By Karen Peattie ENTREPRENEURSHIP in Scotland faces an “abundance of challenges” in the future with one of the most pressing a need to change the culture of business – but confidence, passion and resilience is also required. That’s the view of Sean McGrath, who takes up his new role as chief executive of the Entrepreneurial Scotland Foundation this summer. Currently the independent charitable foundation’s finance director, the Irishman told the Go Business Radio Show with Hunter & Haughey that cultural change would be instrumental in instilling confidence in people who have great business ideas but often fear failure. “It’s the same across the water in Ireland,” said Mr McGrath. “There’s an issue with getting ahead and being successful – and a fear of failure when failure is the best route to success. So, we must bring people together to help them understand the importance of connecting with others to create a culture of change where it is OK to succe
Latest civil service & public affairs moves May 17
New appointments in the civil service, UK politics, and public affairs, via our colleagues at Dods People
Government departments
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs – Lord Benyon appointed as Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Minister for Rural Affairs and Biosecurity), replacing Lord Gardiner.
Sea Fish Industry Authority – Michael Sheldon appointed as Chair and Jeff Halliwell as Deputy Chair.
Department for Health and Social Care – Thomas Waite appointed as Deputy Chief Medical Officer for England on an interim basis for the next year.
Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy – Vikas Shah and Stephen Hill appointed as non-executive board members.
Sandy Kennedy, left, and John Watson launching the campaign in March A CROWDFUNDING campaign to help Scotland become “the most entrepreneurial society in the world” by 2030 has smashed its target. Entrepreneurial Scotland has raised £140,000 from the drive, nearly twice the original £75,000 that it set out to achieve when it launched #FundTheFuture initiative in March. The funds will be used to increase the number of people who undertake the organisation’s programmes. These include the Saltire Scholar programme, which provides university students with the opportunity to spend the penultimate year of study an internship in Scotland or overseas. The cash raised will also be used to create a bursary scheme to fund its executive leadership programme. This will have a particular emphasis on supporting access for social entrepreneurs, whose vision and leadership benefits society.
Sandy Kennedy Fiona Campbell has it. Lucinda Bruce-Gardyne has it. Nadeem Sarwar has it. Grant Currie has it. Ryan O’Rorke and Assean Sheikh both have it. We all need it. Resilience. Resilience is a word often used, yet little understood. Right now, we crave resilience: for our children, for our teams, for our communities, for our firms, for our society, for our planet, for ourselves. The Oxford English Dictionary definition is: 1. the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness. 2. the ability of a substance or object to spring back into shape; elasticity. When everything is stable, trundling onwards, we don’t value resilience – we take it for granted. The status quo, the predictability of life, encourages us to ignore it.