Carolyn Currie, Chief Executive of Women’s Enterprise Scotland
Women’s Enterprise Scotland Chief Executive Carolyn Currie is the speaker at St Andrews Business Club’s AGM Evening on Wednesday May 15, to which non-members are invited after the AGM formalities.
To be held at the Old Course Hotel from 6.15pm, Carolyn Currie will tell attendees about her extensive career at a senior level in financial services and her current work with Women’s Enterprise Scotland.
Achievements
Ms Currie has guided the development of global-leading standards for gender equality in business advisor training and digital platform content. She has given evidence to Parliamentary Committees on economic matters, is a founding member of the UK Women’s Enterprise Policy Group, has contributed policy papers to the World Economic Forum in Davos and is a member of the T20, the think tank of the G20.
Anyone wanting to attend is asked to book via Eventbrite.
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 Systemsand 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 toits website
For more photos, go to the Album on our Facebook page.
Some of the most successful businesses are run by women who’ve worked hard to pursue their goals and witness their dreams come true.
However, it’s not the person’s gender, but a great idea, dedication, optimism and perseverance that can differentiate a successful business model from a struggling one.
Kirsty Thomson, Founder and CEO of The Circle Dundee CIC, ACK CIC and Saltire Fellow, shared her story, lessons learned and advice to others at the second Inspiring Women event held by St Andrews Business Club at The Old Course Hotel.
In the Club’s second annual Inspiring Women event to celebrate International Women’s Day, Kirsty Thomson, Founder and CEO of Circle Scotland CIC, ACK CIC and Saltire Fellow, shared her story on how she started her social enterprise after having gaining experience understanding the models of another social enterprise when her sister was supported by it due to her disability.
Her presentation included an online interactive quiz for attendees and was enjoyed by all.
Angie Foreman, Programme Director and Founder of Coca-Cola 5by20 and CEO of Women’s Business Station, shared her story, lessons learned and advice to others at the second Inspiring Women event held by St Andrews Business Club at The Old Course Hotel.
Angie Foreman, Programme Director & Founder of Coca-Cola 5by20 and CEO of Women’s Business Station, shared her Top 10 tips she’s learned over the years which helped her achieve success in life and business.
Her wit and confident delivery had attendees in fits of laughter.
For more photos, go to the Album on our Facebook page.
NEXT EVENT: The Club’s next event is April 3 Business Breakfast – Reverse Engineer a Successful Business Exit, when Ewan Menzies, Director of Castle Strategy, Mount Parnassus Partners Concord and CTA Global, will explain how to plan a successful business exit strategy.
St Andrews Business Club Marketing Communications Interns (from left) Sanaa Sachdev and Stanley Parker and Marketing Assistant Louise Cree.
St Andrews Business Club is delighted to announce it has appointed Stanley Parker and Sanaa Sachdev as its new Marketing Communications interns.
They were selected from a high-quality field of candidates after impressing the panel with their skills, experience and demonstrated marketing acumen.
Both are 2nd Year students at the University of St Andrews studying for an MA in Management. Their internships have started immediately and will last until they graduate in 2021.
They will gradually take on the duties currently carried out by our first Marketing Communications Intern, Comora Love-Mitchell, as they are trained in each and as Comora prepares for graduation this summer.
The Club is also delighted to announce that they will be assisted by a new Marketing Assistant, Louise Cree.
Louise is an Administrative Assistant at Fife Business Services Ltd and is completing a Modern Apprenticeship in Digital Marketing.
Fife Business Services Ltd kindly offered the Club Louise’s skills on a time-share basis and she already completed a successful project to improve the SEO of the Club’s website.
We look forward to improving the Club’s marketing further with the help of these excellent young people.
Some of the most commercially-successful innovative products and services we know today have come about as a result of taking research done at universities or in companies to the marketplace.
All companies seek to gain sustainable competitive advantage over their competitors through innovation-driven product or service development. Working with a university to use its research to drive that innovation is often cheaper and faster than trying to create the relevant competencies internally.
Dr Lorna Howarth, Knowledge Transfer Advisor for Fife & Tayside, Knowledge Transfer Network (KTN) explained how to connect with researchers and have your business benefit from knowledge transfer.
Dr Lorna Howarth, Knowledge Transfer Advisor for Fife & Tayside at Knowledge Transfer Network (KTN), explained about KTN and how it can help you connect with researchers and have your business benefit from knowledge transfer.
Paul Kyle of CIK Solutions explained how innovation within business can be funded.
Paul Kyle of CIK Solutions explained how innovation within business can be funded – specifically the value of HMRC’s R&D Tax Credit scheme as a source of funding.
For more information about this subject, you can visit:
This was a joint event with Fife Council Economic Development and Business Gateway Fife. It provides a wide range of support and advice to individuals looking to set up in business, and newly-formed and existing businesses looking to grow and develop. Go to its website for details.
For more photos, go to the Album on our Facebook page.
Kirsty Thomson (left) and Angie Foreman are the speakers for St Andrews Business Club’s second Inspiring Women event on March 6. Picture of Angie Foreman by Malcolm Cochrane Photography, for Business Women Scotland/WES Awards 2018. Picture of Kirsty Thomson by Kathryn Rattray Photography.
Two inspiring award-winning female entrepreneurs will share their stories and advice in the second annual St Andrews Business Club event to celebrate International Women’s Day.
In the event, to be held at the Old Course Hotel from 5.30pm on March 6, Angie Foreman and Kirsty Thomson will inspire attendees from all backgrounds.
In her 25-year career, award-winning businesswoman Angie Foreman, Programme Director & Founder of Coca-Cola 5by20 and CEO of Women’s Business Station, has worked mainly in the third sector and is mostly recognised for her empowerment work with women.
She has created award-winning social enterprises, community empowerment models and impactful corporate social responsibility programmes for Coca-Cola, all of which have benefited hundreds of women. Last year Angie won the Change Catalyst award at the Women Enterprising Scotland Awards and ‘Women of Inspiration Award’ from the Association of Scottish Businesswomen.
Award-winning
Kirsty Thomson is an award-winning serial social entrepreneur who’s set up and runs two Community Interest Companies over the past seven years – ACK Third Sector Consultants CIC (formerly Along Came Kirsty) and Circle Scotland CIC (The Circle).
Kirsty has a wealth of knowledge and experience working in and with charities and social enterprises over 20 years to secure more than £13 million in funding. She is a Saltire Fellow through Entrepreneurial Scotland, in 2017 was recognised as a Women of Inspiration by the Association of Scottish Businesswomen and is on the NatWest Wise100 2018 list, which recognises the most inspiring and influential women in social enterprise, impact investment and mission-driven businesses in the UK.
Anyone wanting to learn from them, as well as network, is asked to book via Eventbrite.
2019 will offer opportunities as well as challenges for businesses operating in North-East Fife.
Many of the factors, good and bad, influencing the business environment here will come from outside the area, such as Brexit and the Tay Cities Deal, but others will come from or be influenced by Fife Council and the University of St Andrews.
Gordon Mole, Chief Officer, Economy, Planning and Employability at Fife Council.
Gordon Mole, Chief Officer, Economy, Planning and Employability at Fife Council gave an overview of the Tay Cities Deal and the Fife economy – its history, ambitions, challenges, goals and the strategy being used to deliver them – as well as the Fife perspective on Brexit.
Professor Brad MacKay, Vice-Principal, International, Strategy and External Relations at the University of St Andrews.
Professor Brad MacKay, Vice-Principal, International, Strategy and External Relations at the University of St Andrews talked about its success to date and economic impact locally, regionally and nationally and how the new University Strategy and Eden Campus will help it build on this success over the next five years.
Thanks to them both for sharing their expertise and the Members, Guests & Visitors who attended.
For more photos, go to the Albumon our Facebook page.
People doing business in North-East Fife can learn how to use research to drive innovation and business growth at St Andrews Business Club’s next event on February 13.
In the joint event with Business Gateway Fife, to be held at the Old Course Hotel from 5.30pm, business people will hear from Dr Lorna Howarth of KTN and Paul Kyle of CIK Solutions.
Dr Howarth is the Knowledge Transfer Advisor for Fife & Tayside for Knowledge Transfer Network (KTN). A highly-experienced knowledge transfer and open innovation specialist, she provides support to companies wishing to benefit from grant funding offered by the UK’s Knowledge Transfer Partnership program and will explain how to connect with researchers and have your business benefit from knowledge transfer.
Paul Kyle works with businesses to drive performance and organisational optimisation. His specialisms include R&D Tax Credits. He will provide a deeper understanding of how innovation within business can be funded – specifically the value of HMRC’s R&D Tax Credit scheme as a source of funding.
Anyone wanting to learn about this important business topic for business, as well as network, is asked to book via Eventbrite.
A poster for Stan & Ollie, which includes an antique suitcase supplied by Scaramanga.
Cupar vintage specialist Scaramanga, founded and run by Club Member Carl Morenikeji, is on Cloud Nine after one of its antique suitcases is used in a ‘significant’ scene in the new Laurel & Hardy biopic Stan & Ollie, released in the UK last Friday.
The film is the ninth Hollywood or major UK movie to use products from the Cupar-based firm in seven years. It stars Steve Coogan as Stan Laurel and Oscar nominee John C. Reilly as Oliver Hardy and follows the comedy legends’ ill-starred variety hall tour of Britain in 1953. It was written by Philomena screenwriter Jeff Pope and was filmed at Pinewood Studios, Dudley, Bristol and Worthing.
The new role for the Cupar vintage specialist came about when a props buyer who’d sourced items for 2015 movie Pan from Scaramanga called owner Carl Morenikeji in December 2016 looking for a period suitcase urgently for a “a significant scene”. Carl was able to supply a very large 1920s/’30s brown leather suitcase with corner-protecting patches and leather internal straps.
The large antique suitcase supplied by Scaramanga to Stan & Ollie.
Now Carl and the staff at Scaramanga are waiting with bated breath to see what role their case plays in the film, which reveals the tensions in the relationship between the comedy legends.
Major movies
Other major movie supply roles for the Fife firm have included last summer’s Mama Mia! Here We Go Again, Paddington 2, Maleficent, Victoria & Abdul, Pan, The Legend of Tarzan and Dark Shadows.
The company, which also sells its bags, vintage furniture and homewares online and in its Cupar store, has also been used as a supplier of vintage and antique props for TV shows including Strictly Come Dancing, Peaky Blinders, The Crystal Maze, Celebrity Big Brother, Jericho, Hollyoaks and 60 Minute Makeover.
Speaking about the firm’s latest silver screen success, Carl Morenikeji said: “It’s great to see another of our products chosen for a key role in another fine film. Although this is the ninth major movie to feature our products, we’re as excited as we were the first time.
“I’ve been a fan of Laurel and Hardy since I was a child and have visited the Laurel and Hardy Museum in Ulverston, Cumbria.
“We recently decided to stock even more of this kind of vintage travel case and trunks as they’re becoming more popular for use as home storage, so anyone wanting to buy something similar can do so on our website. Or pop into our store on the outskirts of Cupar to see these and other items just like those we’ve sold to film and TV productions.”
Vintage fans can see the full range of Scaramanga trunks, chests, homewares and bags on their website at www.scaramangashop.co.uk
They can also walk around its Cupar store in Google Street View® via its Google Street View Trusted® tour at https://goo.gl/maps/vi7oYKCxck92
Members of the Royal Yachting Association (RYA) can from today buy cutting-edge off-grid power products at privileged prices after a young Scottish company started by a St Andrews Business Club Member sailed its way to its second deal with a well-established brand.
Created this year, Dundee-based Powercases (Scotland) Ltd has a partnership to exclusively represent the Canadian Powercases brand in Europe. Since 2012 Powercases has created state-of-the-art Lithium-Ion rechargeable power packs and cases for devices such as phones and laptops as well as jump-starters for cars, motorcycles and boats.
The Scottish firm, headed by sales coach Peter Waggott, will from today offer a range of its products to the more than 110,000 members of the Royal Yachting Association at privileged prices via Staples Solutions UK, with which it recently entered into a supplier agreement.
Speaking about the deal, Peter Waggott said: “We’re delighted to be accepted as a recognised Member Reward Partner by the Royal Yachting Association – the national body for all forms of recreational, competitive and professional boating in the UK.
Crucial
“Having power on demand when you’re at sea is crucial. Our products allow sailors to stay connected wherever they are and our Marine Jump Starter battery allows you to check your running lights with the mast down – the first product to offer that feature.
“We’re already talking with other trusted brands and expect to be announcing more similar agreements with major, trusted and well-established names in their sectors in the coming months.”
Powercases in Canada is in advanced talks with Kia Canada to offer its range of products via dealerships there. It’s looking to do the same in the UK.
RYA Members can take advantage of this great new offer by visiting the Powercases Member Benefits page for their exclusive discount code www.rya.org.uk/go/powercases
People doing business in North-East Fife can learn how to use research to drive innovation and business growth at St Andrews Business Club’s next event on February 13.
