Introduction
The commercial office was established to oversee commercial activity within the council and implement the commercial framework. It leads our ambition to:
- develop a commercially aware culture
- generate income to offset service costs
- support a more vibrant local economy.
Working collaboratively with services we embed commercial thinking and manage commercial governance through the commercial board. As a council we have a strong portfolio of income-generating services, such as:
- East Riding Leisure
- South Cliff Holiday Park
- Schools traded services
- Business to business (B2B) traded services (Here for Business).
The commercial office builds upon this foundation to support commercial services, new ideas, projects and people.
The vision
Our commercial vision is to become a more commercially focused and resilient council, investing our resources responsibly in commercial opportunities, to generate surpluses that will be reinvested to support the council’s corporate priorities and business.
Who this is for
This is aimed at any teams and services that are interested in applying a commercial approach to their work. This includes being involved in:
- service delivery
- cost saving
- income generation
- identifying opportunities
- innovation.
Applying a commercial mindset can help other staff and services benefit from this, to gain ideas on how to improve or change the delivery of a task or process within their service area. The commercial office can provide advice and support on the viability of an idea.
The commercial framework
The delivery of the commercial framework makes sure all of our commercial activities:
- align with corporate priorities
- minimise risk
- embrace commercial opportunities
- deliver improvement, efficiency and add social value
- strengthen the council’s financial sustainability
- support the local economy.
The framework focuses on five key priorities.
New ideas
If you have a commercial idea that you think would be useful for your service or the wider council as a whole, you can complete the idea template. The canvass document is a useful starting point when developing your idea and to help you think about and consider the key areas.
When you are ready to submit your idea or if you’d like any help completing the template, you can:
Training and networking
You can access a range of commercial opportunities that have been developed to support you and further your knowledge of commercialism.
Our courses include:
- Introduction to commercialism
- Formulating commercial strategies
- Finance for commercialism
- Developing commercial ideas
- Defining commercial opportunities
- Producing commercial business plans.
These are delivered in various formats from eLearning to face-to-face delivery with your group or service.
To check which courses are currently available, search for commercial on our course finder.
Request face-to-face training
If you would like to take part in one of our commercialism training sessions and think your team or service would benefit, you can request a group face-to-face session:
Commercial network
Our commercial office provide many collaboration spaces, including:
- working groups
- workshops
- regular network group meetings.
If you are interested in learning more about our commercial network opportunities and how you can get involved, you can:
Help and support
If you have any questions or queries about commercialism or would like to discuss an idea, you can: