THE arrival of BP as a full partner of our Level Up campaign is very welcome news on so many ways.

We are understandably delighted they have decided to join us, but it goes so much deeper than that, to the very core of what this campaign is all about.

What we are building is a blend of skills that can be a positive help to the region, a boardroom of opinions from all corners of the business world so that we don’t miss any opportunities in any sector.

Law? We’ve got transatlantic experts Womble Bond Dickinson. Connectivity? YouFibre knows all about that.

We can ask Durham County Council all about Local Government and for home-grown engineering excellence there’s no one better placed than Cummins.

For the widest possible overview of the whole region, who else would you turn to other than the North East England Chamber of Commerce and, of course, Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen and the Tees Valley Combined Authority.

And now a truly global view from BP - one of the most influential companies on the planet, a driving force in green energy which is talking to governments and partners around the world about game-changing strategies.

Like any high-performing team, we know our strengths and will pull together and work to the formation that best suits each challenge and we will add to the team whenever we can.

That’s why BP joining Level Up is important - because it is another area we can draw on, more expertise and more insight, and that is better for the North East.

This is such a diverse region, from multi-nationals to the newest start-ups across all sectors, so to be able to represent them, to stand up and shout for their causes and highlight their successes, we need to know them and the best way to do that is to work with them as part of the team.

It was one of the first principles I focussed on when I took the role of Business and Commercial Editor at The Northern Echo just over six months ago - that every business is as important as the next because they are all cogs in the same machine. It sounds cliched, but it gets that principle across most easily: The biggest cogs don't turn unless the smallest cogs are in place.

Large-scale businesses know this from the supply chains that keep this region running. The four staff who make the hinges or rods or cables or provide the outsourced service that means the next stage of production can start are as vital as any MD, and as those skills become potentially more difficult to find, their value increases and the importance of the single cog rises.

So Level up will continue to grow to enable it to continue to influence.

We'll cover what's happening on our daily pages, in this weekly 12-page supplement, in the flagship quarterly BUSINESSiQ magazine and online.

Join us and keep the cogs moving.

 

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