Frank Mckenna's Business Blog
'Liverpool United' could still match Manchester
By Frank Mckenna on Apr 14
Last week I took a trip over to the 'dark side', attending the annual dinner of the Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce at the G-Mex centre as a guest of my good friend, and Liverpool Daily Post columnist, Jim Hancock.
There is much to admire about the lot from the other end of the East Lancashire road. From a tired and dull industrial town, Manchester has transformed itself into arguably the UK's second city.
Some say that this has been achieved because of the city's ability to take advantage of the opportunity to regenerate its town centre following the IRA bombing it suffered in the summer of 1996. Others would point to the 'Madchester' music movement that was built around my old mate Tony Wilson's Hacienda superclub, and the factory record label that was established at the same time.
The full-time political leadership the city council enjoys must also be seen as a factor, whilst the contrast between how Manchester won and delivered the international event that was the Commonwealth Games, compared with how we have managed the European Capital of Culture, offers an example to the outside world of a 'can do' city.
But what was strikingly obvious, sat alongside the other 800 guests who attended Wednesday night's affair, was that this bunch has a magnificent ability across their city-region to put parochial differences to one side for the good of the wider region that is Greater Manchester.
Not for them public spats over the route that their tram system should take; just a solid determination that the existing network will be extended and funded by central government.
They see the location of Manchester United outside of the city boundary as a positive that enables the Manchester brand to impact on a wider audience.
All sixteen Greater Manchester local authorities generously fund and support its inward investment agency Midas, and the political leaders meet regularly to work up strategies and future plans via a vehicle called the Association of Greater Manchester Authorities (AGMA).
The Chambers of Commerce themselves have followed suit. Where we have independent Chambers throughout Merseyside, our neighbours have established a single, powerful entity that works in partnership with the political leadership. They are about to establish a sixteen-strong business leadership group that will directly feed into and influence the AGMA agenda of the future.
I would argue that this public presentation of a 'one for all, all for one' approach has been the single most important element of the Manchester success story. And it is one that the Liverpool city-region must adopt sooner rather than later if we are to compete with Manchester and our other competitor cities.
Liverpool united would be more than a match for any provincial European city - Manchester included - and business and political leaders must step up to the plate and make it happen.
In the short term, what should be done?
First, get rid of the 'M' word, once and for all. The term Merseyside may have had its uses during the dark days of the 70's and 80's, but it should be dumped along with the image that our region had back then. In marketing terms Liverpool is the brand. Liverpool city-region should be the term adopted with immediate effect.
The re-named, Liverpool City Region Partnership, (currently the Mersey Partnership), should be developed into a properly funded, and genuinely supported strategic agency, that acts as the promotional and marketing vehicle, nationally and internationally, for the entire area.
And we should be getting on with establishing our own Business Leadership Group, not only for the city of Liverpool, but for the wider city-region. An amalgamation of our own Chamber movement could only assist in delivering this aspiration.
A collective approach to the marketing and governance of the Liverpool city region is not only preferable, it is essential, if we are to catch, and eventually overtake, Manchester. And that must be our medium term objective.
For though its pragmatism and cunning have given Manchester the edge for over ten years now, as Mr Manchester Tony Wilson himself often told me 'In the UK, Manchester is the (northern) brand. But in the world it is Liverpool.'
Source: LDPBusiness.co.uk
Mike Storey: Time to dump Merseyside
Mike Storey: Time to dump Merseyside
Nov 27 2008 by Marc Waddington, Liverpool Echo
DEPUTY lord mayor Mike Storey today claimed it was time to ?consign Merseyside to oblivion?.
The former council leader said he believed it was time to re-brand the ?city region? as ?Greater Liverpool? and dump the Merseyside brand once and for all.
He said to go anywhere in the world and say ?Merseyside? was to be met by blank faces.
Cllr Storey said: ?Go back to the 1980s and 1990s and Liverpool was seen as a basket case. Use the name anywhere outside the UK and people still had high regard for it.?
