Partner Article

New NECC chief says region must believe in itself

THE North East needs to be more Sir Alf Ramsay than Sven-Goran Eriksson if it is to bridge the prosperity gap with the South, according to one of the region’s leading business figures. New chief executive of the North East Chamber of Commerce (NECC) James Ramsbotham is aiming to drive the wider business community in the North East to success. “Sven-Goran Eriksson and Sir Alf Ramsay were both blessed with incredibly gifted footballers that were perfectly capable of lifting the World Cup,” explained Ramsbotham. “But the key difference between the two squads was that only one truly believed they were capable of the impossible dream. “There is a lesson to learn here for the North East. We are not necessarily the biggest team, the strongest team or the most highly-skilled yet but we are well capable of overtaking other regions and, in time, developing a world-beating economy. But unless we truly believe this is possible we will forever underachieve. “We have got world-beating companies such as Sage and Northern Rock in this region that refuse to be second best. We need to learn from these businesses and harness their positive attitude so that over the coming years we can stop perceiving ourselves as the poor cousin in the north.Ramsbotham today takes charge of the North East’s leading business membership organisation, which has more than 4,300 member companies that collectively employ a third of the region’s total workforce.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .