Pictures courtesy of BBC.
This is the third year that Times local newspapers will be hosting our prestigious Business Awards. Sponsored by Cripps, there are ten categories you can enter which include Young Entrepreneur of the Year, Best Family Business and Employee of the Year. Once the votes have been counted the winners will be revealed at a glittering gala evening at Salmons Estate on June 13.�
This year we are delighted to welcome the Rt Hon Michael Portillo as our celebrity speaker for the evening. The 64-year-old former cabinet minister turned TV presenter follows Edwina Currie and Radio 2’s Ken Bruce as the event’s guest speaker and when I catch up with him he tells me he is very much looking forward to visiting Tunbridge Wells.
Passion
‘I think the last time I was there was about five years ago and we were filming down on the very elegant Pantiles. I seem to recall it was a programme on Victoriana.’
Best known nowadays for presenting his incredibly popular BBC2 series Great Rail Journeys which started in 2009 and has seen the ex-Conservative politician travel all over the world with his trusty Bradshaw and Appleton guides – not to mention his colourful sartorial sense of style in tow. Michael Portillo seems like a perfect choice of speaker for our awards ceremony.�
The reason? Because he is someone who has managed to totally transform his ‘brand’, turning himself from a politician into a much loved and respected TV presenter. He took the risk of leaving politics to pursue a passion and it has paid off handsomely for him.
The former Enfield Southgate MP who was famously ousted from his safe Tory seat by New Labour’s Stephen Twigg in 1997 but went on to gain the Kensington and Chelsea in 1999 seat could have stayed on in politics. However, after a failed bid for the Conservative Party Leadership in 2001, which saw him come last after Iain Duncan Smith and Ken Clarke, and his party’s defeat at the general election in 2005, Michael decided to quit the Commons for good.
Since then he has enjoyed admirable success on television, firstly as an unlikely commentary cohort to Labour’s Diane Abbot on BBC1’s This Week with Andrew Neil, and then by pursuing his passion for rail journeys which has resulted in several series on the subject matter.�
For nearly a decade Michael has journeyed� to places as diverse as Kiev and Rotterdam to Los Angeles and Batumi via all types of train and given the impressive TV ratings audiences can’t get enough of them.� The format, he recently admitted is simple: ‘a little bit of heavy history funny clothes and then I do something crazy like Morris dancing. I think the formula is infinitely applicable’.
When I interview Michael, who lives in London with his wife Carolyn, he is just about to pack up his Panama hat and colourful collection of blazers, chinos and shirts and head off to Australia for three weeks to film the next Rail Journeys series.
‘I am going to Adelaide, Darwin, Cairns, Alice Springs and Perth and will be there for three weeks. That will produce three one hour programmes but they will be on TV a great deal later than our event together in Tunbridge Wells,’ he chuckles.
So why did he agree to speak at our awards ceremony? Is it because like the Times he agrees it’s essential to celebrate those who are willing to raise their head above the parapet and take risks in business?
‘I’ve always thought small businesses are extremely important. They are the seeds of larger businesses in the future but also in terms of employment, they can be highly significant.�
‘Nowadays larger corporations may have quite limited workforces but smaller businesses, which cater to more local needs or service industries, can be very rich sources of employment.
‘One of the things that is very interesting to me, despite the number of predictions that have been made that we are moving into a jobless future and despite the relentless advance of automation, information technology and artificial intelligence, employment remains at record highs and I think that must be largely because we have a vibrant small firms sector.’
Another important factor to remember he says is that small businesses are ‘very good tax payers’.�
‘They are contributors to national revenues and are not like global companies who switch their tax liabilities from one jurisdiction to another. So I think on the political scale they have that important significance.’
Although Michael admits he has no personal experience of running his own business, he still maintains he can relate to those who are doing so. He reveals the first job he did before going into politics was with a big shipping company and then years later he was on the board of an oil company and also BAE Defence Systems.
‘But I have of course, over the past twenty years, been a self-employed person. So every three months or so there I am filling out my VAT forms and I contract out my services to various people like the BBC but mainly to independent production companies and, as I’m doing on this occasion, I also offer my services as a public speaker.�
Celebrate
‘So although I haven’t set up a small business I am self-employed and I do understand a bit about the uncertainty of things when you are operating on a very small scale and about where the next contract is coming from. Those early days in business can be quite anxious and lonely.’
And that’s why he believes that awards ceremonies which celebrate the great and the good for their risk taking, business acumen and unique expertise are so important.�
‘People enjoy these occasions as they are a moment for leaders of small businesses to recognise their teams and bask in the recognition the firm is receiving that night and that’s pretty important.�
‘Everybody likes to be recognised – even if they are pretty gung ho and self-confident. But also it is a tough world out there and the enterprises that are being applauded are by definition businesses that are growing. As a result they will need to develop and become more sophisticated so will need bigger and better teams, so part of what happens on these types of occasions is vital networking. There are a lot of people there who are interested in congratulating success and being associated with it and therefore want to build on that for the future.’
So, can Michael give me any steer as to what he will talk about at the Times Business Awards?
‘Well I won’t tax the audience with anything too profound or difficult – or indeed too controversial. I don’t think I’ll refer very much to politics. I’d like to make the audience laugh a bit and tell them a story or two. I’d like to make them feel very good about themselves, as everybody there, both the winners and runners up certainly ought to.’
For full details visit�https://www.timesbusinessawards.co.uk/�
