Last night I attended a talk held in our very own little town, by a true giant of British Innovation and Manufacturing, Edwin Atkin. It was he who created, developed, built-up and eventually sold the Avent brand.
For a man just past 60 who is now worth a few hundred million £, and fresh from dinner with David Cameron the night before, he was truly charming, fascinating, honest, opinionated and indeed earthy at times. I was inspired, but also slightly depressed.
In a broad-ranging, note-free lecture indispersed with several Q&As, he laid out how he succeeded and how he thought others could still. But it came with some less than thrilling predictions and rather startling advice. His adventures with authorities, banks and the like had us in stitches, especially when he could turn the tables on someone who thought they could stop him or rip him off and tell 'em to 'stick it where de sun don't shine'. Often that took a lot of moral and indeed financial courage, despite his obvious security as a businessman, both personally and financially. He is one of the few who I believe when they say 'that's not how I do businesss' (when referring to sharp practice). Make no mistake, he is no softy, and is as sharp as a knife, but he is also someone who retains a sense of honour (and humour) and knows that making a difference does not need to mean abandoning your principles and simply making all you can, as quickly as you can.
He is now semi-retired, and one reason is the erosion of the entrepreneurial spirit by PC mania and bean counters in authority and businesss. He effectively got out before the going gets more tricky. Not good for the likes of me, but he remained encouraging to keep trying. The other shocker was the simple advice to leave the UK to do it. That doesn't mean abandoning it as a market, but to stop thinking of it as the main focus. His gaze was cast West to the USA. This is potentially momentous, but having lived and worked around the globe, I share his belief that this country internally has a remarkably overrated view of itself. Trouble is, this is where my family is, and hopping on a plane to Chicago is not quite an option at the moment.
Worse, other than the opportunity to share such an evening in convivial and intimate surroundings, I am not exactly in networking central. His advice to that was 'get out more'. Well, as he kindly said 'please get in touch', I most certainly will. Who knows who he may be able to introduce me to to get us the business complement we need. Too late for the British Invention Show next week I suspect, but with luck a great possible contact and maybe even mentor for the future.
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