Back to last month’s UK Cyber Cluster Collaboration pan-cluster meeting and my mind is thinking about proving the success of CyberNorth projects. It’s important to be able to show value for the work that we do, to help get further projects and to secure support from members. It’s also important for our relationship with local and central government. It’s easy to say this and that has happened yet being able to demonstrate it is much better.
Causes and effect though are very hard to prove. Take jobs created for example. Government, for obvious reasons, is very keen on creating jobs. It is a key indicator in any project. If a project can demonstrate that it has contributed to the creation of jobs then this gets a big tick. The work that we do makes it impossible to say that we did this which led to the creation of a company and the employment of people. Obviously the founders have a large part to play as do many other agencies.
We could say that we had contributed to the creation of half a dozen companies and take the credit. Then again most of these new businesses have had other help, from business development providers and financial institutes. We could all end up claiming the same companies and employees. This would lead to a situation in which many more businesses and jobs had been created than actually exist.
Also startups are notoriously unstable in their early years. A significant number of them will fail and any resulting jobs will be lost or absorbed by other businesses. Should we only claim jobs that exist for six months or a year?
I think I’m too logical when it comes to approaching such questions. I have a tendency to overthink. If there is not a definite yes then I am inclined to say no when really I should mark it down as a qualified yes.
The world is complicated. If this is the way that people want things reported then so be it. It’s not up to me to define what they mean.
Thoughts from a Guerrilla Worker 