Businesses must adopt a buccaneering mentality

New businesses will always have the edge in this regard. Their very existence depends on being able to tackle new challenges and opportunities with an agility rarely seen in larger companies.

Take the e-commerce sector, which exploded with the onset of the internet. Companies that took advantage were not just established firms, but the previously unknown Amazon and Asos, which responded to opportunity with the pace and efficiency that was demanded. Their huge success illustrates the value of a quick response.

The internet proved to be a great leveller, providing a platform that gave even the smallest organisations an opportunity to reach out to the world. Overnight, it gave SMEs the chance to access markets overseas that would previously have demanded considerable budget and manpower. But it also rewarded good ideas, with many of the innovations introduced in the early days setting the gold standard for businesses the world over.

Size and logistics still play their part in achieving success, but it is also a question of having the right mindset – a buccaneering mentality that’s best embodied by the entrepreneur. Maintaining the start-up spirit is vital as organisations grow to become multi-nationals.

Since the recession, the UK has carved out a niche as Europe’s leading home for start-ups; Companies House figures reveal that well over 500,000 new businesses were registered in Britain last year. Some may prove to be non-starters, but the successful majority will share the same grain of determination and willingness to try something new. I’ve no doubt many of these new businesses will provide the answers to the problems that big business faces on a daily basis.

When I was director of marketing at Tesco in the 1990s, we were lagging Marks & Spencer and Sainsbury’s. Fast-forward to 1995 and we were both the UK’s No.1 supermarket and retailer. For all the talent and experience in our boardroom, it was a company no one had ever heard of that helped us get to the top.

If any business is to be successful it must be able to do one thing exceptionally well – listen to its customers. As any experienced retailer knows, it’s what the customer will do next, rather than what they are doing right now, that matters.

To catch up with our competitors, I knew we needed to get better at listening. When we wanted to implement the Clubcard we approached dunnhumby for help, a company that had begun life only a few years previously at the kitchen table of husband and wife entrepreneurs Clive Humby and Edwina Dunn.

Years ahead of their time, they recognised the true value of data and how it could be a gold mine for businesses looking to understand customers better. The resulting Clubcard proved to be the difference for Tesco, something others have since replicated.

For three years I have spent much of my time working alongside start-ups, advising those new to business how to set up and avoid making the mistakes that can prove fatal in a firm’s early days. Having been at the top of a very large corporate pyramid, I’m as aware that many challenges in the business world are unexpected.

Making the right decision is often a question of having the right experience, and this is where it helps to have someone who’s been there and done it. What start-ups need more than anything is practical advice and guidance – particularly when it comes to financing growth.

Business is supposed to be fun and working with small organisations allows you to concentrate on business itself rather than the wider governance issues at larger companies.

I recently joined Clive and Edwina at Starcount, a company that mines social media to develop analyses for companies in the same way we did at Tesco. I firmly believe that more companies could find their Clubcard if they looked to start-ups for solutions rather than solely looking for answers within.

Later this year, British corporations will get the chance to see what our small business community is made of at the International Festival for Business, for which I am an ambassador. Supported by the likes of UKTI, CBI and FSB, it will enable British businesses to start making the conversations and pursuing the deals that will significantly boost UK exports.

Last week’s ONS data showed exports of British goods are at their lowest for three years so there has never been a more crucial time for UK businesses to start thinking globally.

But, away from the international focus of the festival, it will also be an opportunity for British businesses to identify the as yet unknown companies with the potential to provide the final piece of the puzzle.

To get beyond the economic downturn, and the recessional mindset it has fuelled, we need to wring out every bit of the UK’s enterprising potential. Getting British businesses big and small to start thinking entrepreneurially is key.

Former Tesco CEO Sir Terry Leahy is an ambassador for the International Festival for Business (www.ifb2014.com)

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