What a Northern Powerhouse in Yorkshire means to: Griselda Togobo, MD of Forward Ladies

As Bdaily’s Northern Powerhouse series continues to give the business people of Yorkshire the opportunity to voice their opinions on the the government’s Northern Powerhouse initiative, we speak with Griselda Togobo, managing director of Forward Ladies.

Griselda is a multi-faceted entrepreneur, engineer and chartered accountant. She currently uses her vast experience with multi-national businesses to assist individuals; small and medium enterprises on growth targets. She trained as a chartered accountant with Deloitte LLP and holds an MPhil in Industrial Systems, Manufacture and Management from Wolfson College, Cambridge University.

Griselda’s entrepreneurial journey was kick-started by the birth of her son. She is therefore very passionate about supporting women and works closely with an organizations that champion and advocate for increased female entrepreneurship, leadership and empowerment. An author, she writes on a variety of personal development and business topics for various publications and also periodically guest lectures on entrepreneurship at universities.

Griselda splits her time between her two companies:

- Forward Ladies, a 14,200-strong UK based professional woman’s network and that also works with progressive companies wanting maximise the potential of their female talent. Forward Ladies is the most diverse and inclusive network of its kind.

- AWOVI Consulting a business advisory and growth consultancy helping businesses owners to achieve their ambitious growth targets.

Hi Griselda, so what does the Northern Powerhouse mean to you?

For me, the Northern Powerhouse means collaboration across the whole of the North of England. It’s about getting all the major cities of the North to work together as one.

This collaboration will create the strength in numbers necessary to be an attractive alternative to London reducing the North-South divide that is currently preventing the North from being seen as a power-house attracting major investment into the north, creating jobs and opportunities.

Are there signs of the Northern Powerhouse starting to bear fruit in Yorkshire?

The fact that people are discussing how they can work together is promising. Following on from the discussion we’ll need to see some concrete initiatives taking shape on how we can develop together as one.

Has the government done enough to convince you of its commitment to Osborne’s vision?

I believe the Northern Powerhouse needs to be seen as more than George Osborne’s vision for the North. It’s something that we should own and drive forward with the support of the Chancellor.

In terms of commitment I’m yet to see any concrete initiatives outside of the budget announcement and talks of HS2.

Transport improvement is intrinsic to the Northern Powerhouse. Do you believe that spending billions of infrastructure will improve Northern productivity?

Transport is important for economic growth. All great cities and thriving economics have well established transport networks. I believe this has been a major challenge to getting the cities of the North to work together.

How can people work closely together in the North when it’s easier and sometimes cheaper to travel to have meetings down in London? Effective value for money, transport infrastructure will definitely aid productivity as the cities become physically joined and the stress of commuting between the northern cities is reduced.

This will bring much needed investment from businesses creating jobs that enable our young talent to stay up north to help build a stronger north.

Are there any other areas which you believe money should be spent on, ahead of transport?

There are three areas that the government could look at along side transport.

Women in business: There is some research highlighting that if women set up businesses at the same rate as men, the UK would have an additional one million entrepreneurs creating much needed jobs and economic growth in the region.

Supporting women in business and creating better gender balance businesses is an area that will enable our boards to perform better giving shareholders 36% better return on equity.

Technology - We need better technology infrastructure. Broadband could be faster to support business in the region. Technology is absolutely vital for powering growth in today’s technology driven world.

We also need better skills in the Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics industries. The North was the heartland of the Industrial Revolution, but manufacturing has been allowed to decline through lack of investment and cheap imports from abroad.

We had the advantage in manufacturing skills but that has now been eroded as new technologies have been introduced and our next generation of skilled engineers and digital minds have moved away. This is an area that needs immediate attention and will give the north a competitive advantage over other regions.

Will the Northern Powerhouse be realised?

We are optimistic that with the right leaders we can realize a vision of the Northern Powerhouse that is inclusive of all northern cities.

However as with all visions, we’ll need to drastically change the way we operate in order to realize our full potential as one northern powerhouse.

We at forward ladies are committed to doing our bit and have been working with the IOD, HSBC and Microsoft to get the voice of senior women in the North represented in the region by hosting a series of Women In Leadership roundtable across the major northern cities.

Thank you Griselda.