< PreviousEast Midlands Business Link www.eastmidlandsbusinesslink.co.uk20insurance and securityLimitingDISASTERInsurance and security go hand inhand in the business world, and also inour private lives. While insurance ismeant as a safety net to protect anindividual or company whensomething goes wrong, security is thepreventative measures that are put inplace to stop or deter the problemfrom happening. For insurance companies, it isperhaps understandable that theywould not wish to offer cover to acompany that is repeatedly makingclaims. As any others, they are abusiness and need to cover their owninterests and turn a profit. As such,many are now demanding thatclaimants old and new have securitychecks undertaken and reasonablemeasures in place to deter criminals –before they will even consider makinga quote. Failure to do so could leave acompany in breach of contract andunable to claim, or facing some kind ofreduction on how much they are ableto claim. With criminal damage alreadybeing a major headache for a businessowner, fighting against the insurers isthe last thing one needs.Many companies choose to go along time without updating theirsecurity as the initial investment canbe costly and it only pays back if thereis a criminal attempt on the premises.This is a catch-22 situation however, asgood security will in most cases detera thief from trying anything in the firstplace, so it might be that securitymeasures are working as intended – itsimply isn’t a quantifiable statistic. Onthe other hand, leaving things untilthere is an incident is a short-sightedway to do business and could leave acompany deeply out of pocket. Studiesinto theft and criminal damage showthat criminals will often return to a sitethat has provided results in the past –and as many systems can take sometime to install, a company might facerepeat offences against them if theirsecurity is deemed to be weak.Naturally, during this time, theinsurance companies might be lessthan willing to cover any suchdamages because it is clear thecompany is inviting damage throughtheir own negligence. In almost allcases the costs of installing a workingsystem will be less than that ofmitigating the damage to a company,both in terms of assets lost, losses inproductivity due to damage – or forsome companies who deal with thepublic, loss of consumer confidence.Risk assessments are therefore anecessity to any company who hasfaced criminal damage in the past, orwho have not looked at their systemsfor some time. Insurance companiesare not looking for companies who areimpervious to risk or damage – suchAs criminals become more sophisticated in theiractions, companies are expected to improve theirown security. Insurance companies are at theforefront of this, demanding clients keep up-to-date wherever possible.23 Áwww.eastmidlandsbusinesslink.co.uk East Midlands Business Link 21insurance and security© Shutterstock/ Jirsaknottingham broker recordsgrowing thirst for specialistbrewery insuranceSpecialist brewery insurer Russell Scanlan, which is based in Nottingham, has recorded asignificant spike in demand for its bespoke insurance solutions, as the region’s thirst for craftbeers and gins continues to grow.Russell Scanlan, located on Wellington Circus, launched its specialist brewery insurance,Masterbrew, a decade ago – an innovative service which responded to a demand from smallbrewers and who couldn’t find appropriate insurance for their needs. Over recent years the product has been adapted to cater for the boom incraft gin distilleries too.Since 2007 when it launched, the service has been in ever increasing demand, with more than 20 breweries signing up for Masterbrewinsurance in the last 10 months.Sales and Marketing Director at Russell Scanlan Mike Dickinson said this unique industry-specific product was proving to be so popularbecause it provides cost effective solutions in an increasingly complex and mature market.“We believe small businesses like micro brewers are the backbone of the UK economy and we want to make it as easy as possible for them toestablish their business with the peace of mind that they are always effectively insured.”East Midlands Business Link www.eastmidlandsbusinesslink.co.uk22insurance and security© Shutterstock/ Rawpixel.comwww.eastmidlandsbusinesslink.co.uk East Midlands Business Link 23insurance and securitymight be an impossible dream. But they are lookingfor companies who understand the risks and haveundertaken what measures can cost-effectivelymitigate them. As an added bonus a positive riskassessment can even lower how much a companymight be asked to pay (though a little bit ofnegotiating might still be necessary). A risk that many companies are facing nowhowever, and one which is only going to becomemore regular in coming years, is that of cyber-crime.Criminal behaviour through the internet is onlygoing to become more sophisticated and commonas more and more people store their details in adigital fashion. There is less risk to the perpetrator,who does not need to put their physical health atrisk – and also greater rewards, as digital details orfinancial information can be downloaded and leakedin an instant, where in a physical crime stolen goodsneed to be carried and sold to someone. Therelative ease of which someone can orchestrate aphishing email campaign or online attack also leadsto an increase of `have-a-go criminals` who couldeven have relatively clean records up until that point.In terms of specific attacks, there had been adramatic increase in the amount of `point of sale`malware, increased malware traffic throughencrypted web protocols, and perhaps mostalarming – twice the number of attacks onsupervisory control and date acquisition (SCADA)systems. The latter is of particular danger to manycompanies in the UK, and in the East Midlands, dueto the prevalence of SCADA systems within many ofour most common businesses, including mostmanufacturers with a central plant, recycling andwaste management firms and logistics and transportcompanies. Fortunately these systems rarely includeany personal data, so there is no requirement totreat the breach as a data protection breach, but thedowntime is still devastating to a business which hasvarious deadlines to meet. This presents an increased problem to insurancecompanies as cyber-attacks are not easy to predictor adapt to, where before they might have looked ata company’s past history and the prevalence ofattacks, in this case it won’t be the same. Cybercriminals are a fairly recent concern, and thus historywon’t go back too far. Instead, insurance companiesare going to be looking at whether a companyunderstands the risk of a cyber-attack, and whatprocedures they have in place to mitigate thedamage.The risks can come from many factors, andinsurance companies might expect you to recogniseall of them. The obvious example is that of a hackeror group targeting a company for either malicious orpolitical reasons – damage might come in the form ofleaked details, down-time or stolen material. Anotherform of cyber risk might be that of an internal breachhowever, either in that an employee might steal datato sell to a third party – or that an employee mightmake a mistake that causes loss of data, or privateinformation to be made available publically. A clearprocess of what a company intends to do in thatsituation and how the fallout will be managed wouldbe a good thing to show insurers. But there is also the added risk of third-partyservice providers who might be attacked. In manycases the larger financial companies make the mostattractive targets, with many high-profile casestargeting money transfer companies such as PayPal.Although at first glance this may seem like a problemon their side of things (and it is), there are still thingsa company using such services will need to do inorder to protect their own clients. A failure torecognise this and have a plan in place could lead toinsurers feeling less than inclined to offer cover.What’s clear within the industry is that as the worldbecomes more complex, so too do the activities ofthose who would do our businesses harm becomeever more sophisticated. While insurance may be away of recouping what has been lost, the changingmarket is causing insurers to change how theyoperate in order to cope. Businesses cannot afford tobe left behind, especially as dangerous malware andhacking material becomes available to more people.As always, security and insurance go hand in hand –both in the real world and the digital one.East Midlands Business Link www.eastmidlandsbusinesslink.co.uk24Can you give us a littlebackground on BioCityNottingham?BioCity is the UK’s leading bioscienceincubator, providing the conditions thatsustain more than 80 fast-growingbusinesses.We have the ideal conditions forbiotech, pharmaceutical and healthcarestartups, and an established communityof people who share the goal of turningnew ideas into commercial success.In 2001 BASF made one of the largestever corporate donations to a newuniversity, gifting more than 129,000 sqft of offices and highly equippedlaboratories to Nottingham TrentUniversity. This was a time ofunprecedented upheaval in the lifesciences industry, so the suddenavailability of massive resources andsuch prestigious premises presented anhistoric opportunity.In response, Nottingham TrentUniversity, The University ofNottingham and East MidlandsDevelopment Agency partnered totransform the vacant site into the firstBioCity incubator. Dr. Glenn Crockerbecame BioCity’s first CEO in 2003, andwithin two years the site was hosting 20early-stage companies.This growth has been drivenessentially by the success of the manybusinesses nurtured by the BioCityenvironment.2012 was BioCity Nottingham’s 10thanniversary and during that year weestablished BioCity Scotland, nearGlasgow and in 2013 BioHub at AlderleyPark and later that year MediCity on theBoots campus in Nottingham.Over 200 companies are based in aBioCity business incubator, making theBioCity network one of the largestconcentrations of life sciencebusinesses in the UK. The 91% survivalrate of companies at BioCity inNottingham tangibly demonstrates oneof the benefits to a company of beinglocated within the BioCity network.The new Discovery Building is built tosupport more than 700 new bioscienceroles in Nottingham over the next 30Q&AToby Reid, Managing Director at BioCity GroupBiocity nottingham has officially opened its doors to what has been hailed as a'landmark' building for the city. we speak with managing director, toby reid, at thecompany’s new state-of-the-art discovery Building to find out more. Dr Glenn Crocker, CEO ofBioCity, Vice-Chancellor ofNottingham Trent UniversityEdward Peck, Simon HirstCEO of SygnatureDiscovery, Sir John PeaceChair of MIdlands Engine,Dr Louis Nisbet Chairman ofBioCity Nottingham, TobyReid Managing Director ofBioCity Group.www.eastmidlandsbusinesslink.co.uk East Midlands Business Link 25years, cementing the city’s position asthe UK’s fastest growing life sciencescommunity.The Discovery building has beenhailed as a ‘landmark’ buildingfor Nottingham – partly due tothe brise soleil, but that’s notjust for sheer aesthetics isn it -can you tell us a little more?The building is expected to supportmore than 700 new bioscience roles inNottingham over the next 30 years,cementing the city’s position as the UK’sfastest growing life sciences community.The high-tech biology and chemistrylaboratories and office space is splitacross five-storeys, with ancillary spacefor commercial leasing for both start-upsand small and medium-sized enterprises.This is a state-of- the-art buildingwhich is a very welcome addition toBioCity, the UK’s fastest-growing lifesciences community. We are drivinginnovation in Nottingham’s rich sciencesector and we have needed this spacefor some time as we have been atcapacity. This is great news for thecompanies we have based here and interms of attracting new tenants keen tojoin us and begin, or even accelerate,their own journey. What sort of companies arebased here and are there anyrestriction in place on the type ofcompanies based there?BioCity specialises in the creation anddevelopment of life science businesses.It provides homes and access to high-end equipment, shared services, training,business support and investment fornew and growing bioscience companies.BioCity Nottingham is home to abroad range of drug discovererycompanies from university spin-outsand entrepreneurial start-ups toestablished UK firms and internationalsubsidiaries. They are primarily lifesciencecompanies but the new building’s 5,062square ft ground floor office space will besuitable for SMEs across any sector suchas professional services, recruitmentcompanies or legal firms, for example. Our tenants don’t have to be activelyworking within the research or sciencesector to be a part of our community.The key is that they add value to ourbusiness community and can be a vitalpart in their success.What accommodation optionsand on-site facilities are there fornew companies looking torelocate here?Across our sites, it is all aboutflexibility, whether office space or labsor the hiring of our equipment. In thenew Discovery building, the high-techbiology and chemistry laboratories andoffice space is split across five-storeys,with ancillary space for commercialleasing for both start-ups and small andmedium-sized enterprises.What does the future hold forBioCity Nottingham?We are really passionate aboutbringing the next generation of lifescience and healthcare companies intoexistence. To do that we are renewingour focus on our startup programmesand investment activity with a view tostarting more quality companies thatcan become our high growth tenants ofthe futureEast Midlands Business Link www.eastmidlandsbusinesslink.co.uk26Imagine you've just had a really stressful meeting. Your head isthumping. You've got 20 minutes until your next one. What will youdo?You'll find some paracetamol NOW. You'll leave the office if needbe.You're curing a problem and you NEED it sorting. The trouble is,far too many marketers are trying to sell vitamins - the nice option tohave. You don't NEED vitamins. With a headache, you have nooption.I was at an event last week and I asked three different people whatheadaches they had in business and what headaches they solved.Funnily enough, they could tell me their ailments instantly. Cash flow,lack of lead conversion, struggling to find the right premises BUT theycouldn't really tell me what headaches they solved for theircustomers. They couldn't explain why they were needed, just thatthey were useful.The 'useful' aisle rarely has a queue of customers but the 'essential'aisle will.We've heard for years that you should sell the benefits, not thefeatures, although people still get wrapped up in listing the latter.Instead, we need to know what the feature solves or fixes. 'It makes itfaster/cheaper/easier/greener/ etc.In my case, I make brands and businesses better known to theirtarget customers by leveraging the press. However, theproblem/headache I solve is key. It might be slightly different fordifferent customers but the most frequent headache I deal with,certainly in the initial consultation, is 'I can't get our news covered'.Now, I have a range of strategies or prescriptions if you like, todeal with this headache but the key is not to confuse the issue with aplethora of potions. I simply need to explain that I can cure thatheadache for you. So, next time you are asked to give your elevator pitch or simplyexplain what you do, try to think in terms of what headaches youcure. Your prescription can be written once you understand theproblem.By Greg Simpson, founder of Press for Attention PR and EnterpriseNation Champion for Nottingham.Stop selling vitamins,start curing headachespuBlic relationswww.eastmidlandsbusinesslink.co.uk East Midlands Business Link 27puBlic relationsEast Midlands Business Link www.eastmidlandsbusinesslink.co.uk28Business sceneJLT Specialityannual EastMidlands summerdrinks night Nottingham’s Insurance Broking and Risk Management advisers, JLTSpecialty, held their annual East Midlands summer drinks night on Thursday29th June. The evening proved a huge success with over 60 of the region’sleading professional advisers and company directors attending the event, atThe Pitcher & Piano, in Nottingham City centre. The event was hosted bySally Swann, Partner, and Head of the Midlands region for JLT.www.eastmidlandsbusinesslink.co.uk East Midlands Business Link 29Business sceneNext >