Vasco arrived in the office well prepared. He had looked at the company website and if not entirely au fait with what The Fry Group did he had a good enough grasp. Vasco had a good level of confidence and what I enjoyed was the number of questions he asked and the fact that, from time to time he noted the answers.
After a quick ‘get to know you’ we moved directly onto our weekly management meeting, as Vasco is studying graphic design I thought some feedback on our brochures might be useful – he looked, he made notes, he feedback and it was an interesting exercise. From here we moved to a lunch where a fund manager was presenting his global economic outlook and provided us with a nice lunch. Back to the office for some more client work and then some client ‘phone calls - keeping in touch the cornerstone of relationships. Sadly I missed the reception due to a prior commitment – such is life in a small business!!
There are many skills required to be an entrepreneur, some you can teach, albeit some with mixed success, others you cannot. Two things that I hope Vasco learnt were that you need to be able to carry out more than one task at a time or at least move between tasks very quickly and (importantly as I mentioned to him ) efficiently. You also need a good amount of energy and drive – a desire to succeed. This applies to entrepreneurs in big business as much as it does in small start-ups. If Vasco has these two qualities together with his enquiring mind and very personable character he will be a natural leader.
It was an enjoyable day for me – different, rewarding and ultimately enjoyable. I can certainly recommend it to others.