Adam Wilson and Business PropulsionAdam Wilson is one of London's top business coaches and speakers. He started his career as a solicitor in the City more than 20 years ago and spent 10 years in the corporate world before founding Gamma Telecom in 2002. Gamma grew very quickly to become one of the most profitable companies in the UK telecoms sector.
Business coaching is all about helping entrepreneurs to remove obstacles to performance and unlock the hidden potential in their businesses. Adam aims to achieve this by combining an entrepreneur's flair for opportunity with a lawyer's eye for detail .... and a coach's ability to ask the tough questions that go straight to the heart of the matter.
Adam believes businesses should invest for the long term. Businesses which embrace this philosophy generate more sustainable profits for the benefit of all involved - investors, employees and customers, as well suppliers and other stakeholders. And the business world urgently needs to move to more sustainable models in order to avoid destroying the planet we live on.
Adam’s coaching practice was established in 2006 under the brand Business Propulsion. It quickly became one of the fastest growing business coaching practices in the London area. Adam has worked with companies across many different sectors including retail, distribution, telecoms, aerospace, legal, property, travel, TV and leisure.
Business Propulsion's mission is to be the catalyst that creates £50m in additional profits and 600 additional jobs in businesses across the London area. The target date for achieving this goal is 2015. A proportion of Business Propulsion’s profits go to a business education project in Freetown, Sierra Leone which Adam runs in partnership with Insight News Television.
Adam has two wonderful children, Martin (aged 22) and Francesca (aged 20). He loves to cook for his family, is an unrepentant petrol head (see pics) and a longtime supporter of Burnley FC.
About EPIC Adam comments:-
“University education is heavily biased towards preparing young people for careers in government, large corporates and financial institutions. In fact, the university leavers who have the biggest impact on our future will come from the small number who choose an alternative way, namely to start new businesses which grow into the Virgins and Vodafones of the future.
EPIC is all about opening dialogue between young people at our universities and entrepreneurs and mentors who have already been down that path and can share their experience. I know that if something like EPIC had been available to me when I was younger I could have got to where I wanted to be very much quicker.”
My entrepreneurship story and why EPIC is needed:
I remember dropping out of university. I was told that I was crazy and foolish. I heard too many times "get a real job and don't follow a silly dream". After failing my first venture in Singapore at 19 - many wish I had stopped there! -, within 6 months I was back and proudly set up PerforMinds, a corporate training and executive coaching company in Poland... a country I didn't have a network in, a language I didn't know and a job "you need gray hair to start in"!
After a lot of hard work, I finally got my first client. I remember the sweet taste of this first unbelievable success. After two years I worked my way up to the top of the sector in Poland, training multinational corporations like HP and Tata Consultancy Services and coaching senior executives in Polish banks, real estate and It companies. When I returned to London, at the peak of the recession I kept being offered jobs while all PhD graduates and "experts" were being layed off... coming to me for advice.
My contact with EPIC and why I believe EPIC is fantastic:
I opened the EPIC conference in February 2009 and have seen the incredible opportunities created by LSE Entrepreneurs Society. I believe that LSE EPIC is needed because it empowers young entrepreneurs and gives them a platform to grow: I felt my heart beating when 8 months later I was sitting at the launch event of Enfuse Youth, a social enterprise started by an EPIC 2009 contestant. I am very excited to see EPIC grow and support this fantastic team fulfil its vision.
More about me...
My biggest professional achievements by the age of 23 is to have trained over 5,000 professional in 13 countries. I have been honoured to train in prestigious establishments such as Yale University and to develop new courses for organizations such as the Institute of Fundraising. I enjoy working part-time as the Training Consultant in Fundraising for the Directory of Social Change, the largest charity provider of training to charities.
My most exciting project is Seeducation, a social enterprise that aims at providing quality education that is inclusive, inspiring and empowering. We want to bring together all people who care about education to launch a movement for social change. I love seeing people fulfil their potential and I have dedicated my life to making it happen.
