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LOOKING FORWARD Andrew Wilkinson - Chairman
n my career, as chairman of Wales Management Council, chairman of University of Newport, chairman of Newport and Gwent Enterprise Agency, as a former chairman of Careers Wales Gwent, and as a banker with HSBC, I am privileged to have been involved in five areas that are of critical importance to the Welsh economy: management and leadership, higher education, business support, careers development, and finance. As I write this, in April 2008, all five are facing unprecedented challenges in the face of new funding and policy priorities, national and international competition, collaboration, strategic purpose, and financial upheavals across the world. On top of all this, if that wasn’t enough, we are faced with the stark words of Lord Sandy Leitch in his final report, published at the end of 2006: “Without increased skills, we would condemn ourselves to a lingering decline in competitiveness, diminishing economic growth and a bleaker future for all.” And he argued compellingly that being satisfied with the skills development targets we have already set is not an option, as that will simply lead to us falling further behind the rest of the world. The Welsh Assembly Government has recently published its response to Lord Leitch’s recommendations within its far-reaching report Skills that Work for Wales. This accepts Lord Leitch’s challenge, and makes some wide-ranging recommendations for skills development in Wales, including the importance of developing leadership and management skills as one of the key drivers for economic growth, and because, in Lord Leitch’s words “Good leaders and managers invest in the development of their workforce, thus pulling through the skills agenda.” Throughout this report we have highlighted on each page the key paragraphs in Skills that Work for Wales that relate to leadership and management, and Christopher Ward, our Chief Executive, has used his review of the past year, to explore in more depth some of the key questions and challenges that we face, as the Council and as a nation, in relation to the skills development agenda in general, and leadership and management in particular. If it was all straightforward, we would have found the solutions long ago, wouldn’t we, but it is not. There are conflicting and complementary priorities, depending on your point of view, your sector, your resources, your personal ambition, and your corporate objectives. Finding a clear path through this maze of options is not easy, and it is perhaps why governments of any colour, in any country, can never satisfy all of the people all of the time. But as it so often the case, having a clear view of the things that are of real importance provides the essential focus that leads to the exciting discovery of new ways forward. As chairman of the Wales Management Council you would expect me to put great emphasis on the importance of good leadership and management, but I do this with conviction and passion. However, I am fully aware that while “we need good managers to create good businesses” is an obvious truth, the evidence to prove that is hard to come by. I believe that one of the great strengths of the Wales Management Council, both as voluntary board of some twenty non-executive directors, and as an executive team, is that we understand this difficulty, and can offer suggestions, ideas, solutions, that reflect and find a way through this complexity of priorities, opportunities and purpose, and thus make a direct and unique contribution to helping the development of the leaders and managers in Wales.
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