MARTIN GOES BACK TO BUSINESS

3.54.00pm GMT Wed 7th Jan 2009

Martin Horwood at Tangible Response

CHELTENHAM MP was back at his old desk this week - not in Parliament but at Cheltenham marketing business Tangible Response. Martin was head of consultancy at the agency, then called Target Direct, when he was elected as the town's MP in 2005. Tangible specialises in creative direct marketing and its national list of clients include top charities like WWF, The Royal British Legion, the Salvation Army and Action for Children as well as top commercial brands like Dyson and HBOS.

Martin was back at his old desk as part of an initiative by Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg MP. Martin said: 'Basically Nick told us to go back to our constituencies over Christmas and find what life on the front line is like for business as we head into recession. All 63 Lib Dem MPs were asked to spend a day with a local business and my obvious first choice was to rejoin old friends at Tangible for a day.'

'What I found was a similar story to many other Cheltenham businesses: a tremendous record of success and ambitious plans for the future but still the downturn was having an impact. With HBOS as a major client Tangible hasn't been able to avoid some of the effects of the crisis in the financial sector - but with 13 new business wins last year, they are clearly fighting back and are determined to weather any storms ahead.'

'We obviously discussed the impact of the downturn, the state of the economy and the business and the impact of government initiatives like the VAT cut. But I did try to do a bit of useful work too - I gave a presentation on how their charity clients might think about campaigning and lobbying MPs and I hope that was genuinely useful. It was great to be back in an fast-paced environment so full of energy and ideas. A bit of a contrast to government!'