Member Article

Tackling the economic climate at Hart Brown Forum

Businesses at this year’s Hart Brown Economic Forum heard about success from adversity stories.

Alan McClafferty Chairman and Managing Director of Surrey firm John Dennis Coachbuilders talked about how his company has evolved to cope with economic challenges.

He demonstrated how the firm had navigated challenging dynamics, such as the need to cut costs while investing in sales and marketing, and the need to reducing overheads and increasing product development.

Elsewhere, financial industry pundit Justin Urquhart Stewart from Seven Investment Management entertained with a presentation on the current political leadership, the Euro crisis and his views on taxation and asset management.

His message to the audience was the “UK is damaged but not doomed” and that imagination is needed to instigate growth.

Forum attendee, Steve Coburn, managing director of Projectfive, commented: “The Hart Brown Economic Forum is a great opportunity to hear the views of well-known economic experts and other local businesses – the speakers are hugely knowledgeable and provide the opportunity to think how global economic conditions are affecting my local business – it’s a real eye-opener.

“The chance to network with other attendees gives a valuable opportunity to hear how other’s businesses are able to thrive.”

Dr Martin Weale CBE, Monetary Policy Committee Member of the Bank of England chose to make a significant Bank of England policy statement during his talk at the Forum, which concerned the latest raft of interventions from the Bank of England to stimulate the economy.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Tom Keighley .