Taking the Plunge

To be successful you sometimes need to make some outrageous and brave decisions and I was reminded of one such decision recently.

On Friday evening two friends of mine, Steve and Andrea Borwell-Fox hosted a dinner a party to celebrate the 10th anniversary of them launching their business Borwell, a software engineering business. At the party were around 150 of the people that had helped them through the first 10 years of business, including their first customers, representatives from the Local Enterprise Partnership and the Chamber of Commerce, as well as their 12 employees and their partners.

The party also celebrated an award that they had recently received from the Ministry of Defence for a successful software project.  But the main purpose of the party was to say thank you to those who had helped them along the way.

I have known Steve and Andrea for about 5 years yet the invitation made me feel a little humble because Andrea had been a guest at a Leaders Group meeting I had hosted last November. The subject was Going for Growth in 2013 and in that meeting she had told me something that I hadn't been aware of previously.

We were discussing the key lessons for leadership for growth and had identified that they were:

1.Constant Innovation

2.Great customer relationships

3.Great culture and core values

4.Tenacity was critical

5.Data and Instinct equally valued

6.Growth enabled them to deliver a better product / service not just be bigger

Each of these points are applicable to both the Company and to Steve and Andrea personally; but when we came to tenacity, culture and values Andrea bought into the discussion the need to make those brave decisions.

Steve had been talking about forming his own business to develop software for the Defence Industry and for businesses generally and was ready to set up his own business. Nothing unusual there I hear you say.

No there isn't but it was what Andrea told me then that has cemented them into my mind as exceptional leaders capable of making those brave and difficult decisions.

They both wrote their resignation letters on the same day. Andrea resigning her post as a music teacher at a local secondary school having just completed her maternity leave following the birth of their first child to help support her husband and his dream. How difficult a decision was that? Leaving a career with the security associated with the teaching profession to support your husband as he is starting his first business.

Their values have allowed it to work but they have needed to be tenacious along the route as there are always some bumpy patches as you go and you must not allow those difficulties defer you from the path that you think is right.

I am honoured to count Steve and Andrea amongst my friends as not only do they show great work-life balance and the highest technical skill in their work, they truly are exceptional people.