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Why closing the capacity gap is key to growth

An innovative North East businesswoman with a proven track record for boosting the mind and body has warned a ‘capacity drain’ is threatening to derail a forward-thinking region with limitless potential.

Alnwick-born Annie Hood created the global ‘Health To Wealth’ initiative for Paris-based Accor — impacting positively on more than 320 million people worldwide.

But the entrepreneur and founder of Well Intelligence is returning to her roots on a mission to help close the region’s capacity gap and put people first.

“Earlier this year Develop North's Ian McElroy explained that although more than £100 billion belongs to the people of the North East, pretty much none of it is invested here,” said Anni.

“Ian painted the picture of waving the money off from Central Station and then flying around the world asking for it back again. He called it the money drain. 

“I want to highlight a second ‘drain’ and it is not just a North East problem.

“Our region has the highest economic inactivity rate in England — 25.1% against 21% nationally — with around a third of that down to long-term ill health. 

“And across the UK, 2.8 million people are out of work through long-term sickness. That is roughly the population of Greater Manchester, signed off. 

“Britain has a capacity drain and the North is simply where it shows most acutely.

“Inactivity costs the North East an estimated £18.4 billion a year. Ian pointed out that there are places in our region just a mile apart where life expectancy differs by 12 years. 

“That’s a postcode lottery that nobody bought a ticket for.

“Meanwhile, ambition has rarely looked healthier — devolved mayors with 10-year growth plans and home-grown funds determined to keep regional money in regional hands are pointing the way to a positive future.

“All of it’s exciting but all of it rests on an assumption almost nobody checks: that the people expected to deliver it have anything left in the tank!”

Anni’s decades of experience and research have informed Well Intelligence’s approach to revitalising workforces and transforming productivity.

She describes ‘human capacity’ as ‘the amount of life, complexity and challenge a person can hold while still being able to think clearly, feel fully, relate well and act effectively’.

And her trailblazing work with the people at the heart of Blyth-based Weir Insurance led to an immediate uptick in performance.

“Capacity is commercial currency,” she says. “The reality of that perspective will only grow but what we achieved in Blyth underlined the importance of a people first culture. 

“Blood pressure and bio-markers improved across every tested participant and the company went on to post the best revenue quarter in its history. It’s correlation not causation but the results are worth getting very curious about.”

Anni continues to meet with fellow business leaders across the North East as she endeavours to put human capacity — and slowing the capacity drain — at the top of the regional agenda.

“The case for paying people more attention is now moral, ethical and economic, all at once,” she adds. 

“Moral, because no country or region can call itself prosperous while life expectancy varies by 12 years across a single mile.

“Ethical, because we ask people to carry enormous transformation without resourcing them to do so.

“Economic, because every pound we keep in the regions will work less hard if the people it is meant to employ are running on fumes.

“The North East has the potential to soar and as a region we have a long history of innovation, ambition and delivering on that potential.

“There is so much positivity and energy around a region that’s focused on growth. Please let’s not forget about the humans delivering that growth.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Simon Rushworth .