The voice of business in the Tees region | 95
Phil Teasdale of Enterprise Made Simple is
launching a new training programme which
will see ten Tees firms fly out to the USA.
Picture by Doug Moody.
STARS AND
STRIPES
How ten businesses will enjoy USA trip as part
of new training offer from Tees firm
F
rom Teesside to stateside – Tees Valley
business Enterprise Made Simple is
about to notch up a world first.
And it’s all thanks to relationships forged
through the drive and desire to help
fledgling firms in our region to succeed.
In the New Year, a brand-new three-
month training programme called Inspiration
USA will get underway. Devised and run
by Enterprise Made Simple, it will see Tees
Valley businesses fly out to US university
Babson College to identify new ideas,
strategies for growth and inspiration USA-
style.
The idea is to share and support as well
as learn from the US business community
in Boston and the experts at Babson, a well-
respected entrepreneurial university, in a
bid to open the door to future success.
The link was forged by Enterprise Made
Simple CEO Phil Teasdale who is the
first UK Fellow at the US college and the
new initiative has been nominated for the
Innovation in Enterprise Education award
through the National Enterprise Network.
The company, which has an HQ at
Middlesbrough’s Acklam Hall and offices
in Stockton, Redcar and Sunderland,
specialises in support for new businesses
and training for established firms to help
them flourish.
Phil, who is originally from
Middlesbrough, enrolled on a course at
Babson and discovered a real “meeting of
minds”. It changed the way he approached
his business, he says, and he knew it could
do the same for others.
“We will be the first place to deliver this
programme in partnership with Babson
outside of the US, it is a massive coup for
the Tees Valley,” says Phil.
“The initiative is not a trade mission, it’s
a training programme, a business scale and
growth initiative.
“We will take all types and size of
business into the programme, they can
be from any sector, whether it is digital,
manufacturing, chemical, process, logistics
– there are no absolute rules, all we ask is
that they are ambitious.
“Next February we will spend a week
based at Babson where we will meet and
travel to view businesses, hear from guest
lecturers in sales and marketing, the likes of
Microsoft and Google, MIT and Harvard are
involved too.
“There’s also an event hosted by the
English/Boston Chamber of Commerce and
the British Consulate.”
It has been a bit of a “happy accident”,
says Phil, that a partner business in Boston
will send a delegation to our region in
December, just before the programme
starts, to come and see for themselves
what our region has to offer and just what
Tees Valley businesses are trying to achieve.
He started Enterprise Made Simple 11
years ago and remains passionate about
its work supporting Tees Valley’s firms.
When the company turned ten, he says,
he decided to invest a bit back into his own
skills and enrolling on a course at Babson
was the result.
It refreshed his thinking and changed the
way he looked at things, encouraging him
to adopt an “act, learn and build” approach.
The new initiative is something that came
about after he developed great relationships
with his peers in Boston.
“Teesside has a really entrepreneurial
BY JOANNE BARRETT
culture,” he adds. “For so many years
people were told get a job with a steady
income, your business will never make it
and we’re starting from a really low base.
“But in the last four or five years, with
developments at TVCA, the university,
DigitalCity and the like, there are lots of
collaborations going on and people are
realising ‘yes, you can’.
“It is good to be able to work with
start-up businesses but it is also important
to sustain them and then grow those
businesses.
“The majority of the work we do now is
with businesses looking to grow, scale and
sustain themselves and their workforces.
We’ve been heavily involved in the
businesses set up by workers employed by
SSI and its supply chain, for example – to
date we’ve been involved with around 300.”
The firm specialises in training and has
developed and runs its own accredited
qualifications and commercial courses
always with a focus on business growth and
increased productivity.
It also delivers the award-winning Going
For Growth programmes to advise firms
on building and scaling, including help and
support in areas such as sales development
and new routes to market as well as digital
growth.
Over the past six years, adds Phil, 3,500
business owners and their teams have
attended the programmes with positive
results.
Businesses interested in Inspiration
USA can find out more at
enterprisemadesimple.co.uk