James Caan

James Caan is one of the UK’s most successful and dynamic entrepreneurs. Caan originally built successful businesses in the recruitment industry, namely the Alexander Mann Group and Humana International. In 2004 he started private equity firm Hamilton Bradshaw. He is best known as one of the panellists of the BBC’s Dragons’ Den.

James most recently was appointed the new co-chair on the Ethnic Minority Business Taskforce; he supports the Government backed i-awards and, in 2009, he was appointed Chairman of The Big Issue.

Lord Mervyn Davies

Currently Minister of Trade, Investment, and Small Business, Lord Davies has extensive expertise in the financial world, having held roles at Citigroup and Standard Chartered Plc.

Prior to his appointment as a Minister, he was Chairman of Nordic Windpower Limited and held non-executive directorships with Breakingviews Limited, Tottenham Hotspur Football Club and Trinity Limited.

PANELS

Corporate Entrepreneurship

Corporate Entrepreneurship (CE) is comprised of all formal or informal activities aimed at creating new businesses in established firms, through innovation. CE is widely considered as a vital means to improve competitive advantage and transform organizations, their markets, and industries.

Given its importance in the growth prospects of established organizations, and its recurrence as a key topic of interest and mystique for executives, the “Corporate Entrepreneurship” panel will shed light on key questions: what drives CE within an organization? Why are some organizations better at it than others? Is CE a necessary component of an organization’s DNA? How do you embed it into the corporate culture? What skills are necessary for CE? Why should you bother with CE?

Getting to Plan B

“Research shows that it takes fifty-eight ideas to get to one successful product. Many success stories in the business world do not come from the entrepreneur’s initial ‘dream’. As most of the Plan As will usually not work, they are assessed and changed several times before they become the successful Plan B (or even Plan Z).

The mission of the panel is to put together entrepreneurs who have successfully managed to take a good business idea, to assess and adapt it and finally have developed a successful business model. These entrepreneurs will share their stories of the processes involved, the potential obstacles as well as their personal experiences of Getting to Plan B.

Scaling from 1 to 100 to 1000

This panel is about scaling an entrepreneurial venture – whether it be revenues, customers, employees or partners. Key questions that the “Scaling from 1 to 100 to 1000” panel intends to answer are: How do entrepreneurs grow their business? What are the challenges they face and the opportunities created? When does a new venture transition out of the start up phase? What are the different growth phases? When is the right time to raise angel/venture capital? How do you scale despite limited resources? What are the unique qualities needed to scale employees, customers, partners and revenues?

Reinventing the Wheel

Do all successful entrepreneurial ventures stem from offering a product or solution which has never been addressed before? What is more important - recognizing a need which has not been fulfilled in a specific market or offering a truly novel answer?

These are key questions that the “Re-inventing the Wheel” panel intends to address, recognizing successful entrepreneurs who have identified a business idea, developed it in a new market, and continued to innovate beyond the original concept to maintain market leadership. This panel will discuss the idea selection process, its implementation, and further innovation and developments.