A window onto a winning formula
If your firm could increase sales by 40% plus and profit by almost 200%, wouldn’t you take it? The real story behind a social media post, and a growth formula impacting hundreds of businesses.
Dear readers,
I hope you’ve had a good week.
Aside from some insight into the sale of Gloucestershire Airport, today’s briefer than usual edition sees us focus on the story behind a social media post.
So many of them fly past us daily attracting likes and shares then disappearing before we learn any of the detail.
Sharing that detail is what The Raikes Journal was set up to do, to fill in some of that detail beneath the vast but otherwise paper-thin landscape of LinkedIn and the like, where thousands can learn quickly that you had a good time at an event, but have no idea what was said.
Today we look at a post by QuoLux, one of our Founding Partners - a simple celebration of the latest group of business people to graduate from its leadership development programme.
What it doesn’t say is that the incredible impact this journey of personal development is having on the individuals that pursue it and the organisations they work for. We’ve touched on it before here, but the story is worth retelling.
Oh, and congratulations to all of cohort 25, as celebrated in the story below.
If you want growth, then look no further.
Have a great weekend.
Best regards,
Andrew Merrell (editor).
What’s happening with Gloucestershire Airport?
If you have been following the saga of the attempted sell-off of Gloucestershire Airport by the two local authorities that own it, you may be wondering just what is going on.
Rumours have started to emerge that the sale of the 375-acre Staverton site is on the ropes after the deadline was pushed back.
Gloucester City Council and Cheltenham Borough Council, who have pledged any sale would keep the airport operational - announced last year it would be sold to Horizon Aero Group for £25m.
It’s a process that has attracted much controversy and criticism, not least from the many businesses based at the airport site who have felt excluded from the deal - as well as others concerned it will spell the eventual sell-off of the land for houses, despite the councils collective reassurances.
Some have suggested the real value of the site, if sold for houses, would be in the region of £300m, but the local authorities dispute this.
To try to get to the bottom of it Raikes approached the Anglo-Indian business to see if it had a statement. Was the deal on the rocks?
Just as we were about to publish today, Sagar Singamsetty, from Horizon Aero Group, told us this: “Talks continue with the councils and our investors. HAG is focussed on the completion of the transaction at the earliest.”
Not exactly brimming with confidence, but everyone still seems to be around the table at least.
Diary dates
Friday
🏉 Gloucester Hartpury play Exeter Chiefs Women at Kingsholm. KO 7.30pm.
⚽ Cheltenham Town FC play Barrow at home FC at 7.45pm.
Saturday
🏉 Gloucester Rugby play Harlequins away. KO 3pm.
⚽ Gloucester City FC play Bracknell Town FC at home at 3pm.
⚽ Forest Green Rovers FC play Aldershot Town FC at home at 3pm.
Sunday
🎶Cheltenham Chamber Orchestra Concert play the works by Faure, Finzi, and Schubert conducted by Tom Gauterin with Kathy Macaulay (Soprano soloist). St Andrew’s United Reformed Church, Cheltenham. 4pm to 6pm.
Future thinking… more diary dates
💡 Willans LLP solicitors’ experienced property dispute lawyers are hosting a free, in-person seminar to provide an update on the Renters’ Rights Act on 18 March at 4pm. The Bill is described as “representing the most significant reform to the private rental sector in decades”. Significant changes include the abolition of “no-fault” evictions, the introduction of rolling tenancies, limits on rent increases, and the new Decent Homes Standard. Aimed at landlords and their agents. More here.
🏇🏼🍕 Willans LLP solicitors and Cheltenham Open Door, the Cheltenham-headquartered law firm’s nominated charity for the year, invite you to join them for an evening of fun, fundraising and friendly competition. The entry fee, which all goes to the charity, puts you and a team in with a chance of winning one or more of six recorded races. Price includes two drinks and pizza. The date has been moved from the end of February to 23 April. At The Bottle of Sauce, Cheltenham, from 6pm. More here.
The Raikes Journal is a community interest company. Everything you read by us is made possible by our incredible Founding Partners: QuoLux, Willans LLP, Gloucestershire College, Merrell People and Randall & Payne, our sponsors, our Founding Members and wonderful paying subscribers.
If you upgrade to become a paid subscriber you’ll be part of this CIC too. You’ll help make us sustainable, be able to see past the paywalls, comment on our stories, and know you’re making possible the county’s only editorially-led platform dedicated to delivering quality journalism for Gloucestershire about its businesses, charities, education and training sectors.
Sign up for just £2.30 a week - or £1.80 a week if two or more people sign up at once. Or go all in and become one of our Founding Partners or Founding Members!
A window onto a winning formula
If your firm could increase sales by 40 per cent plus and profit by almost 200 per cent, wouldn’t you take it? The real story behind a social media post, and a growth formula impacting hundreds of businesses.
A ‘big impact’, ‘more confidence’, ‘better at making critical decisions’, a chance to share with peers, ‘different from any other training I have experienced’.
This was just some of the feedback we got when we asked cohort 25 for feedback on what they got out of the LEAD™ programme. And then there’s the impact on the businesses themselves.
This is not a usual story, but a look at the otherwise invisible detail that sits beneath a certain social media post that went out earlier this week.
So many posts whizz past us, with the detail lost. We picked this one because we wanted to press pause before the opportunity to find out more was buried beneath a thousands other posts, and to ask what is really going on here.
Because it is special.
The business leaders in the images above and below have not only become part of a group already more than than 300-strong, all of whom have now quietly passed through the leadership development programme run by QuoLux.
Stats from the business those graduates represent show sales have grown on average by 42 per cent and profits by 197 per cent. That’s a return on investment of 2,000 per cent.
We wanted to hear from some of the cohort personally about what they got out of the programme in an effort to identify just why it is so impactful, so we called some of those featured on the images posted on social media channel by QuoLux ceo Stewart Barnes.
Here’s what they said.
Rachel Davies, technical director at Lanes Health, is the latest from the Gloucester business to go through LEAD™.
“I have been in leadership roles for more than 25 years; over that time I have been involved in a lot of leadership training,” said Davies.
The firm’s executive chairman, Jonathan Groves, put himself through the programme as he rose through the ranks of the family firm and was so impressed he’s been sending staff there ever since.
Davies added: “I can safely say that the LEAD™ course is different from any other training I have experienced.
“Over the programme, my confidence as a leader has grown significantly – because I know that I have the tools to lead and a network of people who will help me if I need it.”
Rob Challingsworth, head of health and safety at Forest of Dean-headquartered housebuilder KW Bell Group.
The firm’s current chief operating officer, Nicola Bird, undertook the programme herself as part of cohort 15 in 2020, and when she moved to her current roll she embedded LEAD™ into the firm.
QuoLux was also instrumental in Bird and her sister, Natalie Bell, developing the ideas that became the success that is the AccXel Construction School in Cinderford.
“I’ve attended a fair few courses as part of my role, but I can say LEAD™ has had the most effect, the ideas around leading, understanding your business and your people has had a big impact,” said Challingsworth.
“I’ve implemented a lot of good change within my department which has boosted my confidence in making critical decisions and helped my department grow.
“Being able to talk about issues or challenges with peers is undeniably helpful and it’s reassuring to see that most businesses deal with the same issues regardless of size, scope or trade.
“LEAD has helped me to formulate a strategy for my department which other aspects of the business can follow.”
Geoffrey Newsome is chief executive of the ITSA Digital Trust based in Cheltenham.
The charity collects computers, refurbishes them, and distributes them to communities and individuals across Gloucestershire, beyond and overseas, transforming the lives of isolated individuals and learners in the hundreds every year.
“I gained so much from QuoLux’s LEAD™ programme. The guidance is practical, evidence-based and delivered by world-class experts.
“The programme involves lots of face-to-face and in-business practice; and we had the support of a powerful peer network,” said Newsome.
“I left the programme with tools and insights that I could use immediately, greater confidence and a clearer sense of how to drive better results — whether that’s improved productivity, stronger profits or greater social impact.
“I think everyone who completed the programme with me would say the same.”
Other graduates from cohort 25 include Joe Yemm from Greenfields Ltd, Joshua Skinner from Severnside Security Ltd, Scott Randall-Wilce from MF Freeman Group and Hazel Edwards from Caring for Communities (not pictured) and People and Claire Cleevely from Cheltenham-based Cleevely Motors & Cleevely Electric Vehicles.
Barnes, who is also the founder of QuoLux, which is headquartered at Elmbridge Court, Innsworth, published these words with his post.
“Congratulations on your graduation and on everything you have achieved over the past ten months on the programme,” said Barnes
“Such dedication, growth and transformation deserves to be celebrated - it has been an absolute honour to walk alongside each of you. Here’s to your next chapters!”
Indeed.
The next programme starts on 21-22 April and CEOs, MDs, directors and senior managers of small-medium businesses are encouraged to contact QuoLux for more information.