Is the right team the driving force behind the success of a growing business, or the initiative of the individual? Adam Austerfield, Global Market Development Director, LSE Enterprise, was among a panel of leading entrepreneurs and investors debating this divisive question during the keynote debate at the 2nd International Bar Association (IBA) Global Entrepreneurship Conference, 23 – 25 May 2016 in Barcelona, Spain.
The conference encouraged a lively and interactive questioning of the panel by the audience. Important themes were tackled over the main two days of the conference by different specialist panels of speakers and moderators, encouraging energetic discussions.
Adam Austerfield was joined on the stage for the keynote debate between Martin Brandt CEO, (Erwin Hymer Group); Javier Faus Founder and CEO, (Meridia Capital); Christophe Laurent (Lenovo EMEA General Counsel); and Carlos Muñoz Founder and CEO, (Volotea) and moderated by Thomas Kaiser-Stockmann. Adam briefly presented his experiences of the changing demand within corporations for the kind of talent that is needed for new, start-up and family businesses, and the kind of adaptable, flexible person that is needed to prosper and support entrepreneurial drive from founding members – and to look across the academic disciplines for talent is more important than technical expertise for many leadership functions.
Whether you believe the team or the individual is fundamental to business success, for effective growth it is recognised that choosing and retaining the best people is crucial to the growth of a successful enterprise. The challenge of incentivising talent was covered by a specialist panel on the first full day of the conference. This included ways to encourage business partners, managers and key employees to buy into business objectives, and the associated pitfalls. A separate panel deliberated the crucial question of funding business growth and the key legal and business aspects of different sources of growth capital.
Once the building of the two important pillars of money and human talent has been accomplished, what else is needed for a stellar business? As your business grows it needs to organise itself with decision structures and reporting systems, but how do you stop this descending into unnecessary bureaucracy and inflexibility? Another expert panel discussed how to preserve the spirit of company entrepreneurship and innovation as your business grows.
The final day of the conference faced the potentially thorny issue of diverging and conflicting stakeholder interests. Experts offered advice on aligning stakeholder and business interests to ensure a win-win situation. The conference concluded by encouraging the audience and the Chairs to share stories from their own businesses to share practical insights. This was used as an exercise to showcase the “dos” and “don’ts” for lawyers who advise entrepreneurs.
Contact us using the form below to explore what consultancy or tailored training we can offer in this area.
