Vistage Executive Summit

Steven Bartlett is the 29-year-old Founder of the social media marketing agency Social Chain. From a bedroom in Manchester, this university drop-out built what would become one of the world’s most influential social media companies when he was just 21 years old, before taking his company public at 27 years old with a current market valuation of over $600M.

Steven is a speaker, investor, author and content creator, hosting Europe’s biggest podcasts, ‘The Diary of a CEO’. Steven recently released his debut book, ironically titled ‘Happy Sexy Millionaire’ which is a Sunday Times best seller.

More recently Steven has invested in and joined the board of Huel, which is the UK’s fastest growing ecommerce company internationally. He’s invested in and taken a role as an advisor in atai life sciences - a biotech company working to cure mental health disorders, and his other investments focus on blockchain technologies, biotech, space, and social media.

Steven is particularly focused on inspiring a new generation of entrepreneurs and creators from a BAME background and much of his work after winning the “British Black Entrepreneur of the year” award focused on disadvantaged schools and communities. Last year Steven was listed at no.6 in the 2022 Black Powerlist alongside Marcus Rashford and Michaela Coel.

At just 29 years old, he is widely considered one of Europe’s most talented and accomplished young entrepreneurs and philosophical thinkers.

This year, Steven joined Series 19 of BBC’s Dragon’s Den, as the youngest ever Dragon in the show’s history.

Covid has changed the way things work. 

We will consider the key indicators of economic activity and forecast interest rates, growth and inflation for the next two years.

Roger is a practical researcher.  He focuses on how the economy really works and on the links between FT100 reward systems, the behaviour of banks and economic instability. He also researches his clients trading environment as a necessary component of his teaching. His book “Making Sense of the Economy” is in its fourth reprint.

CEO Projections 2022: Embrace the Revolution

Despite mixed economic signals, small and midsize enterprises are adding employees at record levels, providing workers with more options, opportunities and power than ever before. The decisions, investments and leadership challenges CEOs are focused on in 2022 center around talent, specifically the hiring, retention and development of people. In this session, you'll gain perspectives on how to embrace the workforce revolution with the latest UK CEO data and insights from Vistage Research.

Speaker - Debra Lee

"Unless commitment is made, there are only promises and hopes; but no plans"

Peter F. Drucker

An interactive breakout session lead by People Puzzles Ltd. As HR thought leaders in the UK SME sector, we will be exploring the theme of what represents a vibrant 'People Strategy' that specifically fits your business. Why is it so vital in current times? How does it work? What does excellent look like? Where are you on the scale? And what gaps do you need to address?

The session will leave you with an outline plan of action to take back into your business to fully harness the 'People' resource that you employ; and help give you the best possible return on your investment by unlocking their potential to deliver success.

Speakers - Sally Beresford & Adam West

This session would be ideal for Business Leaders who are looking towards the future of their business, whether that is succession or exit:

• The options to consider for succession and exit – including method and timing, covering management buyouts, sales to employees through an Employee Ownership Trust and third party sales.
• Maximising tax efficiency, including capturing Business Asset Disposal relief and the use of a family investment company (FIC) where appropriate
• Consideration of future income requirements to secure ideal lifestyle preferences and consideration of gifts to family members pre-sale and cashflow planning to help determine the level of any gifts
• Investment post-exit

Speaker - Jenny Arrowsmith, Partner

The Covid-19 pandemic led to a more hybrid workforce. The Great Resignation followed with an employee led market driving demands for pay rises, a spike in resignations and employers having to think differently about their approach to attraction, retention and reward. Amidst this background, we now face significant cost of living rises and this is impacting employer and employees alike.

In this session, we’ll discuss the practical HR and legal issues that businesses are facing and help you keep ahead including:

• Winning the race for talent attraction in a market where candidates have a pick of opportunities,
• Retain and incentivise in a market where business costs are rising but so have employees’ expectations;
• Drive high performance vs. protect wellbeing – can you achieve both?
  Address culture and engagement challenges of a hybrid and flexible workforce;
• Plan ahead to ensure you’re adequately protected for if your key people leave including confidential information and competing interests.
  
  If you employ people, this session is one for you.

Speaker - Claire Vandenbroecke

Would you be able to visualise what a cyber attack on your business would look like if it took place in the physical world rather than in cyberspace?

In this session, Claire aims to break down the barriers between ‘real’ and ‘virtual’ when it comes to addressing cyber security in your business, dispelling common myths and unlocking the secret to integrating cyber security in to BAU. Claire will also provide time towards the end for Q&A

Speaker - Neal Harrison

Everyone in IT is always talking about Digital Transformation, Artificial Intelligence and loads of other Tec and evolving working practices that will help your business stay ahead of the competition, remain competitive and be sustainable…

But, if this isn’t your core business and you know you must do something, where do you go to get help and who do you need to help you? It really is the ‘land of the blind’ out there so be careful, you may have more of the answers than you think….

This session is ideal for business leaders who want to explore and know more about practically evolving their businesses without investing heavily and relying on IT specialists, external consultants or advisors who are deemed as experts and don’t take accountability for the output and results…

• Have a clear plan of what you want to sell, how you are going to sell it and who you are going to sell it to before embarking on transformation, investment in IT or hiring specialists’ skills. If you abdicate this responsibility, you will need to rely on ‘good luck’ to get results and any level of ROI
• You know your business better than any advisor, specialist, or techie… don’t be fooled by the ‘talking the talk’ when you must run your business after the project and ‘walk the walk’.
• Managing people through change – almost all of us don’t like change and uncertainty but once you have a plan and conviction, supported by detail and analysis, stay the course, and see it through.
• Hiring people and spending hard earned company profits and cash – hire slowly, fire quickly and have practical, aligned and very real job descriptions and objectives. This sounds like HR admin and that is a grave error! Overlook structure and focus, at your peril.

Speaker - Michael Loudon

Few could have predicted the events and challenges of the past few years, which have impacted our society and the economy so widely.

Whilst businesses have sought to navigate a path through Brexit, COVID-19 and the energy crisis, the private M&A market has remained buoyant. What has driven these record levels of activity and, most importantly, what should we expect from here?

Clearwater International is a leading international corporate finance adviser, transacting in excess of 150 deals per annum across Europe. In this session, partner Michael Loudon will share his insights into what Clearwater is seeing the UK mid-market, touching on evolving trends and reasons to remain optimistic for the future.