We heard this week that Sir Terry Matthews’ entrepreneurial boot camp – Alacrity – is starting to recruit its first ten people down the road in Newport.
I thoroughly agree with his notion that Wales has a host of entrepreneurs just needing the right conditions to flourish and give backbone to our economy.
Only a few days ago I saw further evidence of this at Caerphilly Business Forum’s annual awards. The annual celebration of success in this corner of Wales brought together a wonderfully mixed group of people.
There were some familiar faces among those shortlisted, which was reassuring. But, perhaps most interestingly, there were plenty of newcomers who we hadn’t seen before, which is encouraging.
Among them were people who’d learned the ropes in the business world through hard work, experience and innate business sense. Others, however, had studied and trained long and hard to learn the new skills that would help them launch their embryonic ideas and build them into successful businesses.
Esther Apoussidis, the winner of our Women in Business Award, is in the latter camp. She’s seen business at the highest level working for blue chip companies and international agencies but she retrained with a masters degree in marketing at University of Glamorgan (while raising a family) before launching Coffee Continental in Blackwood.
It’s interesting too that Sir Terry’s recruits will all be recent graduates. Is this standard of training essential? I think to some this is likely to be the difference between having an idea which they don’t know how to nurture and having an idea which they can bring to life.
But not everyone needs to be armed with these skills as many of our winners have proven – and consider ex-barrow boy Sir Alan Sugar, surely the most prominent example.
However, the way we do business is undoubtedly becoming more sophisticated so perhaps highly qualified youngsters will come increasingly to the fore.
Good look to Alacrity’s first intake – we’ll watch your progress with interest.
Andrew Diplock
Chairman, Caerphilly Business Forum
For more information about Caerphilly Business Forum and its events call 029 2125 1395 or email Natalie@cbforum.co.uk