CEO Monthly Issue 6 2018

CEO MONTHLY / ISSUE 6 2018 9 Founded on Innovation, Creativity and a Single-Minded Commitment to Results g pipelines. Access to finance is the second largest problem, whether financing a start-up with sufficient working capital to actually get to market, or securing growth finance on affordable terms. We see great disparities in investment in innovation and in skills training, one of several causes of the UK’s continuing low productivity rate, and challenges in accessing supply chains in several sectors. In conclusion, how did I end up here? I’ve run my own businesses all my life, with the exception of when I started my career in regeneration and social housing in inner London, and a spell in a brand-new gold mine in the Canadian outback. I think producing gold bars in the world’s first non-unionised mines in temperatures regularly around -30 degrees, has to be one of the most memorable experiences I’ve had in my ‘employed’ life! But for me, there’s nothing like the spills and thrills of running your own business. All the sleepless nights, worry, stress, long days and weekends are more than offset by the freedom, the daily opportunities for creativity and innovation, the adrenalin fuel of taking risks, the experience of motivating, mentoring and growing a wonderful team of inspiring people which whom I’m enormously proud of. Most of all, the satisfaction of knowing that your work has made a direct, positive impact on others is a wonderful feeling.