Business Map

Liz Metin: Tell me a little about yourself.

Harry MacDivitt:  I’ve been an entrepreneur for the best part of 30 years, specialising in business strategy and marketing. I regularly travel abroad, much to the dismay of my wife and have worked with large corporate organisations from around the world. Right now I’m working with entrepreneurs and business owners through The Business Map which I thoroughly enjoy. I’m generally a very cheerful person which I think helps in my professional role as a Business Map expert.

LM: What are your specific areas of expertise?

HM:  I have vast experience in working with corporates, such as Michelin, Nokia,Phillips, BT, DSM, Symantec, . My specialist areas are in sales, marketing and business strategy. Over the last 30 years I have gained experience in working with both corporate and small businesses and have learned something valuable from each experience. From my work I have learned that core business skills are transferable from multi-nationals to one-man-band businesses and it is exactly these core skills that The Business Map is promoting.

I have been working with The GO Group and The Business Map for years and can pass on my experience to business owners and entrepreneurs.

I also believe in challenging business people to think about the way they do things and the reasons behind their processes. It’s human nature to stick to what you know, but if as a business owner you’ve not updated your processes for ten years, you really need to start thinking about why and if there’s a better way. I am also very supportive. Running a business is tough so that element of reassurance is necessary. If someone says something that appears, at first sight, to be outrageously daft, I don’t judge them. I’ve learned over the years that what I may perceive as stupid and nonsensical, others may find makes perfect sense against a different vision. So that’s where I need to start asking questions myself in order to understand where the trainee is coming from. And that’s the great thing about working with entrepreneurs. You learn so much from them because most of them are close to the action. They have the ultimate responsibility for making decisions and living by them, and living with the consequences if they get it wrong!

LM: In your view, what makes a successful entrepreneur?

HM:  There are so many different answers to that question and each of them is correct I’m sure. In my view successful entrepreneurs are determined and make entrepreneurialism a lifestyle choice meaning that everything they do in business comes back to the success and growth of their venture. The successful entrepreneurs I have worked with have a clear sense of what they want to achieve, and they spend their time striving for it.

I firmly believe that entrepreneurs see the world differently, they see opportunities differently and are able to identify the challenges the way others can’t. That’s not to say that that skill can not be taught because it certainly can, but once a business person starts seeing the world through an entrepreneur’s eyes, that’s when success will start to set in.

LM: What do you think you bring to The Business Map? 

HM:  I have worked with many businesses around the world, large and small helping them develop and action plans that, once implemented, really do work. I’m a serial entrepreneur myself so when I share my experiences, it’s genuine because I have been there and done that.

LM: What are your top tips for business strategy?

HM:  First of all, be realistic. You can’t create a global enterprise from scratch in four or five months. Make sure you have meaningful and intelligent business targets that are achievable, otherwise you’ll become disheartened. For example, if you’re a sole trader working from your garage, don’t put business plans in place that talk about achieving a £1million turnover in two years. It’s just not going to happen, unless of course you’ve got some revolutionary piece of technology and you can sell it to a global giant.

Secondly, identify your critical differentiation. What is it that you have that your competitors do not have but your customers want or need? That could be anything from intellectual property to your knowledge of the marketplace to the skills of your staff. Very often businesses take their critical differentiation for granted and don’t identify it. If you don’t identify it, you won’t leverage it as such and therefore you’ll miss opportunities in building strategy.
Finally, a strategy does not have to be set in stone. Treat it as a work in progress. Revise it often and be reactive to the changes around you. That’s the advantage small and medium sized businesses have over larger companies – the ability to be flexible and change their course very quickly to reflect changes in the market.

Liz Metin: Tell me a little about yourself.

Stuart McChlery: I’m a Chartered Accountant by trade, having trained and qualified with what is now KPMG. For the last 25 years I have been training people in the area of finance. I specialise in financial management, working mostly with small and medium sized businesses, the public sector and most recently the oil and gas sector, so I have  wide experience of business finance.  

LM:  In your view, what makes a successful entrepreneur?  

SM: I think a good entrepreneur is someone who is knowledgeable about their field and makes good decisions based on that knowledge. They’re innovative and are not afraid to move in to areas which are in demand, no matter how new they are to them. I think they’re aware of the numbers and have the financial skills to be able to identify what is working and what is not in the business as a whole as well as in individual departments. The ability to change the things that do not work is also very important. 

LM:  What are your top tips for business owners who are trying to get a grasp of the numbers

SM:  That’s a simple one. Know the past, present and future. By that I mean; identify the mistakes you have made in the past and learn from them. Identify and analyse what you’re doing in the present and finally ask yourself where you want to be in the future. 

The common feeling among business owners and entrepreneurs I have trained is that they have very little awareness of the financial systems in their own companies. They often have a “hands-off” approach to finance in the hope that there is an accountant out there who is able to access the numbers, data and everything else they need.  I find that there are two types of people who come through the door – those that believe they know about financial management and those who readily admit they do not know what to do.

LM: What can participants expect from you on The Business Map? 

SM:  Participants can expect an insight in to what management teams need from them in terms of financial information. The training is based on a number of perspectives – one of which is my own experience – but I’ve also done quite a bit of research during my time with The Business Map. From that I’ve gained awareness of what drives business owners and entrepreneurs, what they understand about financial management and perhaps the issues they need guidance in. I would like to think that I also have the communication skills to make the subject thought provoking a less intimidating to those who are, shall we say, numerically challenged.

I would say it’s those that are prepared to learn come away with much more from the programme and become less intimidated by the financial aspects of running a business.  

LM:  Do you believe entrepreneurship can be taught?

SM:  The answer is yes and no. You can teach entrepreneurship in the sense of acquiring the ability to see opportunity and grasp ideas. What you can’t teach is the entrepreneurial flare and imagination, nor the determination that makes it all happen. As a financial expert, I can’t let participants run loose as it were. The thing to remember is that business owners and entrepreneurs are ideas people. They start businesses based on a vision and they’ll do anything to make that vision a reality. Quite often however, the vision takes over and the financial controls which should be in place are lost. It’s my role as a Business Map expert to reign them in and make them aware of the restraints they need to impose to prevent running themselves into the ground.

 Quite often I’m shocked at the number of business owners and entrepreneurs who say they have little grasp of the finances, using the excuse “it’s not what I’m good at, I’m an ideas person”. My response to that is that we all have ideas, but if they realistically want to succeed, they need to get a grip of the numbers, otherwise their ideas will be very short lived. I’m not saying that they have to take full control of the finances, they can hire someone to help them with it, but what they certainly need to know are the basics of financial management.