Category

Entrepreneurs

Object of desire… The Synch

If you’re fed up carting around handfuls of chargers for your gadgets, this gizmo could be the best Christmas present you’ll ever receive...

Entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurs

Charles Cockell of BSI – What I wish I’d known

Charles Cockell, managing director of hotel and conference management company Booking Services International (BSI), worked his way up to lead a management buyout of the company in 1995. He now jointly owns BSI with chairman Simon Milstead and during 2006, was recognised as one of the top ten travel management firms in the UK by Business Travel World

Entrepreneurs

Changing lanes

Redirecting the focus of a company through change management can test a CEO’s powers of persuasion to the limit. John Courtney, chairman of Strategy Consulting, a business strategist to both private and public companies, regularly encounters management teams who only make changes when the going gets tough.

Entrepreneurs

David Page: After Pizza Express he’s still cooking up a storm

After taking Pizza Express into the FTSE 250, David Page is once again building national restaurant chains such as Gourmet Burger Kitchen and The Bombay Bicycle Club. The new business is called Clapham House and it's one of Britain's fastest-growing companies.

Entrepreneurs

Brian Hamill: Headhunting honcho

Brian Hamill saunters into Imprint's swish Sheraton Street headquarters in swanky Soho in exuberant spirits. He has been celebrating Europe's Ryder Cup victory over the Yanks and soon begins recounting why he's an authoritative voice in the recruitment sector, rather than the Irish rugby legend or superstar golfer he once dreamt of becoming.

Entrepreneurs

Dealing with disaster

It’s understandable that the day-to-day concerns for an owner-manager will be to keep customers happy, while also seeking opportunities to grow the business. Quite often, a disaster recovery plan will be at the lower end of a ‘to do’ list.

Entrepreneurs

Maria Kempinska: Stand-up success

For 25 years Jongleurs has been the stage on which tomorrow’s TV stars have proved themselves. Paul Merton, Rory Bremner, Graham Norton and Ruby Wax all learnt the art of stand-up at a venue that was created using a £300 overdraft by the daughter of Polish refugees.

Entrepreneurs

Tim Richards: In a room with Vue

Vue's management buy-out positioned the UK's second largest cinema chain to play a leading role in the transformation of cinematic entertainment.

Entrepreneurs

Maria Kempinska: Stand-up success

For 25 years Jongleurs has been the stage on which tomorrow’s TV stars have proved themselves. Paul Merton, Rory Bremner, Graham Norton and Ruby Wax all learnt the art of stand-up at a venue that was created using a £300 overdraft by the daughter of Polish refugees.

Entrepreneurs

Tim Richards: In a room with Vue

Vue's management buy-out positioned the UK's second largest cinema chain to play a leading role in the transformation of cinematic entertainment.

Entrepreneurs

David Reiss: staying in control

In the notoriously fickle world of fashion it’s rare to find a name that has persisted over the decades without either collapsing under the weight of its own ambitions or lapsing into corporate uniform.

Entrepreneurs

Drive personnified: Toni Mascolo

Passion matters. It is why entrepreneurs start businesses. It is what persuades others to get involved, as employees, customers or suppliers. It is a sustaining force during bad times. But it is not necessarily inexhaustible. Successful growth creates plenty of ways that can diminish its force.

Entrepreneurs

Freshminds is taking a fresh approach to recruitment consultancy

Research and recruitment consultancy FreshMinds, founded six years ago by two bright young graduates, Caroline Plumb and Charlie Osmond, has never looked back. It has doubled in size every year, reached £5 million turnover and lists 30 of the UK’s top FTSE 100 corporates among its clients.

Entrepreneurs

Alistair Baker: Entrepreneurial to the core

Alistair Baker, the innovator who has led Microsoft UK for the past two years, talks to GrowthBusiness about leadership, change-management and how the corporation is more than geared up for the next great turn in the technology cycle.