Lord Alan Sugar talks enterprise in the West Midlands
11/03/2010
Lord Sugar met with 400 representatives from small to medium size enterprises from across the West Midlands at a special event arranged by Business Link WM, Advantage West Midlands and The Department for Business Innovation and Skills (BIS).
The event at the ICC Birmingham provided local businesses with the opportunity to speak with the highly acclaimed business guru who last year was appointed as an Enterprise Champion to the Government.
This unique role puts Lord Sugar at the frontline of understanding the issues affecting SMEs and getting those heard by key decision makers in Government and business providers such as Banks, who directly affect SMEs.
Lord Sugar is known for his straight talking, no nonsense approach and is an icon for entrepreneurs and has a wealth of business experience that can provide real help to SMEs facing pretty tough challenges at the moment.
Speaking about the event Lord Sugar said: “I wanted to talk to businesses about the issues they are facing and answer questions or requests for advice on how to overcome business challenges based on my experience of running a range of companies.”
The challenges West Midlands businesses face are significant. The region is one of the worst affected by the economic downturn with many of its traditional industries hit particularly hard. Business Link West Midlands has been providing support to SME businesses through this period not only to help them survive and safeguard local jobs, but to come out of the downturn in shape ready to take advantage of improved market conditions.
Business Link WM Chief Executive Lorraine Holmes said “We are delighted that Lord Sugar visited the region to meet with business owners who are so vital to our regional economy. Businesses also had the chance to attend our drop in clinics to talk one-to-one with a qualified Business Link adviser for practical business support.”