Interesting point from David Woodward – the Lynch Legend grows… He probably is the founder running the biggest company in the FTSE 100. In fact, apart from Autonomy and WPP (Martin Sorrell), I can’t think of any.

“Lynch is still the company’s USP. There are no other founders running UK companies of Autonomy’s size in any industry. The technology sector, in particular, is known for replacing founder-entrepreneurs with more experienced career chief executives on the assumption that their skills are better suited to corporate terrain. The UK tech scene is heavily populated with half-grown companies, anticipating foreign investment to take them to the next level. As investor Sherry Coutu put it at a Business Leaders Network event: “We don’t need more start-ups, we need more finish-ups.”

“Lynch agrees—and disagrees. “Look at ARM. That’s a leader. It’s world-class. There are five or six other firms that are on their way. That pipe is unblocked.” But, he adds, British technology companies could achieve a bigger footprint if they only learnt to appreciate the role of marketing. “We have wonderful technology in the UK. The best place to do R&D is the UK. But we struggle to produce businesses. Marketing is telling a story, presenting it. You almost get the idea at Cambridge that that’s cheating.” David Woodward, Director Magazine, May 2011.

For more information, and an Early Bird discount until 8th June: http://growthforum2011.thebln.com/

Allan Leighton is to chair Pace plc, one of the UK’s largest technology businesses.

“Allan Leighton has pledged to turn struggling set-top box maker Pace into one of the UK’s best technology companies, after being named as its next chairman on Monday morning.

“Leighton will replace Mike McTighe, who is retiring from Pace three weeks after it issued a profits warning that raised questions over the firm’s leadership, and wiped 40% off its share price. Leighton told the City that he will conduct an immediate strategic review once he formally takes control this summer.” Guardian Technology.

For more information, and an Early Bird discount until 8th June: http://growthforum2011.thebln.com/

Talk snapshot, Money in Mobile, June 14th: Ilja Laurs, GetJar

Ilja Laurs is the Founder and CEO of GetJar, the world’s largest open mobile application store with nearly 2 billion downloads. He has been recognised as one of the ‘Top 40 most influential people in mobile communications’ by Informa Telecoms and Media, one of the ‘10 Start-ups That Will Change Your Life’ by TIME and ‘Technology Pioneer 2011’ by the World Economic Forum.

At BLN Money in Mobile Ilja will share his views on the emerging App business models. Using economic theory, a bit of maths, and high profile case studies he will argue which models will win out and why.

See what else is in store and come along: BLN Money in Mobile, 14th June

Early Bird booking till 1st June.

There is so much guff and hype about mobile that it is hard to see the important stuff. Our one dayMoney in Mobile Forum on June 14th will help you see the wood from the trees.

Talk snapshot, Money in Mobile, June 14th: Vikas Mehta, eBay Classifieds

Vikas Mehta is GM of eBay Classifieds Italy and focuses on customer satisfaction and innovation to grow market share and revenue aggressively. At BLN Money in Mobile Vikas will share lessons from eBay’s pioneering Italian mobile programme and discuss why he thinks mobile will become a core part of eBay Classifieds strategy, providing a series of new customer experiences, and forming a key tool to engage completely new customers.

Before leading the Italian classifieds business, Mehta was a Program Manager at eBay Headquarters in the U.S. Prior to joining eBay in 2008, Mehta worked with Allstate and Ten Fold Corporation focusing on software development and outsourcing strategies. Mehta completed M.S. degrees in Chemical Engineering and Technology Policy at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

See what else is in store and come along: BLN Money in Mobile, 14th June

Early Bird booking till 1st June.

There is so much guff and hype about mobile that it is hard to see the important stuff. Our one dayMoney in Mobile Forum on June 14th will help you see the wood from the trees.

Talk snapshot, Money in Mobile, June 14th: Simon Davies, Snaptu

At BLN Money in Mobile Simon will highlight how the ‘Battle for Brand’ in mobile is wide open in emerging markets such as Asia and Africa and why the key to user engagement in this territories lies in clever campaign/service design to phones somewhat behind the technology curve.

Simon Davies is a co-founder and Director of Snaptu, a Sequoia Capital backed mobile application company, sold to Facebook in April 2011. The mobile application Snaptu gives access to a set of social networking and lifestyle cloud based services operated on behalf of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, ESPN, CNN/IBN and various global media organizations.

See what else is in store  and come along: BLN Money in Mobile, 14th June

Early Bird booking till 1st June.

There is so much guff and hype about mobile that it is hard to see the important stuff. Our one dayMoney in Mobile Forum on June 14th will help you see the wood from the trees.

Charles Dunstone, talking at the Real Busines Entrepreneurs’ summit says he is embarrassed to be called an entrepreneur, he feels more like a a business idiot who stumbled into the world of mobile phones by mistake. As it grew, and the sector took off, he made a lot of mistakes but the massive and unexpected growth in the sector was a very forgiving partner – they got credit, got ignored by larger competitors and were left to get on with it.

“Growth is unbelievably forgiving” Charles Dunstone.

First shop was Marylebone Road. Second was in Cambridge, they thought ‘London was done’…

It was only when they started to have lots of money, that they started making mistakes. Talk Talk was one of the worst experiences of his business life and was totally enabled by the availability of too much cash. 2006 is a year he will never forget…

Buying Tiscali was a big cock up that turned out OK and now Charles get to be chairman instead of making too many mistakes in the operating businesses.

“Ego is a very dangerous thing in business.” Charles Dunstone.

If you are making money, shut up and take it.

“Scale is a difficult thing to manage.” Charles Dunstone

The perfect size for a business is 6 people as then everyone has perfect knowledge. Beyond that, every new employee leads to a reduction of productivity.

“Fewer people achieve more.” Charles Dunstone

“Creating and building a business when you are as young as possible is a huge advantage. You don’t challenge as much as you get older.” Charles Dunstone

“You need to be stubborn in believeing the objective that you set out.” Charles Dunstone

“Other people’s business are always easier to run than yours.” Charles Dunstone

“It is easier to work in a mature economy you understand than it is to parachute into a rapidly moving but foreign market.” Charles Dunstone

“The world is being taken over by engineers. The businesses that are struggling in my world in Nokia, in Microsoft, are not being successful because they don’t have the leaders with the knowledge to get people to do the right thing.” Charles Dunstone

“A lot of the promises of the dot com bubble are now coming true. A lot of the people who are making those changes happen are technologists and engineers not business people.” Charles Dunstone

Finishes with a great quote from Theodore Roosevelt:

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”

BLN Growth Forum, 5th July 2011.

Themes:

• Making it big – targeting big markets and maintaining your lead.
• Successful sales– making profitable sales a core goal. How to sell against market leaders.
• Putting people first – creating a culture to attract and retain the people you need.
• Growth strategies – maximising value from startup to IPO and beyond.

Speakers:

• Jonathan Milner, Founder & CEO, Abcam
• Warren East, CEO, ARM
• Neil Gaydon, CEO, PACE plc
• Stuart Miller, CEO, ByBox
• Mo Bulbrook, Head of International, Cheapflights Media
• Tim Weller, CEO, Incisive Media
• Mary Turner, CEO, AlertMe
• Martin Leuw, NED, IRIS Software Group
• Mark Gerhard, CEO, Jagex Games Studio
• Ariel Eckstein, Managing Director EMEA, LinkedIn
• Peter Bauer, CEO, Mimecast
• Nigel Payne, Director and Prev CEO, Sporting Bet plc
• Andy Leaver, VP EMEA, Workday

Supporters:

• The Growth Forum is produced by the BLN in partnership with BDO.
• The Growth Forum is supported by BDO, Mills and Reeve, Kleinwort Benson, Intel Capital
• Media Partner Business Weekly
• To discuss sponsorship opportunities, call Marcin Zaba, 07702 216 930.

For more information, the full agenda, all the stuff you need to know, and to reserve your place. http://growthforum2011.thebln.com/