A roundup of some of the press and blog coverage of the BLN Growth Forum run in partnership with BDO and supported by Mills and Reeve, Kleinwort Benson and Intel Capital. If you wrote something, send us a link and we will share.
Business Weekly: It’s all about the people, BLN Growth Forum Told
“The importance of people – whether employees, customers, or collaborators – was a recurring theme at the BLN Growth Forum 2011 at the Hauser Forum, Cambridge.
“There were likely to be very few people in the room who hadn’t given money to either ARM, Pace or Rackspace said BLN founder Mark Littlewood as he introduced speakers from these three heavy hitting technology companies on the subject of ‘Making it Big.’
“David Kelly from Rackspace, which sells IT online, said he hoped his company could achieve what PACE had in the next two to three years and wanted it to be recognised as “One of the world’s greatest service companies by delivering fanatical support.”
““Technology is no longer a block to running a successful business, allowing start-ups to have a major impact in weeks,” he said. By 2015 only 20 per cent of new companies would own their own hardware and by 2020, 70 per cent of email would be in the cloud. This move towards technology becoming a commodity meant the competition would be fought elsewhere, making people an important asset again.” It’s all about the people, BLN Growth Forum Told
Springboard’s inimitable Jess captured the Springboard mood…
“15 of our crew infiltrated the event, and with a conference theme of BIG we had a sizeable day in store from 9 til 6. The lineup of presentations was impressive, the guest list was top notch, and organising madman Mark Littlewood went out of his way to make it valuable for us – what more could we ask for?!
“With a speaker lineup including the CEOs of ARM, PACE, Mimecast, and JAGEX (to name but a few), I’d struggle to do every presentation justice here. Nevertheless there were some common themes and key nuggets of wisdom, with takeaways including:
– Consider what big really means! Brand? Influence? Market presence? Translating that brand and market presence into value? Profit? Revenue? ARM is seen as a ‘big’ company, shipping 6.1 Billion chips in 2010, yet only has 1900 employees. You don’t have to be giant in traditional measures to have a major impact.
Read more of those takeaways at the Springboard blog.
Martin Leuw, writing in Real Business: Politics and business – a toxic mix
“How often have you heard of Sales complaining that they get insufficient leads from Marketing; or Customer Service screaming at Production because they had insufficient visibility of product quality before delivery to customer (“it was just chucked over the wall for us to pick up the pieces”)? And what about Finance only seeing the costs, not the value creation; and everybody complaining that Sales have sold something that you haven’t got?
“Remember, every employee, regardless of their role, contributes to the total customer experience and that’s what we all sell.” Politics and business – a toxic mix
Questions and Answers at BLN Growth Forum, a delegate’s eye view from Guy Mucklow, CEO of Postcode Anywhere
“I don’t think that I’m unusual in finding life sometimes fairly lonely running an SME. The environment is in a constant state of flux and there are fewer people with the specialist knowledge and experience to turn to when I want answers to questions.
“Those questions might be: how do we scale an international business; what is the most appropriate organisational structure; and, should the sales function be treated any differently to the rest of the business?
“This is why I am a big fan of events such as the Business Leaders Network, run by Mark Littlewood and his team.
“All in all I found it a really useful day spent out of the office. Along with excellent and thought-provoking presentations, there were some great conversations with a growing network of similar fast-growth companies. These businesses included Rivo Software and Red Gate, who all have fantastic experience and knowledge that we can share, plus a few new contacts who I will be tapping into in future to help make life at the top a little less lonely.” Questions and Answers at BLN Growth Forum
Do send us your write up if you have one and we will add it.