Purveyor of zip and energy

Aug 21 2009 By Alastair Gilmour, The Journal

MONDAY mornings can often be ... Monday mornings. To avoid a true-to-form beginning, however, tune into Start The Week With Carole Beverley.

It’s not really a television programme or radio series, merely a whimsical suggestion – Carole is the chief executive of the Entrepreneurs’ Forum who not only fizzes with energy and enthusiasm but bubbles up a whole thesaurus-full of synonyms; energy, exuberance, liveliness, vitality and zip, so there’s no room for complacency in her company.

She is the driving force behind a framework that has infused the North East with a sustainable entrepreneurial culture. The Forum delivers millions of pounds of added value for the region by bringing together like-minded entrepreneurs to share knowledge, contacts and inspiration in a confidential, non-trading environment. Board members include Sir Peter Vardy, Tom Maxfield, Graeme Lowdon, Paul Callaghan and Lorna Moran. And Carole Beverley and her team pull the strings.

For most people, entrepreneurship is something somebody else does; you have to have a Big Idea; you have to have money. A quick look around should make them realise that not only do they know an entrepreneurial person but opportunities are there for everybody.

Keith Miller of Miller International started with a mobile welding kit in the back of a van (propelled by the words from his bank manager who warned his parents about putting their house up as a loan guarantee) and Brian Jobling of Eutechnyx was paying team bonuses at the same time as his wife was complaining that they didn’t have an income.

“We want people to know that the people in the Entrepreneurs’ Forum are just like you,” says Carole. “When we started six years ago the feeling was, get a group of entrepreneurs together to talk to each other? Are you kidding?

“We now have 350 members with an aggregate sales turnover of probably £5.2bn, employing 40,000 people in the region. This is serious, given that it’s a region with 67% of employees in the public sector. We call it an entrepreneurial revolution – and if we don’t stimulate it, who will?”

Carole describes the Entrepreneurs’ Forum in sporting terms – sport is big in her book – a pyramid with elite “athletes” at the top supporting a base of top professionals pushing their companies to ever-greater success.

“Then we’ve got these amazing people pressing to get upwards, saying ‘I want to be like them’,” says Carole.

“This is what you need in a region that people elsewhere still believe is full of flat caps and whippets. Here we are
pioneering some fantastic things.

“It’s a group of great practitioners who want to share the knowledge of how they’ve taken their journey forward – the good bits and the bad bits – with the bad bits usually the best of advice for people to shortcut. I’m here because of this organisation. I’m here because I’m in the business of people.

"Because the Forum is not-for-profit and for the people who want to put something back and share their knowledge for nothing, I always call it ‘the board you can’t afford’.

“It’s been phenomenal for me, I always get a real buzz out of it. We have a campaign called If We Can, You Can, which is trying to normalise entrepreneurship because people watch television and see Alan Sugar and Dragons’ Den – don’t get me wrong, they’ve done an awful lot for entrepreneurship – but they think, ‘that’s someone not like me’.

“They see the millionaire lifestyle but that’s just the sexy bit for entertainment. But we say it’s just ordinary folk doing extraordinary things and you don’t need an idea, you don’t need money. The Entrepreneurs’ Forum has five key products. It’s got the wonderful gatherings, massive events for 300 to 400 people. The conference this year was probably the best ever.

“Then we’ve got the voice of the entrepreneurs who can go to Government etc but not to lobby and not with a political agenda. We’ve got a massive mentoring project which still staggers me.

“We’re part of a fabulous connectivity that puts something on the GDP of the region – if I send out an email saying I’m looking for a contact in Southern India, I’ll get three or four messages back. And I’ve got the biggest ‘black book’ in the country. Do you know we’re only two telephone calls away from the Queen?”

Away from the office, Carole sits on the committee of the foundation of the late Sir Bobby Robson and is a trustee of the charity Cash For Kids. In return, they receive the commercial benefit of years of experience in marketing and sponsorship – plus some of that zip and energy.

She says: “I’ve got a band of people (at the Entrepreneurs’ Forum) who give me direction and they’ve given me inspiration, but they’ve also given me the time to grow a great business.

“We are so agile, it’s vital to know where the heartbeat is. It all keeps me awake at nights, but in a nice way – I get
involved, that’s my character. I’m definitely an architect at getting the right framework together.

“We’re building very useful partnerships with the Asian Business Forum, Young Enterprise and The Prince’s Trust. We’ve got Science City, Digital City, Codeworks and every sector you know, plus we’ve got terrific support from One North East to help us find the next Sage. And we’ll do it.

“I’m an adopted Geordie, a Lancashire lass, and I’m so proud to bring people to the North East. It’s in your skin, it gets right underneath.”

Right there beside the exuberance, the liveliness and the vitality.