Business in Glasgow

BiG would like to tell you about an event that is maybe of interest.

On Monday 23rd May 2011, there will be a networking lunch with 6 senior business men and women visiting from Times Square Church New York, in conjunction with Inverclyde Christian Iniative.

The guests are over as part of 5 day business mission initiative, to share their wisdom and experience and will be also be speaking at a leadership & development conference on Saturday 21st May 2011. (Full details available on request).

Each member of this exciting and influential team are excited to be coming to Scotland, they cover a broad range of issues from a business and leadership perspective.

Due to the diversity of the group and to allow the audience to get to know them and build relationship, the format will be “an audience with the team”.

They will take 5 minutes each to talk about their particular area of expertise and then we will network informally with each other and the team over a buffet lunch, before opening up the panel again to questions and answers.

If you would like to attend lunch on Monday 23rd May please RSVP to gayle_cattanach1@hotmail.com and please do extend an invite to other people you know who may be interested in either attending the business networking lunch or Saturday’s Leader’s Equipping event.

Lunch cost £7.50 to cover buffet lunch, Saturday conference free, bookings for conference please email info@inverclydeawake.com.

The same format of lunch will also be running In Edinburgh on Tuesday 24th May, should this be of interest please also let me know.

This event is not being run by BiG but we are delighted to promote as we feel it will be of benefit to support the business community.

Visiting team

• Jerry Hampton: 34 year former senior executive of Fortune top 50 global companies, including Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and AXA. Also, an Elder, Board Member and ministry leader at Times Square Church.
• Steve Helms: 30+ year senior executive at Mars Inc-makers of M&M’s. Process Management and Efficiency expert
• Lorenzo Fragala: Commercial Real Estate Developer dealing with all aspects of state, city and municipal leadership.
• Darrell Bridgers: Corporate Investment Banking Attorney.
• Anthony Lenza: Litigating Attorney and Partner of firm.

This event is a private luncheon with Peter Shaukat to hear his stories of successful entrepreneurial mission. This seminar will appeal to an audience of senior managers and executives (and others) who would like to hear more about this theme and consider becoming involved as an investor/participant/mentor in overseas mission initiatives.

Peter will talk about:

• Business as mission
• The fund he runs invests in small and medium sized enterprises in developing countries
• Opportunities for business people in Glasgow to become involved in business as mission initiatives

Business as Mission and Business for Mission are two different, albeit valid concepts. Business for Mission tends to place the focus on profits generated from a business being gifted to support a ministry or charitable activities. On the other hand, Business as Mission focuses on the business entity itself and all its operations and outcomes as an integrated, intentionally missional calling, in order to advance the community in which it operates.

The vision of the Fund is Business as Mission to enable entrepreneurs and business professionals to develop and lead profitable and effective companies in the Arab world and Asia by providing investment capital. The Fund’s objectives are to see Business as Mission companies established that will:

1. Achieve sustainable profitability
2. Produce goods and services that add quality to life
3. Create local employment
4. Operate ethically
5. Have community impact

We do look forward to hearing from you should this be of interest and do hope you can join us to listen to the interesting & inspiring case studies Peter will share and may consider becoming involved

We are delighted to have Iain MacLeod with us on Tuesday 10th May 2011, former Divisional Director with GE Money, to share with us The Sales Secrets of Ancient Wisdom Writers. Iain will explore 10 principles or practices that you can apply that will help you increase your business sales today.

Iain states:

“In tough economic times, it can be a challenging to achieve business growth and if ever there was a need to review sales tactics and strategies it is right now. “

In this short workshop, you will travel back 3000 years to review important principles and practices laid down by three ancient wisdom writers, (a Philosopher, a Prophet and a National Leader) which all have a particular relevance to sales and marketing today and when applied within your business, can have a transforming impact on your sales performance. Iain’s high performing sales team was recognised as the “Best Team in Europe”.

Come along to find out more and you will come away with five sales practices that you can apply immediately to increase your sales results and enjoy some informal networking and connecting at the same time.

Report

Jack Quinn

Iain brought to us a succinct talk containing practical five points based on his understanding of some of the Hebrew prophetic and wisdom writings with a little dash of Greek philosophy thrown in.

Iain reminded us that most people don’t like selling, that we prefer buying and that sales people used to be top ranking in the hated professions or occupations.

Iain reminded us that selling is about building a relationship and the five principles of successful selling in his experience have been the following:

1. Be structured: He based this part of the talk on Isaiah the prophet with respect to the harvesting of cummin. He reminded us that hard work is essential in being a good salesperson and the important point is to do the preparation work, to cultivate and build relationships. To know your product, to know your customer and remember ‘value’ is what the customer discerns and needs rather than what you believe they need. In the analogy that Isaiah the prophet gave it is about a) cultivating, b) planting c) harvesting and he reminded us that in the harvesting of cummin a light rod is required rather than a very hard stick!
2. Be authentic: The second aspect is based on his reading from Aristotle who in his day realised that being authentic was critical in being a good business person. The integrity of the message is equally important to the authenticity of the salesperson. So the ethos of what is being sold and the person selling it is important. If the business model is out of line with who the person is who is trying to sell, then the buyer immediately understands and perceives this almost subconsciously. You need to have a passion about what you are selling, whatever that product might be, and the most important feature of all in dealing with your clients is to be honest.
3. Set goals: Iain based this practical point on the Wisdom Writings of Solomon. In order to set goals we need to be clear about what our goals are and to be aware of the temptation to continually add to them and expand before we are capable of meeting the demands that we are creating.
4. Stay on track: The more we do sometimes the more confused our customers become. We need to stay focused on what our primary task is.
5. Get busy: If we are waiting to get it completely right before we get started, we will never get started. If we wait until we are the perfect salesperson we will never succeed in selling anything.

Iain then summarised his talk by pointing us to his website, where we can link up for some further practical points. The free offer was made to those who attended the seminar and those who did not attend are free to download the slides and the exercises.

We are deeply indebted to Iain’s enthusiastic, simple, practical and succinct way he presented his topic today, giving us more ammunition in our armoury to become better business people.

The Independent published an interesting article recently entitled God’s Bankers: How evangelical Christianity is taking a hold of London’s financial institutions. Well worth a read.

One aspect that came out of the article was the reluctance of people working in the city to be open about their faith, or even to let their colleagues know that they were Christians. Do you find the same issue in your workplace?

Please discuss below.