A Man With Big Ideas

As a social enterprise ambassador, apprenticeship adviser for the Government and business angel for young and disadvantaged entrepreneurs, Tim Campbell has his finger on the pulse of business in the UK. We met him to discuss the current business landscape.

Such are Tim Campbell’s subsequent achievements that, as we sit talking in his central London office on a crisp, clear morning, it feels almost surreal to recall him as winner of the first series of The Apprentice.

Since taking up a management post with Alan Sugar’s Amstrad and being described by his boss as a “great asset”, he’s forged his own path – first with a successful new venture, and as the Government’s social enterprise and apprenticeship ambassador.

Still, his time with Lord Sugar casts a long shadow. Campbell believes today that his mentor provided a welcome contrast from his previous employers – London Underground – which Campbell describes as a “hierarchical, procedure-based organisation”. Sugar, he says, “was inspirational. He stripped away all the disillusionment that I’d been feeling about the world of business.”

Man on a mission

In 2007, after two years as a protégé of the man with the most terrifying right index finger in the country, Campbell left his post at Amstrad to set up the Bright Ideas Trust and to promote the holistic value of business in his role as a government social enterprise ambassador. We’ve been invited to his organisation’s headquarters in central London to discuss Campbell’s recent ventures and get his take on the future of business in the UK, since he’s uniquely placed to deliver an insightful commentary.

“We wanted to set up the Bright Ideas Trust,” says Campbell, “because there are 1.8 million young people in this country who are classified as NEET – Not in Employment, Education, or Training – and that’s been growing in the current economic climate.”

Dressed in brown brogues, smart jeans, a crisp blue shirt and a grey wool waistcoat, the 33-year-old Campbell is smart, but accessible. It’s very easy to imagine that whoever he might be talking to, be it high-profile business professional or unemployed teenager, he’d find it easy to strike up a rapport. “What we do,” he says, “is to help young people take their ideas from that massive chasm where it is just ‘an idea’ to executing and starting up that idea.”

The organisation, he explains, is a charity that offers advice, loans and buys equity in start-ups that have been initiated by people between the ages of 16 and 30 who have that ‘NEET’ classification. There are no handouts – this is real business for both the young people and their backers: “We want to have an owner’s attitude to business, so we’re not just about ticking boxes and getting a lot of businesses in a portfolio,” says Campbell. “We will want to exit from the investment and put the returns back into the charity.”

The changing UK business scene

Working with this new generation of young entrepreneurs, Campbell has noticed a definite change in attitudes within the business world and in the kinds of people who are being drawn towards it. “Now business is more popular than music,” he says. “No longer are we looking for rock gods – we have celebrities who are famous because of their business endeavours.”

As a result, Campbell says, there are a lot of talented people who now consider entrepreneurialism to be viable career. Things have changed, he says, since the times when entrepreneurs “were either incredibly well networked, already wealthy or had parents who had been involved in business, or, were so unemployable that they were forced to run their own business!

“In the current environment, people who have gone to university and studied really well are unable to find employment.” And, he adds, with things as they are, “more and more people in the safe corporate world are being given a tap on the shoulder and thinking, ‘Ah, this isn’t a job for life any more – I’ve got to find something else to do.’”

Looking to the future

The Bright Ideas Trust is doing its bit to change things, and Campbell is positive about the future. “We are becoming acutely aware of the requirement to have more entrepreneurial start-ups in this country,” he says. And, provided the right legislation is in place, these start-ups – with a new generation of business people making their influence felt – will drive the economy forward: “The Government has got to understand that business owners are their lifeblood. We need a tax system that supports entrepreneurs.”

So current business owners can expect a wave of young, fresh, intelligent competitors to surge into the marketplace in a few years’ time – will this mean that many existing enterprises will get washed away?

Adapt and survive

“The reality is that the world is changing, business is changing,” says Campbell. “It’s no longer about what Lord Sugar told me – being able to go down to the buyer at Dixons and shake his hand, look him in the eye and have the deal done. It’s now a fast-paced, dynamic environment where you’ve got to be really flexible and receptive to change.”

But of course, he notes, there are some constants in the business world: “You’ll always have competition. You either adapt, or you die.” Competition should be viewed, says Campbell, “in a positive light. Regardless of who’s snapping at your heels, the key thing is to listen to your customers. Your customers will tell you what’s wrong and what you need to do to keep them. The only way a competitor – whether they’re young or old – is going to come in and take your business, is if you let it happen.”

He argues that business owners should not be sat worrying about what will happen when this new crop of talent comes through. Instead, why not be proactive and take advantage of this largely untapped resource?

“These are highly motivated, very intelligent individuals who are looking for a different way to make it up the career ladder,” says Campbell, who has campaigned in partnership with the Department for Work and Pensions to encourage companies to take on apprentices and interns. “You, as an employer, have an opportunity to do two things: one – offer a young person the opportunity to develop some skills and enliven your industry sector, and two – spread your brand through that individual. Because if you take them on board when they’re young and dynamic, they’ll always remember you and they’ll spread that message to others.”

It’s seems clear that Campbell is a business person with a conscience; someone who truly understands, and wants to unlock, the great potential of enterprise to be a force for good, not only in the economy and the lives of the people who profit from it, but for society at large. A fair summary? “Yes,” he says, “business is about making money. But it is also about creating employment, making a difference to people’s lives and giving people confidence, control and an element of freedom through the ability to create wealth.”

For more information, visit the Bright Ideas Trust website.