By Geraldine Johnson, Managing Director of Medilink Midlands Member Eumar Technology
I truly believe small and medium organisations can transform the UK economy at times like these – where political and economic turmoil dominate the headlines and decision making in equal measure.
SMEs, like ourselves at Eumar Technology, make up over 60% of private sector employment and are often the genesis of innovation. But to do that effectively we have to operate in the right environment – an environment that is conducive to our skills, knowledge and experience. Now, with the political changes in the world and the challenges facing global economies, that perfect environment can feel a long way off.
At times of global political and economic turmoil, as SMEs we need to share journeys and insights as we focus on developing resilience against current challenges. By working together, we can not only help create those thriving environments we all seek but also have a wider impact locally, regionally and to UKPLC. That is where Medilink Midlands, as a network, can continue to play an incredibly important role.
At Eumar Technology, we are relatively new to Medilink Midlands so are still to fully explore its network, but we are aware of what we can bring to table and how others can make a sizeable difference to our journey through resilience to a more conducive business environment. So, I thought it would be sensible to share some of those learnings around building resilience and the positive steps towards a stronger future we have taken from our journey and those passed on to me from peers.
It starts with colleagues
For us, and for many of our peers, arguably the biggest investment is to build resilience into our workforce. The benefit of an SME workforce is its size, by the very nature of the organisation, SMEs have small numbers of staff who may be more invested in the health of the organisation.
- By listening to the workforce and embedding genuine two-way dialogue, you can discover new ways to tackle the barriers facing many of us. But you must listen. So many of the decisions we have made as a board around investment, cost reduction and supply chain resilience have come from our manufacturing teams.
- It doesn’t suit all, but we have found flexible working among the workforce has transformed how we operate and invest as a business. It has given us an ability to change how we operate to meet the demands needed from our growth, developments and challenges while most importantly, valuing and recognising the needs of our workforce.
- We have found fully committing to being a national living wage employer has supported the evolution of a committed and engaged workforce. This has underpinned the investment we have made in our manufacturing processes and infrastructure, which in many cases, have derived from across our employee base.
Meeting economic challenges head on
As an SME, it is easy to get lost in the never-ending number of economic hurdles that test our resilience. It isn’t easy. For us, like many, by having the difficult conversations and confronting economic reality, we have developed a robustness that has helped us, as it has others, to tackle the journey ahead.
- Diversification of skills and technology: To insulate ourselves from troubled waters, we took time to understand our expertise, listening to where customers and stakeholders valued us the most and diversified our range of services to fully utilise our abilities.
- Invest in relationships: Yes, we all can take supply chain and clients for granted, but it is important to invest in wider and robust relationships with those may rely on in the future.
- Investing in technology: 2024 has been about baking in resilience through our service offer – that has meant significant investment in technology across our business. Peers I have spoken to have taken similar steps as they invest to grow and build resilience in at the same time – AI being a notable example of focus.
Environmental Challenges
The world is changing and so is the climate. We have worked incredibly closely with several sustainability experts who have not only helped us achieve ISO1400 but look at other opportunities to improve our sustainability. This has helped us build resilience into the business and prepare for when that perfect market appears! There are a few areas we have invested in to build that long-term platform on which we can thrive, while embedding resilience in the short-term.
- Developing a cohesive sustainability strategy: The moment we knew we needed to take action to reduce our impact on the environment, we listened to others and developed a comprehensive sustainability strategy.
- Onshoring or nearshoring: We have spent significant time bringing our supply chain closer to our manufacturing hub, ensuring great reliability and significantly reducing emissions from transit.
- Embedding a sustainable culture: Sustainability practices need to come from the ground up. An empowered workforce can act when required to take the right decisions when necessary.
- Reducing waste: Reduce waste in the manufacturing process is crucial. At Eumar Technology, this is tied directly to the investment in new technologies and in our R&D. This has both cost benefits, increasing efficiencies, and obviously sustainability impacts with less waste going to landfill.
For small manufacturing businesses, building resilience is not just about survival or switching to Plan B —it’s about creating a foundation for long-term success. And by working together to do this, we build a more robust industry that will thrive. And for us, that is where Medilink Midlands offers us something special.