Last week I was asked by a nice chap called Robin Neighbour from Young Enterprise to be a judge for the Daventry and Northampton Young Enterprise Awards. Of course I was more than happy to do so, and am happy to say I will be happy to do so again.
I found this event extremely valuable to be involved in, and gave me a great insight into the minds of our future generation of Entrepreneurs. I also enjoyed the fun debates with the other judges, who me being me I often disagreed with. Particularily because they generally came from a corporate background and I came from a more Entrepreneurial background, and this is part of the problem with the UK’s economy when the Government base their budgets on corporate policy.
The best example came about when trying to decide who the final three should be. I wont go into any more detail than that because it wouldn’t be fair to expand any further.
We had narrowed the decision down to 4 companies. Two were unanimous, but the last two I thought one and the other two judges thought another. They felt company C should be in the final three because they had made a lot of profit exploiting a small market in their school, but I felt company D should be shortlisted because they had a niche market and a more sustainable business model. However company D had not made as much profit as company C.
Tough call perhaps, but do we award people for making a quick buck without considering the long term consequences? Is this the sort of Entrepreneurial culture we want to develop? Personally I do not think so, I believe we should develop a more calculated and thought out economy where long term consequences are considered where businesses, and our environment, are more sustainable. We don’t want our future run by a load of fly-by-nights. We want job security. We want stability. We want a future that will last, even if the profit margins aren’t as high as perhaps they could be, so long as it is sustainable.
I’m pleased to say I argued my case well and the other judges agreed with me!
