photo opportunity, 6.20pm, Friday, March 22, First Floor Conference Suite, Tower Building, University of Dundee
Having played a significant role in fuelling the booming Irish economy and bolstering the French and the Danish, the Plato networking scheme is being launched in the UK for the first time by the University of Dundee on Friday 22 March.
Plato is a unique business-to-business support structure for small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) which partners them with parent companies to develop a network of support and advice to encourage more professionalism and growth in small businesses.
This pilot programme funded by Scottish Enterprise Tayside involves NCR, Michelin and 14 small businesses from Dundee and the surrounding area. Facilitated by the Scottish Institute for Enterprise (SIE) - funded Centre for Enterprise Management at the University of Dundee, NCR and Michelin will both develop a parenting relationship with seven small businesses providing them with a direct line to their companies, on site monthly meetings and regular workshops discussing a wide range of business issues and providing a forum for troubleshooting.
The Centre for Enterprise Management gained the licence to run the highly successful Plato programme from Belgium and has instigated the scheme, recruiting fourteen local small enterprises to take part and securing the support of NCR and Michelin.
SMEs involved include Dundee's Riverside Engineering Services Ltd, Blair Engineering of Blairgowrie and the Errol Brick Company.
Mr J J O'Connell, regional director of Plato Cork will address the meeting to give an overview of the Irish experience of Plato since its inception in 1994. Ireland witnessed incredible success with the scheme in Dublin involving over 1,500 small to medium sized enterprises having secured the big business support of Guinness, Murphy's and SmithKlein Beecham.
An interesting feature of the scheme is that it is expected to result in a two-way gain for both the parent and smaller companies. Benefits for NCR and Michelin will be the close proximity to entrepreneurial ideas and potentially identifying participating businesses as future suppliers.
The scheme hopes to reap bottom line improvements concentrating on growth and development and increasing professionalism in business. It is expected that this will be reflected in greater market opportunities for the small companies and possibly in profits.
This is the first Plato scheme in the UK and if successful in Dundee, the Centre for Enterprise Management hopes to roll out the programme to other places in Scotland. Already there has been interest in running Plato in Grampian where the oil companies would play a role in supporting younger and smaller enterprises.
Dr Urquhart, managers from Michelin and NCR and representatives of the 14 SMEs will be available for photographs at the Tower Building's first floor conference suite on Friday March 22 at 6.20pm.
Contact Dr Jim Urquhart, senior lecturer and depute director of the Centre for Enterprise Management 01382 344354, or Dr Lawrence Dooley , lecturer at the Centre on 01382 344361.