A bright future for Birmingham

Written by John James

A couple of months ago, I was invited as a VIP guest to the Greater Birmingham Chamber Young Professional of the Year Awards. It was a glittering evening, which reflected brilliantly the many and varied talents of the young leaders of Birmingham and the West Midlands. I was generously hosted by Henrietta Brealey, the hugely talented chief executive of the Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce.

I was lucky enough to be at this very special event because the Chamber, through its Future Faces section, was reviving something I had been closely involved with over 2 decades ago, Then, in 2001, I, as the chief executive of Birmingham Forward, (and its younger “arm”, Birmingham Future), met with a number of business leaders who cared as passionately about our city as I did, to create an Awards programme which would not only recognise existing young talent in the professional and financial services sector (the most dynamic and fastest growing business sector in Birmingham), but also provide an ongoing programme for growing and nurturing those talents, thereby not only adding value to the local economy, but encouraging those skilled people to stay and build their careers here, and attract others in the UK to come and do the same. 

So the Birmingham Young Professional of the Year (BYPY) Awards were launched that year, and have since exceeded the wildest dreams of their creators. Many of the overall winners have gone on to great success, and perhaps even more importantly, many of those who have taken part, but didn’t win “on the night”, have nevertheless been empowered and emboldened by the experience, and become leaders in their chosen areas of expertise, and committed and powerful advocates for Birmingham as a city in which to live, work, thrive and be happy.

So, some 22 years on from that first BYPY event in the ICC, as I sat on Henrietta’s table, and looked around the room, I felt an immense sense of pride. I watched the award winners receive their trophies and marvelled at their achievements at such a young age. I was also hugely envious of the rewards now bestowed on the overall winner: participation in the prestigious Aston University MBA course, and also the Common Purpose programme so brilliantly developed by another talented leader, Louise Teboul. The original concept that winners should also become Ambassadors for the city has happily been retained, but winning BYPY now means so much more, and that can only bode well for the future of an  initiative which spotlights talents and skills which are as good, if not better, than any others in the UK.

But equal to my sense of pride was a feeling that the time had come to step aside from my (largely self-appointed!) role as a torch-bearer for Birmingham, a role which I have happily embraced for over 50 years since I first started working in the city in 1970.

When I first started “to bang the drum for Brum”, I wasn’t exactly a voice crying in the wilderness, but there weren’t many like me out there. Birmingham was a city that had lost faith in itself in the aftermath of the heavy toll of the Second World War, and was struggling to create a new identity. The fightback started in 1971 with an organisation I (and sundry accountants, lawyers, stockbrokers - Birmingham had its own Stock Exchange then- and property advisers) created called the “Young Professionals”. Remember  at that time, there were no networking aids like mobile phones or emails, and many of us were actually barred   from “touting for business” by our respective professional regulatory bodies : even handing out  business cards was a disciplinary offence!

So we took over some rooms in the Birmingham Conservative Club, in Ethel Street, just off New Street, which included a bar and catering facilities, and we provided a place for young professionals in the City to meet and chat convivially over lunch and after work, and informally, but effectively, establish networks of contacts. Of course we didn’t call it “networking” then (I’m not sure we knew what the word meant), but we created, both for ourselves, and our clients and business associates, an awareness of the burgeoning professional skills in Birmingham.

And when, a decade or so later,  the Roger Dickens of KPMG, and I, with the backing of Sir Albert Bore, were looking to form Birmingham City 2000 (later Birmingham Forward), there was a template we could build on, and as a result, with the support and authority of the Greater Birmingham Chamber, combined with the success of Birmingham Future and the BYPY Awards, we have become the best networking city in the UK …bar none : which is why so many young talents in Birmingham flourish here…and are here to stay.

One happy consequence of this success has been the emergence of new, impressive cheerleaders for Birmingham and the West Midlands, which is another reason why I can step aside from this role with confidence. An obvious example is Andy Street, who in his role as Mayor of the West Midlands, is selling the region and Birmingham as its capital, to great effect. That of course is his paid job, but there are many other people, who, in an unpaid capacity, are equally convincing and passionate advocates for Birmingham. People like Nicola Fleet-Milne, Chair of the Colmore BID, Tim Andrews MBE of Hollywood Monster, Alex Bishop of Shoosmiths, Liz Lewis-Jones of Liquid PR, Professor Paul Cadman of Steps To Work, and Anthony McCourt of Court Collaboration (which is helping shape the new face of Birmingham’s built environment). So I leave the city in good hands, aided and abetted by its many other vocal and articulate advocates too numerous to name here.

One of advantages of slipping back into my cave, (like Puff the Magic Dragon!), is the opportunity to make a few final observations on where Birmingham stands today…and I have chosen to divide them into the “The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly” characteristics of the city.

Let me start with “the Ugly”. That has to be Birmingham City Council effectively going bust. It’s not a pretty sight and an image in national and international terms we could well do without. I hope the current government-led enquiry into the causes of this debacle is robust, and that those responsible are held fully and publicly accountable…because financial crises of this nature do not happen out of the blue and certainly the legal claims against the Council of allegedly up to one billion pounds have been on the radar for several years. However, it is important to remember that in purely practical  commercial terms Birmingham remains a city in which  business can be conducted just as before and with all the skills and originality for which it has been renowned over 3 centuries. New York famously went bust a while ago but when I last looked it was still the leading financial centre of the world!

The “Bad” is more of a problem, and that is Birmingham Airport. In my view, airports are one of the key benchmarks of a business city in terms of stature and international credibility. We fail badly in this area in terms of our airport’s “welcome” on arrival, its drop-off options on departures, its clearance times through security, its baggage retrieval problems, and the inadequate refreshment and seating facilities for passengers. In recently published customer satisfaction league tables, Birmingham Airport ranks poorly...not the worst, but nowhere near the best, and that is simply not good enough for one of the top international trading cities of the world. 

Another personal bugbear of mine is the fact that in the 1990s Birmingham had THREE daily scheduled direct flights to the United States (New York, Chicago, and Newark)…now there are none. Even allowing for the fact that business these days is often conducted through video links and other technology that doesn’t require face to face contact, that omission in my view also undermines our credibility as a world player in international trade.

But now we come to the “Good”…of which there is so much. Let me return to Andy Street, the West Midlands Mayor. It’s taken the region time to adapt to the concept of a Mayor with executive powers (as opposed to, Lord Mayors, who have primarily only ceremonial roles), but Andy, now in his third term, has embraced the job with the boyish enthusiasm for which he is renowned, and made it a key part of the wellbeing of the West Midlands community. It’s not an easy role, as his powers are limited, but he has used them to great effect and generated government funds for the region which would not have otherwise come to us. He has proved himself a champion of economic, social and community issues which have resonated beneficially right across the region. Although he stands for election on a Conservative ticket, he is a self-declared staunch (and highly effective) advocate for the West Midlands first, and a politician second. He and Andy Burnham, the Greater Manchester Mayor, exemplify what a life-changing difference an elected Mayor can make to a region.

And a “Greater Good” brings me back to where I started…the young leaders of our city. Henrietta Bearley, the youngest Chief Executive ever of the Greater Birmingham Chamber, one of the most powerful voices for business in the country:  Alice Kinder, at 31, the youngest President in its history of the Birmingham Law Society (the second largest law society in the country):  and so many managing partners or chief executives of our top legal and financial institutions still in their 30s or early 40s. The only public accolade I have ever received in my life was in 2004 when I won the BYPY Most Inspiring Leader Award, but these people inspire me now!

These are exciting times for a city leading the way in life sciences, the new green industries, AI and digital technologies. and the many new businesses developing in a fast-changing world. This is a city equipped for the future with young leaders attuned to, and prepared for it,

To misquote the Orange mobile advert:

The Future’s Bright, The Future is Birmingham!