Hello, my name's Sally Randles and I'm a Senior Research Fellow here at the Institute of Innovation Research at the Business School of the University of Manchester. I'm joined here today by Nick Bishop. >> Hi, Sally. >> Who's a freelance consultant working on corporate social responsibility and responsibility in all kinds of social and commercial areas. Nick, would you like to introduce yourself? >> Sure, well I've been working for myself for ten years, and the name of my business is, as I am, is Nick Bishop Solutions. Ten years ago, I left the Bank of Scotland, where I had quite a senior role managing a large team, at one point of up to 200, 250 people. But I lost my job. I got maybe redundant. And it gave me that chance to really about what I really wanted to do. And I stopped enjoying working at the bank and if the truth be known. I was probably not brave enough to leave off my it's a big decision to make, but redundancy gave me that chance. And what I love doing is managing people, working with people, inspiring people, motivating people. And that gave me the chance to work on my own, set up Nick Bishop Solutions. That's my name now. I had a limited company for eight years, but I changed to be a one-man band simply because of strategic relationships I ended up making with third parties through networks. And that allows me now to have more of a portfolio career. So some of the big contracts I've run, 100 days with the national health service in terms of leadership development. Close to using box one with the government developing a major outsource project. But what I've enjoyed particularly apart from the updates here and there, is connecting my relationships in sports which I'm passionate about. I'm a very passionate club runner on business. So for example, I reconnected with a guy called Dave Turnbull probably two or three years ago, and I used to run against Dave Turnbull in the 1970s. He's now coaching elite athletes and we had a conversation. And through that, I did a workshop with England Athletics. Now Dave also has a relationship with a guy called Barry Fudge, who is Mopharer's physiologist. And he gave me a chance to be truckside with Barry when he's doing blood tests, VO2 max testing with athletes, and again just through relationships like knowing, my opportunity is not just through business but through sports as well. I've had the opportunity to work in professional football for a short time as well, understanding and demonstrating that the people skills to manage in football are no different to business and vice versa. So another example, the England Athletics Workshop, was very much around how coaches coach. I wasn't there to tell them how a coach coach an athlete, but I'm there to tell them how a coach gets a message through to people very succinctly, in a way they understand I want to go and deliver something. I've done some smaller amounts of refereeing in amateur football. But again through that, I met a guy who was a premiership linesman, and ended up being a linesman at the cup final in Wembley. But he came into deliberate talk for the workshop.that kind of connections through business through sports. So all gave me a opportunity to almost have like a portfolio career through strategic alliances. And it led me to a writing my ebook which is on my website Nick Bishop Solutions called my best version of me. And it is a collection of short stories. And they're very realistic about the examples I have seen in life that people can relate to. And often we think, yes, I should do more of that. So a lot of what I do is about speaking at events, about facilitating workshops, about making people realize if they really want to do something, they have that opportunity. But too often we pass the opportunity like by. >> And you've done a lot on leadership motivation, how does that connect through the kind of social responsibilities and the commercial responsibilities that the business brings together. >> Well, one piece of work I did was with a company called Antz Junction. They're part of the Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce. And Antz's model is to grow and give back. So they look for companies to grow sustainably and ethically. And what I did with Antz was bring together businesses, and two of the ones that I worked with were BET and the Merit group of hotels. And the model they have is, they have a networking group which is made of their corporate businesses. And collectively, they help each other to grow, but then give back to charity. So what they do, they provide opportunities for disadvantaged people, ex-offenders and such like. But it's that classic model too, where they have staff engagements and allow their own staff to self develop by going out into the community to help the charity too. >> Can you think of any other business models or examples or illustrations of how you relationship build and bring these networks together. >> Well, very much so. So through my running and athletics I'm very heavily involved in the Wilmslow Half Marathon. I should for the sake of our sponsors call out the Waters Wilmslow Half Marathon really. But that's the point. We have a major, major sponsor in Waters, big global company. We have the Christie Foundation, as our adopted charity this year. We have 5,300 runners that come to town on the day, and it swells Wilmslow to 10,000 people on the day. >> So when you consider that, we bring together corporate sponsor. We bring together marshalls, the people that race and collectively it becomes a big picture motor rally. >> So what you think is a >> Skills and competencies that someone doing your kind of role needs to pull these projects off. >> Self belief because it's only you, it'll soon come through if you don't believe in yourself. Drive an ambition, an eye for opportunity as well because I am not Mark Spencer's brand so I have to go out and look for opportunities myself and they manifest themselves in many ways through conversation, through meeting. Through the media you'll find out about things that are happening too. I think the speed of flexibility to turn things around as well. The good example of that, I was asked to attend some work in Islamabad in Pakistan recently, and I had to turn that round in three or four hours, which was doable, because I had some existing content, so it's kind of just adopting and changing. But had I been a big corporate, it would have been far, far more difficult. It could have taken days or even weeks in some corporate's where it's a team that has to meet and put something together. So change, and I think strong interpersonal skills, because you've got to get your USP across to people very quickly in a way they understand and they buy into you. >> Nick that's really interesting, so for the people watching this interview >> They might be wanting to get into the kind of role that you've been doing for the last ten years. What do you think they should be doing to develop those relationships or to create the business models that you're talking about? >> I think one of the things is be aware of the people around you that you know because everyone knows someone and it's amazing >> What help you'll get if you actually ask. People like to help, basically, and a lot of people are almost afraid of asking for help from other people. I think that's one point. Another point is don't underestimate the knowledge that you have. People sometimes are very dismissive of what they've actually got, what they've learned, what they've put together up here. And it's something that's very saleable if you have the right commodity. And in terms of belief, an example I would give you, I went to a workshop with a school and it was about belief and self-confidence, and the teacher said to me that the little girl at the back wouldn't be particularly good that day, she was slow, she was certainly, dare I say, the weakest member of the class. And I asked the group actually, what was the biggest single achievement they'd ever made in their life. And these were only 16 year old school children and they all came forward except this one girl. So I went to ask her what did she achieve in life? What's she proud of? She said nothing very much but once I actually coached my mom off drugs and alcohol abuse. My God! She didn't actually think that was significant. So my point is, we all have something we're good at we've done, but we under estimate our own values. So be passionately optimistic about what you can deliver, find the right networks, find the right connections, and ask for help as well. Someone will know someone I know you will hit company X. Is there any cheap way you could perhaps give me a chance to speak to someone? Ask them, because growing up that network will be fundamental to your business. >> That's brilliant. Thank you very much Nick. >> Absolute pleasure. Thanks for having me Sally.
