Head of Region in East of England mingles with the hoi-poloi of the business world at the Annual IOD Convention
May 5th, 2009 by beccie
Leaving Lowestoft at 5.30am, I was most anxious to ensure that my early start was going to be worth it. Upon arrival at The Royal Albert Hall, I knew I was not going to be disappointed. The organisation was spot on with 2000 delegates arriving, and a sense that all attending were impressed by the obviously hi-tech presentations we were going to receive.
Miles Templeman – Director General, Institute of Directors opened the convention by stating how we are all so surprised to be in such an economic crisis compared with 12 months ago at our last convention, he steered towards a blame of government, so we thought that we would be in for an interesting “Jeremy Paxman” type questioning of Alastair darling -The Chancellor of the Exchequer.
However, the questioning by Miles Templeman was tame and I’m sure the audience felt that the Chancellor got off lightly and left feeling that he had managed to keep the business community quiet.
It was then that the fun really started!
The 12 key speakers all gave some funny, inspirational and thought – provoking speeches and there was also a question and answer session asking some dynamic leaders how they have provided leadership through this time of difficulty – identifying how trust, integrity and having humility will win through.
Of all the speakers, the following four, were most memorable:
Tim Smit CBE – Chief Executive & co-founder of The Eden Project
Tim entered the stage, threw his jacket on the floor, and went for it. He was a brilliant speaker to address the enthralled audience with his humour and gems of his business adventures. He left the audience with many things to contemplate, including:
• His story of how the Royal Bank of Scotland thought that his business was too risky for them to continue banking with him.
• How the brightest ideas occur round the kitchen table and that there is a huge scope for new business and hard times encourage people to think about business in new ways.
• He urged everyone to admit
their ignorance and seek partners to help them develop their business.
• He wanted everyone to leave the convention thinking how exciting the next 20 years will be.
And controversially:
• his completely non- PC comment of “We need to kill everybody who is negative.” Note – which was greeted with great applause and enthusiasm
Sir Stuart Rose – Executive Chairman, Marks & Spencer
Sir Stuart began by addressing the current difficulties for business but during his speech also made many inspirational statements including:
• “Businesses are fed up with being fed up and are ready to move on.”
• “Business confidence has now slowed to its lowest level but hopefully we are now at a kink at the bottom.”
• “Marks and Spencer was one of the first companies to enter the recession and will be one of the first to come out, probably!”
• “Marks & Spencer is celebrating 125 years in business and it is difficult to keep reinventing yourself but you must keep changing, Empower staff to come up with new ideas.”
Having started his career at M & S in 1972, Stuart had many stories to tell but most memorable was a story about a lady he had met in Glasgow. She wrote to him explaining that she had failed to be able to find an item in the M & S store in Glasgow. Not one to roll over, Stuart contacted her to say that he would be in Glasgow the next day and would take her shopping. At the end of the trip she spent £300 in the store – so he gave her £100 off.
With stories like these and an imparting business leading message of “have self-belief” the Executive Chairman’s speech was an unquestioned success.
Peter Jones CBE – Entrepreneur, Chair of Enterprise Insight & Star of Dragon’s Den
Eagerly anticipated and probably the most visually well-known speaker of the day was Peter Jones. Peter began by welcoming the opportunites that have been created by the recession and stated that “times are difficult but for an entrepreneur this is the time… There are many entrepreneurs out there saying “I am pleased this has happened and this is a time for me to step up, a time when the competition out there, which wasn’t that good, is disappearing.”
With this in mind and his passion for instilling the entrepreneurial spirit, Peter introduced the National Enterprise Academies and some 30 of the students who are part of the pilot scheme at Aversham, Surrey. He praised the virtues of the Academy and how the young people who take part will have the “entrepreneurial edge”.
As Chair of Enterprise Insight, he highlighted Make Your Mark with a Tenner and proudly informed the audience that the students from the Academy had won by turning their £10 notes into over £800 pounds, moving onto his role as Chairman of Enterprise Insight and the nation’s need for people to have an entrepreneurial spirit.
Continuing with the theme of inspiring the next generation of entrepreneurs, he asked the audience for their help with the National Enterprise Academies and the programme’s roll out across the 9 regions, informing the delegates of the Manchester opening in September 2009, following shortly after by Sheffield. Peter highlighted the impact of the Academies and emphasised that all of the NEA students were taught by business men and women and revealed that over the next 5 years 25,000 – 26,000 students will have been through the an NEA.
Identifying the need for the use of modern technology in business, Peter urged the delegates to help and anybody who wanted to get involved should text “NEA” to 60300.
He closed his speech by explaining how television had helped him become high profile, and as a result, he now wants to help young people in the world of business.
Boris Johnson – Mayor of London
There were a number of other speakers – some more entertaining and inspiring than others, but the audience were not able to leave the splendour of the Albert Hall before hearing from Boris Johnson – Mayor of London, who explained how London will lead the country out of recession because of the energy and enterprise of companies within the capital.
However this is written down, I will never be able to get across the wit and humour and sometimes confusion that Boris managed to exude. The delegates were most certainly left baffled and no doubt – with many things to think about after this closing speech.
The interesting bits that everyone really wants to know!
Although it’s not the case, if nothing else the lunch was very memorable with hundreds of the delegates collecting a rather fancy lunch box which included:
4 separate salads including:
Salmon salad
Goats cheese and tomato salad
Potato salad
Green salad
As well as:
Blackcurrant cheesecake
Small bottle of wine
Bottle of water
Complete with separate cruet set!
As it was such a beautiful day, it was amazing to see the county’s business leaders all sitting the steps of the Albert memorial.
Altogether it was a very memorable, aspiring and inspirational day and the IOD should be congratulated for gathering so many excellent speakers together in one place.
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