Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce has hosted a brand-new event for SMEs in partnership with GoSME and LiLegacy, key investors in SME growth across our region.
Four keynote speakers shared practical tips on growth, overcoming challenges and attracting investment.
Subrahmaniam Krishnan-Harihara, Deputy Director of Research at Greater Manchester Chamber, opened the event by talking about the challenges facing businesses, including the new US tariffs, training, financing and competition. Despite the challenges, he pointed out that there were still growth opportunities for businesses.
Breaking the Burnout Loop
Mark Goh, Chief Operations Officer of Li Legacy Holdings Pte. Ltd, spoke about ‘Breaking the Burnout Loop: Overcoming SME Growth Barriers’. He said growth could only come through strategic investments in brands, systems and leadership. He added that the burnout loop prevented growth and was a “toxic state of mind” which included:
- Time poverty
- Money poverty
- Operational dependence
- Mental and physical exhaustion
He shared the example of a small hotel owner in Spain who, despite his success, was feeling burnt out. Occupancy rates and revenue at the hotel were good, but they were not enough. He did not have enough time to spend with his children and could not see any way forward and many of his friends who ran businesses felt the same.
Mark outlined a way of dealing with burnout through what he called the ‘Red Pig Strategy’ which is:
Recognise the Burnout Loop
Experts to identify intellectual property rights (trademarks)
Document your systems and processes
Profile Publicly
Investment for franchising
Growth in Leadership
He said the traditional image of investors shown on Dragons’ Den and in Hollywood films was wrong as the relationship between investors and businesses should be collaborative.
Leadership and Management
The second speaker, Lisa Gillespie, Director of Vanilla Resource (UK) Ltd., talked about leadership and management.
She said people’s attention spans had shrunk in recent years, which had an impact on how people do business. “You can listen, but you may not actually hear,” she said. “I encourage active listening and emotional intelligence to read the room.”
Warning that too many business leaders were avoiding making decisions in the current uncertain climate, she said: “Leaders need to lead – if you’re not making decisions, you’re not leading.”
She illustrated her point by using the historical example of the growth of Singer Sewing Machines, which started in the US but became an international company. Singer broke the mould of how to do business through innovations such as being the first manufacturer to allow customers to pay by instalments.
She also stressed the importance of having mentors who can provide 360 feedback and support and share the mistakes.
Connections
The third speaker, Charlotte from Singapore Airlines, focused on the power of in-person connections and building trust in business.
She explained that the airline’s success was built on network connectivity and service excellence which made it a “home in the sky for customers”. She listed trust and authenticity as a key parts of business success, pointing out that other people can sense when you are inauthentic which in turn makes them less honest about what they want. She said the human touch remained vital in dealing with customers, citing the way Singapore Airlines dealt with the recent disruption at Heathrow. The airline had staff on the ground to meet their customers which made a huge difference to their experience. She said that “trust drives growth” as it helped to build relationships with customers. She highlighted the popularity of the High Flyer programme, which allows customers to earn points and air miles to offset the cost of their booking and also offset taxes – those with enough points could even get a completely free flight.
In conclusion, Charlotte urged the audience to “Invest in those in-person connection as they really matter.”
Growth Through Franchising
The fourth speaker was Jonathan Goh, Founder of the GoSME platform. This platform is owned by Vanilla Resource (UK) Ltd. This platform helps local businesses scale and explore new opportunities — including how to become franchise-ready through branding, systems and leadership. Jonathan spoke about branding and the importance of intellectual property rights. He covered patents, trade secrets and trademarks. He highlighted the fact that surveys showed people chose Coke over Pepsi based on the branding as Coke had anchored itself to other brands in people’s minds. He explained that this was because our brains have a chemistry with brands and logos and trademark works to protect this chemistry/experience. He added that investors valued customer perception over expert perception. He outlined how GoSME could help businesses to profile their brand and engage with customers as Coke does and highlighted that lending was built on trust.
You will be able to read more about Jonathan Goh and how he founded GoSME in a forthcoming interview in the Chamber’s ‘On Point’ newsletter.
Questions and Answers
The speakers were followed by a question-and-answer session on topics ranging from the secrets behind Singapore’s success, the importance of having a brand for SMEs seeking investors, how leadership is related to branding and the effort needed to deliver the level of service that Singapore Airlines provides.
If this resonates with you and you’re ready to join a community focused on growing your brand, profile your business today at gosme.biz.