Category: Business Breakfast

Business Breakfast – Reverse Engineer A Successful Business Exit

Yvonne McAulay
Ewan Menzies, Director of Castle Strategy, Mount Parnassus, Concord and CTA Global shared useful tips and advice to plan a successful exit strategy for your business and improve its performance at the Business Breakfast event held by St Andrews Business Club at The Old Course Hotel.

By Sanaa Sachdev   

In our fourth event of the year, Ewan Menzies, Director of Castle Strategy, Mount Parnassus, Concord Systems and CTA Global, shared valuable tips and advice to help members plan a successful business exit.  

 

They included: 

  • Setting the right goals for your business 
  • Making small changes to get big results 
  • Identifying the value drivers in your business 

Ewan involved the attendees with a ‘solve the maze’ activity to demonstrate how working backwards from a desired goal can be easier than beginning at the start and some thought-provoking real-life examples to improve the outcomes in business.  

Thanks to Ewan for sharing his experience and knowledge with us.  

Thanks to the Members, Guests and Visitors who attended the event. 

For more information about Mount Parnassus, go to its website  

For more photos, go to the Album on our Facebook page.   

Learn how to plan a successful business exit at St Andrews event

Yvonne McAulay

People doing business in North-East Fife can learn about developing a well-planned exit strategy for their business at St Andrews Business Club’s breakfast event on April 3.

 

In the fourth event of the club’s season, to be held at the Old Course Hotel from 7.30 am, strategy consultant Ewan Menzies will teach attendees many ways to create and find the right strategy for their business using the Concord action-based system for business planning.

The session will be made up of four interactive learning experiences to deliver a successful exit or take your business to the next level.

Experience and Expertise

 

Mr Menzies entered the management sphere in 2000 and has worked for a variety of medium and large organisations in the private, public and third sectors since. He is now Director of Castle Strategy, Mount Parnassus, Concord and CTA Global. Ewan’s specialisms include helping businesses scale and increase profitability and planning an exit strategy.

Anyone wanting to learn about this important business topic for business, as well as network, is asked to book via Eventbrite.

A full list of this season’s events can be found at http://bit.ly/StABCEvents.

Full details of all the club’s events, most of which are now open to non-members, and how to join are available on its website at www.standrewsbusinessclub.co.uk and Eventbrite.

Business Breakfast – Effective negotiation skills

Yvonne McAulay
Andrew B. Brown gave a well-attended workshop in effective negotiation skills in the event held by St Andrews Business Club at The Old Course Hotel.

In our latest business learning event, Chief Inspector (retired) Andrew B. Brown gave a workshop in effective negotiation skills.

 

An internationally-renowned negotiator with specialist knowledge and experience in dealing with kidnap for ransom and hostage/crisis incidents, Andrew’s interactive mini-workshop deconstructed the negotiation process to allow participants to understand active listening skills and how, when they are skillfully applied empathically, they can give strength to persuasion that ultimately influences behavioural change and successful negotiation.

For more information about this subject, you can visit Andrew’s LinkedIn page.

For more photos, go to the Album on our Facebook page.

 NEXT EVENT: The Club’s next event is November 21 – when William Dowson, Agent for Scotland at the Bank of England, will talk about the economy.

Internationally-renowned negotiator to give St Andrews workshop

Yvonne McAulay
Internationally-renowned negotiator Andrew B. Brown is giving a workshop on effective negotiation to St Andrews Business Club.

An internationally-renowned negotiator who teaches advanced negotiation tactics to law enforcement agencies including the NYPD and the FBI will give a breakfast workshop in St Andrews on November 7.

In the fourth event of St Andrews Business Club’s season, to be held at the Old Course Hotel from 7.30am, retired police negotiator Chief Inspector Andrew B. Brown will deconstruct the negotiation process to allow participants to understand active listening skills and how, when they are skilfully applied empathically, they can give strength to persuasion that ultimately influences behavioural change and successful negotiation.

A negotiator with specialist knowledge and experience in dealing with kidnap for ransom and hostage/crisis incidents, Andrew has been an expert witness to judicial inquiries on the response to hostage taking, including the Lindt Café siege in Sydney in 2014.

Advanced negotiation

A Fellow of the Chartered Management and Security Institutes, he’s developed advanced negotiation and crisis leadership skills for major corporations, public policy and world-class sports coaches.

A Fulbright Alumnus, Andrew continues to teach advanced negotiation tactics to many law enforcement agencies including the NYPD, USMS and the FBI. He is currently the Chief Security Officer of an International NGO specialising in advocacy, accompaniment and education of refugees.

Anyone wanting to learn about this important business topic for business, as well as network, is asked to book via Eventbrite.

A full list of this season’s events can be found at http://bit.ly/StABCEvents.

Full details of all the club’s events, most of which are now open to non-members, go here .

Business Breakfast – Uncovering Mindfulness

Yvonne McAulay
Paul Mudd, of The Mudd Partnership, uncovered how mindfulness can help in business and life in an energising and inspiring presentation.

Report & Pictures by ASM Media & PR

Over the last few years you’ve probably heard of mindfulness and that you should be doing it. But why? What is it? What are the benefits? And how can you do it?

 

‘Leadership Provocateur’, thinker and disrupter, bestselling mindfulness author, Paul Mudd answered all those questions and more by looking at the universal and the particular, the personal and the professional, the theory and the practice. And inspired several attendees to start their own Mindful Journey.

For more information about mindfulness and the other consulting services The Mudd Partnership offers, you can visit their website.

You can buy his book here.

For more photos, go to the Album on our Facebook page.

NEXT EVENT: The Club’s next event is June 6: when Gerry Grant, Chief Ethical Hacking Consultant, at Curious Frank, the cyber section of the Scottish Business Resilience Centre, will explain how to maximise your cyber resilience.

Global expert to ‘uncover mindfulness’ at Business Breakfast

Yvonne McAulay
Mindfulness expert Paul Mudd.

What is mindfulness? What are the benefits? And how can it help you and your business?

 

The next St Andrews Business Club Breakfast at the Old Course Hotel on May 23 will answer those questions and more with the help of ‘leadership provocateur’, thinker, disrupter and bestselling mindfulness author, Paul Mudd.

And hopefully inspire attendees to start their own ‘mindful journeys’.

As well as being a globally-recognised wellbeing, welldoing, leadership and change influencer, including mindfulness contributor for Huffington Post, Thrive Global and Medium, Paul is a highly-experienced business coach and mentor, facilitator, presenter and keynote speaker, organisational change & people development specialist, with 30 years’ experience successfully working across the UK and Europe.

The event is open to all and anyone wanting to learn about this topic is asked to book via Eventbrite.

Full details of our other events are here.

Business Breakfast – Sales in The Digital Age

Yvonne McAulay
Peter Waggott, of Vertical Motives, explained the Challenge of Sales in the Digital Age at the event held by St Andrews Business Club at The Old Course Hotel. Pic: ASM Media & PR

In our first Business Breakfast of 2018, Peter Waggott of Vertical Motives Consultancy explained the Challenge of Sales in the Digital Age.

 

Among the many topics he covered were ‘The Bamboo Principle’, the questions your organisation needs to ask to succeed now, how to move away from solution sales and how to develop your customer base.

Thanks to Peter for sharing his knowledge and experience.

For more information about this you can visit the Vertical Motives website at www.verticalmotives.com

For more photos, go to the Album on our Facebook page.

NEXT EVENT: The Club’s next event is May 9: St Andrews 10 x 30, when Members will explain things we need to know for business in presentations of 10 slides for 30 seconds each.

Business Breakfast – Sales professional to advise on The Challenge of Sales in the Digital Age

Yvonne McAulay

People doing business in North-East Fife can learn how to meet the challenge of Sales in the Digital Age from an international sales professional at St Andrews Business Club’s breakfast event on April 25.

In the Club’s first business breakfast of the year, to be held at the Old Course Hotel from 7.30am, Sales Coach Peter Waggott of Vertical Motives, who is an Executive Fellow at the University of Aberdeen and teaches sales to MBA students, will teach attendees how sales has changed in this digital age, how to develop their customer base and move away from ‘solution sales’.

Anyone wanting to learn about this important business topic for business, as well as network, is asked to book via Eventbrite.

New business learning events at St Andrews Business Club

Yvonne McAulay

By Alistair Morris, President

Since the start of the Club’s 2017-18 Season last September, we’ve been delighted with the feedback we’ve received on our events programme from the growing number of business people attending them.

 

So far at least 80% of attendees taking our post-event survey have typically rated their event Excellent or Very Good overall. And many have gone on to join the Club as a result.

Today we’re announcing the details of our business learning events for the rest of the season.

Business learning

The event topics, some of which were suggested by members, have been chosen to provide you with essential information on today’s key business issues you can use straight away. They will be:

VIP tour

As a result of the positive feedback we’ve had about the Members & Guests-only Business Visits held so far, we’ve taken the opportunity to arrange an extra business visit to a site which will play some role in the business lives of many of us in the next few years – the University of St Andrews’ Eden Campus at Guardbridge. Members and their Guests will enjoy a VIP guided tour on June 27.

Networking

Opening most of our events to non-members – so they can get a taste of the business learning and networking we offer – has proven to be popular too. And the minimum 45 minutes networking time built in to our events is being well used!

We’re expecting plenty of that at our St Andrews 10 x 30 event on May 9, where Members will be drawn at random to present 10 slides for a maximum of 30 seconds each on a topic of interest to all. It promises to be a fun night!

Whether you’re already a member, a past one or someone new to the Club, we’d be delighted to see you at our events this year. And hear what you think of them – so we can keep making the Club better.

Details of the full season’s topics, dates, speakers are here

Details of membership benefits and how to join the Club are here

For latest news from the Club, its members and the North-East Fife business community, follow the Club on:
– Twitter
– Facebook page
– LinkedIn

Business Breakfast – Getting More Done

Yvonne McAulay

In the first business breakfast of the Club’s new season, held at The Scores Hotel, attendees learned how to improve personal and team productivity as well as enjoying networking.

Sam Forsberg of ActionCOACH Scotland.

Sam Forsberg of ActionCOACH Scotland shared key principles for greater productivity and introduced attendees to tools they can start using immediately to achieve more of the things most important to them.

Dr Sandra Romenska, Senior Lecturer and Director of Teaching at the University of St Andrews School of Management.

Dr Sandra Romenska, Senior Lecturer and Director of Teaching at the University of St Andrews School of Management, helped attendees discover how they can be a better leader via a research-based interactive experience which included setting each side of the room a team negotiation challenge.

Both excellent expert presentations were greatly enjoyed by attendees, who clearly found them energising and inspiring.

NEXT EVENT: The Club’s next event is Surviving Brexit on November 8. It’s a politics-free event featuring 3 expert speakers on how to ensure your company does!

For more photos, go to the Album on our Facebook page – https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.833423960169938.1073741834.581675778678092&type=1&l=2ce45e0e7b