Well, that’s it for another year, but what an amazing conference! The feedback has been sensational, with one attendee complaining (not really) of still suffering a sore head two days later from thinking about all the discussions and ideas from the event.
We’ll be sharing videos and images over the next week or so, please watch out for those, but in the meantime we wanted to share the key themes that came from the speakers’ presentations and to ask for your highlights; what piece of advice did you take away with you? What will you be changing in your company as a result of listening to our fantastic speakers or chatting to other entrepreneurs?
We felt that there were eight key themes that recurred during the day:
1. Perseverance, tenacity, resilience (every speaker said this)
2. Failure is good, use it
3. Focus focus focus
4. Use the organisations in the ecosystem – Power of Youth, Saltire, ESpark etc
5. Think big, then think a bit bigger, then go for it
6. Learn from your competition
7. Passion
8. Believe in the power of our young people
Do you agree? Is there something you think we’ve missed? Please tell us!
And we also had some lovely feedback too:
1. Brilliant event, one of (if not) the best I’ve ever been at. So much energy, support and great businesses in the room, all offering ideas and support. Well done everyone involved.
2. Thank you for a fantastic day yesterday. Very inspirational.
3. The tweet updates have been great. Scotland’s future is looking bright!
4. Reduced to tears in a +ve way / g8t start today, conclude the brilliant @entrepscot event which yet again WHEN I Action stuff life improves
5. Attending @entrepscot Leaders Summit should carry a health warning! Your head will be so buzzing with ideas and can do spirit it will hurt
6. Awesome day at Entrepreneurial Scotland’s Moonshot event today in Gleneagles. So inspirational to hear from so many brilliant people
It was clear from social media that there were few favourites in the room, most notably Kresse Wesling, Lara Morgan and the Flavourly boys, Ryan O’Rorke and Assean Sheikh, but all our speakers were great and provoked a lot of thought with their presentations.
Who was your favourite speaker and why? What was it that resonated with you and your business?
We’ll be sharing all your feedback alongside the videos and images, so please do get in touch – email michelle@tartancat.com with your thoughts.
Leanne Sherry
When I started thinking about what I was going to say today, I thought how am I going to do this by looking forward and not mentioning the Entrepreneurial Exchange.
And I had to ask myself… how can I focus on the future if I don’t first look to the past?
From the outside, I looked at the Entrepreneurial Exchange as something aspirational. Something one day I would love to be part of.
Entrepreneurship today is front page news. It’s everywhere – its prime time TV with shows like the Dragons Den and The Apprentice, it’s in the cinema with films like The Social Network. There was even an ‘entrepreneur Barbie’ launched by Matel last year. We are obsessed with entrepreneurs.
But this network started before ‘entrepreneurship’ as it has become, even existed … you were innovating before it was a buzzword. You were driven to change the way things were done before it was seen as a sexy career path
It is you and the people who are in our network who are the cornerstone of entrepreneurship in this country.
I started my new role as the Director of this network a few weeks ago and I’ll be looking after everything from how we deliver value for you to how we can continue to grow the network.
And I think it’s important that we look at was great about the Entrepreneurial Exchange before we begin to build upon it. A few conversations have helped me over the last few weeks.
Greg Sim joined in 2014. He has a family business background in property management in Blairgowrie.
I asked him, why he joined and what he has gotten out of it. Greg said ‘you meet a lot of advisors and can spend thousands of pounds on consultants, but they can’t talk to you entrepreneur to entrepreneur. Family business to family business – the people here speak to you on an emotional level’. He spoke to me about the conversations he’d had with Ewan Campbel who had helped act as a sounding board on Greg’s strategy for as he builds out his business into weddings and events – Ewan shared his business plan, advice he could never have got from a consultant learning from how he has done it – and Greg is building this level insight into his strategy moving forward.
He also spoke to Gilad Tiffenburn who has been talking through succession planning which is directly helping Greg to position the company for the future. This is more than just ‘advice’, we are a network of people who open our doors, make time and speak honestly with each other… because we have been through it too. We have been through it too.
The message is clear. Join this and you will grow your business faster with less risk, you will feel more in control and less on your own.
Let’s take that. Let’s take all of the things that are great and talk about how we build upon them.
Looking ahead – what is success? Success for me simple. Success for me is helping you to get to where you want to be quicker. But, what does that look like? I’m comfortable with saying I don’t have all of the answers. Because we need to listen to you.
To give you an idea of what I’ve been hearing behind the scenes … we need to be better at communicating. I’ve heard from some people that they feel a bit lost in the change – it’s not that they don’t agree with the direction of travel and the ultimate vision of Entrepreneurial Scotland but we need to be better at communicating who we are and the role we play. There are more than 200 here today but there are many more who couldn’t be here today – communication is extremely important.
We keep our eye on the ball with what’s going to help you. This involves understanding where you want to be and how we might help you get there.
• Things like talent – we can use the Future Leaders Network to connect you to the people you need in your business
• I also know how lonely it can be. I’m not trying to create the largest lonely hearts club but this is one of the loneliest jobs on the planet – what can we do to help, whether it’s more events, different types of event, different formats
• Is it that you’re looking to leaving a legacy – speak to us about it, from speaking at events to mentoring a Future Leader, as part of this network the opportunities are endless.
Keeping our eye on the ball is all about helping us understand what it’s like in your shoes – how can we help you get to where you want it to be.
Growth. Because I, like you, am not one for standing still. When I talk about growth, I talk about an infusion of people like you – high calibre, growth focused entrepreneurs. Who isn’t in this room and should be. Who could benefit from being here? Who do you want to learn from? It’s not just the nugget you get from the speaker – but also, who else is around the table. They can go on http://www.entrepreneurialscotland.com and hit join to sign up.
I’m also delighted to announce we are forming a new group called The Leaders Forum to be chaired by Colette Grant.
We are coming together to make The Leaders of Entrepreneurial Scotland bigger, better and stronger. Because we like you want this network to grow and succeed. Rest assured, I have my work cut out.
Looking back, I was in awe of this network. What I’m inspired by are the people in this room and I’m more inspired now than ever. Now I need to know what inspires you. Let’s create a network that people on the outside want to be part of and one that we can all be proud of. So without further ado, welcome to The Leaders of Entrepreneurial Scotland Summit, welcome to Scotland’s Moonshot
Big challenges and looking at things differently is the focus of session three, and for this outlook we turn to Allan Watt of the Prince’s Trust and Kresse Wesling MBE of Elvis & Kresse.
“Anyone who sits on top of the largest hydrogen oxygen fuelled system in the world knowing they’re going to light the bottom and doesn’t get a little worried, does not fully understand the situation”
John Young, after being asked if he was nervous about making the first Space Shuttle flight in 1981.
Allan Watt joined The Princes’ Trust as Director, Scotland on the 2nd September 2013, following a three-year posting in Hong Kong with RBS. He has had a long involvement with The Trust – beginning with developing the long term partnership with RBS from 2001 onwards and then in 2003-4 taking on the role of interim Chief Executive and overseeing the recruitment of the current Chief Executive. From 2004 to 2010 he served on The Prince’s Trust Scotland Council.
Allan has wide experience of the public, private and voluntary sectors in the UK and overseas. Most recently he has been responsible for communication, sponsorship, marketing and CSR activities at RBS in Edinburgh-based global roles and in Asia Pacific, as a member of the RBS regional executive management team.
Previously he worked as Development Director for the Wise Group, based in Glasgow, a leading employment and regeneration charity. He has also worked for the Scottish Development Agency and Monitor, a firm of international strategy consultants. Allan sat on the HM Treasury working group on Financial Inclusion and was a member of the Government’s New Deal Task Force for Northern Ireland. He lives near Glasgow with his wife and four young sons. Allan Watt
Kresse Wesling, MBE, is a multi-award winning environmental entrepreneur and Young Global Leader with a background in venture capital and significant start-up experience.
After first meeting with the London Fire Brigade in 2005 Kresse launched Elvis & Kresse, which turns industrial waste into innovative lifestyle products and returns 50% of profits to charities related to the waste. Elvis & Kresse’s first line is made from decommissioned fire hose, 50% of the profits from this line are donated to the Fire Fighters Charity.
The company now collects 12 different waste streams, has several charitable partnerships and is involved with collaborations across industries, from fashion houses to FTSE 100 companies. Kresse Wesling
“The probability of success is difficult to estimate; but if we never search the chance of success is zero”
A quote from Giuseppe Cocconi and Philip Morrison’s paper “Searching for Interstellar Communications” that was published in 1959, one of the first formal rational arguments supporting the search for extra-terrestrial intelligence.
Amelia Harvey originally hails from Glasgow, having studied Marketing and Communication at Glasgow Caledonian her first taste of the food industry came via a role with Kellogg’s managing their foodservice business in Scotland. A few years later Amelia moved to London and spent 4 years working in sales for L’Oreal.
Having always had a yearning for running her own business Amelia jumped at the chance to work in a small start up business called Gu Puds, it was an unknown brand with a £3m turnover. Over the next 4 years Amelia as Commercial Director and a small team of young, passionate, chocoholics grew the brand to over £35m and Gu soon became the dessert choice of many dinner parties!
When the Gu business sold in 2010, Amelia and the then Gu MD Mike Hodgson decided to join forces and search for a new business opportunity. Being very familiar with the chilled dairy section, Amelia and Mike saw a gap in the yoghurts aisle where the same old big brands dominated and the area lacked any exciting innovation. It was at that time they met up with two chefs who had created a very special yoghurt in New Zealand, the rest of the story will be told during Amelia’s speech… Amelia Harvey
Marie Macklin CBE is Executive Chairwoman of Macklin Enterprise Partnerships, a newly formed holding company building a diverse portfolio of entrepreneurial businesses and investment funds.
Macklin Enterprise Partnerships seeks to invest in entrepreneurs and their businesses, directly through its own resources and Investment Funds, and indirectly in partnership with organisations such as E-spark, The Saltire Foundation, Entrepreneurial Scotland, private and public investors and business angel organisations.
Macklin Enterprise Partnerships takes direct stakes in selected businesses or invests through special-purpose funds created and managed with like-minded third parties. Marie takes the lead in identifying potential partners and providing start-up and management advice to selected entrepreneurs. Wherever practical, she seeks to take a position of Chairwoman of invested companies to ensure close engagement and scrutiny of business performance.
Before establishing Macklin Enterprise Partnerships in 2015, Marie had transformed a construction business, founded by her father, into an entrepreneurial company engaged in economic and social transformation in Scotland, after acquiring it in 2003. The Klin Group, of which she is now non-executive Chair, has been distinguished by her inspired and creative approach to investment and economic regeneration. The company’s foundations have been set in revitalising land and property and investing in challenging and demanding initiatives that help to transform communities. She was the first developer to locate a Wm Morrison Supermarkets PLC in Scotland in her hometown of Kilmarnock.
Marie’s business career started in development, financial services and banking. She trained as an accountant with Morrison Construction plc, responsible for costing and sub-contractor management. She joined MJ Marketing and Management Consultants, with offices in Glasgow and New York, with responsibility for a portfolio of clients in various sectors, assisting with business plans, marketing and branding.
In 1992, Royal Bank Invoice Finance head-hunted Marie to help establish a new operation in Glasgow, involving the transfer of more than 500 Scottish and Northern UK customers within a year. She was responsible for security, service and profitability, ultimately becoming Head of Security and Services, in a period marked by Black Wednesday. She was a member of the Project Columbus team that led a fundamental restructuring of RBS’s UK operations, including the tightening of credit controls.
Marie is non-executive Chairwoman of Diligent World, a new-start risk management consultancy, a member of the Board of Ayrshire College and Business Patron to Centrestage, a social enterprise arts organisation. She is a member of the UK Property Federation, the Scottish Property Federation, Scottish Chambers of Commerce and Ayrshire Chamber of Commerce.
She is a mentor for Entrepreneurial Spark Enterprise and assists female entrepreneurs to build business networks through her initiative, Women in Enterprise, in partnership with the Association of Scottish Business Women, whose Award for Outstanding Contribution to Business she received in 2013.
Marie has a long-established commitment to the development, excellence and philanthropy of young people. She actively encourages entrepreneurs by advising, investing, sponsoring and supporting schools, colleges, arts and community organisations to engage young people in business.
She was awarded a CBE in the 2014 New Year’s Honours List for Services to Economic Regeneration and Entrepreneurship in Scotland. Marie Macklin
Getting stuff done and going for it is the theme for session four of the day, and features Carol Smillie and Annabel Croft of Diary Doll and John Sharkey of SMP Europe.
“Houston, we have a problem”
Apollo 13 command module pilot John Swigert’s transmission to mission control when one of the spacecraft’s oxygen tanks exploded on 13 April 1970
In 2012, good friends Carol Smillie and Annabel Croft joined forces and entered the world of business launching their own award winning brand ‘DiaryDoll’ bringing a completely new and innovative solution product for women to market, that continues to go from strength to strength. With customers in 14 countries, and listings with five major High St retailers within two and a half years of launching, they are revolutionising the lives of women all over the world.
Carol Smillie is one of TV’s best known faces. From her early career on Wheel of Fortune to the BBC’s CHANGING ROOMS, which earned her invitations to Buckingham Palace, Downing Street ,an Indie award a National TV Award, a Bafta nomination , and of course Ronni Ancona’s alter ego ‘Smillie Smillie Carol Smillie’.
Other shows quickly followed like Dream Holiday Home (C5) A Brush With Fame (ITV1) , she even took part in Strictly Come Dancing (BBC1) winning 5th place. She has published her own book,’Carol Smillie’s Working Mum’s Handbook’ and pre and post natal fitness DVD “Changing Shape’ as well as columns in Woman’s Own and The Sunday Times.
She has even turned her hand to comedy, treading the boards with two sellout tours of Vagina Monologues, and a further two of the hilarious ‘Hormonal Housewives’. Carol Smillie
Annabel Croft is a former British No.1 champion, who won the girls’ singles at Wimbledon in 1984. Since she stopped playing, she has established herself as one of the world’s top tennis broadcasters.
She famously hosted C4’s Treasure Hunt but is now a well-respected presenter for Eurosport at the Australian Open and the French Open, and a leading pundit on Sky Sports for their coverage of the US Open.
She has covered The Championships for BBC Radio 5 Live for many years, and was also a pundit for the BBC during the 2012 London Olympic Games’ tennis event at Wimbledon. Annabel Croft
John Sharkey is CEO of European Operations for SMG – the world’s largest venue management company. He is responsible for SMG’s existing business operations in Europe as well as spearheading the business development ambitions for the Group in Europe, Asia & the Middle-East.
John was Group CEO at Scottish Exhibition Centre Ltd, Scotland’s largest conference, concerts, exhibition and events centre until April 2014 and led the team responsible for the development, funding, construction and opening of the SSE Hydro Arena, the world’s 2nd most successful entertainment venue.
Between SECC and SMG, John operated as a consultant and advisor to the conference, exhibition and entertainment industry and related infrastructure projects across the UK, continental Europe and the US. He has also advised some of the world’s largest private equity businesses to find value in this sector.
He has previously held positions within First Group Plc and joined Scottish Enterprise in 1994 after a traineeship at Ernst & Young.
He holds an Honours Degree in Accounting from Glasgow University, an MBA from Strathclyde University and is a qualified CA.
He has held several non-executive positions and has also been a Council member of ICAS. He has completed five of the world’s major marathons, plans to do one in fancy dress in 2015 and plays golf badly. John is married to Linda and they have three grown up children. John Sharkey
Session Two at the Leaders’ Summit is entitled “Think out of this world – going global – the world is not enough” and features Kevin Dorren of Diet Chef, Lara Morgan of activbod and Sir Bill Gammell.
“It’s a fixer-upper of a planet but we could make it work”
Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX, speaking in May 2013 about the possibility of humans eventually settling on Mars
Kevin Dorren is the founder and CEO of Diet Chef, the UK’s leading delivered diet company.
Diet Chef was started in 2008 and has grown organically without external funding to the 3rd largest diet company in the UK with over 140,000 customers. The company makes dieting easy, tasty and convenient by delivering a month worth of meals to your door that are chef prepared and calorie counted. In 2010 Piper Private Equity bought a minority equity position in the business for £4m and have worked with the founders on expanding the team, geographic reach and marketing channels.
Kevin is also an active seed stage investor, having been one of the first angel investors in Fanduel, Fine Coffee Club and Flavourly.
Prior to founding Diet Chef, Kevin was a founder of Orbital Software, a knowledge management company that grew in Edinburgh and Palo Alto and was listed on the London Stock Exchange in 2000 before being sold to Sopheon plc in 2001.
Kevin Dorren
Lara Morgan began to develop the skills of an entrepreneur at an early age. Her parents lived and worked in Hong Kong, whilst she and her brother would travel halfway round the world to school in Scotland. Her independent childhood and her parents being wonderful ‘leaders by example’ all attributed to her understanding of business today.
Lara finished school at the age of 18 fully expecting to attend university. However, that same year her father was declared bankrupt. As a result, she found herself borrowing her first business clothes from a mate of her mother’s and went for an interview. At 18 she taught herself the art of sales, and by 21 she was managing a Yellow Pages sales team in 6 countries in the Gulf.
In 1991, at the age of 23, she started her first business, Pacific Direct Ltd, which manufactured and sold brand licensed toiletries and amenities to the hotel industry. Seventeen years later, she sold my majority share (99%) in 2008 for the sum of £20million.
Since then, she spends quality time with her husband and three lively daughters. She is now the Founder of CompanyShortcuts.com, a source of practical advice and frameworks to enable businesses leaders to achieve accelerated growth.
Lara is seriously passionate about Leadership, Self and Employee Motivation (you might even remember her for celebrating achieving her first £1m profit by taking her staff on an all-expenses paid holiday to Barbados in 2005) and Business Growth and she regularly talks about these and other specific topics based on her own experiences.
Lara Morgan
Sir Bill Gammell had a lot to live up to. He was the son of Jimmy Gammell, one of Charlotte Square’s most illustrious investors. But his energy exploration company, Cairn Energy, has exceeded all expectations, especially after oil discoveries in Rajasthan in India. The flotation of Cairn India was one of the biggest in the sub-continent. He stepped down as Cairn Energy chairman last year.
Bill, a former Scotland rugby cap, has always maintained a contrarian view of the world which has given him the edge – but he believes the key to success is teamwork and encouraging people to get things done. He supports a number of charitable projects, including the Scottish Institute of Sport Foundation.
This year’s conference at Gleneagles – the Leaders’ Summit – is about ambition, aspiration, reaching for the moon, thinking bigger than ever before. Each session focuses on a different angle; the first is Believe the Impossible, Mission Ambition, featuring Geoff Ellis of DF Concerts and young entrepreneurs Ryan O’Rorke and Assean Sheikh of startup Flavourly.
“The probability of success is difficult to estimate; but if we never search the chance of success is zero”
A quote from Giuseppe Cocconi and Philip Morrison’s paper ‘Searching for Interstellar Communications’ that was published in September 1959, one of the first formal rational arguments supporting the search for extra-terrestrial intelligence
Geoff Ellis started his career as a permanent Entertainments Manager at Middlesex Polytechnic in London – the highlight being booking The Stone Roses for one of their first concerts in the Capital. He then moved to the world famous Marquee Club before heading up to Glasgow in 1992 to join DF Concerts as promoter of the company’s legendary venue King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut. As the company rose to become one of the UK’s leading music promotion and event management companies, partially due to the creation of the T in the Park festival, Geoff’s progression in turn led to his appointment as Chief Executive in 2001.
As CEO of DF Concerts and Events, Geoff is dedicated to bringing the very best live music and events to Scotland. He spends a lot of time on T in the Park, making it one of the largest and most innovative festivals in the world with huge International recognition.
Geoff heads up a multi skilled team that is as comfortable promoting Take That, One Direction, The Killer, Kings of Leon, Eminem, AC/DC, The Eagles, Rihanna, Radiohead and Coldplay and the best emerging talent around as well as event managing Glasgow on Ice, BBC @ The Quay, The Papal Visit to Bellahouston Park and Radiance – Glasgow’s Festival of Light.
Geoff is also an executive committee member of the UK Concert Promoters Association and a member of the fundraising committee for Nordoff Robbins Music Therapy in Scotland.
Geoff Ellis
As seen on Dragons Den and with more than 600,000 products shipped in just over two years, Flavourly’s mission is to help consumers discover the best gourmet food, snacks & craft beer. Flavourly uses data to match consumers to delicious, hard to find products via monthly subscription boxes. Once consumers discover their new favourite products, the Flavourly marketplace is the most effortless and affordable place on the web to re-order them.
Assean Sheikh is a Babson-trained, data-driven entrepreneur and the CEO of Flavourly – the UK’s fastest growing personalised gourmet food, snack & craft beer discovery service.
Joining Flavourly in 2014, after completing the Saltire Fellowship, Assean has grown the business from a single founder to a team of 10, increased year on year monthly sales by over 300% and raised £400,000 investment via CrowdCube.
He is also active in the Entrepreneurial community, being alumni of Entrepreneurial Spark, PSYBT, Power of Youth, Scottish Institute for Enterprise and a mentor at Project Scotland.
Prior to Flavourly, Assean founded and piloted Direct Mechanics, an alternative approach to car servicing in the UK and has a background in financial services, working for Morgan Stanley. In his spare time he is a huge motorsports fan and likes to travel.
Ryan O’Rorke is an multi-award winning internet entrepreneur born and raised in Edinburgh, Scotland.
After dropping out of university at 24 and with a few hundred pounds in his pocket he went on to start Flavourly from his grandmother’s car garage; it is now the largest gourmet food, snack and craft beer discovery service in the UK and is on track to hit £1m sales in 2015.
In 2014, he set the record for the fastest funded crowdfunded business in the UK at the time, being fully funded on the Angels Den network in just 22 hours.
He appeared on the BBC TV show ‘Dragons Den’ in early 2015 where he received 4/5 offers and was branded ‘The Dragon Slayer’ as shortly after the show aired he went on to raise £400,000 through a live crowd fund, which was more than five times the amount offered from the dragons.
When Ryan is not living and breathing Flavourly or in the gym, he loves to sample new craft beers and help aspiring entrepreneurs. Ryan O’Rorke and Assean Sheikh
Entrepreneurial Scotland 