Scotland: Edinburgh

Meryl Levington, Director of Innovation and Industry Engagement, University of Strathclyde

We will be kickstarting the day with an engaging networking exercise. You will be given a set of innovative questions, and encouraged to get to know your peers. This is your opportunity to share and hear from other business leaders about their journey and challenges. 

Keynote address: The fundamentals of scaling

Many businesses struggle to successfully scale teams whilst maintaining the same effectiveness and outputs per person as when they were smaller. In this keynote address, former COO of Skyscanner and Chief Entrepreneurial Advisor to the Scottish Government, Mark Logan, introduces the fundamental techniques for ensuring effective organisational scaling while preserving high performance.

According to Mark, many businesses with a brilliant product and/or service are unable to take advantage of their traction because of organisational issues. The failure to recognise and seize opportunities is caused by poor structure, and this keynote will help you recognise and avoid internal implosions.

You will gain insights into:

• The key principles to assess your organisation and recognise potential issues
• Differentiating between relevant and irrelevant scaling recommendations and techniques
• Why productivity per person fails during growth and how to mitigate that

Mark Logan, Chief Entrepreneurial Advisor to the Scottish Government, former COO of Skyscanner

In this all-encompassing workshop, co-founder of Doqaru Yekemi Otaru, will take you through all the sales skills and strategies a business leader must possess. This will include identifying and nurturing top sales skills and customers, crafting a distinct value proposition, and building a process that leads to consistent profit performance. You will walk away with a sales and marketing guide that is based on case studies and robust research. Join us to develop best practice with your peers and build long-term goals.

• Understand which sales skills are crucial for long-term success
• Learn how to identify your ideal customer and craft your value proposition
• Develop an understanding of a sales process and how it accelerates business growth

Yekemi Otaru, CEO, YO Ventures

It has become increasingly difficult to motivate and retain staff. How can you ensure you’re keeping employees engaged without sacrificing productivity?  

During this panel discussion, expert practitioners and local business leaders will share tried and tested management tools and techniques that nurture talent recruitment, retention, and development.

Key takeaways will include:  

• Do’s and don’ts when recruiting  
• Cost-effective rewards and performance management  
• Establishing connection, meaning and trust with your team 
• Strengthening and communicating your culture 
• Innovative and agile ways to become an employer of choice 

Chaired by Philip Davies, Director of HeyStrategy  

Patrick Hutchinson, Lecturer in Human Resource Management, University of West Scotland 

Alison Gray, Founder, Skillfluence & Founders360  

Sharon Miller, Founder, Joyworks  

Moving from a large corporation to a small business put David McGowan in a position of having to transition from being a leader, to being a leader and everything else.

The pressure of building an infrastructure from scratch, being an expert in finance and health & safety, all whilst remaining true to the core aspirations of the business, taught David to recognise and pick the right battles.

What to prioritise? When to access new markets? How to grow the brands visibility despite emerging trends? Were all questions that David grappled with and won, join us to find out how.  

Key takeaways: 

• Remaining true to the aspirations of your business
• Balancing being a leader with building a company infrastructure
• Growing you export capabilities
• Staying relevant throughout emerging trends
• Reaching world class standards

David McGowan, Director, Consolidated Craft Breweries  

Meryl Levington, Director of Innovation and Industry Engagement, University of Strathclyde