Entrepreneurial Businesses Can Solve Some Of The World's Problems

More than 200 of the North East's leading businesspeople were told that 'fortune favours the brave' at a special conference held to mark Global Entrepreneurship Week, which focused on the social benefits that successful businesses can bring to communities.

The Fortune Favours the Brave event was held by the Entrepreneurs’ Forum and was an opportunity for its members to hear how some of the UK’s most successful entrepreneurs’ overcame their ‘make or break’ moments and how their social conscience became a crucial component to their success.

The event featured a discussion panel and Q&A, which saw a number of North East entrepreneurs talk about the importance of pivoting in business and how a change of direction can deliver success and, on some occasions, enable the support of social causes.

Among the panellists was Teesside-based Andy Preston, who spoke about his personal pivot from being a city trader to become a philanthropist and social entrepreneur, establishing the Fork in the Road restaurant in Middlesbrough, and running the CEO Sleepout charity, which works with the business community to raise awareness and funds to combat homelessness in the UK.

Similarly, two other keynote speakers Nas Khan, CEO of Jennings Motor Group and Mike Welch, founder of tyre distribution site Blackcircles, spoke about how their business success had allowed them to support causes which were important to them. Each creating a charitable organisation, with Nas raising £120,000 through his Emaan Foundation to rebuild a Pakistani village destroyed by the catastrophic floods of 2010, and Mike creating The Welch Trust to support children and young people in need or critical care.

Using the capital from business achievements as a base to launch initiatives which deliver the social objectives of entrepreneurs is becoming increasingly common as wealthy and successful individuals focus their skills and drive to help others in society.

However, as the audience heard, in some instances, it is the other way around, with social objectives sparking the fire which fuels a business idea and creates sustainable jobs, as was the case with another keynote speaker, Karen Lynch, CEO of Belu Water.

Karen told the audience about her career’s defining moment when she became obsessed with waste and a desire to make a difference beyond making money for shareholders. After researching the third sector, she decided to give up her job at one of the top car manufacturers in the world, launching Belu, a social enterprise that would exemplify environmental standards in the bottled water industry.

Her work with Belu has seen it transform to become one of the most successful suppliers of ethical bottled water and filtration systems to the hotel and restaurant sector with profits being donated to WaterAid. So far, the business has donated £2.2m to the charity.

The final speaker of the conference was another inspiring tale of entrepreneurship and the social benefits it brings from the founder of Traveleyes, Amar Latif. Amar lost his eye sight at 19 and, after training to become an accountant, set up his business to help blind and partially sighted people experience the world through guided holidays.

Amar said: “My refusal to accept negativity inspired me to overcome the challenges I faced. By being bold and being brave, anything is possible; that is true in both life and in business.”

Nigel Mills, chairman of the Entrepreneurs’ Forum, concluded the conference, saying: “This conference proved that entrepreneurs are armed with the tools to overcome challenges, but it also demonstrated they have a real social conscious and they use the success of their businesses to help others. It was a truly inspirational day, not only in terms of providing guests with entrepreneurial advice and expertise, but proof positive that if you do something well, something good can be done with it.”