Top Business Guru Comes to Kendal

20 April 2009

A TOP business guru is appearing in South Lakeland at a special evening designed to help local employers not only survive the current economic down-turn but also thrive when it is over. The evening, based on lessons learnt by, and research on, competitors in a round the world yacht race, is a joint venture between Kendal College and VA consultants.

The event, on Tuesday, April 28, is being hosted by Kendal College in its purpose-built conference and presentation suite.
The keynote session will be a joint cabaret-style presentation by Jane Cranwell-Ward, visiting fellow at the world-famous Henley Business School, and Rob Kelly of VA consultants.

Ms Cranwell-Ward was the joint author of Inspiring Leadership: Staying Afloat in Turbulent Times, which examines the lessons learnt during the BT Global Challenge round the world yacht race 2000/1 as a metaphor for understanding the way business leaders must operate in challenging, turbulent, uncertain and highly competitive environments.

The research and the book, which has now been re-printed six times and sells all over the world, were sponsored by BT, who in 2000 were in the same position as most businesses are now, with technological advancements happening so quickly that the company realised they needed to do something special to equip its leaders for the new highly-competitive world.

Ms Cranwell-Ward will show clips of the skippers involved in the race, with the audience invited to say by whom they would like to have been led.
“It’s amazing how people’s characteristics come across so quickly in the short clips,” she said.

The audience will then be invited to measure themselves against ten characteristics of leadership.
Among the key questions that will be addressed are:

What must leaders do to engage and motivate others in these challenging times?
What are the skills and attributes needed to lead for outstanding performance?
What must business leaders do to survive and thrive today and conversely why do some leaders fail?

The event is part of the college’s drive to reach out to businesses in its catchment area of South Lakeland, North Lancashire and Eden, to provide leadership and management training.

The college has built a formidable reputation providing NVQ levels 2 and 3 education for 16 to 18-year-olds and apprenticeships, particularly in vocational training and for arts and crafts.

But the completion of the £12 million refurbishment of its Milthorpe Road site has provided the facilities for extending its link with local industry, with fully equipped conference, presentation and seminar rooms.
In the college’s strategy for 2008 to 2011, a brighter future, one of the top priorities is employer engagement.

The aim is for firms to see the college as not only providing education at apprenticeship stage, but also throughout people’s career development, equipping them for supervisory roles, middle management and ultimately senior management.

The college has already appointed a business development manager, Andrew Kent, who was managing director of a raw plastics company in Kendal. He is talking to businesses about how the college can help them develop staff.

In addition a new group of experienced associate specialists have been recruited.

Although there are several high profile training providers in the Lake District, they tend to focus on national and multi-national corporations who have the resources to send teams to the Lakes.

Local small and medium sized businesses, which make up the vast majority of companies in the sub-region, need a different, smaller-scale bespoke training service, which the college is aiming to supply.

College principle, Graham Wilkinson, said: “The purpose is for Kendal College to get more clients for level - 4 and above provision of training.

“We aim to provide life-long training as people’s careers develop and by getting involved with helping businesses develop their managers and leaders we will also become ever more aware of their training needs at all levels,” he added.