jbsh

The revolving doors of senior executives are just as active at Young Enterprise companies as at Fortune 500 ones.

In something of a shock move last week, StylEco decided to unseat one of their MD’s. Written warnings had been given, the HR policy had been followed and despite some dissenting voices the motion was carried. All a bit traumatic, made the more so when I discovered that the reason that MD wasn’t present was because she was at a family funeral, just after Christmas.

As their Business Advisor I was aware that some rumblings were afoot in the ranks but this is a very energetic group and getting to consensus and decision in a 1 hour meeting sometimes means calling a halt to discussion. Which can make you unpopular.

This week she appealed the decision and was voted back in with an overwhelming vote of confidence. Some things you have to nip in the bud, others are best left to play themselves out. The vote of confidence will also help both MDs re-imposed their control over the meeting and company.

As part of the learning that the mini-crisis caused, a new seating plan was enforced that helped to break up some of the noisier clusters.

The other big news on the agenda was the Valentines Trade fair in Bristol Galleries (Wed, 6 Feb if you’re in the centre of Bristol). Along with making sure they would have enough stock of their best selling eco-friendly bags and purses, they are planning on introducing two new lines - cushions and sets of fridge-magnet letter tiles made from old PC and laptop keyboards.

Quite a bit of time was spent discussing uniforms and logos (seems to be a recurring theme this year) and the meeting finally concluded with a reasonable plan in place.

The Christmas Fair at St Nick’s in Bristol went really well with the girls making nearly £300. There was some tension amongst the ranks when the scheduling for being on the stand wasn’t adhered to and the stand was left under-staffed. In the end two more warnings were issued. There were no calls to shuffle the Director roles so we’ll have to see in the New Year how they settle back down to business.

With the year end is approaching, stylEco are planning their new range for next year (Valentine’s Day is worryingly close).

Finance are facing a rough time with people not following protocol and purchasing items for the company that haven’t been discussed. I pointed out that if they have a process for authorising purchases (which they do) and people buy things without following that process (which they are) then they’re not obliged to reimburse those directors.  But when those directors are also friends and classmates it’s another layer of complexity.

So another year beckons, more trade fairs, product lines, opportunities and I’m sure high emotions.

It’s rarely dull in start-up land and when the start-up comprises 20 Sixth-form girls it’s anything but.

One of the features of life in general is that things happen, quite often in a particular sequence and usually within a specific time frame. In this instance there’s a school play next week and a major sales opportunity at the St Nick’s market that Young Enterprise SW put on for the companies.

Except stylECO don’t have a plan.

Both myself and the teacher to this year’s company had to crack the whip and ’strongly encourage’ the girls to figure out exactly when they were going to order raw materials, how long they would take to arrive and how long they would spend making products. It looks like they are going to miss the school play with their own product range so will fall back on buy-low-sell-high strategy but still need to buy something to sell anything…

At least the accounts are now on the Young Enterprise spreadsheet.

It also seems that the enthusiasm within the Board meetings isn’t carrying over into the rest of the week. I know that school life is very busy these days, but running a company isn’t a 1hr once a week activity. No one’s expecting 100hr weeks from them on Young Enterprise. They’ll each find their balance but at the moment an undue amount of pressure is being placed on one of the Managing Directors and she’s not quite strong enough to shoulder the leadership role (hence the intervention and support).

As a first action they’re raising the profile of the reward & retribution developed by the HR Directors so that everyone is fully aware of their expected performance levels. Agenda, minutes and action plans are beginning to make a formal appearance and a step-by-step guide to Google Groups has been handed out. The crunch will come over the next four weeks when they have the build up to the Christmas Trade Fair, the School play and several swimming galas to contend with.

Back from half term and there’s been a bit of a communications meltdown, or more accurately a freeze since there hasn’t been any communications.

The energy and enthusiasm of previous weeks is in danger of descending into chaos and anarchy.  Time to implement a more rigid adherance to process, agenda, action items and individual responsibility.

Fortunately Google Groups provide an excellent space to manage this through file uploads, email notification, calendar etc; unfortunately this group of digital natives aren’t the most familiar with online solutions

Then again, having just popped onto gmail - I see that they’re posting minutes! So things are looking up for the Agenda to be distributed ready for next week’s board meeting. Which is good as they need to pick up the pace to be ready for the Christmas Trade Faire here in Bristol towards early December. They also need to sort out their bank account, issue shares, do their market research, and produce their first-offs for market testing. Good job the enthusiasm of youth is present in abundance.