Review: BIG 50 Event

Lancashire Business View hosted business leaders from across the county for the BIG 50 event at Northcote Manor with the aim of giving guidance on driving profitability and growth into their businesses.

The BIG 50 ranks Lancashire-based businesses by turnover. Click here to see the online version of the feature which appeared in the January/February edition of the magazine.

"But of the companies which are there, we are seeing total sales of £10.8bn, a profit before tax of £247m and they employ 65,240 people. When we did this year's report and compared it to last year, we were looking at an extra £1.2bn of sales this year, as compared to a mere £699m last year, so clearly something's going on there."

Simon Jordan, director of Themis, co-sponsor of the event, added: "We're very proud to be sponsors of this fabulous event. If you look at the companies involved in the BIG 50 and the companies here today,you can see Lancashire is in a fabulous position. The listing looks at turnover but I think you could have a number of performance indicators that would reflect how well we're doing. The businesses involved are stimulating growth, complementing apprenticeship growth, and they are impacting on the economic well-being of the county."

"In terms of skills and attitudes of staff, quite often it's about bringing in key people from competitors as well as nurturing your own home-grown talent.

"You need to be open and have good communication in order to develop an understanding between different departments. Also, we don't say it often enough, but saying thank you is important.

"The starting point as a leader is understanding what you want to achieve, otherwise your staff don't. You need that link from even the lowest pay grade through to the top sharing and believing in what you're trying to achieve.

"We have never done a five year plan, we've always worked on 12-18 month models instead. You need to keep doing the basics and identifying the right markets."