Scott Reid, Business and Finance Correspondant chat with Natwest CEO of Commercial Robert Begbie

Transcript

00:00Hi Robert, could you tell us a little bit about the Accelerator Hub that you've got

00:03here and what goes on in the background?

00:05Yes, so we're here today at our Edinburgh Accelerator Hub. It's one of two we have in

00:10Scotland, we have another one in Glasgow set up exactly the same way. It's one of 13 we

00:15have based across major centres across the UK. And really the Accelerator Hubs are there

00:22to provide expertise, to bring businesses in at various points in their development.

00:27It can be all the way from absolute start-up businesses through to businesses that are

00:30well established that want to leverage and grow and expand their business. To not only

00:36provide them premises to come and work in but also to engage with each other and for

00:43us to provide what services we can provide and expertise to help them to grow and develop

00:47their business.

00:48It's a great place for me to come to hear from those growing businesses about how we

00:52as a bank can continue to develop not only the entrepreneurial hub but how we can help

00:57them to scale and become high growth businesses.

00:59Do you think the main thing is that businesses gain from being part of the Accelerator here?

01:05I think if you speak to them they will say one of the main things is getting engagement

01:11with each other because again depending on where you are but many of these businesses

01:16are owner started and they are single owner businesses. So it can be a lonely existence

01:24if you are sitting at home trying to build a business without having that network of

01:29people who are facing the same challenges, people who have had some successes, people

01:33who have pivoted their business model because they have seen the way the market is moving

01:38or the way their customer base is moving. So one of the big benefits is them with each

01:44other and obviously then what the bank can provide as well.

01:47And would this be the main physical presence for some of these businesses then in terms

01:51of maybe working from home, working remotely?

01:54It depends what size and scale of business we have. I mean I spent a bit of time with

01:59some of the businesses that are on the current cohort and we had everything from businesses

02:05that had been established for 20 plus years that were looking to scale or start to develop

02:13business overseas right the way through to super high tech start ups which are really

02:18at the formative stage. So it really depends. Some will have premises and be well established

02:23and have staff, some will be at the idea generation and are not actually even established businesses.

02:30Well thanks for the background Robert, thank you.