Steven Greenall recently attended the Greater Birmingham Chamber of Commerce‘s Transatlantic Conference. On American Independence Day he reflects on the importance of making music accessible and fun on a worldwide scale.
“Exports account for over 70% of our sales, which means building and supporting our team and our customers across the world is a major part of my role.
I set myself the challenge of spending at least one week a month outside the UK – mostly Asia or the United States. Although Zoom, WeChat and WhatsApp can augment communication, in our industry face-to-face contact is by far the best way to share the passion of our Why or show a distant colleague that we really care.
What I have also learnt on my travels is that the challenges facing the music industry and music education in particular are completely different – and our mission is to identify which barriers retailers, teachers and parents are facing and help solve them.
I was honoured to join the Transatlantic Conference in June to talk about the “special relationship” between the UK and US; sharing experiences of an SME doing business with and in the United States for over 20 years. I’ve learnt a lot about this amazing country and it’s passionate and diverse individuals at the heart of the music communities. You can see why 45% of the MI is rooted there. The fact that this conference came on the back of a five cities in five days marathon from NYC to Denver was pure chance, but certainly helped revalidate my experiences.
As a recent Export Champion and winner of the Queen’s Award for Enterprise, I also spent time meeting the Department of International Trade teams based in the US who are really helping British business grow. I was impressed by the support we received and also enlightened by the opportunities the team are already identifying for mutual interest between the UK and United States. This view was also independently expressed by John Simmons (Minister Counselor for Commercial Affairs at the US Embassy in London) on the same panel discussion.
The door of opportunity between the UK and US is firmly open!
#exportingisgreat #innovationisgreat #happy4thjuly
