London, England - Pembridge Partners LLP and Burns Owens Partnership Ltd (BOP) today announced the launch of Vital Statistics, a new tool enabling public agencies to improve return on their investments in creative firms.
Vital Statistics works by highlighting potential high growth companies using an objective, auditable and evidence-based process, drawing on a database of benchmarks for 10,000 UK Creative Small- and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs).
Hugh Mason of Pembridge Partners, Chief Executive of the joint venture,said: "The biggest challenge facing our clients is knowing where to focus investment in order to maximize growth and productivity. Until now, there has been no rigorous, fair and transparent method for doing this. The result has been a dissipation of effort and resources. Vital Statistics will bring new focus and direction to the ongoing efforts to realize the growth potential in the creative economy."
Paul Owens, Director of Burns Owens Partnership said: "Vital Statistics gives our clients the kind of evidence-based anlaysis they have been demanding for years. It uses the metrics developed over years by private sector investors, along with rigourous econometric research techniques."
Vital Statistics starts with a telephone interviewer calling the SME to be profiled. An online 'expert system' that distills years of investment expertise then guides the interviewer through a structured series of questions that prompt the SME to explore their stage of commercial development. The SME faxes their last two years' accounts to a data centre where, added to the answers from the telephone interview, an automatic system is able to construct a thumbnail sketch of the company that shows it how it compares to its peers and where there is room to develop. The SME receives a report based on that analysis by email, together with recommendations for sources of support to help them move forward. Meanwhile, the public agency commissioning the work is able to use the profile gathered to make a fair, objective assessment about which companies are the priorities for investment, training or other public support.
Vital Statistics is currently being piloted in a number of schemes across the UK. Results will be announced in early 2005.
