18 roundtable: southern entrepreneurs ... continued from previous page
Edmunds: “It changes from one stage to another. You are always on a quest to ensure you focus on the right things for the business, and not relaxing on one area too much.”
Richey: “How I am going to get the business to a point where I can realise the company succession plan and get a fair return on many years of really hard work?”
exactly what will be best for them. That’s where publications like The Business Magazine have a really important part to play.”
Anderson and Murray agreed about the different avenues of support which were available, and highlighted the rise in popularity of mentoring, upskilling and management training, notably through academia such as the Henley Business School and Cranfield School of Management.
Sanger: “If you want to succeed in business in the UK, you can. It’s an incredibly brilliant business environment. Our legislation is actually relatively light compared to other places like France or Scandinavia, or America where there is huge interference and every state seems to have different laws. The UK is genuinely a brilliant place to do business, since there are very few barriers to entry or starting a business. We now have a business friendly society where ‘entrepreneur’ is no longer a dirty word.”
Sara Valentine
Ponan: “Legislation. There are so many things to put in place in the food sector, and they can take weeks and put pressure on me. Also, employee and cashflow issues.”
Rees: “Innovation. Making sure we are successful today, while looking over the hill at what the future might be. It’s not just delivery today, but what will be a relevant technology or business model in tomorrow’s marketplace.”
And to achieve better sleep? “The important thing is to write down each night what you want to achieve next day, so you have a forward plan.”
Sanger suggested incorporating recurring revenue into business plans. “It is important because otherwise you are always trying to re-invent the wheel every Monday. If you know what next month’s and next summer’s sales will be, you can sleep at night.”
Is the UK business environment right for entrepreneurs?
Richey said ‘entrepreneur’ was an overused word to describe businessmen these days. True entrepreneurs create multiple successful businesses, and in fact it’s quite rare for someone who grows and sells a business, to do it again and again. Even so, she accepted that there were far more ‘entrepreneurs’ nowadays and a lot more business support is given to people who want to be an employer vs an employee. “There are fantastic clubs, networking opportunities and support systems now available, but perhaps with so much now out there it’s harder for people to realise
www.businessmag.co.uk
Toby Johnson of UBS felt global issues such as Chinese economic rebalancing, EU concerns and Middle East unrest were affecting business sentiment and confidence. “The uncertainty puts pause to plans to invest and grow. That can then become self-fulfilling as businesses follow suit, and you can very quickly come to an economic malaise. There are plenty of things this year that have spooked the markets.”
“Do you worry about a Brexit?” asked Murray.
Ponan: “We do because we trade within Europe, and also the exchange rate was in our favour but has dropped off in the past few months.”
“So, your concerns are day to day within your individual market areas, rather than global issues?” queried Murray.
“It’s probably rather short sighted not to think globally these days considering just how connected the world we live in now is,” said Richey, “but I only worry about what I can control. Whatever else happens will happen, and then I’ll deal with it.”
Sanger: “Brexit is a concern for lots of reasons, but I am very confident it will be a stay-in vote, like it was for Scotland.”
Where will your business be in five years?
Edmunds: “Our five-year plan is about game-changing; how our customers use and value business development as a strategy within their organisation. Businesses are in a state of transition all the time and we see business development as a way of driving transformation in a business, and we’ll be doing a lot of thought leadership around that.”
Rees reiterated that Redwood was in a five to seven year scale-up phase, during
which it would become a leading global cloud solution, contact and communication provider. “So, five high-growth years, expansion globally, particularly into the US and Asian markets, whilst keeping an eye out for the next big thing.”
Toby Johnson
Ponan: “Growing our export business in Europe, and working with more markets and major clients. The US is one of our goals but we are not looking at that yet.”
Richey: “We tend to focus on two-three years rather than five because things change so quickly nowadays. To keep ahead of what’s next, one of our partners changed his role last year to become ‘director of the unexpected’, and his sole remit is to now look at creative live technologies that can influence the ideas we put forward to clients.”
David Murray
Award-winning BEcause Experiential Marketing will also be heavily marketing its new global partnerships product, and will be seeking global expansion through licensing of its IP to form a network of allied partners.
Marsh itemised three objectives: legitimising the acceptability of his sex-related product within its markets; increasing international business footprint; and developing a company team rather than outsourcing so much.
Sanger suggested three to five year plans were unpredictable. A focused one-year plan often suited modern fast-changing businesses better.
THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – THAMES VALLEY – MARCH 2016
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52