Sage advice for young business

Mar 2 2009 by Andrew Mernin, The Journal

IN A small office on a Washington trading estate last week, the man who created a North East behemoth may well have helped spawn another baby giant set to take over the world.

Graham Wylie, one of the founders FTSE 100 global software empire Sage, spent the day advising young entrepreneur John Bartlett on how to take his fledgling business forward.

Mr Bartlett, who runs Washington software outfit OnePoint Systems, won the chance to gain valuable advice from one of the North East’s most successful business leaders in history, thanks to an nebusiness competition.

But the meeting of minds was far from a mere PR stunt or just a meet and greet opportunity with Wylie – who also now heads up fast-growing Newcastle IT empire TSG.

In fact, they spent most of the day holed up in a small back office crunching numbers, analysing business plans and coming up with a strategy to help Bartlett follow in Sage’s footsteps.

Mr Bartlett said: “Graham has offered us some fantastic insights from his own experiences... so there will be changes on the back of his advice today. There were a few places where he pointed out we could have done things differently. He had a very good way of putting things to us that in hindsight now seem obvious and simple.”