Business Thursday's Partner Organisations:
The Chartered Institute of Marketing

Institute of Directors

Gloucestershire Enterprise Network

Business Thursday Past Events

Business Thursday: “Smart Moves” on 22 May 2008 at the Painswick Centre, Bisley St, Painswick, GL6 6QQ

In Business Thursday's June event we’ve invited business professionals from different disciplines to present their perspective on the topic “Smart Moves!”

Peter Roberts, Partner, Achieving the Difference, http://www.thedifference.co.uk/ presented a shortlist of ‘smart moves’- from a branding perspective. Peter suggested thinking of branding as a marriage and talked us through the meeting and flirting, getting to know each other, falling in love leading to marriage and staying married.

John Caines, Chair of South West Angel and Investment Network http://www.johncaines.com/, shared some of the ‘smart moves’ that attract investors – from an innovation perspective. Investors focus on their areas of business knowledge looking to invest in high growth opportunities and ask themselves- are the managers and thier plans credible and achievable.

Andrew Woolley, Solicitor Consultant to Cousins Business Law http://www.business-lawfirm.co.uk/ peeked under the bonnet at some legal ‘smart moves’ – from an intellectual property perspective. Andrew continued the marriage theme as he humorously discussed copyrights, trademarks and patents with the benefits and dangers.

100% SUCCESS RATE!
Of those completing the feedback forms:
100% claimed that overall the meeting exceeded or met their expectations,
100% claimed the speakers exceeded or met their expectations,
100% claimed the buffet exceeded or met their expectations,
100% claimed the venue exceeded or met their expectations,
100% claimed the networking exceeded or met their expectations.

Business Thursday's inaugural meeting “Beating the Credit Crunch” on 13 March 2008 at the Painswick Centre, Painswick, was well timed- coming the day after the UK govt's budget. 20 people attended this event.

Business Thursday asked business gurus from different disciplines to guide us through the credit crunch. Seeing your business through a market analyst’s eyes and then through the eyes of “the Nation’s unpaid tax adviser”.

Sara Shailer from Accompli focuss on providing expertise and resource at times of change. http://www.accompli.co.uk/. Sara proposed a sub title of 'Managing the pain' exploring how we can reduce anxiety and increase our effectiveness. She guided us through lessons she had been learning in pain management, applying these to the day-to-day running of our businesses.

Attendees took part in a brief exercise, marking on a flip chart where they exist in their businesses and what the issues are. Everyone reported living somewhere between the present and the future. The issues that needed energy to address included time management, new business generation, and cash flow.

Sara suggested that we need to learn to live in the present. The past may be a good place to visit, but not to live in; the future will always be unknown, and an overt focus will result in 'the anxiety gap'. Appropriate to Cheltenham race week and living in the moment, the present,
Sara handed out cans of Guinness - some moments shouldn't be hurried but enjoyed!

Mike Warburton from Grant Thornton has been described as 'the nation's unpaid tax adviser' and is credited with making tax interesting, with his regular appearances on BBC Radio Gloucestershire, Sky TV, BBC 5 Live and his column in The Citizen.’

Mike opened by asking whether credit was good- and if so what level of credit could be described as good. Looking at the 2008 budget he noted that personal taxes had doubled and had grown by 30% in real terms since 1997 yet the labour government's annual spending next year is forecast to be £46,000,000,000.

Reviewing the corporate finance sector Mike highlighted the published accounts of Manchester United Football Club and Northern Rock as object lessons in financial opaqueness. Looking to the future he highlighted the growing dominance of Sovereign Wealth Funds and the unfunded off balance sheet public sector pension liabilities of £700,000,000,000- which are the equivent of seven Northern Rocks.

Of those completing the feedback forms:

100% claimed that overall the meeting exceeded or met their expectations,
100% claimed the speakers exceeded or met their expectations,
100% claimed the buffet exceeded or met their expectations,
80% claimed the venue exceeded or met their expectations,
80% claimed the networking exceeded or met their expectations.

with comments such as "Excellent debut, congratulations!
Good Quality- Origonal

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