The power of ‘why?’

Business leaders from across the county gathered at the Armathwaite Hall Hotel, on the shores of Bassenthwaite, to hear from strategic business improvement specialist Alec Blacklaw.

Mr Blacklaw, who is based in Melbourne, Australia, is the founder and creator of the Business Improvement Programme (known as the BIP).

In partnership with financial and business advisory experts Armstrong Watson on May 18 and 19, Mr Blacklaw brought the programme to Cumbria, presenting both his own ideas and hosting a selection of speakers covering subjects including marketing, finance and digital strategy.

“The BIP is a special programme for owner-managed, family-owned businesses, that helps them run a truly outstanding business,” said Mr Blacklaw.

“What I say to business owners is to really get clarity of purpose about why you really exist. More important is what your customers, your team and clients get as a result of working with you and how your products and services help them to live a better life and feel a lot better.

“In other words, you need to emotionally connect with them to have an outstanding experience for all parties.

“It’s really the format of the BIP that works, people are in small groups being , forced to work together and hearing from a whole variety of speakers and working on their business in a collaborative way away from their competitors.

“It’s about doing things that matter to help them get great results and build their confidence to get them to work on their business.”

One of the speakers was Paul Dunn, chair of organisation B1G1, which aims to help businesses make a positive impact in the world.

Mr Dunn said one of the most important things businesses could learn was to communicate why they do what they do, rather than focusing on what they produce.

“When you plug into the purpose of what you do it really starts to attract business your way,” he said.

“Differentiation comes from clarity of why, not excess of what. We tend to think it is the other way around but you need to get your ‘why’ and when you do that it’s amazing what happens.”

The BIP was brought to Cumbria by Armstrong Watson, which has developed strong ties with Mr Blacklaw over a number of years via the MSI Global Alliance - a worldwide accounting and legal group - of which he is the chair.

Dave Clarkson, Armstrong Watson’s business development director, said: “This is our way of explaining that as a business we are so much more than just an accountancy practice. We are all about developing business and developing people.

“The Business Improvement Programme does exactly that and we wanted to bring it over here and share it with all the businesses all across the regions.”

One of those who attended was Alison Davis, co-owner of the Carlisle Brewing Company, who won a free place on the programme via a competition with in-Cumbria.

“It was absolutely amazing, so motivational and practical at the same time,” she said. “We expanded last year and obviously it’s a good idea to step away and focus and see what we can do to move things forward. It’s certainly reinforced some things I have already been thinking and it’s definitely given me some confidence that I am looking at the right things and going in the right direction.

“They are really trying to get you to focus on your passion for your business and why you do what you do.”

Sue Coulson, who runs Coulson Associates and the Cumbria Family Business Network, said the sessions had definitely identified changes that she wanted to make in her own company.

“I have taken some great nuggets of information that I am really looking forward to going back and implementing in the business,” she said.

“I think it’s made me look at some areas where I need to realign and look at where my focus should be. It’s really comforting to know I can recognise these things and I can go back and make those changes to turn my way of thinking and the team’s way of thinking to really drive the business to grow and develop.”

What the experts said:

Alec Blacklaw, founder and creator of the Business Improvement Programme: “Ideas are useless unless you implement them. They just stay with you. So what? You’ve got an idea, everybody has them. The hard part is putting them into action, you just have to do them, you just have to start.”

Simon McCaskill, Google trainer: “I would definitely say with Google a big thing is to get focused on pages, not your homepage. It’s the other pages that new business will be searching for and that Google will show them and that can get neglected.”

Paul Dunn, chairman of business advisory company B1G1: “We need to forget that it’s about the product and get that it’s about the difference we can make to our customers and our communities and our world.

“When you get that you get something that is no longer internal, but it’s all about the customers and the difference we are making together.

“If you get that that’s when it becomes really resonant, that’s when your business starts to attract things that right now you are having to chase.”