Printers should trust their younger employees and should have youth represented on the board, according to executive chairman of Webmart Simon Biltcliffe.
He presented the Kathy Woodward Award at the All Parliamentary Print Group celebration at the House of Lords last week, recalling how Woodward herself was a spotter of youthful talent and shepherded them to success. Biltcliffe was one of Woodward’s boys while at BPC.
“Quite often young people don’t appreciate their strengths,” Biltcliffe says. “Now in the world of AI that we are in, we need young talent to be given their opportunity this brings. We work very closely with talent to bring them through as quickly as possible. We need to be more open minded in this industry.”
Younger minds are more aware and able to pick up the opportunities that AI presents than the typical middle aged board member. The young, says Biltcliffe, represent the new skills that the industry needs “those things that we have to harness as an industry. We need to get going people into positions of power and to exploit that. It brings a fresh outlook that people in their 50s can’t have.”
Webmart has long promoted young people into positions of power, having at least two in the 20s on the board as well as 30- and 40-year-olds.
The talent pool in print was represented by applications for this award. Highly commended awards were made to Emma Reynolds from Harkwell Labels and Amin Muhammed from Graphics Packaging International. The winner was Ronan McKechnie from CPI Wm Clowes.
McKechnie joined the business as a 17-year-old apprentice and has worked his way through City & Guilds and is now covering across departments. The £1,000 proxy will be put towards leadership training, he said.
The event attracted attendees from across the industry, many coming from the BPIF’s AGM earlier in the day, others from Picon and the IPIA. Last year’s winner of the lifetime achievement, Richard Walker returned to the House of Lords terrace, but no equivalent presentation was made. Nor was the Victor Watson Award presented. BPIF chief executive Charles Jarrold explained that the scheme was only intended to run for the ten years following the death of the Waddingtons’ chairman.
The event was lacking the sprinkling of MPs that can be seen most years. For some reason those that had retained their seats as well as the new cohort had business elsewhere in the Palace. Perhaps next year some of this group can be persuaded to support print.
