Podcasts about brompton bikes

From Sports Journalist to Game-Changing Inventor - With a Splash of Dancing QueenWhat do you do when your dream job no longer excites you?In the latest episode of the One Precious Life podcast, we meet Dom Cotton, former BBC sports journalist, who spent years covering major sporting events. But when the learning stopped, he didn't settle, he shifted careers. Then, a chance conversation about cycling safety with his now business partner led them to something extraordinary: the invention of a foldable cycling helmet, solving a problem for cyclists.What followed was a seven-year rollercoaster from design challenges and financial struggles to navigating an entirely new world - to now working with Brompton Bikes and their helmets being stocked in Selfridges and Halfords.Dom also opens up about:* Overcoming personal challenges* How exercise fuels both mental and physical wellbeing* The power of networking and staying open to unexpected opportunities* And yes - how he ended up performing in an ABBA tribute bandThis episode is for you if:You're drawn to stories of resilience, reinvention, and risk-takingYou're fascinated by what it really takes to turn an idea into a businessYou want to make the most of your one precious (working) lifeThe One Precious Life podcast talks to people who have found their calling., exploring purpose and meaning through the lens of work. Listen, read, or watch more here: https://bit.ly/m/onepreciouslifeFind out more about Dom's work: https://wearenewlane.com/ This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit onepreciouslife.substack.com

Welcome to our April 2024 Review of PR Pitches and mergers & acquisitions in the UK PR scene with Andrew Bloch, where we will discuss the biggest pitch wins and mergers and acquisitions that the PR sector has seen in April 2024.Andrew is the lead consultant - PR, Social, Content and Influencer at the new business consultancy firm AAR and a partner at PCB Partners, where he advises on buying and selling marketing services agencies.Andrew launched Andrew Bloch & Associates in 2020.Before we start, a plug for our new subscription training service for senior folks within agencies' PRmoment Leaders. The line-up of speakers for the first semester is now complete, and even if I say it myself - it's almost perfect! Do take a look at this semester-based career development programme, details are on the homepage of PRmoment.Finally, thanks so much to the PRmoment Podcast sponsors the PRCA.Here's a summary of what Andrew and PRmoment podcast founder Ben Smith discussed:2 mins April's PR pitch update:“The volume of briefs has significantly increased in the last month.”“If the tide hasn't quite turned, it's turning.” Hovis appoints Clarion.Brixton Brewery (Heineken) appoints Fanclub. Brompton Bikes appoints The Romans. 19 Crimes - part of Treasury Wine Estates Portfolio appoints Manifest.  Scottish Widows Life Insurance and Pensions provider appoints Team Spirit -and The Agency Partnership.The Macallan appoints Havas Red.William + Grant appoints Exposure. HM Treasury appoints Teneo and Lexington Renault appoints Ready 10Motorway appoints Fight or Flight - Shark Ninja  appoints Burson - Tinder appoints The Academy Carlsberg appoints Hope&Glory“One of the biggest briefs out there in consumer PR.”EA appoints Premier Hootsuite appoints Words + Pixels“A game-changing account for Words+Pixels, potentially,” Cancer Research appoints Shook  April's M&A updateAccenture buys UnlimitedWPP announced that leading global investment firm KKR has made a growth investment in FGS Global Together Group (owner of Purple) buys Frame PublicityCavendish - expand into NI and ROI with the acquisition of MCE

Owen Blackhurst, Seb White, James Bird, and Tommy Stewart catch up this week to chat about Lucia Roberta Tough Bronze, Winston Churchill, Operation Mincemeat, “The finest hour of your week”, Olympique Lyonnais Féminin, Ballon d'Or, Cafu, North Carolina Tar Heels, Alessia Russo, Lotte Wubben-Moy, Barcelona, The Armies of the North, a good old fashioned kickabout, Headers and Volleys, Guns N' Roses, ‘Jumpers for Goalposts', crash mats, Skullhead, Eric Cantona, Dimitar Berbatov, “How's Your Touch?”, Wayne Rooney's Street Striker, MUNDIAL Issue 28, Edinson Cavani, Eric Dier, Rivaldo, Ronaldinho, Ronaldo, 2002 World Cup, joyous attack, Beşiktaş, Jay-Jay Okocha, Motherwell Bois, Swole Patrol, He-Man Masters of the Universe, Seoul, Scarecrows, AA—The fourth Emergency Service, getting kicked in the nuts, small bikes, Brompton Bikes, and please subscribe to the magazine so our bosses can let us carry on doing the pod.CLICK HERE FOR THE MUNDIAL MASSIVE BLACK FRIDAY BONANZASign up for the Newsletter - https://mundialmag.co/newsletterFollow MUNDIAL on Twitter - @mundialmagFollow MUNDIAL on Instagram - @mundialmag Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If you haven't yet heard me talk about my rejection challenge then get ready for a deep dive into it as today I chat with online pal (and the inspiration behind the challenge) Katie Chappell.  In 2019 Katie did a rejection challenge (politely called a 'no thank you' challenge) which transformed the way she works, leading to her working with her dream clients (Google, Brompton Bikes, Nespresso). This challenge completely inspired me to do something similar which was how the 100 rejections challenge was born earlier this year.  Although neither of us reached 100 rejections, we both experienced a profound shift in our mindsets and hugely positive changes in our business too, both financially and mentally.  If you want to know how embracing rejection could lead to serious change in your business this is the IDEAL episode to listen to.  Don't forget to check out Katie online and follow her on Instagram. And while you're at it, come and say hello to me on my Instagram page as well! Can't wait to connect with you. This episode was written and produced by me and edited by Lucy Lucraft. If you enjoyed this episode please leave a 5* rating and review!   

William Butler Adams is the CEO of Brompton bikes but he isn't as concerned about selling bikes as he is about creating freedom, reminding people of the joy of moving effortlessly around our cities and free from congestion.  I didn't think I needed my Brompton until I got it and now I can't imagine not owning one. It's like the Swiss army knife of bikes, my little transformer. I ride it every rest day into the city, arrive at my favourite cafe, fold it up and research my podcast for the week.  Brompton isn't a fashion accessory, or recreational trend. It's a bike that works and endures.  Caldera Lab Get 20% OFF with our code ROADMAN at calderalab.com/ROADMAN to unlock your youthful glow and be ready for summer with Caldera + Lab! Wattbike is the only brand I trust for my indoor training needs. If you would like to win your very own Wattbike we have an amazing competition running at the moment! Simply click this link https://wattbike.com/pages/win-a-wattbike , enter your name and email and you're in! Today's show is brought to you with special thanks to our amazing on-going sponsors ⁠Factor Bikes⁠  The heart beat of our community & best place to reach me is ⁠Twitter ⁠ Want to watch full interviews on video? Check out our new Youtube Channel ⁠https://www.youtube.com/c/roadmancycling?sub_confirmation=1⁠ Our full back catalogue of episodes⁠ https://anchor.fm/roadman-cycling-podcast⁠ My gift to you is 14 days of free coaching. To Claim your gift go to ⁠www.roadmancycling.com/14daygift⁠ Support this podcast by buying me a beer ⁠https://www.patreon.com/anthony_walsh⁠ --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/roadman-cycling-podcast/message

This is a special episode of the Optical Entrepreneur, we've refreshed the format so that we can take you even more behind the scenes of Jones And Co. Styling Opticians and give you even more sneak peeks into Optical Success Academy and what we're working on with our members.  Every year in Optical Success Academy we hold an annual conference for our community of independent optometrists, opticians, and practice owners. We go out of our way to make this an amazing event over a couple of days. This episode of a snippet of one of those events. In this episode you will hear a Q&A with one of our keynote speakers, Will Butler-Adams director and CEO of Brompton Bikes, the iconic folding bike. Will is one our favourite ever keynote speakers and you will hear Will and Conor field question that were asked by our members at the event. This special episode is packed full of lessons that are still critically important today, that you'll get a ton of value from. Enjoy!

The Piper Podcast: Peddling through a gorse bush - How Will Butler-Adams quietly built an iconic global bike brand

William Butler-Adams OBE CEng, Chief Executive Officer at Brompton Bicycle joined Brompton in 2002, became director in 2006, and took over as MD in 2008 and in this time he grew the company from £2 mil turnover to over £90 mil turnover with over 800 staff.  William is a Chartered Engineer, passionate about all things engineering, having previously worked for DuPoint, Nissan and ICI. He is married with three daughters and lives near Marlow. He was awarded an OBE by the Queen in 2015 for services to Industry. Previously, he was a trustee of the UK Commission for Employment and Skills on behalf of the government, a founding trustee of Inspiring the Future charity and on the board of Investors in People, supporting its transition out of government into an independent Community Interest Company. A Fellow of Institute of Mechanical Engineers, a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, Member of the Vintners company and keen on his veggie patch. This episode is a nugget of inspiration from someone who has achieved so much. Catch a dose of his passion for innovation and be inspired by his ambition and successes.  In this episode: William's early life in education His serendipitous introduction to Brompton Bikes  Bringing ambition and producing innovation Fostering growth and innovation with company culture Plans for further growth at Brompton Bikes Using digital tools for environmental solutions  

How do you lead a team to success, inspiring every single person and empowering them to deliver their work to the very best of their ability? In this episode, Will Butler Adams, CEO of Brompton Bikes shares not only his ethos to leadership, but exactly how to implement it — and it really gets Holly thinking.  Her approach to leadership has changed and developed immensely over her 20 year career. Is 28-year-old Holly who founded notonthehighstreet, the same Holly who now leads the small business movement in the UK today? Hardly.  Hear her thoughts on how, as small businesses grow from being a team of one or two, to what might one day be a workforce of many, it's vital to evolve your leadership style as you go. Far from being a dark art or a skill someone is born with, Will believes the key to unlocking your leadership potential ultimately comes from the culture you are building within your business. Whether you have just one member or staff or 100, his tangible approach is inspiring and achievable for us all. No wonder Holly was so impressed.  You can listen to Will Butler Adam's full episode here.  Enjoying listening to these unfiltered chats? Subscribe to Holly's weekly newsletters on our website, where she shares small business inspiration of all kinds, exclusive nuggets of wisdom from her and her guests, plus offers, creative ideas and topical, 'ungoogleable' business advice.

A Kent police officer has been sacked after being accused of groping a woman during a trip to Alton Towers. PC Thomas Hall was alleged to have touched the woman during an overnight stay at a hotel. Hear from our reporter Sean Delaney who covered the misconduct hearing. Also in today's podcast, we have reaction from a University of Kent professor on the latest situation in Ukraine following the invasion by Russia. There's potentially some huge news for jobs in Kent - find out which big company is looking to relocate it's global headquarters to the county. Security has been stepped up at a new housing development in Medway. Hear from a resident of Rochester Riverside who's worried about groups of young people who're gathering. We're starting to get details on what event will be taking place in Kent to celebrate the jubilee. In sport, we've been chatting to the Gillingham manager ahead of their game at Lincoln City this weekend. And, find out who'll be joining Kent for the start of the new cricket season.

In episode 16, “Accelerating the UK active travel market” we explored one of the most exciting areas of growth and opportunity within urban mobility, and why it matters so much to the Connected Places Catapult, and the future of healthy, connected and net zero places. Active travel is about creating options for us to move more. This can have a massive impact on our physical and mental health, the air quality in our overly congested cities by getting more commuters out of cars and onto bikes and footpaths, and the UK's collective effort of achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2050. In this episode we kick off a series of conversations we've been having with businesses, place leaders and experts in active travel. We ask what seizing this potentially huge opportunity for economic growth and public health and wellbeing looks like around the country. How do we design our cities for more active travel? How do we ensure that change is led by communities and accessible to all? And where are the opportunities, at home and abroad, for government and industry to get ahead of the curve? We begin by speaking to Dame Sarah Storey, one of the most decorated British athletes of all time and the Active Travel Commissioner for the Sheffield City Region. We also hear from Will Butler-Adams, CEO of Brompton Bikes, one of Britain's best known cycling brands and sold all over the world. Music on this episode is by Blue Dot Sessions and Phill Ward Music (www.phillward.com) Show notes To find out more about the Sheffield City Region's active travel programme, check out their Active Travel Implementation Plan, as well as the region's interactive Active Travel Map. You can click on these links to read the two UK government reports that are referenced in the episode – Gear Change: A Bold Vision for Cycling and Transport, and Decarbonising Transport: Setting The Challenge. To read and download the Catapult's Net Zero Places Innovation Brief, which explores a number of new market opportunities in the active travel sector, click here. On the 23rd June we're running an event on Connecting Homes for Healthy Ageing as part of our multi-year Homes for Healthy Ageing Programme which is contributing towards the UK Government's goal of supporting older people to live at home independently for 5+ years longer. We'll be exploring the barriers and opportunities for leveraging innovation to overcome the existing healthy ageing challenges in the UK. To register for free, click here.  On the 1st July we'll also be launching our UK Cities Climate Investment Commission, in partnership with Core Cities and London Councils. We'll be presenting some early-stage findings on the estimated Net Zero investment need of the UK's Cities. It's a piece of work that we've commissioned in the run-up to the COP26 Climate Change Summit in Glasgow later this year. To register for free, click here. To find out more about what we do at the Connected Places Catapult and to hear about the latest news, events and announcements, please sign up to our newsletter!

In this episode, Anna Jordan talks to Will Butler-Adams, managing director of Brompton Bikes. We discuss taking over the company from its founder and the future of manufacturing.   You can also visit smallbusiness.co.uk for more on business succession and international trade. Remember to like us on Facebook @SmallBusinessExperts and follow us on Twitter @smallbusinessuk, all lower case. Would you prefer to read Will Butler Adams' podcast interview instead? Hello and welcome to Small Business Snippets, the podcast from SmallBusiness.co.uk. I’m your host, Anna Jordan. Today we have Will Butler-Adams, managing director of Brompton Bikes. He started at Brompton in 2002 as a project manager, moved up to engineer director and decided to take on the role of MD when a rival company was going to buy the company out in 2008. After making some changes, production sped up and Brompton now sells 55,000 bikes per year, with key markets in the UK and China. A UK-based Brompton bike hire scheme was launched in 2011. Outside of the firm, Butler-Adams is a fellow at the Institute of Mechanical Engineers and the Royal Geographical Society as well as the City and Guilds of London Institute. He’s also a member of the British Manufacturing & Consumer Trade Advisory Group, consulting on post-Brexit trade deals outside the EU. We’ll be discussing what it’s like to take over a business from its founder and how to maintain brand loyalty. Anna: Hi Will. Will: Anna, good morning. Anna: How are you? Will: Well, very lucky. In the current climate, as we are seeing, some really, really challenging times both emotionally and also commercially, for many people globally. It's a pretty unprecedented time and we are finding ourselves as a business, one of the few sectors that has benefited from the current crisis. Anna: I understand you're in the factory right now. Will: Yep, I'm in the factory. We've traded non-stop throughout from the very first lockdown. And that has come with all sorts of challenges. But funnily enough, and we'll talk about a little bit more no doubt, that bicycle is a very, very useful tool in a situation like this. And there has been this sort of global enlightenment, to the value of something so humble as a bicycle. So, you know, we've contributed in our own peculiar way to try and to help people through this crisis. Well, I will start a little bit further back from here. When you when you bought the company, way back in 2008, you made a generous valuation estimate and you bought out the founder Andrew Ritchie's controlling stake in the company. Some might see that as a bold strategy. Why did you go for it at the time? Will: I joined the company in 2002, there were about 30 of us. Initially, I just thought I was going to muck about with a mad inventor making what looked like a fun and interesting product, not much more than that. And then [after] two or three years I'd move on. I was pretty young at 28, but the bike got under my skin and it affected my life. I wasn't naturally an urban liver. And yet, it's such fun living in London with this bike because it gave me this freedom. And I saw it had a similar, quite profound effects on our customers. That's very alluring and, in some respects, addictive. I was consumed by the company, entirely consumed by it. And Andrew, the inventor, is an absolute flipping genius. But he's not a builder of a business because he is much more of a sort of complete megalomaniac, detail, engineering right down in the nitty gritty. We're both engineers, but I'm more of a ‘vision, empowerment and grow’ engineer. And I wanted, by the time we got to 2008 – in fact, 2006 or 2007 – I wanted to commit my life to the product he'd invented, but I couldn't do it if he still had the control. The reality is that, even if you've made me the MD back then I wouldn't have had the control that I needed to do what I needed to do because I knew I needed to do things that he wouldn't approve of. He had to let go of control. It didn't mean I was then taking control because I never did. I just took out his controlling stake. But it then meant I had authority and autonomy to do what I knew needed to happen to the business for it to fulfil its potential. Were there signs that he [Ritchie] may have been getting to the point where he was more willing to give over some of the control? From what I've read, he was quite reluctant to delegate when he was in charge. Anna: Life isn't black and white. It's full of moments in time, and people, and there's a certain amount of luck. And it's whether you see the opportunity or the luck floating by and whether you jump on to it. But in this particular case, I think it was a moment in time where Andrew was getting so caught up in the detail. And when a business gets to a certain size, if you're trying to control everything, you've become the eye of the needle, and everything has to go through you. And you think that by recruiting people that you will find that then, you have less work to do. But if you are the person who is controlling everything, everything has to come through you. And by recruiting more people, you find you're even busier. That's what happened to Andrew: he got busier and busier and busier. It was making him unhappy. Because he was putting himself under so much pressure, there was a sort of nosedive where he was not enjoying himself because the business was becoming so successful. Also, I was being more confident. In the early days, the company was owned by him and his friends. His friends weren't Andrews. They were entrepreneurial, independent businesspeople in their own right. They could see and bring perspective and support Andrew to make the decision because they could see there was no way he could continue, because it wasn't his forte. So, they encouraged him to let go. It's worth saying that on many occasions, since then, he's vehemently regretted it because I've done things of course, which I knew I'd have to do that he didn't agree with. Tell me – what kind of protestations did he have? Will: It's about detail. Andrew is an inventor – in the absolute classic sense of the word. He spent 13 years, he hand-drew 1000s of drawings – technical drawings – not just for the bike, but how to make the bike and in insane detail. It’s something straight out of A Beautiful Mind. It's unreal that one human being could do what he did against a sort of backlog of everyone telling him, ‘What are you doing, wasting your time? You've tried, you fail, you're still at it, why are you still at it?’ He wouldn't give up. But he would worry about training and worry about tolerances, worrying about the grammar and would pick up on some problem, you know, six pages deep in our website, and ask me, ‘How would I let this happen?’ It's wrong, but in the grand scheme of things, when you're running a business and trying to do this and open up markets in Japan and an office in London developing this, he assumed that I would know everything and check every piece of written word and that I'd signed off every detail, but it doesn't happen like that. You have to find people better than you, you need to trust them, you need to allow them to make mistakes, just not mistakes that will take out the business. But his perception is that I was running the business – when it had 100 people, 200 people, 300 people, 400 people – in the same way that he ran the business when it had 40 people. That's just not possible. So that was the friction, and in some respects, still is a friction. In most cases, everything Andrew said was technically correct. It just wasn't the priority. And the problem is, when you're running a business and you're growing at some speed, you actually have to walk past things that are wrong. You're walking straight past something that is absolutely wrong. Unacceptable, not right. But you have to leave it because there's an even bigger wrong over there. You need to deal with the biggest [wrong]. It gives me huge pleasure that there are some things that I've been walking past for eight, nine, ten years. Finally, we've got the breadth and the capacity as a business to finally address some of these things that have been bugging me. But if you get distracted by every minutiae, as you're growing a business, you won't move the business forward because you'll never get to the most important thing that then allows you to move on to the lesser things and as you build down through the priority list. I think especially when you're starting a business, you're so used to playing all the roles, so that can be difficult to let go of. But interestingly, in Brompton’s case, when I joined, there were fewer than 30 people. I was the person running the machines. I rolled my sleeves up, spent three weeks running machines. The business was so small that that is what I did. That role has changed significantly. We now have offices around the world and we've got lots of people and I'm really doing nothing. That's a really tough call to design yourself out of a job, because there is no operational control in my role. Speaking of internationally – and you probably saw this coming – but I'd like to talk a bit about Brexit. We’re a week and a half in now. It's been ‘chaotic’, in a word, especially for exporters. I think that as somebody who has worked to advise on trade deals, and who wants to grow their market in other parts of Europe, especially for small business exporters, what do you think the forecast is for them, say the next three to five years? Will things get better? Will: What I would say – and this is not entirely directly answering your question, but indirectly does – when you're in business, you need to focus on things that you can control. You can control who you employ, you can control the culture of your organisation, how you present yourselves and what you do to inspire your team. What you can't control is FX (foreign exchange), what you can't control is Brexit. So, what you need to do is put in place strategies to mitigate the things that you can't control to allow you to get back to focusing on the things you can control. What happened with Brexit was, it started four years ago, we took a decision four years ago, to plan for the worst-case scenario. It took us about three months, the worst-case scenario hasn't then changed in three-and-three-quarter years, it's still the worst-case scenario. So, for the last three-and-three-quarter years, we've focused on growing our business innovating, distribution, communication – and we've doubled the size of our business. But what I saw over Brexit was many businesses got so caught up in worrying about something that they couldn't control, that they didn't do anything, they stagnated. They were worrying about the latest rumours – ‘I've heard it's that but maybe it's this or it could be this’. And I think in business, you need to not get distracted by things you can't control, focus on your core, focus on your added value, and manage the things you can't control by putting in place strategies to minimise the risk. Small business owners are so accustomed to planning ahead but without a lot of concrete information that's been difficult to do. Will: I'm not sure I agree. With a small business, you're more flexible than a bigger business, you're much more nimble. You have a tremendous advantage against some of the bigger players because you can adjust and you're smaller. I think it's not straightforward. It is possible to be able to try and mitigate those risks. And there aren't that many of them. Clearly Brexit is one, FX is another, trade tariffs is a third, but there aren't that many. And there's some good advice out there to support you. I know that Brompton has been open about being against planned obsolescence. This is where a company will manufacture a product so that it is unusable after a couple of years [or a certain period time], which is long enough where somebody can develop a connection with the product, but not so short that they get disengaged from the company and never buy from them again, there's regular income for that company. Phones are especially notorious for this practice. My question to you is that if a customer is only going to buy one Brompton bike for life, how do you maintain brand loyalty from customers? Will: The way you can maintain brand loyalty from customers is to give them a product that they may need to buy once in their life. Capitalism has done some amazing things – brought people out of poverty, it’s brought health, it’s brought education, but it has come at a cost to our planet. And certainly, in the last 50 years, increasingly. So, we have to rethink how we engage with consumerism and how we buy things and how we reuse things and don't just buy and chuck away and just, we're sucking value out of our planet, which our planet can't sustain. Apart from the fact that the customer must prefer the product they've had for a long time. If you've got some pots and pans that came from your granny or your parents or an old jacket or anything that's had longevity, you cherish it because it's given so much to and if you can keep it working for as long as possible, that makes total sense to me. Coming back to brand loyalty, there are things we can do to engage with our customers where they're having fun. We do races all round the world, not the last 12 months, but we do activities, we do events. And we want people to have fun, and this year with a fair wind we’ll make 70,000 bikes. I mean, they're like eight and a half billion people in the world of which nearly over 50 per cent live in cities. I mean, we haven't even started, the opportunities are immense. We want to create things, then actually what we want to do is when it's finished, which we're not out yet, we should be able to take the product back, recycle it and start all over again and have a full circular economy. Anna: Is that something that you're planning to do in future? Wil: Definitely. We need we need to do that, because there will come a point where the bikes that we were making 20 years ago, in some cases 15 years ago, have come to the end of their life, at which point for those bikes, we should be able to bring them back, take them apart for recycling, then round we go again. I've read that your marketing budget isn't huge, either. Will: I think the experience that a customer has with your product, too often, businesses are obsessed with selling you something. But that's not how you build a brand. A brand isn't what you feel when you bought it, you can buy anything. And the moment you buy and you have this sort of rush of, ‘Whoopee isn't this fantastic?’ The question is, go back to that same customer in two years’ time and say, you know that £100 you spent or that £300 you spent, was it worth it? And, sadly, in most cases against you might have never been used, or yeah, it was brilliant for about six months, and then it bust or something went wrong. There aren’t many things that that we absolutely cherish and love. I think the scope for us to be delivering a useful product, it's not just about buying, it's about looking after the customer for the life of the product. Things need looking after, which is why we have put in a lot of energy. If you like, our marketing budget goes into looking after the customers we already have – that's the most effective marketing budget. If the customers that you have really love their product, and when things go wrong, which they do, we look after them as best we can, then that's the best marketing you can get. So, spend your money on warranty or on customer service, customer support. And then when that's all perfect, you might have a little bit left over for doing some proactive marketing. But often people they forget about are the customer, they just want to go out and do this trend or get more new customers, forgetting about the ones they’ve already got. To round off, I'd like to talk a little bit about manufacturing in the UK. For a long time now it's dwindled, but then others have said, ‘Well, the UK is so innovative and it's still a very strong player in the manufacturing industry.’ In your view, where do you see it going in the next few years? Will: I think there is so much potential to manufacture in the UK, simply because the barriers to entry to doing efficient lean manufacturing are so much lower than they used to be. When I was at university, which is increasingly becoming quite a long time ago – Anna: Oh, I know the feeling! Will: Yeah! If you wanted to design something like a car, you needed a computer that filled up a room and they cost, in today's money, millions of pounds. So, the only companies that could afford the technology to allow you to design effectively were the Fords or the massive companies in the world. But you can buy a computer and start doing 3D design, you can get things printed in 3D in metal. If anything, manufacture’s become entrepreneurial again, because if you come up with an idea, if you can design it, you can print it, you can prove it, you can go on to social media, and then you can raise the money to get started. There's so much potential. The real sense of pride comes from, the reason that it's so satisfying with manufacture, is you see you’re creating something. It's that sense of creation, it's like growing plants – you're seeing something happen and come alive in front of you. You're creating something tangible – that's really, really satisfying. We've been encouraged and told that everything is on a computer and it's all noughts and ones. Actually, it’s the innate sense of pride about something tangible that's going out the door. I think actually the opportunities for it, not just in the UK but globally for manufacturing. Manufacturing doesn't need to be where there's cheap labour. Manufacturing is where there are the best ideas and robotics, semi automation, 3D printing, the cost of software and the ability to design, meaning the best ideas can sprout anywhere in the world, and you can manufacture locally, where the brains are. Anna: It would be a bit like, since the rise of social media and blogging, we've seen content creation go more into the individual’s hands, you feel like manufacturing can go from larger companies to individuals. Will: Definitely. It's a really positive thing because of disruption. I mean, if you look at things about flying taxis, people coming up, there are like 50,60,100 different companies around the world, all coming up with their different flying taxis. It was unthinkable 25 years ago, because it just wasn't possible for small businesses or small groups of individuals to try and come up with something so revolutionary, it would only be a LES four-digit or Nissan, or something – forget it. Yet, all these start-ups are doing it, because the whole engineering and manufacturing has been broken down and it makes it much more accessible. And if your idea is strong enough, if your passion burns bright enough, you can do it. Anna: Well, on that rather inspirational note, I'll leave it there. Thank you ever so much for coming on the podcast, Will. Will: Anna, it's my pleasure. Thank you for asking me. You can find out more about Brompton Bikes at brompton.com. You can also visit smallbusiness.co.uk for articles on business succession and international trade. Remember to like us on Facebook at SmallBusinessExperts and follow us on Twitter @smallbusinessuk, all lowercase. Until next time, thank you for listening.    

Our final conversation of Season Four is a fun one. Lizzie Radcliffe is the Head Cutter at Lot.1 – Levis’ bespoke denim service tucked away in the heart of London’s Soho.Whether you’re into bespoke craft, proper denim or luxury retail Lizzie’s story is a fascinating one; she joined Lot.1 following a bespoke tailoring apprenticeship with legend of the game Edward Sexton, and over a seven-year period, she’s taken Lot 1 from being just herself in the corner of a Levi’s store to a dedicated denim tailoring workshop with five craftspeople working on her team.She’s also been instrumental in rolling out Levis’s bespoke service around the world, in cities like Paris and Toyko. We loved chatting to her, and thought this would be just the episode to sign off with this year. As always, we hope you enjoy, and we’ll see you for Season Five in the spring.---Show Notes:Lizzie Radcliffe — Website[05:15] Edward Sexton[05:48] Davide Taub, Gieves & Hawkes[09:09] Brompton Bikes[09:22] Rapha[13:40] Ametora: How Japan Saved American Style [Book][27:00] Chris Modoo, S04 E07---HandCut Radio is produced by Birch, a London based creative agency. Our theme music is by Joe Boyd.

In the final episode of this SME:SOS series Holly speaks to Will Butler Adams, CEO of Brompton and Richard Callender, presenter and fitness expert.  Both guests share the most incredible lessons and insights - not only from a business perspective, but fundamental life lessons too. From mindset and accountability, to leadership and risk taking - this episode culminates with Holly sharing some of her own insights from this period of time.   SME: SOS is a topical podcast to support small businesses through this turbulent time. Offering advice from experts and founders, this episode is designed to empower and support you through practical tips, advice and real life experiences.   This SME: SOS podcast episode is brought to you with thanks to Dell Technologies. Follow Holly and #SMESOS on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hollytucker/?hl=en

SME: SOS is a topical podcast to support small businesses through this turbulent time of Covid-19. Offering advice from experts and founders, as well as covering the key announcements and developments that have affected small businesses from the past week.   In this episode, Holly discusses her view on the government backed loan scheme and the power of a united team. She also welcomes Will Butler-Adams, CEO of Brompton Bikes, and Steph Douglas, founder of Don’t Buy Her Flowers to discuss how they are navigating this unprecedented time with their own businesses. They also discuss marketing in this climate, the role of trust with your staff, as well as what they see for the future of small businesses beyond Covid-19.  This SME: SOS Special episode of Conversations of Inspiration is brought to you with thanks to NatWest, Dell, Three and Royal Mail.  Follow Holly and #SMESOS on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hollytucker/?hl=en 

En este episodio regresamos haciendo una actualización de nuestras quejas, aunque Anny no puede acompañarnos, Guido te cuenta:. *Como están las cosas en Venezuela por estos días, esas noticias que ya no publican las actualiza para todos. *También nos habla de su contacto con el CEO Will Butler Adams de la empresa Brompton Bikes. *Recomendaciones de vídeos en YouTube. Síguenos en Instagram, Facebook, Twitter. @guidocamargo @purastochadas correo Gmail guidocamargo@gmail.com y purastochadas@gmail.com y en nuestro canal de Youtube www.youtube.com/guidocamargo

Are you interested in using e-commerce to sell to the huge number of Chinese online consumers? Avenue 51 have developed a ridiculously simple route to market for British companies selling consumer goods. Their new distributor model is used by 100 British brands including Waitrose, Royal Mail and Brompton Bikes to sell easily and efficiently into the world’s biggest online market. My name is David James and in this episode of UK Export Advice I talk to Byron Constable, Chief Marketing Officer at Avenue 51 about how they have made the difficult process of selling online to China very, very easy.

Will Butler-Adams is a CEO with a refreshingly down to earth, humorous and purpose driven attitude to building a business. In his 17 years leading the company, Brompton Bikes has grown 15% year on year, but despite its growth, Brompton has fiercely retained its company culture. After taking an unexpected spin around Brompton HQ, Holly & Will sat down to discuss how to build a company with purpose beyond the product, how to lead a team and what defines a great leader. Conversations of Inspiration is brought to you with support from NatWest: visit natwestbusinesshub.com for information, tips and insights to help business owners meet their goals.   Follow Holly on Instagram: instagram.com/hollytucker/?hl=en

A test of the Shure Lav mic on the Brompton bike. Recorded and edited on my phone. Uploaded via a laptop because Audioboom is broken. #AudioMo

Will Butler-Adams is the Managing Director of Brompton Bikes, the global folding-bicycle company. A former Plant Manager for chemical company DuPont, Will has grown Brompton’s turnover from to £36 million and the number of employees to over 280 since joining the company in 2002. In this in-depth interview, Will explains why he believes product design is superior to advertising, details the benefits of tension in leadership teams and argues that people around the world need to get back to experiencing the cities in which they live and work.

In this episode we talk to Will Butler-Adams the CEO of Brompton Bikes. We caught up with him at the Global Opportunities Summit organised by UKTI West Midlands and held at the Lloyds Bank sponsored Advanced Manufacturing Technology Centre in Coventry. You will hear in this interview how enthusiastic Will is about export and how passionate he is to encourage more UK businesses to get out there and make a success of international trade. You will definitely enjoy and get a lot of value out of this episode. Visit http://ukexportadvice.co.uk/ for more information