The Demise of Enterprise…UK

Without apology I copy below a blog post from George Derbyshire of the NFEA - a thoughtful and questioning article on the demise of Enterprise UK.

I read about the forthcoming closure of Enterprise UK with some sadness. I, and NFEA, have been involved since its earliest days, when three or four people camped out in space borrowed from the CBI in Centrepoint. Indeed NFEA director Sally Agass acted as interim Chief Executive on one occasion.

The organisation has some energetic and creative people and they can be proud of their achievements. Enterprise Week has certainly been worthwhile, as has Enterprising Britain (in which Enterprise Furness and NWES distinguished themselves.) I wish them all well in the future.

But of course Enterprise UK fell into the trap we advise all our clients about - it was over dependent on one source of funding. It only had one client and once that tap was turned off, it had nowhere to go. And the business organisations who make up its Board can’t be expected to take up the slack.

Indeed it could be regarded simply as an outsourced part of the operations of BIS.

I simply don’t understand why the previous Government felt it right to set up new organisations to carry out its wishes everytime it had a bright idea. All it did was create new bodies which inevitably had their own overheads and administrative burdens to carry, had no long term sustainability and which ran the risk of getting in the way of existing and more established organisations.

It would have been better all round to tap into the expertise of those of us who were already active on the ground, who had the experience, stability and dare I say low overheads to deliver the goods. This way the Government would have achieved its objectives and even strengthened the existing infrastructure.

But there is a wider point to be made. This is simply one example of the way the enterprise structure is being dismantled. The RDAs and BusinessLink are in wind-down mode and every week we are hearing about more closed programmes and business advisers being declared redundant. Third sector, voluntary and social enterprise providers - and enterprise agencies are just one part of a wide and deep network of providers - are not immune from this. The shockwaves are spreading widely across the business support pond.

The irony is that these independent organisations make up the Big Society that Mr Cameron is urging upon us - dedicated people, mission-driven, locally-based, quick on their feet and committed to their local communities. At a time when the state of the economy is causing renewed concerns, when unemployment is trending upwards and public sector job losses are being declared daily the need for a vigorous enterprise sector is, I’d have thought, obvious. We can help start new businesses, we can keep people away from unemployment, we can help others to move away from benefits and we can help businesses grow. But that needs a effective and comprehensive business support strategy. Wasn’t it a famous Conservative prime minister who growled “Give us the tools and we will finish the job!”?

Becoming a Mentor

Perhaps the most undervalued and under utilised asset in business today is experience. Experience helps you to make good decisions and is usually gained by making bad ones.

Too often in business the benefit of this experience is lost and not shared either within or outside of the company. This is an expensive mistake. There are many ways in which this knowledge can be harvested to help others and one such method is via mentoring.

Academics have spent many years and millions of words attempting to define mentoring and the difference between that and coaching and counselling. To the business this is of little relevance – it is the harnessing of experience which can give a business an edge over the competition that matters.

The word mentor comes from a character in Homer’s Odyssey taken over by the goddess Athena to guide a young Telemachus in his time of difficulty. In many ways this sums up the essence of a mentoring relationship. It is a helpful partnership based upon mutual trust and respect.

A mentor is a guide who can help a mentee to find correct solutions to both business problems and career issues. To work, the mentor will have both an empathy with the mentee and their business and will have encountered similar business issues in their professional life.

It is not the role of a mentor to run the mentees business, make decisions for them or line manage them. Rather that they help the mentee believe in themselves, question and challenge whilst providing guidance and encouragement. It is an excellent medium for exploring new ideas in confidence.

So, what should you look for in a good mentoring relationship?

Experience: usually the mentor is older but not always. I know of one person in his 20’s that mentors older people on the ways of the online world.

Availability: it may be great having a famous or successful person to mentor you but if they are not available to you when needed it defeats the purpose.

Focus: you need a mentor who is able to not only focus on you and what you would like to achieve, but also help you focus.

Belief: someone who believes in your potential; if they are not sold on you then they will not put in all of their effort.

Open minded: a mentor who will allow you to progress in a way that you need to progress, not necessarily in the way that they would prefer.

Positive: someone who is positive and helps keep you positive, to help you up when you fall and who cares about your success as much as you do.

Many successful business people have several mentors throughout their career helping them at different stages along the way. Sadly not all of them then act as mentors themselves. Being a mentor is a rewarding experience and should be a freely given service during a working life – not just when you are retired. If you are interested in becoming a mentor or having a mentor work with you then contact organisations such as NWES or Princes Trust who can act as impartial matching brokers.

The lonliness of the long distance runner

Being an entrepreneur, running a business, is inherently a lonely existence. Whilst you are at the centre of everything that is happening in your company and aware of changes within your industry, all too often there is no-one to turn to when making vital decisions. I equate running a business to completing a marathon – it is a long journey; at the start there are high levels of enthusiasm, excitement and anticipation; difficult challenges to encounter and overcome but there is always a goal in sight and the sense of achievement in reaching it is difficult to describe to anyone who has not run the race.

Any serious and dedicated athlete realises the need for a coach and mentor to help them reach their goals and yet in business so few entrepreneurs follow the same path. No doubt without a coach you could run a marathon but will you ever realise your true potential? Why is it, when it has been proved that businesses which take advice and support fare better than those which do not, that there is an inherent reluctance to access these extra “tools” which may give you a competitive advantage?

Perhaps it is the popular hunt for instant success that makes many people treat business like a sprint. I would argue that, in business, long term sustainability is far more important than short term glory. The current example of many banks should highlight the damage that can be done by the lack of long term planning – learn from their mistakes.

So how can you help combat the feeling of isolation and tone your entrepreneurial abilities ready for the marathon ahead? Accessing help is easier than you would expect – finding quality support is slightly harder.

Firstly do not get hung up on the definitions of advice, mentoring, support, incubation etc – let the academics worry about such minutiae – most people want a combination of all of these at different points in their business life. You need your own personal “coach”. Source someone who you can trust; they should be independent, impartial, experienced and most of all approachable.

The next step is to use them effectively. They are not there to run your company but to help you develop your skills, hone your decision making and to bounce ideas off. Their role is essentially passive and most of the effort should be made by you but through their guidance you will develop solutions to business issues.

So being an entrepreneur can be lonely at times but those who seek out help and support along the way will develop faster and most importantly reach their goal before their competitors beat them to it.

How do you start such a search? Scour your networks to find someone who meets the above criteria or contact a leading independent business support organisation such as NWES who can help you.

You can't please all the people.......

Yesterday NWES was successful in winning a contract to deliver support for hard pressed businesses suffering from the effects of the recession and credit crunch. The contract was the result of many long and intensive discussions with the East of England Development Agency (EEDA) over many months and years. NWES and some of its key partners in Enterprise East had been working to convince EEDA that we are a credible delivery group, able to meet EEDA and client needs in a cost effective and high quality manner. This we have done through the delivery of many contracts over a number of years.

You would have thought that this news, that EEDA had managed to allocate £250,000 of funds to support businesses in a recession, would have been welcomed by all. Not quite! I am dismayed that a few fellow enterprise agencies are angry that "they have not had a slice of the cake". How wrong and misguided these people are. The funding is going directly to help businesses and they are our prime concern - not the self interest of a few individuals. NWES and its proven delivery partners who have worked together for many years will deliver this programme across the region in a very short timescale (by the end of March). It will help businesses in all areas of the region and we are delighted to work with credible delivery partners which are members of Enterprise East.

The people who are complaining now are those who choose to resign as members of the regional body, conduct a campaign of agitation and who sought to undermine the collective well being of other enterprise agencies. To complain now that someone has not "favoured" them is very rich. Having said that, at NWES we always believe in doing the best for the client and so we are prepared to work with a wider cross section of delivery partners as long as they rejoin Enterprise East (it was the hard work of a few individuals who won this contract), demonstrate their ability to deliver a first class client service using qualified advisors and meet the contract conditions. I hope that this shows those people how misguided they have been and invigorates them to seek to work together where they will be welcomed back into the fold and treated like the prodigal son!

In these difficult times companies in our industry need to concentrate on the client - not petty internal disputes. Those who do will thrive and emerge even stronger, those which do not will fail. Finally a very big thank you to those individuals at EEDA who have fought to get this money, helped to put the case for Enterprise Agencies and fielded the whinges that have come their way. Rest assured NWES will not let you down.