Exploring The Commonwealth Advantage

Elizabeth Vega OBE, Group CEO Informed Solutions, Cabinet Office Small & Medium Business Panel, Member & Chair of the Meet the Buyer Working Group, DIT Northern Powerhouse Export Champion, ScaleUp Institute ‘Access to Markets’ Committee Member, Member of the Leaders Council of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, writes about Informed Solutions export journey in Australia and beyond.

We are living in uncertain and challenging times; politically, economically, environmentally and from a societal perspective as we recover from a global pandemic that has touched every corner of the world.  Profound changes continue to unfold across the global landscape.  These changes impact the technology, data, legal governance and ethics that underpin the goods, services and digital marketplace that we both consume and trade in.

The dynamic and competitive global marketplace presents every nation with domestic challenges, as well as opportunities.  The open-minded and expansive thinker appreciates that trading creates value and stimulus for communities, opens up opportunities on larger scale, and spreads the risk of an over-reliance on the performance of just one market.  As a mid-sized business, we assessed our export markets options strategically based on how culturally compatible and accessible each market was, as well as the scale of opportunity.  We joined a number of very well organised trade missions facilitated by UK Trade and Investment (now the Department of International Trade), the Australian British Chamber of Commerce and the Australia-UK Chamber. Being part of a trade delegation as a way to do reconnaissance missions enabled us to genuinely appreciate the scale, compatibility and accessibility of the opportunities offered by the Commonwealth.  We subsequently set-up and are growing a successful and increasingly well-regarded digital transformation and solutions business in Australia where from offices in the UK and Australia, we can serve clients in more than 40 countries, underpinned by a 24/7 follow-the-sun operation.

This ‘Commonwealth advantage’ is rooted in the historical fabric of shared history, values, language, legal, institutional and government ties that influence commerce, trade and investment.  Traders and investors benefit from familiar legal and administrative systems, as well as similarities in business, commercial and legislative practice.  This cultural congruence extends to sporting rivalry and even to the family ties that have resulted from generations of intra-Commonwealth immigration.

In 2018, the UK’s trade in goods and services with the Commonwealth was valued at £56.3 billion – (Australia accounted for £21.4bn) the highest level on record. The Commonwealth clearly has an appetite for trading and there is a real demand for the quality and dependability of UK goods and services.  The opportunity to export and set up an international operation not only helps with our revenue growth but has additional and far-reaching benefits from an organisational perspective.  Our business operations have matured and evolved; we’ve gained greater cultural and capability diversity, that is attractive to our global private sector clients; there is access to a wider pool of people, skills and alliance partners; and we deliver a bigger, broader range of services without adding significant additional burdens on our staff.  Many of these advantages weren’t immediately evident at the start of our international journey.

Click here to continue reading