Copper Turtle

Well, what a great round off to an awesome year. This year we have built authentic trust, strong relationships, inspired belief, gently challenged the norm, facilitated innovation, joined SMEs together in a consortia, and have learnt a lot. The result? Work on the books, and a new Business Associate Chris Wardman adding amazing value. Bring on 2025! To the whole of our network, thank you. Watch this space for news of our new Social Value offering in the New Year. Exciting times ahead. Merry Christmas! 🎄 #CopperTurtle #SustainableChange #DronesForGood #SMEs #Defence #Innovation

The team love getting out and about to collaborate with other like minded professionals.

Here in the South West, there is a lot to shout about! 📣 A thriving economy, contributing £81.3bn nominal Gross Value Added to the UK economy. Over 133,000 businesses (2023), which is 5% of the UK’s total business base, with the number of businesses having grown by 4.6% in the last 5 years. High value manufacturing is a key contributor, with £7.9 billion of GVA generated annually by the sector. Strengths in aerospace, marine, defence, clean energy, and food and drink industries are all vital to the UK’s future economic resilience and security. As well as high value manufacturing, SME’s is also a growing sector, with many already successfully supporting manufacturing and other key sectors with innovation and new technology. So, it was fitting to spend National Manufacturing Day with a group of like-minded people looking at how digital transformation can positively impact an organisation. Today’s Digital Workshop, hosted by SWMAS LTD at the BattleLab did just that. Funded by Dorset LEP, it was great to hear interesting success stories from Michael Wright and Tom Baker from Output Industries, Paddy Hearty from Flowlens Manufacturing CRM & MRP Software and Joanne O'Doherty and Jackie Crooks from Kinsetsu. Stories of ROI, increased productivity, cost reduction, and supporting manufacturing through digital transformation, with 75% of large manufacturers seeking to integrate advanced digital solutions by 2025, it's critical work! Great to meet Steven Everill from LIPCO GmbH, Stuart Crook from Electronic Technicians Ltd, and to catch up with Heather Martyn from Amtek. As key supporters of the manufacturing industry, and SMEs, both the South West Regional Defence & Security Cluster and ConeX Portal also got a shout out to those present too! The only thing left to do is to wish everyone a Happy National Manufacturing Day! #CopperTurtle #SustainableChange #NMD2024 #DigitalTransformation Isabel Farquharson-Howell, Nicholas Spence, Ian Rynor, Carl O., Shelley Collins-Trevett and René Morency. (Oh, and no, the BattleLab photo isn't from today...let's just say the weather was not on our side this morning!)

Fantastic South West Regional Defence & Security Cluster event yesterday at Spaceport Cornwall. A jam packed agenda as always. Fascinating insights from James Miller (Avanti Communications), Yury Stelmakh (Sky-Drones), Ben Hillard (Epiphany Engineering) and Scott Jones (FermionX Manufacturing) plus a mind boggling presentation about 'Preparing People for Space Flight' from Blue Abyss Global and a briefing from Neil Skelland on #NIAG and #Spacenet. Great to see and spend some time with long standing connections, as well as meeting new people, including those from the Cornwall Space Cluster. Super interesting conversation with Chris Wardman, and excited about the opportunity to build our business connection further. Fabulous to be able to talk with passion about mining again with Ola Zawalna-Geer. We hope we can pursue our discussions further, and can be of help. #CopperTurtle #SustainableChange

We all have an inner critic, whether we acknowledge it or not. Mental toughness is hard work, but very powerful. Having had the pleasure of working with Penny, we learnt so much from the story of her journey to achieving Rally Champion status. We would totally recommend her new book! #CopperTurtle #SustainableChange #MentalToughness #Resilience

As Steve Jobs once put it: “Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.” Graham's Kenny's article sums it up beautifully! Are you up for moving mountains? With the right support, anything's achievable! #CopperTurtle #SustainableChange #StrategicChange

To build or to buy in? Many organisations grapple with this crucial question when assessing the suitability of candidates for a role. With workplaces evolving due to technological advancements and societal shifts, businesses are increasingly turning inwards to address skill gaps. Embracing an employee-centric, skills-focused approach enables organisations to internally hire and retain talent based on skills rather than traditional qualifications or job titles. By anchoring development efforts around an organisational People Plan, tailored to foster the right culture and learning mediums, companies can adapt proactively. This forward-thinking strategy fosters flexibility, allowing for personalised skill development and ensuring readiness for future organisational needs. Research from LinkedIn and the World Economic Forum highlights the benefits of this proactive approach, citing enhanced value creation, reduced attrition, lower costs, and increased engagement. While external recruitment remains necessary for growth and natural workforce changes, a well-defined People Plan facilitates strategic actions to support such transitions, serving as a magnet for attracting new talent. Curious to explore how a People Plan could shape the future of your organisation? Reach out to find out more. #CopperTurtle #SustainableChange #SkillBuilding #PeoplePlan #FutureReady

Congratulations Sharon Jones and Seemin Suleri for an amazing first re:connect conference held at Bournemouth and Poole College. 👏 All your hard work and effort paid off, enabling lots of learning and new connections to be made for everyone! Totally enjoyed the session with Sally Goble from Accurx. Lots of things resonated with us from her insights on strategy implementation, communication and leadership. We clearly have a shared passion for 'change'! A very interesting panel session with Steve Hayman and Michael Dance from FindiFox and David Burnet from INVIDAR. Your honesty about your challenges and successes from starting your businesses was enlightening. As always, a fab opportunity to learn about new support and funding opportunities from Shelley Collins-Trevett, and great to hear a mention for companies that are part of the amazing BattleLab community, like End State. Thank you Ian Glen for your engaging workshop 'Goldilocks and the jar of M&Ms', I thoroughly enjoyed it. We have shared frustrations on project estimating, but I came away with some very useful thoughts. Amazed at Andy Stanford-Clark's (IBM) story of Mayflower 2. And finally, you could hear a pin drop as we hung on the every word of Ana Avaliani as she took us through the new trends in Engineering and Technology Innovations. What a jam packed, interesting, day full of learning and meeting new people! We'll leave you with a quote from Jimmy Dean, that Sally Goble reminded us of yesterday... "I can't change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination". ⛵ #CopperTurtle #SustainableChange #reconnect2024 #TechCommunity #Networking #Leadership #ProfessionalGrowth #TechConference #ReconnectConference #Innovation #Collaboration

Great day at Farnborough International Airshow, with Philip Tarry. An opportunity to expand our network as well as reconnect with valuable existing connections, especially at the South West Regional Defence & Security Cluster networking breakfast hosted by BAE Systems Air. Great to meet you Paulina Mielech, Jay Hilland, John Whalley FRAeS, Didde Bjerglund-Martin, Mark Green MSc CEng MIMechE, Neil Jackson, Tim Armstrong, and Kelly Maddison. Literally blown away by the equipment on show and the technology and innovation in this sector. Lucie Rolls - I hope your ears have recovered from the Dreamliner taking off right by us! #CopperTurtle #SustainableChange #FIA2024

How often does your attention fluctuate? Do you realise that it does, or, not until something happens? Earlier this week, a lady reverse into a car, and a gentleman drop a rather expensive bottle of wine.  Simple (but expensive!) examples outside of the workplace, but we all know that the challenges of maintaining focus do not cease when our working day starts. The week’s events encouraged me to delve back into my resources to find Daniel Goleman’s great book, ‘Focus’. In it, he comments that “attention is a complex and underappreciated cognitive resource in our modern society overrun with distractions”. Thinking more broadly then about creativity and innovation, Goleman explores how to ‘digress with focus’.  He leans on a Harvard study called the ‘Power of Little Wins’, where it is found that the best ideas flow when people have clear goals, but also the freedom to know how to reach them. Do you agree? How do you make time and space for creativity and innovation for yourself or in your organisation? #CopperTurtle #SustainableChange #Focus #ClearGoals #Innovation PS - whilst the book is a great read, if you’re tight for time, there’s various links to short form summaries of the book and pdfs available online.