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March 31st 2009

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UPF Masterclass Hall of Fame

31/03/09

UPF Masterclass

3:00 to 5:00 p.m.

   Lecture Theatre
   Daresbury Laboratory
   Daresbury Science

& Innovation Campus
Warrington

Presentations (PDF):

(Barnes Kavelle)

(Corum Group)

(KPMG)

(Psycuity)

What was the score: Entrepreneurs vs Professional Services?

Is professional advise valued by entrepreneurs?

Fledgling and serial entrepreneurs attended MTI’s second UPF Masterclass, held at the Daresbury Campus of the Science and Technology Facilities Council on 31 March 2009 to evaluate the services offered by professionals in recruitment, talent management, marketing, legal and consulting and give their opinions.

The event was attended by over 100 people from the tech SME community in the North West, plus a sprinkling of University academics and professional advisers.

The event focused on the pros and cons of small tech companies using professional advisors and these issues were explored from four perspectives that were articulated by:-

Frank Suhadolnik, Barnes Kavelle – Recruitment
John Melotte, Corum Group – M&A Services
John Hughes, KPMG – Fundraising
Philip Hemsted, Psycuity – Psychometric testing

These examples of professional services were scrutinized and then examined using a ‘Dragons Den’ format – but with a slight twist. This time the entrepreneurs, who included Imran Hakim, John Mills, Alasdair Rawsthorne, and Scott White, were on the panel.

Ernie Richardson (far left) chairing the afternoon's events with our guests, from left to right: John Mills, Scott White, Imran Hakim and Alasdair Rawsthorne

The panel’s task was to use their CEO experience to help the audience understand what, in their experience, was helpful and what was hopeless by providing the context of a successful entrepreneur’s expertise. The session was chaired by Ernie Richardson, MTI Managing Partner, who commented afterwards: “Whilst there was no Dragons investment money at stake, there was a lively debate and the final result was probably a score draw.”

The debate covered several interesting and topical issues around the two themes of people and finance. These are obviously too numerous to mention in full but to give a flavour of proceedings here are a few examples.

The extent to which technology and websites such as Linkedin affect the recruitment industry and examples of new models for employing search firms.

For most entrepreneurs selling your business is a once in a lifetime opportunity. So how can you get it right by using an M&A consultancy, or alternatively under what circumstances is it not worth it?

Should professional service provision be a contract for a specific piece of work provided by boutique specialists, or is it better to develop a longer term relationship with a larger organization?

The value of psychometric testing in the very early stages of entrepreneurial team building, which is the stage where getting it wrong would be terminal.

Dr Mark Rahn, MTI Investment Manger,

(left).

The composition of the audience was such that they had very closely aligned interests around the issues facing high growth businesses generally, but particularly in the North West of England. The majority of the group stayed on to enjoy a good networking session afterwards. MTI certainly met some more interesting people, and we are sure other delegates did so too.

The UPF Masterclass series, run by MTI, is designed to help tech entrepreneurs at the University of Manchester, and in the wider North West region, to navigate their way through the pathway from start-up to success by discussing and analyzing real-life examples from our own community.

If you have any suggestions of future themes you would like us to address, both in the university and wider business context, then please email your suggestions to mark.rahn@mtifirms.com