From the Annual Conference, Commsworld CEO Ricky Nicol shares his most memorable pieces of advice from the day’s speakers:
VIDEO: Ricky Nicol’s best bits from the Annual Conference #entex
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Monthly Archives: June 2011
VIDEO: John Maguire’s best bits from the Annual Conference #entex
Phoenix Car Group boss John Maguire on inspiration and motivation.
VIDEO: Mike Balfour, Fitness First, talks to the #entex crowd
Mike shares some more thoughts from his talk in this interview at the Annual Conference.
VIDEO: interview with Paul Walker, former CEO of SAGE #entex
Paul Walker, former CEO of software giant SAGE spoke at the Entrepreneurial Exchange Annual Conference at Gleneagles. The audience loved the stories and business experiences he shared, some of which we’ve captured elsewhere on this blog.
But if you missed the conference and want a sense of what Paul spoke about, we caught up with him after his talk and asked a few more questions:
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GEM 2010? That’s not our reality – John Anderson #entex
This is an excerpt from chief exec John Anderson’s speech at the 2011 Annual Conference, made in response to the critical media coverage of Scotland’s entrepreneurial record, and delivered with a call for action.
“They say that timing is everything and when we came up with the idea for our PSYBT session for the annual conference a few months ago, little did we know that a big story would emerge which would provide the perfect context for this session.
On Monday the GEM 2010 Report was launched and parts of it made pretty depressing reading – and the media was not slow to report the bad news: Reporting Scotland on Monday, Good Morning Scotland, the Herald and the Scotsman on Tuesday.
Headlines like “The Last Tycoons”, “Lost Generation”, “Lack of Young Entrepreneurs”.
Well the GEM Report is, in its own world, accurate but it is not our world.
“Lost Tycoons” [Herald] – shows six familiar faces. But what about the 250 people at the Exchange conference, and the other 180 members not able to attend?
“Lost Generation” [The Scotsman] – What about the 10,000 businesses supported with £35m by PSYBT in the last 22 years? The 600 PSYBT businesses funded every year? The 200 PSYBT growth fund businesses supported since 2002?
I don’t recognise the picture that GEM paints, but it is a snapshot of what the general population of Scotland thinks. So perhaps we need to better communicate the real picture. Perhaps the Exchange should shout a bit more. Not the rent-a-gob nonsense that you see from some of the business organisations, but some well-chosen fact-based comments with case studies – examples of real success at all levels.
We know that the impact of Exchange members is significant – £23bn, 200,000 employees across 430 members and a similar impact exercise is just being completed by PSYBT to be launched shortly.
But here’s a sneak preview: the top 100 best performing businesses that have received PSYBT funding and support have collective revenue of £124m and employ 1,300 people – it’s a great example of what can be achieved by ambitious young entrepreneurs in Scotland with the right kind of support.
We’ve got work to do to demonstrate that entrepreneurship is alive and well and growing in Scotland.
(You can also hear the Good Morning Scotland radio interview with John Anderson on our Boo link to the left of this blog)
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Paul Walker, former Sage CEO, at The Entrepreneurial Exchange Conference 2011 #entex
Paul Walker’s speech was liberally sprinkled with some real pearls of wisdom, and we’re sure that those of you at the event will remember them. But for those of you who couldn’t make it, read below:
Paul Walker on …
Acquisitions:”It’s important when looking at acquisitions to be absolutely ruthless about what you are going to do and the real added value.”
Recruitment:”People can be a huge drain on the business, you need to deal with that. I’ve seen businesses fail for that very reason. SMEs will have people who don’t make the next stage, and if you don’t deal with that, it will be a problem.”
Empowerment:”Empowerment is an overused phrase in business, but you do need to just do things and be accountable.”
Strategy:”You’ve got to think clearly about how you run your business, you haven’t got time to be anal about deep business reviews.I get worried about lots of strategic discussions. As entrepreneurs you have a plan, you just don’t call it strategy.”
Social media:”Social networking sites and their impact on your business should not be underestimated.SMEs are far more in tune with ability to use social media to their advantage.”
Customer service:”Providing extraordinary customer experience – we believe that’s the only way to differentiate in the market place.”
Change:”Internet is making huge a difference to the speed at which you have to make decisions. Most things are becoming a commodity, we are moving rapidly into a world where everything you do is about your experience.”
Company culture:”Setting the tone of the heart of your business is really important.
Culture is huge but difficult when you are acquiring new businesses. Young people today are much more aware of culture.
“We reached 1bn t/0 and 10k employees – I wondered how do we keep the entrepreneurial culture as we grow? We kept head office small & decentralised, and delegated into regions so they were effectively running their own businesses. It meant we were much more attuned to our customers around the world and we retained a lot of talent because people felt empowered.”
What business are you in?:”I suggest that it’s sometimes worth asking what business you are in and does it match what you are doing? When we were asked ‘what business are we in?’ we all had different views; software, service, payroll, business solutions.”
Change:”Things happen so quickly and the illusion you can control it is nonsense. You need to be flexible and improvise.”
Biog:
Paul was Chief Executive of The Sage Group plc from 1994 to October 2010. He joined Sage in 1984 as Financial Controller and was appointed Finance Director in 1987 prior to flotation on the London Stock Exchange. Paul qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Ernst & Young, having graduated from York University with an economics degree.
Paul Walker is Chairman of both European Directories and The Perform Group plc. He is also a Non Executive director of two FTSE 100 companies, Diageo plc and Experian plc. In Newcastle, his home town, he Chairs Newcastle Science City Ltd and is a Director of the Entrepreneurs’ Forum.
The Sage Group plc
Sage is a leading supplier of business management software and services to 6.2 million customers worldwide, operating in over 26 countries. Sage has almost 15,000 employees, a global network of 26,000 reseller partners, and manages 36,000 customer calls a day. In 2009 Sage produced revenues of £1.4bn and EBITA of £321m. Sage’s current market cap is approximately £3.8bn and has been a FTSE 100 company for over 10 years.
Roll up, roll up, take your seats for the video highlights of the 2011 Annual Conference #entex
It was a day – and a night – to remember; top class speakers sharing entrepreneurial gems and ferocious networking.
If you couldn’t make it along, this video will give you a sense of the great atmosphere and some of the speakers’ top tips. And if you were there, take the chance to enjoy the experience all over again.
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Mike Balfour – “If you’re doing the same job in 5 years, do yourself a favour and get yourself fired” #entex
When I started with my first fitness club I remember thinking it would be marvelous to get to 10 clubs, but we built the company to be the largest chain in the world.“I didn’t believe we’d grow to be the largest chain of fitness clubs in the world – until we did,” Mike Balfour, OBE.
It took him a while – he started his own business at the age of 42 – but Fitness First has 550 clubs, 1.5 million members operating in 21 countries worldwide with more than 20,000 employees.
How did he do it? By getting fired lots, focusing on the customer, and doing the simple things well.
Asked why he was fired so often, Mike replied honestly:” Because I was never destined to be employed.” And it was that constant desire to run his own business that drove his passion and Fitness First to be the most successful chain of health clubs in the world.
That’s where the customer focus and attention to details comes in:”I was successful in the health club industry because I could see it from the consumers point of view, I watch the customer, think like the customer, and design clubs that people feel comfortable in.”
The story that created the most buzz during lunch after, was Mike’s tale of doing a deal right under the noses of Hilton and Virgin to buy an Australian health club business.
“I was supposed to receiving a business award for entrepreneurship, but I ended up in Australia with just four days to do the deal. Hilton and Virgin had entire teams working on the due diligence, but I just asked my guys ‘do you believe we can make money from this?’ The answer was obviously yes, otherwise we wouldn’t be thinking of buying it, so we scrapped the due diligence and did the deal.”
A bold move, but a successful one.
Favourite quote from Mike’s speech?
“I haven’t had any failures, but I have had plenty of changes of plan”
Biog:
In November 1992 Mike Balfour, a chartered accountant, purchased the Queens Park Health Club in Bournemouth, an old squash club that had gone into bankruptcy. In early 1993 the club was re-opened as Fitness First and during the next 17 years Mike created an international chain of health clubs in the UK, Continental Europe, Asia and Australia. Fitness First floated on the London Stock Exchange in 1996 and was taken private in a £415m management buyout in 2003.
With 550 clubs, 1.5 million members operating in 21 countries worldwide and over 20,000 employees, Fitness First is now the largest chain of health clubs in the world. In November 2005 BC Partners, a private equity firm, acquired Fitness First for £835m in a management secondary buyout. After 17 years Mike left the Board in September 2009 to pursue his other interests.
Mike became PWC Entrepreneur of the year in 1999 and the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the year in 2001.
In July 2008 Mike was awarded the O.B.E. for services to business. In August 2010 Mike was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award by The American Fitness. Industry, the first time the award was made to a non American. His interests are as a seed capital investor in start up businesses, golf, travel and sailing.
Lucinda Bruce-Gardyne and the inspirational story of Genius Foods #entex
In just two years, Genius Bread has trebled the overall gluten free bread market in the uk to more than £40m and Genius has become brand leader with a 55% share of the bread and 31% share of all gluten-free market in the UK.It’s an incredible story of a mother’s motivation to find food that her young sons, who suffer from gluten and dairy allergies, could both eat and enjoy.
Building on her years of experience as a chef and foodie – she trained at Leith’s Cookery School in London and at Michelin-starred restaurant Bibendum – Lucinda spent two years creating a completely new solution for gluten free bread, bread that actually looked, tasted and behaved like bread.
Genius Bread is now a £20m brand and Lucinda is focusing on extending product range and building the brand. Next month sees Genius Bread launched in America.
At the start of 2008 she was a mum working home alone. By the end of that year, her home baked loaf had turned into a branded product in Tesco.
In 2009 Genius had gone from 0-700 Tesco stores and 0-10,000 loaves of bread a day. In just six months sales topped £1.45m and Genius had manufactured 750,000 loaves. 10,000 consumers had subscribed online and the company had generated more than £2m worth of PR UK-wide.
By the end of 2010 Genius bread had reached 40% of the phamacies in the UK in just two months
Lucinda shared her recipe for success:
- Picking the right people, finding the right network and making the right connections – people are important.
- Think big and get funding, invest in your team, invest in the brand and products
- Keep the faith, stay true to your values, your family needs to be behind you
- Don’t be complacent, listen to consumers and enjoy the ride
Lucinda recognised that she doesn’t have all the skills but she doesn’t need to, she doesn’t have to solve all problems herself, having “welcomed” people into her company to help her.
It’s a truly inspirational story, and as Lucinda says, it’s just the beginning.
Since 2009 Genius has:
- Trebled the overall gluten-free market
- Shot to stardom with a 55% of bread and 31% of the overall gluten-free market
- Is stocked in every major multiple supermarket in the UK
- Has expanded to the USA
- Has created a whole range of bakery goods with more to follow
- Successfully stretched into the frozen food market
- Changed lives.
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