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Annex 2 - Verbatim Quotes from Company Interviews
On human resources:
'Within biosciences, we struggle to find the key individuals- there are plenty of graduates, but not people of greater experience. Attracting the right person at the right price is quite hard (particularly from the South, Oxford etc), there's a limit to the salaries we can pay, so we have to stress the positives of our location, but this doesn't work with everyone. There is just not the pool of people moving around system. We get plenty of graduate CVs but these are not often what we are looking for- they might be good graduates but they don't have basic practical lab skills, which means they can't get straight on with the job. We also find that graduates (and PhDs) can have unrealistic salary expectations ( e.g. a new graduate as a clinician expecting £25k). Similarly a PhD is a professional qualification- i.e. it's not the be all and end all. I think these expectations are being raised by the universities ….'.
On the problems of small size:
'We do feel somewhat out on a limb as a small company- it's very hard to keep your finger on the pulse with regard to what is happing with the technology. Having access to a network of people would be useful - there was an innovation network… but that fell a bit flat. I did feel there that people were a bit reluctant to share their ideas'.
'Working in industry (in a large firm) I was quite used to bouncing ideas off other people as part of the development process- its hard to do this in our very small firm'.
On the culture of innovation and entrepreneurship
'At the innovation park where we were- I'm often the only person working here after hours; i.e. I didn't see that much commitment from a pool of people apparently wanting to grow their businesses and get their ideas out there. Perhaps we are just too comfortable (or lazy?) to take the risks?'
'There is also a complete lack of innovation culture ( e.g. process improvement etc) within the Scottish NHS- this needs to be addressed at a policy level. Its difficult to build your business when your home market isn't receptive. We are doing more and more business south of the border- partly driven by the fact that its just a bigger market. But; if we end up doing more and more business away from our base, we may have to consider moving south'.
' SHI [Scottish Health Innovations] are supportive, but they don't really have any power. People in the NHS are driven by short term goals- making the numbers add up at the end of the year. I can think of a specific project with us that would have saved them money in the long run that they decided not to run. People in the NHS are on a career ladder and won't stick their neck out to avoid "blame" for anything that might "go wrong"- totally risk averse. This is a wider issue for the UK as a whole'.
'It is too hard to get these ideas out into the market- SHI have been involved but the whole process with them has been bogged down in legal issues- too many constraints'.
On the LECs
'We have an excellent person in the LEC who is extremely helpful, and they have been very supportive more generally e.g. helping with overseas linkages and so on. There does however seem to a lack of people within SE with a science background- you tend to referred on to someone, who doesn't understand it either and in turn refers you on somewhere else and so on'.
'I am a strong supporter of Scottish Enterprise at the point of delivery on the ground- this stuff tends to be very practical and driven by our own needs (for example Small Company Innovation Scheme, training support for staff and so on.) This sort of thing is directly helping our immediate R&D, our innovation, customer support and skills base. Other elements of SE I tend to see as either too far-sighted, too short-sighted, or not practical enough- and not a good use of public money'.
'The LECs have some good people, but these are not made best use of- sometimes this is down to the LECs themselves, but often the SMEs are reluctant to let anyone in. The people from the LECs really need to know what's going on at a first hand level, rather than at 2 nd hand via the account manager. If you insist on keeping the account manager at arms-length, then it's not surprising that they don't understand the business, which is a complaint you often hear'.
'I think the "lone entrepreneur" image is a barrier- i.e. a number have this ideal (perhaps not even consciously) that 1 guy can do it all- the technology, the finance, the marketing etc.etc. - this makes them very reluctant to let anyone else in, or to collaborate'.
On Scottish Enterprise:
'What is SE for?- is it start-ups, is it a last resort- what? Its ill-informed advice from people with no experience. I think the start-up fund is a waste of time. It certainly shouldn't be about the numbers- what counts?- is it one guy with three-pence turnover?- there needs to be some sorting of the wheat from the chaff'.
'I generally feel that Scottish Enterprise are quite good at kick-starting new companies, and quite good with large ones … but ones like us fall somewhere between the two'.
'Scottish Enterprise shouldn't have a 'social' role, this has been forced on it by Scot Exec. For example "women into business" - this might well be a 'good thing' but in what way?- economically, socially - what? It's a compromise, and sends out a confused message'.
On co-ordination and conflicts:
'Support tends to be very localised indeed- i.e. there is one body in Ayrshire, one in Renfrewshire and so on- they all seem reluctant to spend money that will generate benefit outside their own LEC area. You get asked questions like why didn't you get that work done in Ayrshire?, why didn't you have that analysis done in Ayrshire? Etc. - usually the answer is simply because there was no one who could actually do it. - surely the point should be what is the benefit for Scotland as a whole. We also had a situation which involved collaboration with a company in another LEC area; we each had to apply for money separately. It would have been much more sensible to apply together, and if successful the cash split equally by the two LECs'.
'I also wonder if there are too many groups- i.e. do all the universities need their own innovation department, and why are there so many LECs? For example people I met in the US were more familiar with the Dundee LECs bio-group than they were with that of Scotland as a whole - i.e. it seems that these bodies are competing internationally against each other'.
'To some degree the aims of the Proof of Concept fund and SMART contradict - with the PoC you are not allowed to actually form a company - it is for taking a technology up to this stage - conversely SMARThas to be within a commercial company - i.e. can't be used a substitute funding for academic research - i.e. there is some lack of flexibility between the two'.
On connectivity to HEIs:
'We are in theory in an incubator unit, but it's poorly run as one, and we weren't even aware of these units (in the Uni.) when we started - not publicised. Most companies here aren't actually spin-outs; the units are rented out a reasonable rate to fill them and generate some cash'.
'Where we are located- although it's called a science park, its really just an industrial park- i.e. there is no real clustering effect. This is partly due to the infrastructure and partly due to the other companies on site- i.e. it's a bit of a random collection, probably driven by the need to rent the units. So we pay extra for being on a science park without really seeing any added value- which is why we are looking to move'.
'For example the ITIs- I don't feel that these have been particularly valuable. Linked to cluster policy- ITIs are supposed to be involved in this, but my view is that effective clustering only happens when there is a large organisation at the centre- i.e. one driving business with the others growing around it. What Scotland lacks is large growing organisations that are able to be the cluster leader, that have the scale and capacity to lead innovation in a global market- and this isn't something that the ITIs can really do'.
'We can tend to obsess with technology transfer directly from the Universities at the expense of other strategies- clustering for example'.
On supporting spin-outs and start-ups:
'I generally feel that Scottish Enterprise are quite good at kick-starting new companies, and quite good with large ones … but ones like us fall somewhere between the two'.
'I think scientists need to be able to go to SE and get their ideas protected, and then SE could go out to business with these- at the moment this doesn't happen, its all left to pot luck. In our case, I have the experience of being finance director for a large company, and my colleague has the science background- so between us we have a good idea of where we're going. We find it hard enough- many people don't have this combination and must find almost impossible'.
'I don't see the spin-out thing being promoted that well - either by SHI, or from the universities. If the ideas etc that were there were showcased effectively, business people would be able to commercialise them. You need to match the tech expertise with the business experience. Getting things to market is the key issue- linking ideas to entrepreneurs in existing companies- spin-outs aren't always the best way to do it. Most of the costs for a start-up go towards infrastructure- why do these each time?'
'Scottish Enterprise and the people in the Universities- very few of these have actually had 'real-life' experience of setting up a business- they can have all the specific skills, but lack this knowledge'.
'The guys with the ideas often have no business experience, many would have benefited from having this experience earlier in the process; for example in terms of the attitudes they have towards giving up control of certain parts of the business ( i.e. to investors etc). The LECs find it quite easy to point companies in the direction of specific expertise- lawyers or finance or whatever, but you really need a pool of grey-haired business people who can offer their expertise'.
'Sales and marketing is a big problem- i.e. the people who have developed the technology sometimes wonder why their product isn't selling. Most of these products tend to be quite sophisticated- very few will actually sell themselves. The problem in Scotland is that the people with this level of sales experience often move south of the border, and/or are more interested in joining a large company than a new one'.
' IP barrier- people are apprehensive about letting business people get hold of their ideas- untrusting of business. People who are inventing things aren't business people- they usually aren't interested in how business works, and are utterly surprised when someone gives them some money- scientists often just don't expect to get any money for what they enjoy doing'.
'There are lots of scientists who think they have a good idea. Pure scientists often get bogged down in the detail of their research, i.e. the exact reasons for why a certain effect takes place etc, rather than just that it actually works- this is of course partly because this is what is needed for papers etc'.
'There are plenty of ideas coming out of the universities etc- sometimes the commercialisation processes work, sometimes they don't. Often the academic people are unwilling to let go of an idea and so do their own spin-out, and this often fails because the business basics are not in place- this is where the help is needed. Also, the overheads imposed by the universities can scupper a lot of deals'.
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