The latest Made in the Midlands breakfast event was hosted by Friend member, Aston University on Thursday 28th June alongside The Advanced Services Group.
The Advanced Services Group is a centre of excellence at Aston Business School. They provide education, training, research and a global network of like-minded professionals around advanced services and servitization. They help global manufacturers and technology innovators to develop services-led strategies.
The event was led by Director of Programmes, Iain McKechnie who manages an innovative project, funded by the European Union (ERDF) to improve the performance of 80 technology-innovating SMEs in the Greater Birmingham and Solihull region at the heart of the UK. The project supports firms to help them create and capture untapped value from their customers through the introduction of advanced services (servitization) and to help them to grow revenues by being more innovative with their business models.
Iain stated: ÂI think the event has been exceptional, the quality of the manufacturing companies that were here has really made a difference to the quality of the conversation and the topics. We have two SMEÂs here that we are already working with and it was really great to see them in a different context.Â
We are currently at @AstonUniRKE where they are delivering a fantastic insight into how SME's can grow and innovate! #ukmfg #MIMFamily pic.twitter.com/s4cJQuvhrd
 Made in the Midlands (@madeinthemids) June 29, 2017
Aston University placed an emphasis on the importance of Âskills for servitizationÂ, as Iain explained: ÂThese events are crucial. The manufacturing sector has been through significant change, as we know there are huge opportunities to move into Advanced Services through the use of servitization. Exemplified by the audience here today, there are lots of companies interested in improving their margins. Again, weÂre in a very fortunate position of being able to transfer the knowledge from the University out into the industrial and manufacturing sector.Â
The Advanced Services Group is the world's only centre of excellence dedicated exclusively to producing research on servitization and advanced services. Its world-renowned team of researchers has published over 200 papers on strategy for manufacturers and technology businesses, and published the number one text book on servitization, Made to Serve.
Another fantastic @madeinthemids networking event at @AstonBusiness pic.twitter.com/S5KFDpVesj
 Iwona (@Iwona_Sobol) June 29, 2017
Made in the Midlands breakfast events aim to facilitate networking and business opportunities between MDÂs and CEOÂs of local manufacturing companies, as Iain concluded: ÂWe still have a real buzz even after the event, there has been lots of networking and a lot of positive conversations. It has also presented an opportunity for companies to generate new revenue by gaining new contracts.Â
On Thursday 13th July, we will be hosting our Summer Drinks in the courtyard of Hotel Du Vin, Birmingham and tickets are very close to selling out. You can also register tickets to our future breakfast events at Techman Engineering and Heller Machine Tools by visiting our events page here.
If you are interested in hosting a breakfast event of your own, please contact our Group Events Manager Iwona at: iwona@firstorchard.com and to register your exhibition ticket, please visit this link.
