The action moves to the capital as the Sunday Times Bank of Scotland Corporate
Entrepreneur Challenge unveils its second set of five regional finalists .
The five, selected by a team at the bank, are an online charity fundraising
service, a market research and recruitment company, a chocolate-dessert
maker, a country-house weddings provider and a lifestyle management club.
“It was very difficult to agree on the shortlist,” says Phil Cox, head of
commercial banking for London at Bank of Scotland Corporate. “We are
delighted with the size of the application pool and the quality of the
businesses. The finalists represent the top 2%.”
These entrepreneurs must now convince a panel of judges that they are more
deserving than their rivals of a funding package of up to £5m, free of
interest and fees – and the one with the most convincing pitch will be
chosen as London regional winner at anevent held at the Imperial War Museum
on Thursday.
Lending their acumen to the judging panel will be Bill Muirhead, a partner at
the advertising company M&C Saatchi, and Nick Wheeler, founder and
managing director of Charles Tyrwhitt Shirts. They will be joined by James
Farrar, head of marketing at Bank of Scotland Corporate, Tony Cohen, a
partner at Deloitte UK, and Dominic O’Connell, deputy business editor of The
Sunday Times. They will have to be convinced that the candidates can manage
their businesses through the downturn in the economy. “These conditions look
like they’ll be with us for two or three years, so I am interested to know
how they intend to evolve to cope,” says Muirhead.
“It has been a turbulent year and, given the number of businesses linked to
financial services, the impact on London is potentially greater than other
regions,” adds Cox. “But nobody is immune to the fact that borrowing costs
more.”
Beyond showing that they can survive tough economic conditions, what else will
decide the winner? “Knowledge of the numbers, their vision of the market
opportunity and how they are organising their business to take maximum
advantage of that,” concludes Cox.
The London winner will join the other six regional winners at the Challenge
final on December 3 at London’s Royal Courts ofJustice,when oneofthem willbe
selected as Bank of Scotland Corporate Entrepreneur of the Year. As well as
the interest-free funding package, the overall winner will get the chance to
be mentored by sportswear tycoon Sir Tom Hunter. Southeast regional winner,
page II London regional finalists, page III
