Richard Farleigh On Entreprenuership

Richard Farleigh – what do we know of him? Well we might have seen him on Dragons Den UK and perhaps have enjoyed how he has made decisions on who he invested in such as Reggae Reggae sauce by Levi Roots.

He started the day with sharing his story; he had us hooked. Growing up in an underpriviledged family of 11 children with a background that was troublesome, when he was just 11 years old the family were split apart.

While he did not cover the real impact that had on him I am sure that it informed him and must have made him resilient.

Richard shared his journey in entrepreneurship and what particularly struck me were his comments about the fact that “management is more important than the product”.

Some of his companies have failed spectacularly, but when they have succeeded he comments that he had not always known that they were “winners” he was backing, but when he took his eye off the ball in terms of managing the business they did suffer.

But if you are looking to Richard Farleigh to be an angel investor, he is rarely convinced with web businesses as “most don’t know how to market”. One company who changed his opinion though and  was a worthwhile investment was Net A Porter in which he invested £10,000 and before the recession was said to be worth %500 million.

And a final word from Richard: “analysing and copying the success of other people can be a waste of time – just trying to model Richard Branson will not ensure your success. You also need to look at those companies that failed and learn from them”.

Author: Krishna De speaks, writes and consults on brand engagement and communications to build your visibility, reputation and profits through traditional and social media;  follow her on Twitter @krishnade.

VLOG 18: Future Focus Dublin – Welcome to Ireland

Future Focus comes to you from Dublin, Ireland today, for the fourth of our business conferences, hosted by the Telegraph Business Club, in association with IBM. Before our speakers take to the stage, we caught up with some of our Irish delegates, to discuss their perspectives on technology and communications. We also hear from both IBM and our mid market clients about how they are embracing these new technologies and practices to develop their businesses to become “future proof”…

Presentation Materials From Future Focus – Coming Thursday

After a great day on Thursday, many of you have been asking us for the presentations from the day, to continue learning from all the great insights from the day. Just wanted to post you all a short note to say that these will be going online on Thursday (11th  June). We will pop them up on slideshare so you can find them there, here on the blog or on the Telegraph Business Club Website

As we look forward to tomorrow in Manchester, we want to know your thoughts on the programm so far. Did you attend in London, what were your thoughts on the presentations from the day? what were your key learnings? What did you take away?

Let us know by commenting on any of the content from the day here on the blog, check out the VLOG to see all the videos from London, or join the conversation on Linkedin or on the Facebook Page.

Don’t forget you can also follow all the action from Future Focus in Manchester and Edinburgh this week by following the #futurefocus hashtag or the @FutureFocus twitter feed.

VLOG 6 – Future Focus London – Richard Farleigh

In our second conversation with investor extraordinaire Richard Farleigh (formerly of Dragons Den fame) we talk to him about his views on the future of global economy, and on how taking risks can sometimes blossom or backfire.

VLOG 3 – Welcome to Future Focus London

Welcome to Future Focus 09 – Kicking off in London’s Westminster Central Hall, we chat to Dave Sumner Smith from Telegraph Business Club, about why they have partered with IBM to bring together these events, we also hear from delegates as they look forward to the days events.

VLOG 1: Richard Farleigh – Roads to Recovery

Successful business professionals have an “animal instinct to change and survive” according to Richard Farleigh. He should know. Having been described as backward by a school-teacher, his career path has ranged from stock market trading in Australia and running a hedge fund in Bermuda to investing in technology companies in Britain. His face is most familiar, of course, as one of the investors in the third series of the TV series Dragons Den.

Farleigh is going to bring a hard-edged business flavour to the Future Focus conferences taking place in June, at which he is the keynote speaker. He has commercial interests in dozens of companies and has seen them all having to get “leaner and meaner” over recent months. “Some businesses are still recovering from the shock,” he says, “but cleverer businesspeople have now moved on to focus on strategic planning.”

In the short ‘taster’ video recorded to outline some of the subjects to be covered in his presentation, Richard concludes “Those that don’t adapt to change will die”. When the economy moves back into growth, there is “no way” it will it return to ‘business as usual’. Economic problems have triggered a fundamental change in the shape of business, and the winners will be those that learn about the changes and re-engineer their businesses accordingly

To register for one of the conferences where you can meet him in person, click here.

- Post By: Dave Sumner Smith, Programme Director at Telegraph Business Club

Welcome to Future Focus

The word ‘recession’ is on everyones’ lips, yet already there are quiet murmurs of recovery. Exactly when the economy will grow again is unclear. But recovery is certain.

Equally certain is the fact that some companies will emerge very strongly from the current economic problems. Part of their success will be down to reorganisation and improved efficiency. But most of this rapid success will be due to strategic decisions taken now.

Future Focus is a multi-media programme organised by the Telegraph Business Club to help senior personnel within medium-sized UK businesses to make inspired strategic decisions that will drive business success during economic recovery.

Highlight of the Future Focus programme is a series of full day business conferences around the UK and Ireland taking place:
London – Thursday 4th June
Manchester – Tuesday 9th June
Edinburgh – Thursday 11th June
Dublin – Tuesday 16th June
Chaired by renowned author and TV presenter Dr James Bellini and featuring Dragons Den star Richard Farleigh, these events will:

INFORM – Give an expert insight into future products and technologies that are just about to have a major influence on our life and work
INTERACT – Allowing you to meet and talk with fellow business professionals, expert speakers and Richard Farleigh himself.
INSPIRE – Provide the opportunity to discuss and explore how they can be used to drive business success in the coming months and years.
For further details of the agenda click here.
For further details of the speakers click here.
To register to attend any of the events click here.