EF News
In our One Thing I've Learnt series, Entrepreneurs’ Forum ambassadors and honorary members reveal one lesson that has shaped how they build their businesses. Providing a source of inspiration for anyone following in their footsteps, our guest editors share some of the business challenges they’ve faced and what they taught them.
In this edition Caroline Theobald CBE, in whose honour our mentoring award is named, shares why she believes relationships are the true infrastructure of success - people matter!
I’m often told that I’m the region’s super-connector. I’m not sure that’s true, but even if it is, what folk may not realise is that I arrived in the North East (North Shields) in 1990 knowing nobody and nothing. I owe Deborah Jenkins the co-founder of Common Purpose a debt of gratitude! I was included in an early cohort of this innovative leadership programme and it’s from there that I have built, nurtured and sustained the network that gave birth to my company Bridge Club – and many other things besides.
My network is like a nutritious spiders’ web of individuals spanning sectors, career-stages, places and backgrounds all of whom would rather say ‘yes’ than ‘no’ when asked for help or advice. That’s why I can say, with authority, people matter. For me, relationships are the infrastructure of success, however you define it. Unlike some, my success hasn’t been fiscal (OK I’ve washed my face) but it’s been a joy. A real pleasure to see the initiatives I’ve had a hand in creating, and the individuals I’ve helped, create companies, organisations and initiatives of value to them and to others.
I strongly believe that all opportunities start with a conversation. If one doesn’t have the courage to risk a new conversation, sometimes in an alien or frightening environment, nothing changes. I had no grand plan. I just followed where the conversations led me: founders thirsty for connections at first, leading to my interest in ‘what’s next’ in all its forms. I explored enterprise education in the university sector whilst igniting creative thinking through ‘Giant MindsTM’ and ‘Enterprise EvolutionTM’ in schools and colleges. Drawing on all that experience led me to be the senior co-founder of FIRST and subsequently to amplify the importance of trading ethically through the formation of The North East Initiative on Business Ethics. I also helped forge stronger links between our region and Sweden when I was an honorary Swedish consul – this region punches well above its weight in Anglo- Swedish relations. People do business with people.
What does all this mean to me, you might ask? How will it help me build my business on solid foundations and help me scale and sustain it? Here’s my answer, imagine growing your business in a vacuum. Where could you turn for help, support, advice and challenge. That’s exactly what the world was like for a lot of founders in 2000 – full of ideas on how to ride the dot.com wave, but without a clue how to push off from shore. Those were heady times with crazy valuations abounding (a young Nick Bell had a £70million valuation for his online teen magazine, but couldn’t get a business bank account because he was under 18). I’ll never forget the call I had with the chairman of NatWest. He’d heard about Nick and he knew me - people matter. Charlie Hoult was then in London helping establish the First Tuesday network and he and I had fun and purpose in co-founding Bridge Club to connect early-stage founders, like Nick, to money and teambuilding professionals who had the knowledge, expertise and experience to help early-stage entrepreneurs survive and then to thrive. Charlie let me get on with it after a couple of years and although by then Bridge Club was national, it had forged enough of a reputation for ‘usefulness’ for me to be invited to help establish the Entrepreneurs’ Forum. There was a gap. Although access to professional advice is fundamental, what was missing was a network of peers that could support and encourage those a few steps behind them on their entrepreneurial journey – and look ahead for inspiration. Twenty five years ago there wasn’t a supportive community of scaling business founders who could swap war stories and share best-practice with their equals whilst being inspired – constantly – by those from the region and beyond who were breaking moulds.
The early 2000s and the digital revolution created enormous changes, but not the one that everyone told me would happen (and they’re shouting again because of AI). “That technology will take over”. “That people will cease to matter”. “That you’ll be out of business before you get going”. Wrong, just plain wrong. People do business with people. Building trust between people matters and is what brings about systemic change.
Reflect on the changes in the University sector. At that time higher-education institutions were known only for teaching, learning and research. Enterprise wasn’t on the agenda. That started changing in the 2000s and the universities in this region, led by Newcastle, were instrumental in that change. From my Bridge Club perspective it made sense to build partnerships with the universities because, even though enterprise activity wasn’t valued by the Institutions, the dot.com revolution meant that our universities were brim-full of young entrepreneurial talent. Gareth Trainer then at Newcastle (now at Sunderland) was and remains a leading, but somewhat unsung hero of enterprise education and start-up support in the North East and nationally.
Our early partnership gave his entrepreneurial students real-world support and connections, and he invited me to join the learning from ‘The Spirit of Enterprise’ being rolled out of Judge Business School at Cambridge as part of the Enterprisers Partnership developed between Cambridge University and MIT in the States. How else would I have met, and invited North, the Cambridge Angels and shared speaking platforms with individuals like Lord Karen Billimoria, founder of Cobra Beer and Alex van Sommeren now a senior advisor in innovation, investment and technology. I was surprised to learn that connecting founders to the individuals and organisations that could help them grow wasn’t at all ‘usual practice’ at the time. I was just daring to be different and doing it with joy – connecting people to make good things happen.
It was for that reason that our region was chosen as the launchpad of the ‘Flying Start’ rallies organised by the National Council of Graduate Entrepreneurship. From there Bridge Club went national, connecting university founders with the professionals and investors who could help make businesses fly. I may not still be in touch with Tarek Nseir (Think) or Gill Chapple (Bedsearcher) who were involved in those early rallies, but I am still in touch with Jonny Grubin (whom I met when he was 15 and went on to be founder of SoPost – winner of The Spectator’s Northern Economic Innovator of the Year award); and Nick Bell, the teen wonder-kid, now in America and co-founder of Fanatics Collect. By the early 2000s professional networks were taking shape but there was still something missing. What about a peer-group offering an essential but informal ‘advise, build and challenge’ resource to ambitious founders that wanted to scale? The willingness I’d shown in entering alien environments had got me noticed by two of the region’s best known entrepreneurs: Sir Peter Vardy and Lorna Moran. They’d come across The Entrepreneurial Exchange in Scotland (founded by Sir Tom Farmer) and were excited by the potential of a North East version. I added to the mix the Cambridge’s ‘Spirit of Enterprise’ experience which had taught me that interconnectivity between successful individuals resulted in company formation and growth as part of a peer-community which was nothing short of extraordinary. Thus, the Entrepreneurs’ Forum began to take shape. At its core is that people matter, wherever you are on your business jou ney.
And that’s my point. People really matter, especially in a digital age. And I mean real people, not just online interactions. The individuals who’ll help you grow personally and professionally are the ones you invest time in and listen to – relationships are a two-way thing. They are nurtured by reciprocity, personal knowledge-transfer and going the extra mile. I believe strongly that there’s a fundamental truth in ‘givers gain’ and the mutual trust it builds. And finally, those two ears we were born with are a wonderful asset – if you use them and make the effort to build and sustain relationships old and new I guarantee your life (and your business) will be richer for it. Give freely of your time too. You never know how that might be remembered when you need it most.
