Mini entrepreneurs show our future is in safe hands
ONE of the great parts of my job is meeting business people, and I always get a particular thrill from meeting entrepreneurs who are just buzzing with ideas and fizzing with enthusiasm and hope for their concepts and their business.
One of the perennial questions I am often asked is, ‘Are entrepreneurs born or made?’ and the answer you get invariably depends on whom you are speaking to.
However, the young entrepreneurs I saw last week seemed to have been born to succeed.
I was totally blown away by these youngsters, who took part in the Enterprise Troopers competition at Cardiff Metropolitan University.
They were the winners of an annual competition sponsored by NatWest and run by Big Ideas Wales – part of Welsh Government’s Youth Entrepreneurship Service – to find and nurture entrepreneurial young talent from across Wales.
It was my pleasure to meet the winning pupils from Cadoxton Primary School in Barry, who picked up the top title with their Real Junk Food Café. They were particularly impressive when I met them, and their food was just top-notch.
The challenge was open to primary schools across the country, and the Cadoxton team relished their experience of collaboration, developing ambition, problem-solving and opting for healthier choices.
What really made my day was seeing some of these young children from schools around Wales – some of whom were not conventionally academic, even to the extent of being disengaged with normal academic activity – simply fly when their talents were employed in coming up with ideas to start and run their own business.
One of the key aspects of the day was when each school presented its ideas to an audience of more than 100 of their peers, teachers and others of us, including the Cabinet Secretary for Education Kirsty Williams.
Ms Williams simply marvelled at their presentation skills and their phenomenal and charismatic delivery styles, which many seasoned professionals would have been proud of.
The Cabinet Secretary was impressed by the “can-do” spirit and determination pupils had demonstrated in starting their business.
Thinking creatively to generate ideas, and using their passion for wellbeing, they adapted to the environment and society to shape their business ideas and values.
By the way in which I’m enthusing about my day, I think you can all tell just how much I enjoyed myself.
The Cabinet Secretary for Education was also hugely impressed, with her speech reflecting the excitement and admiration that we both felt for the young entrepreneurs. From my perspective, I am so pleased that business of the future is in safe hands.
If what I saw among the children was anything to go by, our emphasis in Wales on the contribution that entrepreneurs make to our economy is quite rightly recognised at the very highest levels of government.
The Be the Spark initiative is yet another example of the importance placed on entrepreneurial flair, and, from what I saw last week, the future is bright.
We in the IoD also recognise the importance of entrepreneurs, with our special 99 membership category devoted to entrepreneurs of all ages. So last week for me was a stand-out piece of good news amid the plethora of depressing news stories of late.
For those of you who know me, the photo of me sampling some of the team’s delicacies was purely me getting into the spirit of things – honestly!
■ Robert Lloyd Griffiths is director of the Institute of Directors in Wales (www.iod.com)