Review and Renew, the Jersey Business Podcast

Welcome to Review and Renew, a brand-new series of podcasts brought to you by Jersey Business. We’ve been discussing how we can do business better, how we can achieve our goals, and make our businesses more resilient. In each episode, we’ve spoken about one aspect of business today, drawing on the knowledge and expertise of local business leaders.

In this episode, we are going to be talking about leading through change and the Jersey Business Leading Growth Programme. Joining us is Sam Watts and Graeme Smith.

Sam is Managing Director, and founder, of the marketing and communications agency Orchid Communications. She is a former board member of Visit Jersey and four years ago started a second business, Sleep Well Milk which produces and sells drinks that help you sleep. 

Graeme is the Chief Executive of Jersey Business, responsible for leading the organisation and the overall development and delivery of its objectives and strategy. He also works extensively with Government and partner agencies to develop collaborative working practices to support economic growth and sustainability. 

We hope you enjoy this recording and have found the series informative and inspiring. 

Would you like to refer back to any of the questions? For ease, below are the key questions and time stamps.   

1.    What makes a great business leader? – 01:15

2.    What have been the most important lessons from COVID-19 on leadership? – 04:00

3.    What are the key skills and tools leaders need, and how can they accumulate these? – 09:10

4.    What are the key takeaways for leaders who enrol on the Leading Growth Programme? – 11:25

5.    How should leaders make time for themselves, so they can also continue to develop? – 13:20

6.    How do you develop leadership skills for the good times and the bad?  – 15:40

7.    Leadership can be a lonely place. How can leaders protect themselves and ensure their own mental health and wellbeing? – 19:45

8.    How do leaders re-educate themselves to stay on top of the changes to their business, team, and customers brought by COVID-19? – 23:45

9.    In times of crisis, there can be a temptation to sugar coat the reality to protect our teams. What’s the right way to deal with this? – 26:50

10.    As we move into a post-COVID and post-Brexit world, where are the opportunities for Jersey businesses and what is the role that our local leaders can play in driving future growth? – 31:05

11.    Are we now at the point in the pandemic and crisis where we can stop and take stock so we can launch forward into the recovery phase? – 34:05

12.    Will our leaders of today still look like the leaders of tomorrow? – 37:15

For further support, advice, and useful resources, visit the Jersey Business website.

Listen to the other podcasts in this series on the Jersey Business website, through Channel 103, Spotify, or on Apple Podcasts.

Welcome to Review and Renew, a brand-new series of podcasts brought to you by Jersey Business. We’ll discuss how we can do business better, how we can achieve our goals, and make our businesses more resilient. In each episode, we’ll be talking about one aspect of business today, drawing on the knowledge and expertise of local business leaders.

In this episode, we are going to be talking about how to build a successful start-up. Joining us is Tim Bullock and Nick Steel.

Tim is the Managing Director of Channel Eye Media and is a Trustee of Digital Jersey, so has plenty of experience of start-ups in the tech sector. He is also a board member of Young Enterprise and a former Chair of the Chartered Institute of IT. 

Nick is a member of the Senior Management Team at Jersey Business, where he leads the business advisory team. A former Managing Director of Marks & Spencer and Business Development Director at Sandpiper CI, Nick has over 30 years of experience in the retail sector and has been responsible for bringing several national brands to the Island.

We hope you enjoy this recording and find the series informative and inspiring. 

Would you like to refer back to any of the questions? For ease, below are the key questions and time stamps.   

1.    What support is there for Jersey’s budding young entrepreneurs to take their ideas forward? – 01:25

2.    How do you create the right framework for starting a business? – 03:15

3.    How much planning is needed vs rolling up your sleeves and getting on with it? – 06:30

4.    Is there a perfect time to start a business? – 07:35

5.    Is there a broad range of businesses starting up in Jersey? – 11:30

6.    Who should you surround yourself with?  – 13:00

7.    When things get tough, where do you get the inner resources and inspiration to keep going? – 16:40

8.    How wedded should you be to your business plan? – 18:15

9.    Many entrepreneurs claim you have to fail before you can be successful. How true is this statement? – 21:30

10.    Jersey Business has a six-point plan to help entrepreneurs. What is this? – 24:05

11.    Is there any time constraint between idea and launch? – 28:40

For further support, advice, and useful resources, visit the Jersey Business website.

Listen to the other podcasts in this series on the Jersey Business website, through Channel 103, Spotify, or on Apple Podcasts.

Welcome to Review and Renew, a brand-new series of podcasts brought to you by Jersey Business. We’ll discuss how we can do business better, how we can achieve our goals, and make our businesses more resilient. In each episode, we’ll be talking about one aspect of business today, drawing on the knowledge and expertise of local business leaders.

In this episode, we are going to talk about innovating through change. Joining us is David Seymour and Lorie Rault.

David is the Managing Director of one of Jersey’s oldest family-owned businesses, Seymour Hotels. Last year, the company should have been celebrating its centenary. But the pandemic struck. Instead of honouring the milestone, David and his fellow Directors had to act swiftly to ensure the company’s survival and future. 

Lorie Rault is the Head of Retail at Jersey Business, providing practical advice, support, and representation to established retail businesses; a sector already under pressure before the pandemic closed down the High Street. Lorie has extensive experience working in the retail industry and is a former Chief Operating Officer of the Jersey Retail Association, which was absorbed into Jersey Business in 2019.

We hope you enjoy this recording and find the series informative and inspiring. 

Would you like to refer back to any of the questions? For ease, below are the key questions and time stamps.   

1.    What can we learn from the crisis? – 01:30

2.    Has the COVID-19 pandemic killed or accelerated the reinvention of the retail sector? – 02:00

3.    How should a company go about adapting and changing, often under considerable time pressures, when an external force threatens its existence? – 03:00

4.    Is it a case of focusing on what you can control? – 04:45

5.    How do you take your people with you through change? – 05:35

6.    What role can industry organisations play in helping their members review and renew?  – 06:10

7.    How can the Island’s political and executive leaders pave the way for innovation? – 07:50

8.    When you’re forced to think laterally, where do you look for inspiration? – 09:45

9.    What’s the advice to companies who are teetering on the edge of making a big change? – 11:05

10.    What’s impressive and inspiring about how the retail and hospitality sectors have responded to the crisis and found their way through? – 13:30

11.    There are bound to be further challenges ahead, even post-pandemic. How can the retail and hospitality industries review and renew? And what should the priorities be? – 15:15

For further support, advice, and useful resources, visit the Jersey Business website.

Listen to the other podcasts in this series on the Jersey Business website, through Channel 103, Spotify, or on Apple Podcasts.

Welcome to Review and Renew, a brand-new series of podcasts brought to you by Jersey Business. We’ll discuss how we can do business better, how we can achieve our goals, and make our businesses more resilient. In each episode, we’ll be talking about one aspect of business today, drawing on the knowledge and expertise of local business leaders.

In this episode, we are going to find out more about Brexit. Joining us is Senator Ian Gorst and Alexia McClure.

Senator Gorst is Jersey’s External Relations Minister and has been pivotal to the Island’s preparations for, and response to, Brexit. He is an accountant by trade but has been a full-time politician for over 15 years and served two terms as the Island’s Chief Minister.

Alexia is Chief Operating Officer at Jersey Business, is a member of the Senior Management Team and sits on the Board of Directors. She has extensive private sector experience having worked in the professional services industry in the UK and South Africa, and 20 years spent developing, managing, and delivering business development support programmes in the UK and Jersey.

We hope you enjoy this recording and find the series informative and inspiring.

Would you like to refer back to any of the questions? For ease, below are the key questions and time stamps.  

For further support, advice, and useful resources, visit the Jersey Business website.

Listen to the other podcasts in this series on the Jersey Business website, through Channel 103, Spotify, or on Apple Podcasts.

Welcome to Review and Renew, a brand-new series of podcasts brought to you by Jersey Business. We’ll discuss how we can do business better, how we can achieve our goals, and make our businesses more resilient. In each episode, we’ll be talking about one aspect of business today, drawing on the knowledge and expertise of local business leaders.

In this episode, we are going to find out more about giving your business a health check – an exercise to help you understand where your business is right now. Joining us is Daphne East and Kenny Sillars.

Daphne is currently the Commercial & Operations Director for Easenmyne, heading up the sales, marketing, and purchasing teams. Daphne has been in foodservice for most of her career, first as a Head Chef working all over the world, and then in the retail and commercial sector. She is a former Town Centre Manager for St Helier and was instrumental in the establishment of the Jersey Retail Association. 

Kenny is Head of Business Advisory Services at Jersey Business. He has spent 15 years in Jersey’s finance industry working primarily in Corporate Banking and Relationship Management for some of the UK’s best-known High-Street banks. He has a significant knowledge and understanding of the financial needs and pressures businesses may find themselves under.

We hope you enjoy this recording and find the series informative and inspiring. 

Would you like to refer back to any of the questions? For ease, below are the key questions and time stamps.   

1.    Who should be taking a Business Health Check? – 01:30

2.    Hospitality and retail are two of the industries hardest hit by the pandemic. Is this the sort of thing those types of businesses should be focussing on right now? – 02:20

3.    When are the best times to undertake this sort of review? – 03:30

4.    What is actually involved? What sort of information do businesses need to have to hand to make it valuable? – 04:15

5.    Is this something you should do on a regular basis? – 05:20

6.    Are Directors aware of their legal duties in relation to the health of their business?  – 06:10

7.    What’s the best way to go about conducting a health check? And how much time should it take? – 07:20

8.    Is this something you can organise internally, or is it better to get a pair of outside eyes on the job? – 08:10

9.    What sort of things are typically being thrown up during a Business Health Check at the moment? – 08:50

10.    A lot of business owners or managers may not want to know what the health check reveals. What’s the advice to them? – 10:30

11.    Is there a cost to doing this? – 11:40

12.    Who, in the business, needs to take part in a review like this? – 12:15

13.    Once you’ve got the outcomes of this type of review, how do you go about communicating the results to the company as a whole? – 12:40

14.    Is the health check as relevant in good times as it is in crisis? – 15:25 

For further support, advice, and useful resources, visit the Jersey Business website.

Listen to the other podcasts in this series on the Jersey Business website, through Channel 103, Spotify, or on Apple Podcasts.

Welcome to Review and Renew, a brand-new series of podcasts brought to you by Jersey Business. We’ll discuss how we can do business better, how we can achieve our goals, and make our businesses more resilient. In each episode, we’ll be talking about one aspect of business today, drawing on the knowledge and expertise of local business leaders.

In this episode, we are going to find out more about remote working – something we have all become used to due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Joining us is Richard Plaster and David Bailey.

Richard is an Executive Director at Law at Work, with more than 30 years’ experience in HR-related issues. As a previous Chair of the Jersey Skills Board and the Employment Forum, he brings considerable experience to the conversation of both the public and private sector.

David is currently the Chief Operating Officer at RBC and is responsible for the implementation and execution of strategy for the wealth management business in the British Isles. He has held senior roles in a broad variety of businesses, primarily in the financial services sector.

We hope you enjoy this recording and find the series informative and inspiring. 

Would you like to refer back to any of the questions? For ease, below are the key questions and time stamps.   

1.    What should we actually call how we are working now? With variations including flexible, remote, distributed, and hybrid – do they all mean the same thing or is there a difference? – 1:25

2.    What role do you think corporate culture has played in the transition to these new ways of working? – 3:15

3.    Rightly, perhaps, the focus has been very much on how staff are handling these changes. But what about managers and senior executives, what training and support do we need to think about for them? – 5:35

4.    Businesses have had to introduce new communication systems and consider the processes needed to ensure they are effectively used. What should businesses be thinking about in terms of the processes and culture of this new way of communicating with their people? – 7:50

5.    In the early stages of lockdown last year, a lot of businesses were worried about the productivity of their staff. In your experience, what has happened to productivity? How do we maintain productivity? And how do we get the best from our people? – 10:00

6.    Essential to this is feedback, and presumably it needs to be two-way? – 12:35

7.    What are the benefits of remote working that have been borne out of the last year? – 14:35

8.    Workplaces may become more inclusive as a result of the switch to remote working due to the COVID-19 pandemic. How do you see this happening? – 16:00

9.    Can the way businesses behaved and adapted during the pandemic affect their ability to retain or recruit talent in the future? – 18:55

10.    It’s not just our people that we need to think about. There are other operational things that we need to consider, such as health and safety and data security. What advice do you have around those areas? – 20:05

11.    Not everyone does want to work from home, so what are the considerations there? – 23:25

12.    What is your top piece of advice to businesses trying to deal with the challenges of a very fast-changing environment? – 28:00

For further support, advice, and useful resources, visit the Jersey Business website.

Listen to the other podcasts in this series on the Jersey Business website, through Channel 103, Spotify, or on Apple Podcasts.