Ross Martin Chief Exec SCDI (reduced size img)
As chief executive of the Scottish Council for Development and Industry (SCDI), Ross Martin’s role is to help drive economic growth across Scotland.

A partner in the Collaboration Prize, which closes for entries next week, here he explains why collaborating with other businesses is a key tool to help you compete and win new business.

Since forming 83 years ago in the teeth of a global recession that sent shockwaves across both sides of the Atlantic, SCDI has been central in helping set and redesign the economic dials that help the country tick.

Our major interventions have included the creation of the first industrial estate at Hillington, much of the input into the New Town movement across Scotland and also bringing the oil and gas sector together for the first time, at our SCDI Forum in 1972.

Most recently, we have been involved in the establishment of the Scottish Cities Alliance and the construction of its Infrastructure Investment Pipeline, valued at £10billion.

At the heart of our current drive towards stability and resilience lies our recognition of the SCDI Logo (CMKY blue text)Apr13relative strengths of the three legs of the economic stool – the private, public and social sectors – and this is why we are supporting the Collaboration Prize.

In our very being, through our wide and diverse membership across all three of those economic sectors, SCDI recognises the value of collaboration and its ability to strengthen the roots of growth, adding significant value to each of these three contributing parts of the economy.

We firmly believe, and our membership has consistently demonstrated, that collaboration across sectors fundamentally strengthens the economy for all, and therefore the operating environment for individual businesses.

It is this enlightened self-interest, which feeds off collective economic strength and stability that should be the key consideration of any company or organisation pondering the desirability of collaboration. Yes, in whatever sector you operate, collaboration across private, public and social economies helps you compete. Now, that’s a prize worth winning!