The Scottish Chambers of Commerce was honoured to host two exceptional keynote speakers at this year’s event. Mike Soutar, renowned entrepreneur, media mogul and on-screen interviewer for The Apprentice and Rowena Bird, co-founder and product inventor of the globally acclaimed LUSH shared their invaluable insights from their impressive careers. Their engaging presentations captivated the audience leaving a lasting impression, providing inspiration and fresh perspectives to all who attended.

Mike Soutar engaged the audience with his inspiring business journey, starting his career at just 17 with DC Thomson, later founding Shortlist Media in 2007 – a venture that quickly became one of the UK’s fastest growing private businesses. He shared his knowledge with the audience providing five practical suggestions for how your business can embrace opportunity:

1. Before you cut costs, cut team meetings

Team meetings are a luxury in tough times. Think of them as artisan chocolates: one a day is fine.

My top tips? Do stand-up meetings in person or, if they’re virtual, use the timer clock on Zoom. Then, use the time you’ve won back to meet customers or focus on revenue generation.

Liberate people from reporting and get them doing business. Encourage members of your team to opt out of any internal meetings they don’t find useful. You’ll soon see what and who adds value to your organisation.

And you will personally be freed up to become more productive too.

2. Get cost-smart

Cutting the small stuff can damage team morale and customer optimism. Smart leaders rank costs largest to smallest, then start at the top.

It’s often just as time-consuming to get your largest supplier to cut charges by 10% as it is your smallest – but the impact is much greater.

And make cost-cutting someone’s day job if you can. Check in with them every single day.

3. Figure out if you are an insurgent or an incumbent

There are only two viable positions for companies coming out of an economic downturn: the established incumbents and the hungry insurgents.

a. Incumbents have a lot to defend. If you’re an incumbent, use your strength to offer long-term deals at competitive prices. Hold salaries steady but offer attractive LTIPs, focus on what you stand for, and consider acquiring in your core areas.

b. Insurgents have nothing to lose. If you’re an insurgent, go all out. Move fast, introduce fresh ideas, and go the extra mile with every customer, every time.

4. Innovate constantly

No matter what your business does, your customers will always welcome novelty.

So ask yourself: what’s your new idea? Your fresh perspective? Your added-value service or product? Brainstorm several ideas and schedule them over the next year.

In times of economic squeeze, everyone is on the lookout for partners and suppliers who can bring inventive new solutions to deep-rooted problems. Continual innovation helps you retain clients and attract new ones.

5. Forge new partnerships

In difficult times, other companies are far more open to collaborations. It makes sense: the prize might be smaller, but it’s easier to win a share when you team up.

My advice is to find partners with similar characteristics. Start-ups almost always work best with other start-ups. The same goes for big players.

Make it a marriage of equals. Like a Hollywood wedding, both of you have as much to gain or lose.

Rowena Bird shared the remarkable journey of LUSH, from its humble beginnings as the “Cosmetic Warriors from the Temple of Temptation” and the opening of their first store in Poole in 1995, to becoming a global success story with over 850 stores across 52 countries, employing around 17,000 worldwide. Rowena shared the valuable lessons learned along the way: “Trademarks are super important. We have over 900 trademarks in 103 countries. If you are thinking you might do business abroad, trademark your business name and product range names or you could find someone else is using your own brand name or trading off.

In 2014 we won a court case against Amazon, for infringing our trademark. Never be afraid of the bullies when you are in the right.

We pay the real living wage, our staff are the key to our success and work hard. They are the best investment we can make.

Thinking about the future of Lush in 2017 we created the Lush Employee Benefit Trust. We want the company to be owned by the staff. We had seen what happened to the staff of the Body Shop when it sold to L’Oréal, they were distraught, they felt they had been sold too and to make matters worse to one of the largest animal testing companies in the world. We never want that to be the fate of our people.

We listen to our customers. We have a lot of intense fans, they are not afraid to give us tough love and tell us what they think. For example, we tweaked our henna formula recently, however our regular users fed back that they didn’t like it as much – so we changed it back!”

Closing her speech with a heartfelt message: “So on behalf of my fellow founders, I would just like to say, thank you very much, and if you are running or starting your own business, I hope you have as much fun as we do, consider your team carefully and you too can leave the world Lusher than you found it.”

Closing off the speeches for the evening, Dr Liz Cameron CBE, Director & Chief Executive, Scottish Chambers of Commerce said: “I believe a thriving Scotland is within reach. People and passion make this happen. Every business in this room knows that our people are our greatest assets. We know that Government gets this too. That’s why we fully back and support our pro-business skills agency – Skills Development Scotland – who champion and understand the needs of business.

So, as we leave here tonight, let us do so with optimism and determination. We are not just participants in Scotland’s economy; we are all its architects.

Together, I know we will build a brighter future for Scotland.”