Scotland's next great businesses need experienced people in their corner

Funding matters, but so does judgement. The founders who scale are agile and flexible, make good decisions by listening to their customers, managing their cash flow and building their team. The best of them have experienced people helping, to call on for advice.

I entered the food and retail sector as a school leaver in Fraserburgh and have spent over three decades building businesses in Scotland, the UK and internationally. I was lucky to have mentors at every stage: Robert Wiseman at Wisemans Dairy, Tom Kuzio at PepsiCo, Robert Alexander at Scottish Courage, Sir Ian Wood and Pat Machray, who I still meet regularly. They asked the questions I had not thought to ask. Scotland has a deep pool of people like them: men and women who have built, run and sold businesses and want to give something back.

In the north east, we have already put that experience to work. Through Opportunity North East, the North East Venture Mentoring Service brings MIT’s venture mentoring model to the region. A pool of 43 volunteer mentors has supported 26 ventures to date.

What makes the model special is the team element. Each venture has a small team of mentors whose experience spans sales, finance, operations, technology, investment and international markets, often in different sectors to the founder. The founder meets the mentor team regularly, in person, so they see the business from several angles at once.

The founders set the agenda. As the venture grows, the challenges change, from winning the first customers to hiring, raising investment and entering new markets. The team stays alongside the founder through each stage, asking the hard questions and holding the founder to their commitments. The mentors are volunteers with no financial stake in the business.

I am a VMS mentor and the conversations always come back to the customer: who they are, what problem the business solves for them and whether they will pay. Great businesses are built around solving real customer problems. Well-mentored founders make fewer costly mistakes, raise investment with more confidence and, in time, become mentors themselves.

If Scotland wants more businesses that scale, it could make better use of the experience it already has. Those of us who have succeeded in business carry a responsibility to the next generation. Private sector leaders have shaped Opportunity North East from day one, as board members and as mentors.

This week marks National Mentoring Day. I encourage each of you who care about Scotland’s economic future to look at how the north east is putting that leadership to work for founders. The next generation of great Scottish businesses is being built now.

Stanley Morrice MBE, is Chair of Opportunity North East and a mentor with the North East Venture Mentoring Service