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The Place to Rise: Entrepreneurs’ Forum

Entrepreneurs’ Forum
www.entrepreneursforum.net
www.northeastentrepreneurshipweek.co.uk
LinkedIn: Entrepreneurs’ Forum

Entrepreneurs, investors, educators and business organisations will come together in November for the inaugural North East Entrepreneurship Week. Led by the Entrepreneurs’ Forum, under the banner of The Place to Rise, the regionwide initiative aims to inspire more people to start businesses and help ambitious companies fulfil their growth potential. Here, Entrepreneurs’ Forum chief executive Elaine Stroud speaks to Peter Anderson about the programme, the challenges it is seeking to address and her ambition to make a lasting difference.

The Austrian-born economist and political scientist Joseph Schumpeter once observed that “the economy does not grow into higher forms by itself”.

A long-time Harvard professor and one of the 20th century’s most influential thinkers on entrepreneurship, Schumpeter believed entrepreneurs were fundamental drivers of economic progress – disrupting the status quo through new products, technologies and business models.

It is a theory the North East has spent generations putting into practice.

From the ingenuity that helped power the Industrial Revolution to successive generations of entrepreneurs who have broken new ground, the North East has an extraordinary entrepreneurial inheritance – one synonymous with invention, enterprise and people whose ideas and businesses have quite literally changed the world.

That spirit of enterprise remains very much alive today.

Across the region, ambitious founders are building businesses, developing new technologies and taking North East ideas to national and international markets.

Yet considerable entrepreneurial potential remains untapped.

Today, the North East has 744 businesses for every 10,000 adults, compared to an average of 1062 across England – the lowest rate of any English region.

Just 43 businesses are started for every 10,000 adults in the North East, compared to 60 across England outside London – equating to around 2800 fewer new businesses each year.

Looking to help close that gap is Entrepreneurs’ Forum chief executive Elaine Stroud.

This November, Elaine and the organisation will spearhead the inaugural North East Entrepreneurship Week, which will encourage more people to start, build and grow businesses.

Running from November 11 to 20, with N magazine publisher NET as media partner, the initiative will bring together entrepreneurs, investors, educators and business organisations from across the region.

For Elaine, however, the ambition extends far beyond delivering a successful ten-day programme.

At its heart is a much bigger objective: creating the conditions for more North East businesses to start, scale and ultimately become the multi-million-pound businesses capable of driving the region’s economy forward.

Elaine says: “We want to inspire more people to start businesses in the North East and help more of the brilliant businesses we already have to grow.

“We know the talent, ideas and ambition are here.

“What we want to do is harness that, bring people together and show you can start a business here, you can build it here and you can scale it here.”

For Elaine, that ambition has been several years in the making.

Having watched the region’s business density – the number of businesses relative to its population – remain stubbornly behind other parts of the country, she began asking what the Entrepreneurs’ Forum and its experienced founders could do to help shift the dial.

The answer, she believes, lies partly in making entrepreneurship more visible.

Elaine adds: “We have some fantastic businesses and entrepreneurs in the North East, but we need to shout about them more.

“You look at Greggs, Sage and Fenwick, but where is the next generation coming from to fill those shoes?

“We need successful entrepreneurs to be more visible and say, ‘I’ve done it here’, because that can inspire somebody else to believe they can too.”

And the region certainly does not lack the raw ingredients.

From technology and creative companies to advanced manufacturers and businesses at the forefront of energy and healthcare, North East success stories span a diverse range of industries.

Rather than defining its future through any single sector, Elaine believes the region’s greatest strength is its ability to create ambitious businesses of every kind.

She adds: “I actually think our speciality is our people.

“We have an enormous amount of experience and people who are hugely passionate about the region.

“If we can channel that energy, share that experience and inspire more people to follow, there is a real opportunity to create something incredibly positive.”

Elaine’s belief in the North East’s ability to create and grow businesses is neatly encapsulated in the banner under which Entrepreneurship Week will take place: The Place to Rise.

The phrase has its roots in NET’s Raising the bar: A blueprint to supercharge North East growth white paper, in which Castrius Capital Partners’ co-founder and chief executive Lee Hartley played an integral role through a series of roundtable discussions.

Elaine says: “Lee talked about the North East being a place where businesses can rise, and it resonated.

“That’s what we want this to be about – starting here, growing here and showing you can build a really successful business from the North East.”

Shaped around conversations with entrepreneurs and partners, rather than a predetermined programme, its regional reach has also been deliberate.

Activity will span Durham, Newcastle, Sunderland and Middlesbrough, with three national ScaleUp Summits taking place on consecutive days at Ward Hadaway, in Newcastle; Sheepfolds, in Sunderland; and Double Eleven, in Middlesbrough.

Elaine says: “We wanted entrepreneurs everywhere to feel part of it.

“It’s North East Entrepreneurship Week, so it has to represent the whole region.”

Backed by the ScaleUp Institute’s Scale Up Britain campaign, the summits will put entrepreneurs, rather than advisers, centre stage, with at least 25 founders and business leaders sharing their experiences, including Sara Davies, Bill Scott and Paul Callaghan.

ScaleUp Institute chief executive Irene Graham will also provide a national perspective on what the region needs to create more high-growth companies.

Another cornerstone is the Ones to Watch Index, which will showcase 20 emerging businesses to investors at Durham University Business School on November 4.

Supported by British Business Bank and Castrius Capital Partners, the initiative is designed not simply to celebrate promising businesses, but to put them directly in front of investors.

Elaine adds: “Investors are always asking me, ‘What’s coming through? Who should we be looking at?’

“This gives us something credible that we can take to them and say, ‘These are 20 businesses you need to know about’.

“It isn’t a marketing list; we want to follow these businesses and see where they are in three or five years’ time.”

That same emphasis on creating meaningful connections runs throughout the programme.

More than 50 experienced founders have volunteered to visit schools through a partnership with RTC North, while mentoring clinics will connect earlier-stage founders with entrepreneurs who have already navigated many of the challenges they are now facing.

A regionwide fringe programme will also enable organisations to host their own events, while London Stock Exchange Group will explore how ambitious businesses can access public markets before the North East Entrepreneurial Awards gala dinner on November 19.

The breadth of activity is matched by the coalition behind it, with the Entrepreneurs’ Forum working alongside organisations spanning business, finance, education and the public sector.

North Shields, Newcastle and London-based accountancy firm Blu Sky is supporting the campaign as lead partner, with national backing from the ScaleUp Institute and London Stock Exchange Group, while the North East Mayoral Strategic Authority and Tees Valley Combined Authority underline its regionwide ambitions.

NatWest Group and NatWest Accelerator, British Business Bank, RTC North and Castrius Capital are bringing further expertise across entrepreneurship, investment and mentoring, with Newcastle University, FW Capital and Ward Hadaway also supporting the programme.

For all the ambition surrounding its inaugural year, Elaine is realistic that Entrepreneurship Week cannot transform the region’s business landscape overnight.

Instead, she sees it as the starting point for something much bigger.

She says: “Success is about bringing everybody together behind the same goal, building momentum and placing entrepreneurs at the heart of it.”

And that means making Entrepreneurship Week much more than a one-off.

Elaine adds: “Entrepreneurs helping entrepreneurs has always been at the heart of the Forum, and that’s what this is about.

“We’re starting with a bit of a splash this year, but we want to build on it every year and create something that genuinely makes a difference.”

Businesses, entrepreneurs and organisations from across the region can get involved by hosting a fringe event, mentoring an early-stage founder, visiting a school or booking a place at one of the summits, workshops and events taking place throughout the week.

Almost all activity is free to access, with priority for summit places given to founders.

To discover the programme and find out how to get involved, visit the websites at the top of this article.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by N Magazine .