Standing between Britain’s best entrepreneurs and a total of £35m in
interest-free loans in The Sunday Times and Bank of Scotland Corporate
Entrepreneur Challenge are the judges. Choosing each regional winner will be
the job of the regional panels, many of whose members are successful
entrepreneurs themselves. They include Bill Muirhead, founding partner of M&C
Saatchi, and David Jackson, chairman and chief executive of the Redhall
Group.
One judge who knows more than most what the entrants are going through is
Matthew Riley, chief executive of telecommunications company Daisy
Communications, and the winner of last year’s Entrepreneur Challenge. Riley
started his business, which provides telephone and internet services to
small and medium-sized businesses, six years ago from a room in his home in
Nelson, Lancashire. Daisy Communications now has a £36m turnover.
“I think it’ll make it easier to judge the entrants as I’ve seen the process
from the other side,” says Riley. He’s hoping to see fast-growing businesses
enter the Entrepreneur Challenge.
“I’m excited about seeing what kind of businesses enter the competition,” he
says. “And by fast-growing businesses, I don’t necessarily mean new
businesses. There could be well-established businesses which might have a
new manager who is looking to take the business forward or in a new
direction.” Being in communications, Riley says he’ll be especially
interested in companies in that sector, but says he is really looking for
someone who can deliver “something different”, no matter what industry they
hail from. “There has to be a strong management team, with the company’s
strategy embedded in their psyche. They’ve got to be people who believe that
they can do something different, that you know they’ll deliver on, that you
feel they’re going to achieve whether they get the £5m funding prize or not.”
Fellow judge Lorna Moran set up Newcastle-based Northern Recruitment in 1976
and floated it on the London Stock Exchange in 1997. The business’s turnover
is £24m. She started the Entrepreneurs Forum, which has more than 240
members, in 2000. Moran says: “I’m looking for a company with an innovative
product, it could be something quite simple, but which makes you go “Wow!
Why didn’t I think of that?”
Being in the B2B service sector means that Moran is hoping to see something
that will reduce the cost of business: “Something that means you can do
things better than you did before. I’m hoping for a simple idea that will
revolutionise the industry.”
But innovation has to be scalable. “It’s got to have ‘legs’,” she says, “to be
able to go a long way. So I’m looking for people with ambition.” With the
awards now in their second year, the judges are hoping that the quality of
last year’s finalists will be matched or exceeded by the 2008 intake. Peter
Cullum is the chairman of Towergate Partnership, Europe’s largest
independently owned insurance intermediary, employing more than 3,500 people
in 100 offices across Britain. One of the judges last year who is reprising
his role this year, Cullum says: “I was inspired by the quality of last
year’s finalists – grit, determination and real entrepreneurial skills were
demonstrated. Having built a £3 billion business, I feel I can empathise
with successful entrepreneurs and would encourage them to enter and create
the opportunity to change the face of their business.”
Nick Wheeler founded Charles Tyrwhitt Shirts in 1986, while studying geography
at Bristol University. The company, which sells shirts, ties, suits and
shoes through mail order, retail and the internet now has annual sales of
£5m.
Wheeler says: “I’m looking for an idea that is not copiable. This means it
will have a competitive advantage that means it’s capable of being a great
business, to expand rapidly, and really make use of the £5m to support that.
“It could be a business with a huge capital investment. I’m not saying you
have to be in profit from day one, but you need a clear vision and to be
aiming for strong profitability in the future,” says Wheeler.
“Businesses are usually split between hares and tortoises. And classic
entrepreneurs, the hares, move from one business to the next, while
tortoises go for one idea and stick to it for life. They are both perfectly
acceptable ways of doing business, but to have passion and self-belief and
commitment is absolutely vital.”
While Wheeler says that it may be hard to tell much about the personal style
of an entrepreneur from an entry form, once he meets them it will be
obvious. “The burning will to succeed really comes across loud and clear.”
But can entrepreneurs be too much of a one-man band? “That’s where the
management team comes in,” says Wheeler. “Very often entrepreneurs hate
bureaucracy, but you have to have the vision to assemble a team that has the
experience you need. It isn’t all about the idea. If you try and do it all
yourself then you’ll have a great business, but it will always be small.
Great growth comes with a great team.”
Jim French, chief executive of Flybe, Europe’s largest regional air carrier,
will be looking for simplicity and clarity. “Successful businesses don’t try
to overcomplicate things. You have to be clear about your objectives, you
have to communicate these objectives to your staff and suppliers, and then
you have to execute them. That’s it – it’s very basic but it works.
“I’m hoping to see a lot of small companies entering,” he says. “I’ll be
interested in companies that have strong links with the local community,
that have a purpose beyond just making money. The more time I spend in
business, the more I realise how important businesses are to society in
terms of employment and prosperity, and I’ll be looking for businesses who
are delivering that.”
