A new season of Enterprise Tuesday lectures has kicked off with a lively presentation by ‘First Lady of Football', Karren Brady, managing director of Birmingham City Football Club. 

On 22 January, around 300 students, academics and members of the business community heard Karren deliver a candid and entertaining speech about strategies for success in business and sport. The event was set up by the Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning (CfEL) and supported by the East of England Skills and Competitiveness Partnership (EESCP). With the London 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games on the horizon, Karren focused on how to grasp an opportunity and turn it into a successful business. Drawing on her experience of transforming Birmingham City FC from a company in administration into a profitable, multi-million pound enterprise and highly successful brand, Karren cited determination, enthusiasm and persistence among her key tips for the top.  

In a speech dramatised by colourful anecdotes, Karren had plenty of no-nonsense, pragmatic insights for would-be entrepreneurs in any field of enterprise. Not least among these was the importance of winning the hearts and minds of everyone involved with the business, from the junior administrator to the star player. Building and maintaining strong relationships based on trust was highlighted as being vital inside the business, with customers and with the wider community.  

At the event, members of EESCP, along with members of Nations and Regions East (the regional partnership working to maximise benefits to the East of England from the London 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games) were on hand to develop learning and business support links with the University of Cambridge.  Next week (29th January) the guest speaker at Enterprise Tuesday will be Duncan Goose, Founder of One Water, an organisation working to give people access to free, clean water. Please see the CfEL web site for further information - http://www.cfel.jbs.cam.ac.uk/

For more about the London 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games see:

East of England Rising to the Challenge campaign: http://www.eeda.org.uk/27.htm

London 2012 website http://www.london2012.com