The Hayman Column

"Too busy dreaming." Damning praise often used in school reports up and down the country. The inference being that some children’s heads are in the clouds and not grounded in reality. Yet the older you get the more you come to realise that the ability to dream is nothing frivolous. It is in fact how so many of those who make it, make it big. Yesterday’s day dreamer so often becomes tomorrow’s visionary. "Too busy dreaming." Damning praise often used in school reports up and down the country. The inference being that some children's heads are in the clouds and not grounded in reality. Yet the older you get the more you come to realise that the ability to dream is nothing frivolous. It is in fact how so many of those who make it, make it big. Yesterday's day dreamer so often becomes tomorrow's visionary. Take the American Dream. It's an ideal that has inspired a nation and it remains an enduring part of the mythology of the most powerful country on the planet. It infers that anyone has the chance to make it – as a business leader, a President – you name it. It sits as the…

In his regular column for the Entrepreneurship Centre, Michael Hayman MBE talks about how entrepreneurs push boundaries and challenge existing norms as they use business to address problems. What does it mean to be the vanguard? Taken at face value, it's the leading part of an advancing military formation. There to deploy first, take risks and cover ground quickly. The term originates from the medieval French 'avant-garde'. Those who push boundaries, are experimental, radical or unorthodox. But while 'vanguard' might be a term more comfortably used by the high command, and 'avant-garde' by artists, in my mind these phrases capture the essence of the entrepreneur. Many people wonder what makes entrepreneurs tick. Are they in it for the money? The status? Perhaps power? Well, these may be key drivers for some, but for the majority that I know – business is a tool to try and effect change. When I co-authored Mission: How the Best in Business Break Through, I was struck by how many of the entrepreneurs we interviewed saw business a means of addressing a big problem. Take John Mackey, the founder of the US grocery giant, Wholefoods, or Paul Lindley, the founder of the baby food business…

In his third column for the Entrepreneurship Centre, Michael Hayman MBE describes the journey he has been on as he celebrates seven years in business with consultancy Seven Hills. The journey of a lifetime. That's how I would describe the seven years in business my firm is celebrating this January. It's often said that adversity does not build character, but instead reveals it. Running a business is the same: it shows you something fundamental about yourself, what you're made of, how you react in good times and hard. If you want to find out what you're really like as a person, then starting your own firm will take you a long way. There's good reason for that. As I heard the investor Saul Klein say recently, growing a business is like running up a mountain. It is an analogy that has stayed with me, for every year provides you with a different view and you have to learn to both cope with and enjoy them all. But let's return to the beginning. The foothills of Seven Hills, a company my business partner Nick and I founded with the ambition to be the Saatchi's of its generation. A campaigns company for…

In his second column for the Entrepreneurship Centre, Michael Hayman MBE asks what business makes of Brexit. What does business make of Brexit? It’s been one of the big questions of the post-referendum debate. Will employers flee the scene and investors baulk at the uncertainties? Or does it remain business as usual? From Nissan to Apple and Jaguar Land Rover, there have been some early positive signs, but it remains too early to determine a direction of travel. And of course, we are some way off knowing what Brexit might look like, let alone what it will really mean. Nevertheless, Brexit has unsurprisingly been a defining topic of conversation within business since the country voted to leave in June. I have everyday cause to work with and meet entrepreneurs, and no two conversations on Brexit are the same. If you filled a room with a representative sample of British entrepreneurs you would be turning from those who think it is the best thing to happen since the 1980s to others who believe it will have serious consequences on our economic performance and potential. Britain’s entrepreneurs are a house divided over Brexit. Normally this is a group with much more to…

In his first column for the Entrepreneurship Centre, Michael Hayman MBE explores the opportunities for creating a scale-up culture in the UK. Right now on the hour, every hour, 80 new companies come to life in Britain. And, with them, comes a new bet on the future of the nation's wealth. Our economy has pivoted, with more and more people wanting to create jobs as entrepreneurs, rather than take jobs as employees. Last year was already a record year that saw 608,110 start-ups come to life. It's a record that is now set to be easily surpassed once again. This entrepreneurial health was hard won and is relatively recent news. In 2011, I was one of the founders of StartUp Britain, the national campaign for entrepreneurs, by entrepreneurs. Then, as the immediate impacts of the 2008 financial crash took full effect, business formation was approaching a cliff edge. The campaign set out to contribute to the enterprise culture: encouraging more people to have a go and to see starting a business as an attainable aspiration. It's fair to say, when I left university, the brightest talent headed straight to the lobbies of large corporations around the world. But today the…