CONTENTS
20
44 50
In THIS ISSUE:
06 LET’ S DO BUSINESS 2026
Melvyn Downes: resilience, grit and what business
can learn from the SAS
24 THE BIG DEBATE
AI: competitive advantage or threat to jobs?
34 IN FOCUS
Why Staffordshire Chambers is getting behind
the microphone
44 CHARITY MISSION
JCB’ s £ 375k child poverty mission
50 MANUFACTURING POWERHOUSE
Built for growth: Stoke-on-Trent named UK’ s
top emerging manufacturing city
56 SKILLS CRISIS
From classroom to career: why lifelong learning
has become a business imperative
62 FOOD & DRINK
Launch of new Food and Drink series. Lunar
at World of Wedgwood
66 SPOTLIGHT ON …
Spotlight on Uttoxeter
68 BIG INTERVIEW
How amb Insurance became a Chamber Patron
71 POLICY
Council shake-up pause sparks warning:
Staffordshire must not fall behind
72 BREXIT
A decade after the Brexit referendum, the political
arguments surrounding Britain’ s departure from the European Union
80 TRAINING AND EVENTS
The latest training and events for the region.
ISSUE 7 5