Ray Mears speaks at the Test Valley Business Awards 2008/9

Ray Mears

As a member of the Test Valley Business Awards Steering Group I was proud to attend the gala awards evening last night. Ian Axton of Andover Sound was host for the evening which had over 200 guests and was held at The Lights in Andover.

Our guest for the evening was Ray Mears, the well known bushcraft and woodlore expert. Ray talked about the difficulties that exist in today’s business world and how new businesses started in a tough economic climate will be well placed to survive when the recovery starts. As well as talking about business in general, and his own business, Ray recalled some of his experiences working in the more remote areas of the world where life can be hard but satisfying

Ray described an encounter where modern methods and native customs had led him to consider sustainability in a new light. Local people had been used to living off the fruits of the land and simply discarding the natural packaging, which, being organic, would rot and recycle naturally (he was referring to peels and skins of fruits etc); when modern packaging of tins and plastics arrived the locals simply discarded these in a similar way, but they do not rot with such speed, thus leading to a very untidy and potentially dangerous environment. He went on to reflect that in our society we produce just as much, and probably more, waste but pay to have it taken away and out of sight. Ray explained that his own business is very much concerned with creating sustainability but included an element of community and fun.

The awards themselves were as follows:

The Test Valley Borough Council New Business Of The Year Awards

• Winner – WKD Events
• Commended – First Impressions, PJ Landscaping

The HSA Business Excellence Though People Award

• Winner – Stanbridge Earls School
• Commended – Romsey Dental Care, Wellow Fitness Centre

The Star Technology Services e-Business Award

• Winner – Nature’s Harvest
• Commended – Giftbagz.co.uk, www.bid-no-bid.com

The University of Southamption Science Park Innovation and Technology Award

• Winner – PhotonStar LED Ltd
• Commended – Ace Liftaway Ltd, Trilogy Communications

Hamphire County Council Small Business of the Year Award

• Winner – Blumarine Ltd
• Commended – iCandy Design, Thinking Space Systems Ltd

If you are interested in the 2009/10 awards, or if you wouuld like to talk about what is involved in establishing your own awards campaign, please get in touch.

Andover Business Expo ’09

Today I attended the Andover Business Expo.  This is a revived business event that has not been held for the past 20 years!  There was a good cross section of businesses present with just over 40 exhibits covering sectors such as education, training, IT, accountants, office furniture and a magician! 

I was persuaded to sit in an all singing and dancing chair alongside an electric desk that could be raised and lowered by pressing buttons on the desktop.  It reminded me of the time when I was researching office equipment for an office fit-out for an association I worked for.  The representative asked how much I had paid for my office chair.  He was unimpressed when I said £85 – his chair cost between £400 – £800 dependent on the finish.  He was even less impressed when he asked about my desk and I told him I had made it myself out of a length of wood veneered chipboard!

Back to the expo… there were few exhibitors that I could talk to about my work with social landlords but when you analyse what I do the skills are transportable to other sectors.

Experience that I have from validating performance indicators can be used to validate any form of regulation or requirements, even checking adherance to policy and procedures.  Work in process analysis can be used in many sectors.  When it comes down to it the inquisitive mind and the search for detail these can be usefully used to analyse work in many sectors.  I talked this through with a few of the peole there but I will have to wait to see if there is any chance of diversification!

I always find it interesting to see the variety of businesses that attend these events and it’s facinating that people earn their living through a whole variety of activities.  In April we will be holding the Test Valley Business Awards at the same venue and it should be a good evening.  We have Ray Mears as our after dinner speaker and so we should have some good advice on how to deal with difficult environments (I’m not sure if this includes economic environments).  For more details of the TV Business Awards see http://www.tvbawards.org.uk/.

Introducing the social housing sector to TeamR

This week I have been working with Andy from TeamR introducing him to some of my contacts in the social housing sector.

TeamR is a ‘managment product’ that analyses teams that are internal and external to organisations and identifies areas where greater efficiency can be introduced.  Andy and Don, Andy’s business partner, are so confident in their approach to teams that they make an offer that if the client doesn’t achieve twice the value of their fee in savings they will refund half the fee.

Before recommending them to my contacts I had several discussions with them to find out about how they work and gained confidence in them.  I also took up references from organisations that they had worked for and I found them to be well respected.

I found Andy and Don to be generous with their support and encouragement to me and others.  Don, in particular, is a keen online networker but he follows this up through face to face meetings.  Andy is great at explaining TeamR and what it can do for businesses.  They are good people to work with.

I enjoy working with Andy and Don and I am sure that we will be working together for mutual benefit for some time in the future.