Hallmark Whatley, Hulme LLP - Worcester
Today we dive into the world of the legal services sector. We talk with Rebecca Widdowson, who is the managing owner of a firm of solicitors called Hallmark Whatley, Hulme LLP.
We cover quite a range of topics. Clearly this is a very traditional sector, and the firm was originally founded back in the 1700s and is the longest standing law firm within Worcestershire. So really a very traditional business in a sector that has seen a lot of change over time, and particularly in the last 10 to 15 years with the increasing use of technology.
We discussed some of the aspects of efficiency around the business in what is essentially a very people based business. So we look at some of the aspects of that such as how we make sure that we build the right culture, and we have the right people doing the right things.
We also also talk through a couple of particular aspects that Rebecca has been on with her journey, including a merger in the last few years, and some of the thinking behind that and what went well and what didn't go so well.
So a lot of things that are covered in a really interesting in depth discussion and we think you're going to get a lot out of this discussion with Rebecca, whether or not you're coming at it from legal services perspective, or from a general business perspective.
Fruitful Group - Worcester
George Blakeway is the founder and Managing Director of the Fruitful Group - a learning and development business which provides leadership and team performance advice and support for businesses, helping them with their organisational culture. Over time, they’ve also licensed in and created tools which other learning professionals can use in their own coaching and development businesses which has become another revenue stream for the company.
The Fruitful Group, which has been in business for 20 years now, is the result of a lifelong passion for George; training and development for managers and business owners.
After turning down one of the biggest brands in the world, he decided that the corporate life wasn’t for him and he wanted to be his own boss, and follow his dream. And so The Fruitful Group was born.
As always, there was quite a lot of subjects covered including:
The importance of a good culture within the business - without the boss trying to do everything themselves.
The benefit of working with SME’s compared to corporates, and how working with one can inform your approach working with the other.
What makes a high performing team, and how can you move your company towards the goal of high performance?
Blockmark Technologies - Malvern
Meet Adrian Burden, the co founder of Blockmark Technologies. Adrian is someone who has been through the whole journey from startup in the technical space, raising finance, through building and scaling his business and then eventually having a successful exit.
Adrian has also written a book capturing some of his key lessons along the way called Start to Exit, so he knows what he's talking about. Now he's building a business based around digital certificates and we skirt around things like blockchain and NFT's or Non Fungible Tokens. But as always, it's not about the technology so much as it's about the business and the lessons that we can learn about building and scaling our businesses, and there is so much to take away from this episode.
We delve into some aspects of strategy in our discussion, and if you would like to level-up your strategic thinking, you could start with taking our acclaimed and free scoreapp – it will only take you a couple of minutes: https://strategicthinking.scoreapp.com.
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