Entrepreneurship
Theme: Innovation
Cross-cutting themes covered: Tailored business support, Knowledge transfer opportunities
Name of project: Jump Start Inspire
City: London
What is it? Jump Start Inspire provides business support, mentoring and partnerships')">knowledge transfer opportunities to disadvantaged groups in London, aiming to break down the barriers to innovation faced by ethnic-minority owned businesses, women and disabled people. There were five different projects funded under Jump Start Inspire. This case study focuses on the project ‘Inspiring Innovation in London’s Food Sector’.
Who is it? The Inspiring Innovation project was run by GLE oneLondon and involves a range of public and private sector bodies. A partnership with the London Food Centre, based at London South Bank University, has been fundamental in helping businesses to be more innovative.
Where is it? Jump Start Inspire operated across London. All the entrepreneurs participating in the ‘Inspiring Innovation’ project were from black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) communities, and the majority were also women.
Who funds it? The project was funded by:
How does it work? Building the skills for innovation: The project helps the ethnic minority food sector business build the skills for innovation through a series of workshops, diagnostic sessions and mentoring initiatives. Workshops have covered topics such as:
Mentoring and networking: ‘Inspiring Innovation’ also offers opportunities to talk to established food entrepreneurs, giving businesses role models to aspire to. The project also provides businesses with the chance to network and exchange ideas with other food sector businesses.
Anything else? Partnerships with universities: London South Bank University is a key partner in the project, providing technical support to businesses and offering partnerships')">knowledge transfer and partnership opportunities through its Food Research Centre. The London Food Centre is one of five regional food technology transfer centres in the UK and offers services to assist small and medium sized food businesses to expand and increase productivity, such as help with product development.
The partnership with South Bank University has also been fundamental to ensuring that the support and advice given through the project has been of a high standard.
What are the results? The workshops and mentoring have helped people cement their business plans and understand how to take their ideas forward. For example, one man with a pre-start sausage company has decided to go ahead and start up his businesses. Importantly, the programme has given people the confidence to innovate.
Is it successful? Tailored support: The support offered by the project is tailored to businesses in the food sector. Many of the businesses participating in the programme had already talked to Local Enterprise Agencies (which offer generic business support in London), which were unable to give specialist/technical support about innovation in the food sector.
High quality support: Support is of very high quality. The project has attracted expert speakers and business advisers from, for example, South Bank University and large supermarket chains (Asda, Marks & Spencer).
Is the model transferable ? The barriers to innovation that ethnic minorities, women and disabled people experience in London are likely to be the same in other cities and, as such, the Jump Start Inspire model is largely transferable. Indeed, the types of innovation support provided to the projects – e.g. confidence building and mentoring support – would be relevant to any sector. It is important that support is tailored and sector specific, but in theory it does not matter whether support is directed at the food sector, the hair and beauty sector or other sectors.
The Jump Start Inspire project was able to fill a specific gap in the market – London has a successful food sector, yet research shows that ethnic minority-owned businesses are not sharing in this success, being much less likely to grow/expand their food businesses than white-owned businesses. Practitioners looking to implement this model in other areas must look for similar gaps in the market.
Building on local competitive advantages? The project was able to build on a sufficient business base, to allow the selection of innovative entrepreneurs to join the programme – London’s food sector is large and has potential to expand further. This business base provided a critical mass of beneficiaries for the project. The project may not be transferable to areas lacking a sufficient business base.
The partnership with the London Food Centre was crucial to this project, both in allowing the provision of high-quality support and in facilitating partnerships')">knowledge transfer partnerships. Lack of partnership with a university or knowledge centre in order to provide technical innovation support could pose a barrier to transferability.
What are the barriers to transferability? Problems recruiting people onto the project could also be a challenge for transferability. The Food project struggled initially to get people to join the programme – in particular, it was difficult to engage with the hard-to-reach groups who were the main target of the project. In the end, entrepreneurs were recruited onto the project through partners, including the African Caribbean Business Network and the Caribbean Food Emporium. Trade events were also held to recruit people.
