THE theme behind this month’s North East Business Week was Change Driving Growth.
As part of the event, senior business leaders were asked for their thoughts on the impact that both internal and external change are having on their business.
The major impact which was recorded is in predicted employment levels.
Research for the same event last year forecast employment growth of 15% by 2016.
Companies now forecast a fall in employment of 8% over the next two years, to April 2017.
This outbreak of pessimism is understandable following the drop in the oil price, but its consequences still have to be managed.
Nearly every respondent (91%) indicated that the decline in the price of oil has had, or is expected to have, a detrimental effect on their business.
It has driven most energy sector companies to reduce their prices and has also resulted in lost contracts and a third of respondents reporting redundancies.
But getting back to the theme of progress through change, internal changes have had an overall favourable impact on businesses.
Over half of businesses have undergone a reorganisation or a transformation of their people or culture in the last year. Over 80% of businesses saw these changes as a positive thing.
The top three change projects identified by business leaders as having the largest positive impact on the region’s economy are the airport redevelopment, faster broadband and the new city bypass, the Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route.
In the next few years we will see around £1billion of public and private sector investment in infrastructure which will help the region to compete.
So while the results of our research may highlight a gloomy outlook for the immediate future, it is important to remember that we need progress, no matter how painful that process might be.
In particular we want to be brought closer to the Central Belt and the rest of the nation, we want our residents to move around the city more freely and we want to ensure our city centre reflects our global status.
As with all economies, we have experienced downturns before, and we will doubtless experience them again.
It is how we analyse what do to next and then plan and implement change that will dictate our progress and our future success.
North East Business Week is a partnership event, run by Aberdeen & Grampian Chamber of Commerce, Elevator, the Federation of Small Businesses and the SCDI.