Gavin Flynn

The vital role that the VCT industry plays in supporting UK economic growth and job creation is highlighted in this article from the The Association of Investment Companies (AIC) #vct #vcta #venturecapital #economicgrowth

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A few thoughts about what the recent changes to our political landscape might ask of each of us over the coming months. To be followed in the next few weeks by insights on the same theme from our Senior Advisory team…

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This is what your local Chamber of Commerce can achieve and in particular the West & North Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce. From regional, to national to global connections.

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It’s always great to talk to the members of Bristol Bears and learn. The lessons that can be shared between sport and business are well documented, but it’s always useful to reaffirm that great performance is so often built on the basics, the little things that can often be overlooked. Great to talk to you Amber Reed. #influentialchange

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The Scottish Funding Council, known as SFC, is responsible for providing financial support to Scotland's higher and further education institutions, which include 26 colleges and 19 universities. With an annual investment of approximately £2 billion, the council supports various aspects such as learning and teaching, skills development, research, innovation, staff, and infrastructure. Each educational institution outlines its objectives in alignment with ministerial priorities and SFC's strategic plan to receive funding. Additionally, the council assists colleges in offering financial aid to students up to the Higher National Certificate (HNC) level. Beyond HNC level, students can seek funding from the Student Awards Agency for Scotland (SAAS). For more details, students can refer to the guidance available. also provide funding to colleges to offer bursaries to students (up to, but not including, Higher National Certificate (HNC) level). Funding for students studying at HNC level and above is available through the Student Awards Agency for Scotland (SAAS).

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We're changing things up at University of Sussex Business Angels. Change of venue - we're heading into the city of Brighton to a gorgeous room with a view. Change of time - we're hosting our next pitch event in the evening. What won't change - the quality of companies coming through to pitch for investment. Want to see them in action on Wednesday 3rd July? DM me and I'll get you one of the last few investor seats remaining. Please like and share with your networks. #angelinvestment #angelinvestor #pitch

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I’m very proud to announce that Borough Market has been awarded the Living Wage Champion Award for our commitment to advancing the real Living Wage within the hospitality sector. Since joining Borough Market in 2021, I've made it my mission to ensure we’re a driving force within the London Living Wage community. As a Living Wage accredited employer, we’re committed to using the Market’s platform as a world-famous food destination to champion, explain and celebrate the Living Wage to the benefit of our community, customers and our trader body. Through the work we’re doing to implement our 2030 Strategy and embed best practice with the Borough Market Food Policy, we’re focusing on what it means to be truly sustainable. Social and economic sustainability is one of the key pillars of this work and I’m passionate about bringing everyone who trades in the Market on this journey with us. I'm happy to say that dozens of the independent businesses that trade here (27 at the last count, and the number continues to grow) have joined us in gaining Living Wage accreditation of their own. And, as part of the Southwark Action Group and Southwark Council’s Living Wage Places Steering Group, our involvement in raising awareness has seen 330 businesses become accredited in the borough, meaning more than 5,000 employees are now paid the London Living Wage. For me, doing this has always seemed a complete no-brainer. Borough Market is run by a charitable trust whose stated purpose is to serve the community. The amazing people who staff the Market, keeping it clean, safe and secure, supportive of our traders and welcoming for the millions of visitors who pass through each year, are a fundamental part of that community. So, it’s incumbent upon us to make sure that their needs are being served along with everyone else’s. That means paying them properly, with absolutely no exceptions, and giving them the comfort of knowing that their pay will keep pace with the cost of living, at the very least. You can read more about our commitment to social and economic sustainability in our Food Policy and find out what being Living Wage accredited means to our traders here. #LivingWageChampions

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Well how about that? ☺️ No.2 firm in the #world in ActionCOACH It's an honour to be part of such a driven team and clients. A powerful community. Let's keep this up team! ActionCOACH Bristol, Bath and Somerset Gary J Keating James Cook Vicki Cook Jodie Murray Jane Carvell Corinne Lewis Duncan McKechnie CA, FRAeS Rik T. Electra Savvidou ActionCOACH UK ActionCOACH Global Association of Business Mentors (ABM) Enterprise Nation #coaching #actioncoach #mentoring #businesscoaching

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Lot's of good stuff coming for those in Adur and Worthing shortly, if you are based here, then have a good look at all this useful information

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A week today the Cabinet Secretary will be the last of my former colleagues in Downing Street to give evidence to (this round) of the Covid Inquiry. I’ve been following the testimonies of former colleagues and those whose lives were unalterably changed by the pandemic and reflecting on how we can be better prepared for the inevitable next one. So far, technology has only had a passing mention in the inquiry. This is an oversight. It’s a quick-win to prepare for the next pandemic. Reflecting on where it worked, where it didn’t and fixing it (now!) would bring a step-change in our ability to fight whatever comes next. Where it went right it changed the game. When it went wrong - it cost lives. https://lnkd.in/ekTXvHh2 There is a lot of focus in the inquiry around personalities and who swore about who (I experienced it as a tough, but highly respectful environment). This misses the point. We’re not going to be able to control for who’s in power at the next pandemic. Nor who finds who insufferable. What we can control is the systems, technology and processes we put in place and keep improving. Systems, apps, data lakes, dashboards were build en-masse. Most were the first of their kind in government. Some I built at 3am in desperation, some were built by my team in Number 10. Most by teams and teams of people working tirelessly across government whose dedication I will forever be in awe of. It deserves at least as much scrutiny as the sweary WhatsApps!

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Our latest calculations on the real value of the fee cap. The loss of real resource to inflation alone from the past 3 months roughly equates to needing to cut around 700 university staff posts a month (all other things being equal). With weak aggregate UK demand volumes on top, and likely fluctuating PGT international numbers, the pressure is even greater - see Times Higher Education Phil Baty here https://lnkd.in/eWERUNvE More on the inflation and university funding analysis from dataHE here - https://lnkd.in/eQMuS5Xs

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Interesting data in here on drivers for study choices, with a probably not surprising gender split in some places. Beyond this, I am curious if location is proving to be an influence; are prospective students increasingly choosing to stay at home and attend a local institution? And, is this driven by cost and / or is there a post-COVID trend? What would this mean for institutions, graduates, and local communities. I can certainly imagine fewer house parties and maybe some parental nudging to not miss lectures. But what would it mean for access and choice, and how might that affect future career choices? What would this mean for widening participation?

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Meanderings of an exited founder - Real World Consultants part 3. TL/DR Andy Maher - helped us amend our board pack and change the metrics we focused on. Otto Stevens vast network and knowledge on M&A deals. To those that need more context...... When we hit around 35 or 40 employees. Probably £7 or 8 Million turnover and and EBITDA of circa £600k we started to think about exit. We were recommended to an organisation called Waypoint. We met them. They told us what they could do so we onboarded them. In our eyes, exit was at least a 5 year process. The thing consultants bring (particularly first time business owners can't) is experience. We'd never prepared for a sale before and whilst we could research it - we'd still be fumbling about in the dark..... Waypoint gave us Andy Maher and the things he (and their team) helped us do? - Revisit our Vision, Values and Mission - Form our leadership team. - Set up Pillars to manage part of our business. (People, Revenue, CSA, Clients, Finance) - Establish an EMI. (note here - our corporate structure didn't help. In fact made this more painful that it should've. Probably worth an update further down the line as this simply didn't occur to us at the time of setting it up and cost us some cold hard cash to amend) - Changed the metrics on our board pack. Why is the last sentence important? Up until this point, we had a board pack that was predominately Finance based. Effectively a cross between a Finance and Sales document. Sure we looked at monthly numbers, creditors and debtors. We did a bit of forecasting - but crucially we didn't look at areas we could judge ourselves outside of this. The bits we added above and beyond revenue, P&L and pipeline? Revenue per head, pitches delivered, pitches won, percentage of profit v net revenue, payroll v total net revenue plus a few others relating to value. Nothing too drastic and as with most of these things we probably should've known this already. As I've said, when it's your first time doing this you're fumbling in the dark. The phrase "you don't know what you don't know" is never more true. I think Andy Brown summed it up on an earlier comment of his - "when you're inside the bottle you can't always see the label on the outside". Kingpin then went on to have a great year of growth. Was it because of the above? Not totally - clearly you have to still sell, recruit world class talent and put in a shift, but it definitely helped. It also amended my mindset at least. There's also a nod here to Otto Stevens. At this point our value in terms of "deal ready" wasn't there for Waypoint. However he sat myself and Mirza Fur down and explained the process to us, told us what to expect and was always available for advice. It's the "been there and done it" before and indeed more than a few times that is invaluable. That's where "Real World Consultants" come into their own. If you're still with me? Part 4 to follow.... www.lj2.co.uk

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Successful business programmes are all about making a difference and stimulating ACTION

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Do your employees have access to the most important influencer of their success? For more, please visit our website Lead4transformation.org. #leaders #leadershipdevelopment #itsthemanager #manager #development For more on this, please visit our website lead4transformation.org

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How to take on an apprentice without having to employ them directly...

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Easier said than done but a straight forward view on the evolution of a start up. My own metaphor for scaling a business is thinking of the resources and capabilities like a piece of elastic. You stretch each piece until it almost breaks but then need to buy a new one to get to the next level (0-£1m, £1-3m, £3-5m, £5-10m, £10-20m etc). At each level, just before the ‘break point’ you make good relative profit, but then have to invest in the next, bigger piece of elastic to allow growth. Eg Extended management team, new systems, new digital assets, new market entry etc and profit tends to go backwards whilst the new elastic is being put in place (and things can be hairy as the old one is very stretched). Sometimes you’ll be raising money to buy this new piece of elastic. The new piece then allows you to stretch to the next threshold, again with profitability jumping quickly at max stretch (but then you have to reinvest again….) No surprise that timing an exit or fund raise to when the elastic is at max stretch is great for valuation, but have ‘eyes wide open’ for the disruption ahead as the new elastic gets designed, bought and implemented. Then off you go again to the next level… all underpinned by a strategy and constantly relevant offer that delivers the growth.

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🌳🌲 Reimagining the UK’s Net-Zero Strategy 🌍🌱 The UK, a pioneer in committing to net-zero by 2050, now needs to lead by action. Our Future of Britain, Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, initiative offers a fresh policy agenda for technological innovation to drive a sustainable future. The new report from Tone Langengen, Hermione Dace and Lindy Fursman urges a reimagined net-zero strategy, posing the difficult question: how can politicians expand their focus from UK #climate targets to global solutions? < Link 🔗 https://lnkd.in/eFwnktF6> Key Points: 1. Global Challenge: While the UK has made strides in reducing emissions, global cooperation is essential, especially with developing countries where emissions are rising. 2. Domestic Complexity: Future reductions will be tougher, requiring comprehensive decarbonisation of buildings, transport, and industry. 3. Shift Focus: From targets to tangible actions that support technology development and global adoption. 4. Policy Overhaul: Enhance legislation to support innovation, streamline government coordination, and boost climate R&D. 5. Market Creation: Shape markets to favour clean technology, leveraging tools like carbon taxes, funding, and revenue guarantees. 6. International Leadership: Expand R&D cooperation, promote technology transfer, and foster green industrialisation globally. Innovation and technology are our pathways to achieving net-zero, ensuring economic opportunities and environmental sustainability. Let's lead by example! 🌱🔧 #NetZero #Innovation #Sustainability #ClimateChange #Technology #FutureOfBritain #UK #ClimateAction #Investment #RandD

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