Following the temporary closures of UK car plants, he described how the business went from shipping 140,000 components a day to just over 60,000 and how the assets, valued at over £4million when he was brought in to lead the management buy out (hence the term ‘BIMBO’) were priced at just over £400K only a few months later.

Parker also described how the business emerged chastened from the eye of the perfect storm: “Few of us had ever experienced a recession that came on so swiftly, so suddenly and with so few signs of impact on another sector first.”

Lessons learned? First rule: stop burning cash! Critical skill sets were ring-fenced but Birkby’s had no choice other than to cut 250 jobs and it is only now beginning to build its workforce up again. Taking control of communications – with customers, employees and pensions trustees – was also critical, along with a set of audited accounts when bidding for new business both within the automotive industry and outside.

With the Honda Jazz now in production, a new press paid for with support from Yorkshire Forward and new business within the railway industry, the Liversedge company is now looking to a future beyond survival.

But in the corporate environment reward is tied to position in the hierarchy with little incentive to take risk and change the way things get done. No surprise therefore that large companies tend to grow by mergers and acquisition: “Entrepreneurs create business instead of buying it,” he said, observing that two thirds of new jobs are created by SMEs, not by big business.

So how do you encourage entrepreneurship – “the pursuit of opportunity beyond the resources you currently control” – in a company that employs the best part of 3,000 people, has dairies and depots across the UK and controls 25% of the British fresh milk market? The key to building a culture of enterprise, according to Vonsild is to create an opportunities network within the organisation and give people ownership and responsibility for implementing ideas.

In a big organisation, he reckons most effort usually goes into developing new products, whereas proportionally greater value can be created by innovation in business processes, production processes and delivery. As someone remarked later in the day, 70% of the value of a Rolls Royce engine comes after it has left the factory.

Conference conclusion was that the UK banking system needs urgent overhaul (where have we heard that before?) if it is to support the growth of high value, innovative businesses. Arguing there was no time like the present, the EEF said that now there was an ideal opportunity for change with strong support for an industrial bank tasked with investing in the future.

The EEF’s Steve Radley is quoted as saying: “There is a growing consensus that the current system is unfit for purpose so far as high value manufacturing businesses are concerned.”

Two outstanding and thought-provoking speakers enabled representatives of regional companies to learn how innovation can be used to gain a competitive edge.

Barry Dodd, CEO of GSM Group and Council Member Yorkshire Innovation, used real life examples, rather than text book theory, to demonstrate the role of innovation in growing a business. He emphasised the importance of the value chain and the supply chain as sources of opportunity for innovation and growth.

David Bott from the Technology Strategy Board, looked at the future of manufacturing and how the use of competitive funding is driving research and development to help solve some of the most pressing problems facing society.

Business Link Yorkshire also presented an update on support available for manufacturing companies.