Interprise:2012 Photos!

What a successful event at the House of Commons! Great discussions, enthusiastic delegates and an informing panel. There were some great insights shared and follow up initiatives and outcomes were passed to the APPGE Chairman and other Parliamentarians. We certainly managed to Pass It On! 

Enjoy our selection of photos from the event. 

A very full committee room in the House of Commons

Waiting participants prepare for the debate

Vice-Chair and Founder of the APPGE Lord Ahmed of Rotherham addresses delegates. 

Pink Shoe Club members and entrepreneurs talking to the Panel's chair, 

former Sarjeant at Arms Jill Pay

The Shell-LiveWire team and finalists with our very own board Member Stu Anderson

Some of our delegates all the way from Liverpool! 

Tom Dunbar of the APPGE

Interprise:2012 – APPGE's contribution to Global Entrepreneurship Week

On Monday 12^th November 2012, the APPGE hosted its annual event for global entrepreneurship week - interprise:2012 at the Houses of Parliament. The event is organised by partners the Pink Shoe Club and aimed to expand participants' knowledge and skills to achieve ongoing benefit. It was innovative, inclusive and in tune with this year’s theme: Pass it on!

Alongside leading professionals and Parliamentarians, participants included students as well as established and emerging entrepreneurs and social entrepreneurs of all ages, abilities, sectors and backgrounds.  

The APPGE captured the event on video. So those absent from the event are able to view a video celebrating our work, parliament and global entrepreneurship week. To help us Pass it on!

So, what did we get up to?

The event was opened by former Serjeant at Arms, Jill Pay, with a report on a previous interprise event held at the Museum of Liverpool. She also talked about the Group’s contribution to the EU consultation on entrepreneurship.

APPGE founder Lord Ahmed, himself a successful entrepreneur, welcomed guests and announced the high profile and exclusive panel. In true APPGE fashion, we began by instigating debate and questions with a panel discussion on ‘Disruptive Entrepreneurship’.

An inclusive and Pass it on! themed agenda saw delegates share experiences in discussion to agree ‘Top Tips’ for entrepreneurs in around 140 characters or less. We used Twitter to share these and Pass it on! 

Track the event @APPGEntre #interprise2012 

We need Entrepreneurs in all our areas of business!

Professor John Potter, member of the Advisory Board to the All Party Parliamentary Group on Entrepreneurship.

In an open letter written in November 2011 to the members of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Entrepreneurship Prime Minister David Cameron outlined the government’s vision for many more people in the UK to have the opportunity, aspiration and motivation to be enterprising and set up their own business.  In his speech at the recent Conservative Party Conference he referred to the substantial economic challenges we face as a country.   It is becoming clear that if we as a country are going to rise above those challenges and retain our position as a respected world power we need to unlock the potential of our people particularly in the area of entrepreneurial leadership.   We as individuals and all of our organisations need to become more enterprising and adopt what I call the ‘entrepreneurial mindset’.   Traditionally we have looked at business in terms of focusing on the major corporates and more recently the SME sector.   We have very recently moved towards learning more about micro businesses and those businesses which exist with less than ten employees.   We therefore have a spectrum of business ranging from the large corporate organisations, public, private and third sector to the micro businesses and individual start ups.   Our challenge is to develop the entrepreneurial mindset throughout this full spectrum rather than focusing just on the micro and SME sectors.

The traditional view of the entrepreneur is that they are often a highly individualist risk takers, seeking opportunities to turn ideas into hard  cash.    We need to widen the application of the entrepreneurial mindset and thinking to all types of organisations, large as well as small.  To do that we need to consider how people become entrepreneurs.  The key issue is that they are passionate about what they do.  They have a very powerful ‘WHY’ which drives them through the challenges and ‘bumps in the road which they inevitably encounter along the way.   Many people have marketing expertise, financial resources and quality products and services.  However if they lack passion, the ‘WHY’ that fuels their psychological engine,  they will not succeed .  To generate a powerful ‘WHY’ there are three areas we have to develop in helping people become passionate about their work and become more entrepreneurial: 

• Firstly they need to enhance their business knowledge and skills. 
• Secondly they really do benefit from having a coach and a mentor to guide them along the way.
• Thirdly, and most important, is that they have to have the right mindset.   They need to fuel their passion, develop personal leadership and improve their creative problem solving ability if they are going to succeed in their venture.  All three attributes can be acquired but it takes time, effort and dedication. 

     The most important issues that the budding entrepreneur either within an organisation or individually needs to address are: 

•       Belief in themselves, their product and their business.
•       Commitment to do what it takes to success. 
•       Persistence to keep going when the going gets tough.

If all of our businesses and organisations can learn from the characteristics of the entrepreneurial mindset the UK will once again be on track to become Great Britain.

- Professor John Potter

For a full, unedited, free 2000 word edit of this article please e-mail jpglobal@btconnect.com

                        

APPGE Exclusive: “How to develop a success mindset as an entrepreneur”

This week the APPGE blog launches an occasional series of articles looking at, “How to develop a success mindset as an entrepreneur”. It aims to analyse important questions surrounding entrepreneurship and begin a conversation that will probe for answers. The short articles will give you the opportunity to read extended articles via e-correspondence, directly with the APPGE.

Professor John Potter, A member of the APPGE’s Advisory Board, will author the articles that will examine six key aspects of entrepreneurship:

-       Entrepreneurs in all our areas of business

-       Entrepreneurs as leaders

-       Creative entrepreneurs

-       Entrepreneurs with perspective

-       Entrepreneurs as those who sell effectively

-       Entrepreneurs as negotiators

Professor John Potter helps client organisations worldwide turn their business strategy into reality through Johnpotterglobal.com. He is a business psychologist who is one of the leading speakers on leadership and has made a special study of decision-making and leadership. He works with major corporates on developing leadership negotiation as well as a whole range of strategic thinking skills. For the past twenty years he has worked with military, police and civilian organisations in the areas of crisis management, negotiation, leadership development and stress management. 

APPGE host Chief Minister of the Punjab

Lord Ahmed, the founder and Vice Chairman of the APPGE, hosted the Chief Minister of the Punjab with his business delegates on Wednesday in the House of Lords. Attendees also included British entrepreneurs, The Pink Shoe Club and the UKPCCI.

The visit aimed to establish connections between British business people and those from the Punjab.

After welcome sentiments from Lord Ahmed and Helene Martin Gee, the floor opened to speakers from the Punjab. Gratitude was expressed for an opportunity to engage in an event aimed at encouraging opportunities for businesses of all sizes.

All speakers expressed a fiery passion for Punjab business and for its progress and prosperity. Talking of an energy crisis in the 6th most populous country in the world, delegates also mentioned corruption and nepotism as barriers that will be overcome through perseverance.

His Excellency The Chief Minister of Punjab praised the UK establishments, the Government and emphasised the importance of their commitment to trade with Pakistan. He finished his talk by adding, "If you invest in Pakistan I will be there to serve you".

The terrace at the House of Lords

Inside the Cholmondeley room a Punjab delegate speaks

APPGE Founder and Vice-Chairman Lord Ahmed with
 Chief Advisor Helene Martin Gee

Creating the Entrepreneur's Ecosystem: Attributes of the Successful Entrepreneur

It matters little what the agenda of an APPGE event is, the conversation always creeps into a debate over what today's entrepreneur needs to succeed.  Throughout these discussions the same factors reoccur and correlate with other initiatives from around the world. Examples including New Zealand's Entrepreneurship Development programme and the US' Global Entrepreneurship Program cite the importance of 'contacts', 'confidence'  'training' and  ‘Guiding to funding'. 

Here is a brief look at some of our reoccurring points of interest:

> Confidence

Confidence is understood to be the number one obstacle. This observation often precedes a comment about the number of lottery winners who subsequently invest in their own enterprises. According to the EU, only 11% of Europeans are entrepreneurs despite 45% saying they would like to own their own business.  In the words of Peter de Savary, “you can never be an entrepreneur if you’re afraid of loosing money. It’s like being a pilot afraid of bad weather”. 

> Knowledge and skills
For many entrepreneurs, this is the reason they do not reach their potential. A resounding component of success is the accuracy of knowledge in your database. It is often said in marketing that 80% of your revenue comes from 20% of your database, making accuracy and focus ever important. It's in the quality not the quantity. 

> Finance

Financing a business in the current climate is relatively hard. Methods of funding are diverse and range from crowd funding to private investment. It is often commented on that many entrepreneurs do not simply realise what is available to them. The APPGE plan to look at this specifically in a future event. 

> People

Networking is about increasing your resources through other people; 'people' is a resource in itself. The old cliché ‘it’s who you know not what you know’, works internally and externally of your enterprise. In a recent discussion, the CEO of Founders Fit said, “if you have a B class idea with A class people around you, you can make it work. Likewise, if you have an A class idea with a B class team there is a high chance of failure”. 

The APPGE is looking to expand on these points in an upcoming forum looking explicitly at the obstacles of the entrepreneur today. 

Tom Dunbar of the APPGE

"Why does Europe lag behind its competitors in entrepreneurial attitudes?"

The EU has begun a conversation that seeks to answer this very question. The consultation kicks off the European Entrepreneurship 2020 Action Plan and has invited all relevant parties to enter the talks in order to "bring together the best practices for the broadest impact across Europe". The APPGE held its own Enterprise Forum in the House of Lords this month hosted by the Earl of Erroll and Helene Martin Gee. Attendees included entrepreneurs, academics, The Pink Shoe Club as well as guest speakers Joysy John, Sian Prime and Dr Shaheena Janjuha-Jivraj; all of whom discussed the APPGE's contribution in relation to education. 

There were two broad themes discussed throughout the forum which highlight fundamental issues surrounding entrepreneurship in the UK. First, is the lack of an entrepreneurial culture to inspire enterprise. Second, is that institutions are inadequate in facilitating the four main requirements of a successful entrepreneur[1]: Know-how, Finance, Confidence and Contacts. In other words, problems with both agency and structure were highlighted. In light of these, there were some real points of interest highlighted:

 > Institutions are uncoordinated. There isn’t an ‘holistic approach’ to get entrepreneurs inspired and then up and running. Instead, there is a gap between grassroots energy and the business environment, which is exacerbated by a cultural stubbornness to encourage or support entrepreneurship.

  > Too much ‘red tape’ in education means that it fails to ‘bring to the surface’ the natural endowments needed by entrepreneurs to progress. Examples were given where red tape, such as CRB checks, made it impossible for schools to hold talks that could inspire students. When red tape inhibits the encouragement of one's natural ability to be ‘entrepreneurial’, the culture of entrepreneurship is severely diminished.

  > University is too little too late. By the time students get to university it is too late to encourage the ‘culture’ of entrepreneurship. Students often learn within a rigid framework and aren’t able to use the required ‘problem based’ knowledge learned. 

  > "Soft-Skills" aren’t taught in schools. It was noted that in addition to obstacles within the education system, the teaching in 'soft-skills' is undermined by ‘professional teachers’ who don’t have the background to inspire an entrepreneurial mindset among their students.

Fostering the best conditions for entrepreneurship requires a cultural incentive in addition to an effective set of institutions to support it. The conversation here suggests that in the UK a cultural gap is compounded by a fragmented approach to realising it.

The APPGE will have its formal contribution published later this month.

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[1] A number of the Forum's contributors used synonymous terms for these throughout the discussion. 

Author: Tom Dunbar of the APPGE