A full recording of our International Women’s Day 2022 celebration: Three Things to Scale-Up Your Business. The event included:
Emma Woods – Chairwoman/NED and former CEO of Wagamama, sharing her Three Things for building inclusive cultures.
Joanna Swash – CEO and Founder of Moneypenny, sharing her Three Things on building a cohesive and effective leadership team.
Daina Spedding – Partner and Investor at BGF, sharing her Three Things on successfully financing your scale-up.
Nadia Manzoor – Founder at The You Effect & Partner at S.W. Mitchell Capital, sharing her Three Things on building the change you want to see.
The Three Things speeches were followed by a panel discussion moderated by Katie Nagy de Nagybaczon, Corporate Partner at CMS.
Some Three Things //
Prioritise the design of your culture.
“Spend time codifying what your culture is,” she said. “Think about how you can nurture those ingredients in terms of who you bring in, but also in terms of the rhythms and rituals you use to celebrate that culture. It’s what gets your team out of bed in the morning and, particularly in tough times like during Covid, will ensure they give discretional effort.”
– Emma Woods // Wagamama
Lose your ego.
“Realise the power of we, you can’t do it all on your own. Your job is to ensure that every team member is able to realise their full potential, and to do that, you have to go and help them!” Joanna claimed. “It really is about the rise of the softer skills, about embracing the people around you and leading by example. Be honest, be open, encourage your team and they will all pull together to achieve the mission of your business.”
– Joanna Swash // Moneypenny
Invest in a good team
Finally, Nadia stressed the importance of recruitment when scaling up: “I was speaking to a successful investor recently and they said the biggest mistake they see start-ups and scale-ups make is not investing enough to get the right people. Allocate a budget, and the time you need, to find the very best people you can because hiring average people will only cost you more in the long-term.” But this is only the first step. “Once you find those people, you must delegate”, she said. “You must trust them to do the job you hired them to do and then look after them.”
– Nadia Manor // S.W. Mitchell Capital