Every month Suzanne Caldwell, MD of Cumbria Chamber of Commerce, gives her view on something topical...this month she talks about the opportunities which occur from adversity.

She says: “People often forget the Chamber is a business like any other. We’re not part of the public sector and we don’t get given any core funding from government. Any public funding we do get has to be bid for and won. I’m particularly proud of our ability to do that on a hard commercial basis against nationals and multinationals with large specialist bidding teams. And when I think of those contracts I do wonder how Baroness Bra and her husband could be achieving the profits they did on public contracts when the best one we’ve had in recent years has been limited to 5%, with other allowing cost recovery only, and some not even overhead recovery.

Like many others, in both the private and, it has to be said, public sectors, we’ve had a challenging few years one way and another. For example, Covid, spiraling inflation, recruitment issues, the end of European funding and more. And just because inflation is significantly down doesn’t mean most costs have gone down – they’re just going up more slowly.

But I didn’t set out to write a tale of doom and gloom, and I’m not going to. Because what’s been clear to us, as I’m sure it has to many of you, is that in challenge and adversity comes opportunity.

An obvious one we’ve all talked for some years now is of course flexible working and online meetings, training and discussions through Teams and the like. We’ll find more as we continue to explore AI. And although not a route we’ve gone down, a growing number of businesses have moved to versions of the 4-day week.

While we’re still grappling with how we can best address the significantly lower levels of funding available to pass through in services and grants to other SMEs, the end of European funding has proved a great opportunity to review and refresh our business support delivery and start rolling out exciting new offers – which are going down really well! And changes to rules are allowing more flexibility and efficiency in how we operate. It’s also been a great opportunity to develop new partnerships and build on others.

Alongside that, Local Skills Improvement Plans (LSIPs) have proved a great opportunity to work with stakeholders, whether other Employer Representative Bodies (ERBs), businesses, skills providers or others to make a real difference, together, to skills and opportunity in the county - for both businesses and individuals.

In starting, through the LSIP, to work more closely with other ERBs, we’ve all seen the benefits of doing that and have been actively broadening this beyond LSIP, while still competing in other activities. That’s a benefit not just to us as organisations but also to the businesses we each represent. We’re continuing together to build on that and I believe it presents a really exciting and rewarding opportunity for Cumbria

Another example is in looking at how we make the most of our team and in working together through the challenges and coming up with ideas and opportunities. Isn’t it fabulous how some people really step up to the mark, and beyond, and flourish? It’s fantastic to see the various members of the team coming up with great ideas and solutions, and working with real enthusiasm, commitment and flexibility to try things out and make most of them work.

Beyond the Chamber, I see it all the time in other businesses throughout the county too. So whatever the challenges I think this bodes well for Cumbria and genuinely believe that as a county we have great times ahead.