Business leaders on their hopes and personal goals for 2023

Hopes for 2023

I'd love to see plans for a Small Nuclear Reactor on land near Sellafield progress and see a Rolls Royce factory located in Cumbria. We have contributed to national endeavours here in Cumbria via the Sellafield site since the late 1940s and it would be great to see us at the forefront of delivering the solution to the energy crisis. We have the capability and capacity here with a high level of collaboration in the nuclear supply chain that can harness that for UK PLC.

Fears for 2023

That we don’t grasp the energy issues and tackle them properly balancing energy security, net zero and energy affordability. I'm seeing so much about how net zero is dead and energy security and affordability are more important. We need to balance them all and do so with thought - they are not competing objectives.

Top Professional Goal

It's BECBC's 20th Birthday next year and we've got a range of ways for members to help us celebrate. Delivering these successfully alongside our members will make 2023 a happy year for me professionally.

Top Personal Goal

With four children and 10 grandchildren spending time with my family is important - but we all know how easy it is for things to get in the way, so I'll be prioritising family time in 2023.

Richard Rankin, Chief Executive, H&H Group Plc

Hopes for 2023

The war in Ukraine has brought food security into sharp focus. I hope it has highlighted the crucial importance of safeguarding our food production systems and all the people within them.

Closer to home I hope to watch our continuing investment in people come to fruition, and the next generation begin to challenge our leaders and make us all raise our game.

I hope to start the next stage in the evolution of Borderway into a leading, environmentally friendly livestock trading centre and a regional rural business, social, health and wellbeing hub.

Fears for 2023

Global disruption expanding still further from Ukraine, causing increasing food and energy shortages, cost increases and inflation.

Uncertainty – our government must regain their grip of the economy and stem the slide into further uncertainty that undermines business and the quality of people’s lives.

Uncertainty also seriously increases the threat to mental health, something already severely tested by two years of the Covid pandemic. I fear especially for the young who have lost so much of their normal lives and their development during that traumatic period, and unfortunately, the NHS is woefully ill-equipped to address this.

Top Professional Goals

To steer H&H successfully through this year’s choppy waters, encouraging our people to push beyond their boundaries and broaden the bandwidth of their experience, their ideas and their confidence.

Top Personal Goal

Having qualified for the GB Age Group Team I get to compete in the European Triathlon Championships in Belgium and look forward to testing myself to the limit next August.

Lee Taylor-Craddock, Commercial Director, Local iQ

Hopes for 2023

The economy taking a turn in the right direction leading to growth in consumer confidence that impacts positively on trading for the many fantastic local businesses and organisations that exist across the county.

Fears for 2023

That we see more consumers navigate rapidly to the national online giants to seek out cheaper products and alternatives driven by the cost-of-living pressures. Local businesses contribute an enormous amount to the local economy both in terms of the people they employ and the income they reinvest back into the County. The importance of local businesses was highlighted during the pandemic, with many local organisations going over and above to keep us stocked with essential items and by providing a continuation of key services in challenging circumstances. They are an integral part of every community and without everyone’s continued commitment to think local and buy local first we will see a decline in the number of local businesses in existence.

Top professional goals

To expand our digital marketing solutions to more SMEs across the county helping more businesses to navigate the complex online environment, demonstrating how they can compete and grow in the online space by targeting more local consumers. 2022 saw record numbers of local users visiting our websites for their daily digest of local news, local businesses can harness this huge audience coupled with our industry leading digital solutions to maximise the return they see from their marketing investments. The need for every business to have a robust local digital marketing strategy has never been more important!

Top personal goal

I would like to commit to running a marathon or at least a half marathon but I keep falling in and out of love with running of late so for the purposes of this piece I best stick with one I know I can achieve. That is to continue to be the best role model I can be to my daughter showing her that with hard work, determination, and kindness for others anything is possible.

Claire Deekes, Chief Customer Officer, The Cumberland

Hopes for 2023

We can only hope that people will not be as badly affected as has been predicted in the economic forecasts.

As a business we will be investing to ensure we have a sustainable future which will mean restarting some exciting plans for the branch network which is so important to the communities we serve.

Fears for 2023

It is going to be a difficult time for many people and The Cumberland’s commitment to Kinder Banking means that we wll be there to offer support to customers and colleagues when they need us.

Clearly there is going to a big impact on the tourism and retail sectors where we support many businesses and we’ll do everything thing we can to help them - just as we did during the pandemic.

Top Professional Goal

We’ll be focused on developing Kinder Banking and showing how we can do banking differently with a focus on supporting existing customers with the best options rather than creating incentives to attract new customers.

Top Personal Goal

I am looking forward to reconnecting with family and friends after all the disruption of recent years. I didn’t see my sister for two and a half years and my brother lives in France so getting into a routine of seeing people again will be my focus for 2023.