Some of the biggest names in business shared their stories and top tips for growth at FUEL Manchester 2024.
No.1 Circle Square, in Oxford Road, Manchester, hosted Wednesday’s event, which was attended by more than 110 people.
FUEL is unique in the calendar as it’s effectively two events in one, starting with a business breakfast and ending with a series of masterclass sessions for a select cohort of businesses.
The event was sponsored by GM Business Growth Hub; Bruntwood SciTech; and the University of Salford Business School.
Steve Byrne, CEO of Travel Counsellors, cut short his holiday to speak at the event.
The company has 2,000 travel entrepreneurs worldwide and has just hit £1bn sales for the first time, with plans to reach £2bn in five years.
Byrne never used the word ‘survival’ during Covid because he said it would have sent out the wrong message to staff and customers.
He also said he preferred to focus on looking after his customers rather than obsess about being a unicorn.
Clare Roberts, Dez Derry and Steve Byrne at FUEL Manchester
Clare Roberts founded Kids Planet in 2008 with her father, John Hoban, because of the challenge of childcare for her own daughters.
After launching in two locations in Warrington and Widnes, Kids Planet has expanded to 213 nurseries and is now the UK’s third largest nursery group in the UK.
The company now looks after 30,000 children and in 2021 Fremman Capital acquired a majority stake, which provided a successful exit for BGF.
Despite the size of the company Roberts insists on attending a weekly management meeting to discuss any accident reports and complaints and said having the right values was key to the company’s success.
Entrepreneur Dez Derry bravely opened up about his tough childhood and how the experience shaped a lot of his business success.
Born in Walsall he was the eldest of of three brothers and spent his early years in and out of foster care.
In 1990 at the age of eight he and his siblings became one of the first Indian families to be adopted by a white family in the UK and went on to found and exit his business Blume.
Dr Richard Whittle is a fellow in AI and human behaviour at the University of Salford Business School and warned about the growing menace of ‘deceptive design’ or ‘dark patterns’.
This is when companies trick users into doing things they don’t want and several members of the audience said they’d fallen victim to the problem.
Dr Richard Whittle, University of Salford Business School
Amazon were recently fined $8m in Poland for misleading consumers about the conclusion of sales contracts on its online marketplace and several tech giants are being investigated.
Jack Maher, head of flexible workspace, of Bruntwood SciTech, warned about the lack of new Grade A office space coming down the line in Manchester because of the 30 per cent increase in build costs and the higher cost of capital.
Mehdi Kordi, the former head coach of the Dutch Olympic cycling team, shared his four key pieces of advice for achieving success.
Despite never having a ridden a racing bike in his life he helped take the Dutch team from relative obscurity into serial gold medal winners.
He split his approach into four key areas: star performers don’t always make great leaders; plan backwards, not forwards to achieve your goals; focus on major gains rather than marginal gains; and a ‘win at all cost’ mentality is flawed.
The other speakers at the breakfast event were: Guy Remond, founder of EHE Ventures; branding expert Issy Panton; Elizabeth Scott MBE, executive director, Turing Innovation Catalyst Manchester; and Frazer Durris, exited founder at Businesswise Solutions and founder of Trigpoint Ventures.
The second part of FUEL saw a cohort of nearly 30 business take part in a series of masterclasses on the themes of raising funds; people and performance; technology; and growth planning.
The experts were Charlotte Ashton, founder/CEO, Implicit Advisory; Andy Duckworth, co-founder of eComplete; Adam Ward, founder/CEO, Airtime Rewards; Janine Smith, director at GM Business Growth Hub; Beckie Taylor, co-founder of Tech Returners; Anna Dick, CTO of Capsule; fractional CTO George Goudie; plus Dr Whittle, Durris, Remond; Derry and Kordi.