Nick Sturge - Presentation

The Team
Nick Sturge
Centre Director
SETsquared Business Acceleration

If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself
Henry Ford

Agenda
Intro
The Beginning - Choices
The Middle - Building, motivating, communicating
The End - Succession, exits, firing
Business plan considerations

Nick Sturge BEng DipIoD MCMI MIET Centre Director
BEng in Electronics with Computing Science
Career
BRI, Scimed(Medical Electronics)
ST Microelectronics (incl. Inmos) (Semiconductor)
Motion Media Technology (Videocommunications) Co-founder , PLC director, Operations
Omnigenix(Consultancy) People, property, funding
SETsquared
Institute of Directors – Chairman, Bristol Branch
West of England Skills & Competiveness Board – Board Member

The Motion Media Story
The Official List & the crash
Orange,
BT,
Dot com
IPO
9/11
Headcount

The Beginning - choices
Understand yourself …
Why? Aspirations. Abilities. Resources
Type of business
Lifestyle or Growth?
On your own?
Pros & cons of starting on your own
Shareholder agreement!
How to find a partner?

The Middle
Any one can hold the helm when the sea is calm.
PubliliusSyrus

DOOM
The four hats:
Director
Owner (shareholder)
Operator (workforce)
Manager

Shareholders (O)
The Board (D)
Investors (shareholders)
EMT (M)
Workforce (O)
Part owner + Director + Manager + Operator
= The Founder?
DOOM
Director + Owner + Operator + Manager
= The Founder

Example of Conflict
You are a director and shareholder
Business has long-term viability & profitability
You have 5 employees
You get an offer to sell your business to a competitor for a reasonable price (with a good return for you)
What is right for
You?
The Company?
The Employees?
Other stakeholders?

Building the Team

Functions

Recruitment
The challenge of a Techie founder hiring ….
Be wary of hiring friends & family
Better to work with a gap than hire badly
Motivation of candidates
Importance of cultural fit
Technical ability vs. aptitude
Pros & cons of multi-skilling

Recruitment – where from
Networking
Web – eg. GumTree
Agencies
Research – targetted “poaching”
Universities - eg. www.bris.ac.uk/CAS
Grads – departments directly
Interns
KTPs – eg. www.bris.ac.uk/RED
u/grad projects – departments directly
Employment Contracts
Incoming employees – restrictive covenants
For your employees

Team Dynamics - balance
Integrator
Producer
Administrator
Entrepreneur

Other tools
Belbin – www.belbin.com - £30
Team roles
eg. ‘Plant’, ‘Co-ordinator’, ‘Completer Finisher’ etc.
Work preferences
360 degree
Myers-Briggs - $29
psychological preferences of how you perceive the world and make decisions
TMS Wheel
Explorers, Organisers, Advisers, Controllers
Time Intelligence Reports – free trial for BEN members

Motivation
Leadership: The art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it.Dwight D. Eisenhower
Communication
Alignment of interests
Pay vs.rewards
Praise & acknowledgement
Promotion – pros & cons

The End
Planning for exit
Succession planning
Firing
Discipline
Performance
Redundancy

Business Plan Considerations
If you are not the “2nd mile man” – be honest
Identify the succession plan
Identify the gaps
Identify the key strengths
the ability to deal with the unforeseen
Be realistic about costs and time-to-recruit

Starting a business on your own?
You don’t need to!
Established networks
general or sector-specific
Government (local, regional, national)
Business Incubation
Your own network
FF(F)
Mentors
Industry peers / contacts
Government and non-govt. agencies
The Pub / golf course
Internal
Employees
An effective board
Your Support Network

Go for it!

Nick Sturge - Presentation

by Bath & Bristol Enterprise Network

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