineral resources—in particular, the happy conclusion that we have gold in Ayrshire. I hope that there will be development of that soon, and of nickel, cobalt, silver and rare earths, all of which we need to support potential export industries.
The first challenge of any economic strategy is to establish a vision of the kind of nation that we want to be, not just economically and internationally but socially and at home. Mr Fraser raised some issues that we have discussed at the Economy, Energy and Tourism Committee, but even he cannot deny that there has been in many cases acceptance of the challenge that faces us in developing the opportunities that we believe lie ahead.
Now and on an on-going basis, we should consider our strengths, acknowledge our weaknesses, seek opportunities—we should certainly do that—and face and dispense with the threats. We need a meaningful SWOT analysis that provides a recurring basis for fully developing economic strategy to support our vision.
First, that is about being competitive at home and abroad. Secondly, it is about reducing inequalities at home, which, as a consequence, will generate increased productivity, as I have seen happen elsewhere. Thirdly, we need greater participation and stakeholding by employees in the workplace and in company outturns, in the public and private sectors. That, too, will increase productivity. Fourthly, we need to be innovative, not just through the vehicle of university R and D departments but through the evolution of ideas and the revolution that can flow from the likes of ESpark, which has been mentioned, social enterprise and the third sector.
For example, I was told about a guy who walked off the street into one of our new business start-up hubs and said that he believed that he could dry washing on rotary dryers in the rain. Of course, everyone laughed and said that it was impossible, until he produced the design of an umbrella and canopy that fit on to a rotary dryer. Guess what? Yes, we can dry washing in the rain.
We need to be competitive, innovative and certainly productive. We need to use techniques that have been used for years, such as lean, kaizen and six sigma, as well as all the up-to-date and improved productivity methods.