Client facing: Mid-market – talking their language

What’s new?
A new golden age for UK engineering is reportedly on its way, with the battle to cut carbon emissions expected to create more than two million jobs.
What keeps them awake at night?
Intense price competition; ethical challenges around oil exploration versus climate change; the UK engineering skills gap; working
in challenging countries like Angola, Iraq
and Nigeria.
Heroes and villains
TV professor Chris Bishop was awarded the prestigious Rooke Medal in 2011 for promoting science after attracting five million viewers to The Royal Institution Christmas Lectures.
Small talk
High Speed Two (HS2), the £33bn high-speed rail link between London and Birmingham whose first phase should be complete by 2026; Crossrail; Olympic venues (London and Rio); computer-aided design; the Large Hadron Collider at CERN; bionic eyes; bridges; private finance initiative; McLaren; Rolls Royce; the Royal Institution.
Do say:
‘The UK needs more infrastructure projects to lift us out of recession’
Don’t say:
‘I don’t get the need for High Speed Two’

What’s new?
The March budget introduced tax incentives for animation work and “high-end TV productions” as chancellor George Osborne aims to keep companies like Wallace & Gromit animators Aardman in Britain. Details will be thrashed out partly through a government consultation now underway.
What keeps them awake at night?
New internet distribution channels; copyright theft; Freeview; slow approval by the EU of
the expected industry Enterprise Investment Scheme; lack of finance; small company instability.
Heroes and villains
Rupert Murdoch looms larger than ever as News Corp continues to be dragged through Lord Justice Leveson’s inquiry into the phone hacking scandal. News Corp’s global media operations include film and TV production companies 20th Century Fox, Shine Group, and a 39% stake in BSkyB.
Small talk
Digital distribution and finding audiences; independent cinemas and films; internet TV; catch-up TV; video on demand; 3D TV; Cannes Film Festival.
Do say:
‘Independent film festivals are great for discovering new talent’
Don’t say:
‘You can download the latest series from Pirate Bay’

What’s new?
The FSA’s crackdown on market abuse and insider trading is gathering momentum, with spot checks on UK trading firms being introduced.
What keeps them awake at night?
Low investment returns; technology costs; price comparison sites; scrutiny on fees and commission; backlash against hedge funds; sovereign debt crisis; lack of mergers and acquisitions.
Heroes and villains
Bank of England governor Sir Mervyn King
is poised between scapegoat and villain. Sermons on the evils of banking have done little to endear him to the sector, which increasingly thinks he’s not onside. His second term expires in June 2013.
Small talk
Bonuses; breaking into Brazil; crowd funding - where people or projects raise finance online from multiple small sources; public hostility; real-time indices; double-dip recession; stagflation.
Do say:
‘I’m looking at technology stocks right now’
Don’t say:
‘We need another round of quantitative easing’

What’s new?
The UK’s first degree courses in food and drink manufacturing will be created after the industry invited universities to compete to partner with them on course development. The move was welcomed by Kraft Foods, Mars and the industry as a whole, which expects to create 137,000 jobs in the next three to five years.
What keeps them awake at night?
Competition from farmers in other parts of Europe and developing countries; lack of finance; labour costs; red tape; retailer consolidation shifting the balance of power to supermarkets; skills shortages - particularly food scientists, nutritionists and technologists; an ‘unfavourable’ tax regime; volatility of commodity prices.
Heroes and villains
Minister for agriculture and food Jim Paice MP is championing export-driven growth in the farming, food and drink sector.
Small talk
Celebrity chefs; genetically modified crops; edible packaging; EU Common Agricultural Policy; the Laying Hens Directive; water resource management; hot pasty tax.
Do say:
‘Tesco’s profit warning was a shock’
Don’t say:
‘Cooking from scratch is so much healthier’

What’s new?
Wireless internet devices are creating a mini-boom in the global semiconductor industry, with 2012 growth forecast at 4.3% to £201bn, according to data analysis provider IHS Global Insight.
What keeps them awake at night?
Exchange rates for exporting; perceived lack of government support for research and development; skills shortages; customer demand for functionality versus increasingly smaller devices; fights over patents - particularly in the field of smartphones.
Heroes and villains
Seemingly insatiable global demand for iPads and iPhones makes Apple an industry heartthrob. In the first quarter of 2012, 35.1 million iPhones and 11.8 million iPads were sold.
Small talk
Gadgets; electric-powered cars; e-health and patient monitoring; roll-out of 3G and 4G communications infrastructure; rare earth minerals; new draft of the Electromagnetic Compatibility Directive.
Do say:
‘Studying science should be encouraged more
in schools’
Don’t say:
‘I don’t have an iPad’

What’s new?
The industry has been boosted by a spike in temporary job vacancies this year. Recruitment firm Venn Group reported a 33% rise in temporary hires in Q1 2012.
What keeps them awake at night?
Job websites; recruitment freezes and lack of vacancies especially in the public sector; low margins.
Heroes and villains
Executive search firm Sheffield Haworth is a longstanding industry star, and was number one in the Hot 100 produced by Recruiter magazine in 2011.
Small talk
Unemployment figures; social media; online recruitment; aggregators; psychometric testing; sector-specific recruitment agencies.
Do say:
‘You can’t beat the personal touch of a good recruitment agent’
Don’t say:
‘I got my new job through Facebook’

What’s new?
The UK’s shrinking economy - down 0.2% in Q1 2012, on top of a 0.3% dip in Q4 2011 - creates fear in the hearts of retailers, who rely on confident consumer spending. Clinton Cards’ fall into administration is the latest blow to hit UK high streets.
What keeps them awake at night?
Online competitors; rising cost of living; consumers’ multi-channel expectations; store closures; rising rents.
Heroes and villains
Entrepreneur Theo Paphitis has added some glamour as a retail-focused resident in the Dragon’s Den TV show. Paphitis is chairman of Ryman the Stationer, which he created, and after selling lingerie chain La Senza in 2006 he launched lingerie business Boux Avenue in spring 2011.
Small talk
Ethical supply chain; Jubilee effect; pop-up shops; rioting and looting; relaxation of Sunday trading hours during the 2012 Olympics; Tesco’s wobble (the supermarket issued a surprise profit warning in January).
Do say:
‘The Jubilee weekend is a good excuse for a splurge’
Don’t say:
‘A recovery is unlikely until H2 2014’

What’s new?
Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude wants to introduce laws to allow public sector organisations to share data, but the industry warns that the controversial plans could break data protection rules.
What keeps them awake at night?
Intellectual property theft; proposed changes to the Data Protection Act; the drive for open standards; weak demand for high-margin, specialised business applications; customers deferring new projects and upgrades.
Heroes and villains
The industry continues to mourn the passing in October 2011 of its number one icon, Apple co-founder and technology visionary Steve Jobs. The man behind the iPhone and iPad transformed Apple from a company close to collapse into a household name.
Small talk
Big data; cloud computing; hacktivism; gaming; wearable computing; patent wars like Apple’s lawsuit against Android; Tech City - east London’s answer to Silicon Valley.
Do say:
‘Would you like to see my Hadoop Distributed File System tables?’
Don’t say:
‘I haven’t seen Star Wars’

What’s new?
British 100 metres hopeful Dwain Chambers won a reprieve from a lifetime ban on competing in the Olympics in April, when the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled that his exclusion failed to comply with World
Anti-Doping Agency rules.
What keeps them awake at night?
Corruption; doping; illegal downloading
of content; the demise of captive television audiences.
Heroes and villains
Hero to some, villain to others, Simon Cowell has clawed his way to the top of the entertainment industry, amassing a personal fortune of £223m along the way.
Small talk
London 2012; watching sport; playing sport; gaming and gambling; Glasgow Rangers Football Club in administration; resurgence of live entertainment events; Comcast-NBC merger; Shazam; Spotify.
Do say:
‘Harry Redknapp should have been England manager’
Don’t say:
‘I’m getting out of London for the Olympics’

What’s new?
Queues at Heathrow have hit the headlines again as passengers waited hours to pass through border controls at the airport during April and May. Fears are that the hold-ups could worsen during the Olympic Games.
What keeps them awake at night?
Holidaying at home; squeezed margins; high street travel agency demise because of online booking; increase on passenger duty introduced in 2010.
Heroes and villains
Virgin Group founder Richard Branson retains a stake in Virgin Atlantic, but more exciting for travel agents is Virgin Galactic. The company intends to be the first to offer trips into space: the ultimate adventure holiday.
Small talk
Olympic effect - or lack of it, including low booking levels so far for London hotels; the Jubilee effect; new tourist destinations such as Burma and Sudan; Costa Concordia disaster; Dealchecker.co.uk.
Do say:
‘This year I’ll be holidaying in Burma’
Don’t say:
‘Cruises are for older people’