Aerospace Business Consultants

Cluster Development Programme

From 2003 to 2008, Martin Hyman was one of the North West Regional Development Agency's (NWDA's) team of Regional Business Advisors (RBAs). Martin was one of the two RBAs, based within Business Link, supported by UK Trade & Investment, brought in from Industry, to cover the Aerospace Sector, in this highly succesful 5 year Cluster Development Programme - A ground breaking initiative generating £511 million in new and safeguarded sales and impacting on 7,300 jobs, covering a range of industries in Sectors considered to be of strategic importance to the North West of England. These sectors included Aerospace, Environmental, Bio-technology, Digital, Automotive, Tourism, Education and Training, Textiles, Energy, Creative Industries and Chemicals.

This Programme was part-funded by the European Regional Development Fund and was aimed at supporting Small and Medium Sized Companies (SMEs) in designated Objective 2 and Transitional areas in the North West of England, to provide long term, specialist support to eligible companies to help achieve realistic and sustainable business improvement, with growth being the key goal.

The aerospace industry in the North West is considered to be of strategic importance because of the level of employment it provides, the level of the technology and the skills it demands. Aerospace is a global business and in order to compete, companies have to demonstrate continuous improvement and investment in skills and technology. Without this approach, companies would risk collapse due to the pressure from global competition.

As a Regional Business Advisers, specific areas of support included:

Development of business strategies and action plans

Promotion of networks and collaboration

Signposting business support, including Business Link and UK Trade and InvestmentServices

Consultancy

Whilst in this role, in addition to providing Individual Company Support, Martin also worked closely with the North West Aerospace Alliance (NWAA) in support of the ongoing development and deployment of its Supply Chain Strategy and One Step Ahead (Competitiveness Improvement) Programmes and he was also an active Participant in the North West Aerospace Business Development Group along with Participants from @erogistics Limited, the Advance Aerospace Technology Guild Limited (AATG), the NWAA and the NWDA, in order to ensure that the advice that he offered was in step with the evolving needs of the Aerospace Industry, in the Region.

Martin also participated in the NWDA’s Sector Skills and Productivity Alliance - Engineering & Aerospace and their Sector Skills and Productivity Alliance – Aviation Committees, where his experience of the Manpower requirements related to Aerospace Industry Initial Design/Manufacturing activities together with experience of the Manpower involved in the ongoing Support and Maintenance activities of a broad range of In-Service Aircraft, was put to good use.