All Posts in: Entrepreneurs and Entrepreneurial Spirit
Entrepreneurs are a dying breed. Schools have never been a great source of entrepreneurs, they are normally born out of circumstance. For some reason society is providing less of these characters. Do you have what it takes?
There is a famous cliche, “What goes around comes around.” We’ve all heard it and no doubt said it. Even to a man considered by Forbes as 13th most powerful man in the world as recently as 2010. It looks as though Murdoch’s luck is running out. And the “unlucky for some” placing will be difficult to hold on to, with people queuing up to enact revenge. One of the problems Murdoch faces, is his empire in the UK holds people accountable irrespective of whether you are rich, powerful or popular. He was one of the untouchables. With his TV channels and Newspaper coverage he is a powerhouse, a man who set standards and invariably changed the world. But then along came the Internet. I… Read the Rest »
When I saw the line up of an upcoming event that showed Tony Robbins and Sir Richard Branson as the headline speakers, I was immediately taken aback to see Alan Sugar’s name appear a few weeks later. What is it about this man? He keeps on popping up on British TV, yet he lacks the finesse of Branson and the passion of Robbins. He most certainly lacks the humility that you’ll find in abundance in the other two great men. He comes across as a self opinionated man who likes putting people down to make himself feel better. And by surrounding himself with sycophantic people who do not openly challenge him, it is no surprise that he slipped up this week, after telling engineer Glenn… Read the Rest »
Someone recently asked my advice on Planning and would I blog about my thoughts on the matter. It’s a great subject and there are many ways to approach planning. It wont surprise you that I probably start in the completely opposite place to most and miss out the bit that everyone else considers important. My “planning” is almost non-existant. All my work done is long before any planning would normally take place, at the “dreaming” stage. It’s a side that is drilled out of us at an early age, usually in school and by our elders. Yet the dreaming stage is the most fun and its where the magic happens. I have my own theories on planning, however they are all inspired by others and… Read the Rest »
This week saw the fashion retailer Henley’s file for administration. It only seems like yesterday when Simon and Ben the 2 owners sat with me at a Sale Sharks match discussing online retail. One of the boys confidently said, “our customers need to touch and try on our garments, we will never do more much than the £10,000 per month we are doing now. The online shop can’t compete with our high street stores” This sounded very much like a challenge. And as someone who hosts hundreds of online retailers, some huge ones too, I knew I couldn’t lose. I bet them £1 I could prove them wrong. Sitting with my web designers and marketing team, we immediately found ways of improving their system. Their… Read the Rest »
When we set up UKFast in 1999, no one really knew what to expect. There was huge excitement at the birth of a new industry which was reflected on the stock exchange and the first internet millionaires were created without really producing any viable products. A massive downturn ensued and people thought, that was that. Back in 2001 after the bubble burst, no one could have predicted how technology would evolve at such a pace. In a decade everyone’s lives have changed. The internet is bigger than TV, Radio and Press put together and it’s just the beginning. Google came out of nowhere, (or rather a garage in San Francisco) to challenge Microsoft with alternative ways to search the net providing innovative ways to advertise… Read the Rest »
I have just returned from a week in Castell Cidwm our Training Centre and second home in the Snowdonia National Park. No email, no internet, power cuts, sideways rain and no mobile phone access. Brilliant! Castell Cidwm is an inspiring place, a real hive of activity. This week we had various groups down doing different activities. A few of the directors were giving the UKFast Management Training Program a final polish, whilst I had the arduous task of taking a team of apprehensive colleagues through the hills above Beddgelert. I don’t need much of an excuse to get my walking boots on. I get a great deal more done in the peace and quiet of the mountains as opposed to being back in the office. I… Read the Rest »
I blogged last year about the Government’s overspending. It was described to me in plain and simple English. “For every £3 the government earns, they are spending £4.” So to break even they’d have to reduce spending by 28%. Watching the BBC’s political programmes this morning, it shows just how oblivious today’s politicians are with basic accounting principals. To compound the huge problem of overspending there are politicians drumming up unrest against necessary cuts in expenditure. What is even more worrying, it is clear that councillors from certain regions seem hell bent on deliberately cutting frontline services in the knowledge that it puts significantly more pressure on communities, in the hope that it reflects badly on the current government. In business, if you overspend, you… Read the Rest »
As someone who is fixated on growing and motivating my team to be the best at what we do, I am always trying to understand what are the key driving points that make some people incredibly successful. I was about to start blogging about the fact that when you have a wife and children, suddenly you seem to become more successful. I first came accross this theory when Vernon Lord a then finance director at Granada jokingly commented that he disliked me, there is always a little truth in the jest. He said, “you have no wife, kids, loan repayments, school fees, ex-wives. You have nothing that ensures you have to perform.” I reminded him that I’d never missed my target and that I was… Read the Rest »
At the CBI awards at the Midland Hotel on Friday I sat and listened to a very clever man Jon Moulton put some of our country’s problems into plain and simple English. “For every £3 the government earns, they are spending £4.” So to break even they’d have to reduce spending by 28%. How can this happen? Charles Dickens famously said: “Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery.” With all the technology at our fingertips in today’s society how can we not balance the books? Where else in the world can you get away from this sort of lack of control where you can spend more than you… Read the Rest »
UKFast is continually being hailed as a great company; I’d be barmy to challenge people dishing out fantastic compliments. On the outside it is easy to look a great deal more polished. But if you were to ask your clients, “honestly, hand on your heart now, just how good are we as a business?” Would every single one of them reply with absolute certainty, “your business is flawless!” Certainly not, and there starts our journey. A little like Jim Collin’s theory on ‘the Purpose.” A business needs an unattainable goal to aim at for the rest of their days (eg. Disney and Walt’s “Purpose” To Make People Happy). Just like a purpose, we need another goal, STANDARDS. We can do this easily from the comfort… Read the Rest »
