Community : Chief Executive Glenn Watkins moves on from Ecademy

Change.

It's such a small word which can have a big impact.

It's about to have an impact on me.

After 13 years I have decided that something quite different needs to happen to effect a change for myself...and the Ecademy business.

So this month - May 2011 - is my very last in the role as Chief Executive of Ecademy.

Why?

A number of reasons - the most compelling is that 13 years is the longest I have done any role in my life so I feel very ready to move on and do something new and something that's driven by me.

Of course being a shareholder and co-founder means it's feels very much like my business as much as my fellow Directors Thomas and Penny Power, so nurturing, growing and always learning as we have innovated and created over the years has been a (tough at times) pleasure!

Talking of tough, it's very tough to let go as many of you will know when it feels like "your baby."

The business has more to do, the community has more to grow, more innovation and change is to come, like the brand new Boardrooms now available to every member (and your contacts) ensuring the Ecademy Community ethos is as true today as it's always been - "winning by sharing" through learning, networking and business development for entrepreneurs and business owners.

Looking back - it's a long way to look - I have to say it's been a truly incredible learning and journey which without the full support of my wife Sophia, Alex my son and Libby my daughter, as well the rest of my family, I doubt I would have succeeded. In particular Larry my brother in law, who gave me the confidence and support to make the leap all the years ago to make a significant change to my career and my life (as within 12 months I had moved my family kids then aged 5 and 9 to London away from all our family and friends in the Midlands).

The opportunity and "the buzz" in 1998 was awesome - it was and still is a privilege to be have been a part of "the dot com boom" (as well as the bust!)

That and of course the opportunity to work with Ecademy Founder Penny Power and Chairman Thomas Power and also Steven Clarke (the then CEO - I joined as operational, technical and membership Director) who had the vision - and the faith in me to deliver it - whom I had met via a previous venture a few years earlier.

Penny and I were doing "Family Technology Nights" in schools around the UK in the mid nineties when we talked about business online. It was in 1998 when Penny came up with the idea for Ecademy and I joined her to build it.

We founded Ecademy as a business network with the mantra "community first, commerce second" (later changed to "Winning by Sharing" thanks to Leon Benjamin who we learnt a lot from) meaning that through sharing, supporting and referring - building your reputation - trusted relationships are formed which lead to transactions (we now call this "Social Capital").

In addition when we were traveling, we wondered what it would be like to be able to have "a friend in every city", someone who is local who can be a guide and companion to what can be quite a lonely experience.

I organised the first networking meeting in the bar at the Institute of Directors (IoD) in London with the idea of meeting like minded people and sharing thoughts and connections - I remember a few events later I thought it would be a good idea to add a speaker to add a focus to the evening so Jim Conning had the honor of standing on a beer crate in the bar and talking about how ecommerce would change the world of business for ever. Not much has changed in this respect, meeting people face to face to strengthen the relationships has always been very much part of the membership culture.

The web site back then was...basic! (Polite description, plenty of other descriptions spring to mind!)

We launched the very first web site with a fully gated subscription model (as in you had to pay to see anything at all on the site) - after two days and zero members we quickly realized we had to change the model…thus a freemium model was born.

We made the site free to access and charged for events, sponsors and training courses to teach members and corporate's the subject of ecommerce - the tag line for Ecademy was "No Transaction - No Comment" but the FT got a bit upset as it was very similar to theirs so after a few iterations "Connecting Business People" was the tag line with "Learning, Networking and Career Development" describing what the members do via Ecademy - this is still very true to this day (we have since swapped "Career Development" with "Business Development" to match our business owner audience).

After about a year we made a huge commitment - Sophia, Alex, Libby and I moved to London, selling our house in Birmingham and moving to Highgate in north London. What a job that was - property was selling fast and after fainting a few times at the prices down here we found a garden flat that we fell in love with and within 6 weeks, many calls and a deal later, we were in.

What an exciting - and very upsetting split from family and friends. The kids were 5 and 9 so at infant and primary school. We were very, very lucky that two places came up (transpires a family were moving out of London with kids the same age) at the local school - sorted and ignorant then to how tight spaces in good schools were!

We met many of our friends through the school - thank goodness, we settled in well though I will never forget after a couple of months when tucking Alex into bed how he burst out crying when telling me about his day. After consoling him it turns out he was finding the move understandably tough - even switching from Birmingham City to Arsenal to fit in (he's back to supporting Blues now, poor lad!) and speaking the Queens English by comparison - for many weeks his little face would beam at dinner and talk about the good stuff and at bed time too - until that night it all came out, I asked why didn't you tell me or your mum before?

The answer: "I was being strong for Libby"

I was mortified! I remember we had a chat when we first moved about being strong for his little sister who was really, really upset about leaving her friends behind and he had really took it to heart. Thankfully after it had all come out he started to settle in as we all did.

When I was home at the flat I worked on a little desk under the stairs for a many years - happy days

The dot .com boom was booming along and after raising some money through private investment we were off to float on the stock exchange!

Only we were not……

After preparing and fully committing to the float we didn't get out of the gate as lastminute.com went just before us as that was the end of the boom and the very real bust was upon us.

Painful.

Within 3 months we had lost 95% of all revenues - we employed about dozen people and everyone had to go, leaving just myself working with Thomas in the business and after much soul searching, as I wasn't sure if it could be turned around - I took over as Chief Executive in October 2001.

I did what we had to do to eat and keep the business upright - I went consulting!

With nothing in the business there was nothing for salary for several years but thankfully the network was strong so we picked up projects while we continued to invest in the community, site and running events. A couple of memorable projects for me were the due diligence I did for BT when they purchased Scoot for £8 million (which integrated into their online Directory Enquiries) and I also ran an exciting £5 million website project "insightexec" - a monster as it had to hang off BT.com - one of the most trafficked sites in the UK!

During one of our networking events in late 2003 at the Media Centre in London I met Julian Bond - what a find! We connected well and he became part of our team and the first thing we did was set about building a new web site, one that revolutionised the community and the business as it had blogs!

Over the years we added more and more features such as one to one messaging, groups (called clubs then), not realizing we were building one of the world's social business networks (we always used the word community back then).

In 2003 we implemented a subscription to key features of the site and PowerNetworker was born (thanks to Jonathan Greenstead for that one - we were going to call it Super Networker!) and a couple of years later for people wanting a smaller, committed group we launched BlackStar.

Ecademy of course has always been social, so I will never forget the longest netwalk I have ever been on…..

The Ultimate Netwalk in Peru was a life changing experience which I was lucky enough to share with a dozen or so other Ecademy members. I was inspired to write a full account of the trip on my Ecademy blog here > and also improve upon my passion for photography thanks to our expedition leader Max Milligan.

There are so many other fantastic events. I have skated over a HUGE amount as prior, during and since then we have had many variations on the business model, the website and membership as we have grown to find the right balance which at times has been very challenging - I remind myself of this below which helps!

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, and comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat." Theodore Roosevelt

It's a constant challenge and looking to the future, Ecademy will no doubt continue to evolve whilst educating, supporting and developing entrepreneurs and business owners and thus their businesses.

Differentiation will be critical as we tip further into doing all things digitally - there are some exciting things on the horizon and so it is with really mixed emotions that I leave the team of people that I have grown to love - a word as a high red (thanks to James Knight for the iMA communication styles) I don't use lightly!

Then I had a huge realisation and a sense of relief with it.

I am leaving the business - not the community.

It's been a challenge for me to fully engage and to be open, as when running the business, sometimes for better or for worse I have been "the management" or "the bad guy" and made some tough decisions - not always the right ones for some people.

I am looking forward to engaging more - to going out networking as me - to enjoy connecting, meeting new people and also seeing everyone I have grown to know, like and trust in a new role, a new business, my very own business under my sole direction.

Exciting and scary!

My next step is to create a small portfolio of clients that key partners and myself will serve though my new business inVenturez Ltd.

inVenturez will deliver accelerated growth and increased profits by leveraging technology and channels through networks and online assets.

Clients will tend to be board level or senior executives of £1m+ turnover organisations who want to gain a better understanding and may also require help in delivering the opportunities to scale their business using the Internet and the people it touches.

Please do get in touch glenn.watkins@inventurez.com to explore ideas and opportunities with the above. I had my own business for a short while at 19 (books via a license) so I have always been an entrepreneur, when I started Ecademy I was lucky enough to have a team around me. This time - at least right now - I have me, but something very special too - deep relationships within my network that spans many different platforms, industries, markets and countries.

In this special community, I have experienced so much good will over the years, it has been an honour and privilege to have served and I'm looking forward to helping, sharing and working with many people here in a different capacity.

In addition I must thank ACE (Academy for Chief Executives) for the last 6 or so years, in particular my group who I have learnt so much from and received so much support, plus the Founder of ACE and my personal mentor, Brian Chernett an inspirational mentor and coach.

As I sat down to write this - I wanted to share some of the highlights over the years and most importantly give thanks to the many, many good people I have been lucky enough to connect and share with - but I had a fear. I will no doubt forget to name some people and risk offending them - this is not my intention and please accept my apologies in advance if I have not mentioned you - please get in touch if you are on the list or if you are not!

My love, respect and thanks go to Thomas Power - during my wedding speech I described him as "my friend, mentor and business partner" true to this day and forever - I know we will still do business in some form and enjoy our friendship and learning ongoing.

My love, respect and thanks also to Penny Power - a very special lady that is inspirational to so many, including me. We have been through so, so much together - we are family.

Julian Bond is also an exceptional man - gifted with "a brain the size of a large planet" is how I describe him, it's been a pleasure and a great learning experience working with him and he too is a special friend (more adventures on our motorbikes please!)

The surnames above are appropriate - a powerful bond unites us, I am sad to break away from them but reassured as I know the bond will stay.

As will the bond with the rest of the Ecademy team - William Buist has worked tirelessly for both Ecademy and the community (a challenging balance at times), he is one of life's true givers. Simon Graham for many years working on design and project management, Anna Figiel (and Anna's mum Viv before her) diligently ensuring the books balance and supporting members, John McHugh, Stuart McIntosh, the many Ecademy support team members and partners. Plus of course my gorgeous wife Sophia; who has worked tirelessly in the background supporting members, organizing and running events all whilst supporting myself. Sophia is also leaving Ecademy to at long last pursue her passion for all things fashion!

Sophia continues to be the rock and the reason for my life.

There are SO many other people over the years who I have connected, shared and transacted with so, with a deep breath...here goes!

Janice Aarons, William Adkin, Kevin Allen, Richard Alberg, Reg Athwall, Nicole Bachmann, Lawrence Bailey [RIP], Stephen Bailey, Ben Baker, Tom Ball, Bob Barker, Matthew Barnett, Oli Barrett, Ron Bates, Chantal Benjamin, Leon Benjamin, Robi Bernberg, Simon Berkley, Jack Black, Martin Bloom, Carolyn Boddington, Steve Bradbury, Tim Bond, Derek Bishop, Dianna Bonner, Chris Bose, Stephen Booty, Martin Bostock, Bryan Boswell, Bob Bowden, Nick Braak, Brian Brick, John Bromley, David Brooks, Andre Brown, Phil Brown, Tony Burgess, Victoria Bullis, Tony Burrows, Alex Butler, James Caan, Andrew Cameron, Benn Abdy-Collins, Deborah Collier, Christine Clacey, Glen Carlson, Dave Carruthers, John Cave, John Cassidy, Warren Cass, Beverly Caswell, Philip Calvert, Barry Chernoff, Satch Chikhlia, Paul Cinnamon, Christine Clacey, Angus Clacher, Peter Claes, Peter Cowan, William Clark, Dave Clarke, Martyn Clarke, Steven Clarke, John Colley, Geert Conard, Shelley Collins, Andy Coote, John Cremer, Joel Cymberg, Travers Clarke-Walker, Stuart Dalziel, Neil Davidson, Sean Daniel, Pierre Danon, Eva Davies, Neil Davidson, Martin Davies, Nick Davies, Philip de Lisle, Cornelis de Maijer, Michael Deans, Hendrik Deckers, David Holroyd-Doveton, Gerard Durning, Vicki Eastman, Mark Eaton, Gordon Ebanks, Richard Elliott, Fiona Elliott, Tom Evans, Andy Fairweather, Mike Farrow, Andrew Ferdinando, Anna Figiel, Fred Rutgers, Ian Findlay, Sue Firth, Demos Flouri, David Ford, Julie French, Ashley Friedlein, Frank Furness, Mindy Gibbins-Klein, Simon George, Clare Gillbanks, Duncan Gledhill, Jude Germain, George Jergian, Mike Giles, Jason Goldberg, Mike Gordon, Jenna Gould, Gavan Goulder, Louis Gray, Jonathan Greensted, Keith Grinstead, Bjørn Guldager, Jane Gunn, ilana Gurman, Barak Hachamov, Jo Haigh, Roger Hamilton, Paul Hammond, Lizzie Hardwood, Stuarte Harris, Peter Harrison, Vivien Harrison, Paul Harvey, Wouter Havinga, Fraser Hay, Nick Heap, Ben Heald, Carolyn Henderson, Liz Heyler, David J. Hinson, Brent Hoberman, Matt Hodkinson, Rebecca Hollis, Chris Holloman, Neil Holloway, Rupert Honywood, Kristy Houtman, Stella Holman, Marcus Hutton, Paul Huttrer, David Hyner, Andrew Jacobs, Bev James, Bill James, Nick James, Emma James, Ajit Jaokar, Jonathan Jay, George Jerjian, Tina Jonasen , Ian Johnson, Robin Johnson, Matthew Jones, David Karlin, Andrew Keating, Geoff Kirkwood, Jane Khedair, Tim King, James Knight, Paul Launchbury [RIP], Brian Lazell, Bill Liao, Grant Leboff, Mark Lee, Jonathan Lel, Georgina Lester, Simon Lester, Guy Levine, John Leyden, Pei Mun Lim, Gael Lindenfield, Stuart Lindenfield, Dinah Liversidge, Hannah Liversidge, Andy Lopata, Jean Loyens, Daniel Macklin, Marieme Jamme, Guy Massey, Mark Mathews, Paul Makepeace, Jesvir Mahil, Brian Marcel, Martin McAleese, Lawrence McDermott [RIP], Steve McFall, Zita McHugh, Dave McQueen, Madeline McQueen, Brian Marcel, Ian MacMillan, George Menzies, Gary Metcalf, Julie Meyer, Mike Raybone, Max Milligan, Chris Mitchell, Christine Miller, James Minter, Ivan Misner, Hamlesh Motah, John Allen Mollenhauer, Corinne Morris, Maurizio Morabito, Sadie Murray, Mark Morgan, Andrew Morris, Piers Mummary, Kelly Molson, Lesley Morrissey, Jan Mulder, Rory Murray, Curt Nash, Ed Nash, Caroline Newman, Richard Newman, Mark Needham, Dan Nestle, Mike Nevin, Jeremy Nicholas, Olu Odeniyi, Fay Olinsky, Stuart Oliver, Lucy Ong, John O'sullivan, Yusri Othman, Richard Palfreeman, Simon Patnick, Dave Pearce, Richard Penfold, Mark Perl, David Petherick, Glenn Platkin, Anna Pollack, Ellis Pratt, Andrew Priestley, Daniel Priestley, Ian Plumbley, Andy Preston, Mike Pritchard, John Privitt, Clive Quinn, Safi Qurashi, Shaz Quereshi, Lee Rawlings, Harun Rabbani, Vena Ramphal, Alan Rae, Michael Paul Reveal, Mark Rhodes, Doug Richard, Sue Richardson, Nigel Risner, Stuart Ross, Dave Rogers, Jenny Rose, Guy Rigby, Nic Rose, Duff Ross, Jamie Roy, Milton Rodrigues, Fred Rutgers, Michael Sabourian, Steve Sampson, Jonathan Sanders, Ajay Sanghani, Mick Say, Mike Segal, Sam Sethi, Barry Shafe, Kim Sharman, KP Schleinitz, Justine Shaw, Mark Shaw, Martin Shepherdly, Martin Shepherdly, Paul Sherman, Darren Shirlaw, Ben Shoshan, Marieke Shoshan, Peter Simoons , Mark Sinclair, Maria Sipka, Simon Skinner, Gary Skuthe-Cook [RIP], Martin Slagter, Mike Southon, Phil Shepherd, Mike Stalley, Alan Stevens, Jon Stow, Sue Stocker, Ajay Sanghani, Seven Suphi, Don Smith, Claire Sutton, David Tallon, Dennis Tan, Debbie Tarrier, Mike Teasdale, Nigel Temple, Chris Taylor, Melanie Tyler, Terry Toms, Malcolm Tullett, Mike Turner, Neda Tootoonchi, Steve Trister, Marcus Ubl, Mark Underwood, Roger Vanstone, Bert Verdonck, Jan Vermeiren, Tim Virdee, Daniel Wagner, Derek Watkins, Simon Warman-Freed, Colin Webster, Penelope Wee, Simon West, Maurice Watts, Mark Wing, Francis West, Liz West, Martin Westall, Tom Wheadon, Richard White, Helen Winder, Andrew Widgery, Julian Woodward, Mark Wilkinson, Robert Wirszycz, Vicki Wusche, Michael Wolff, Lucas Wyrsch, Simon Woodroffe, Andrew Wooley, Albert Wright, Mark Zaleski, Simon Zamet, Jim Ziegler and many, many more within my networks…

Apologies again if I have not mentioned you - it's not intentional. Thank you to everyone for connecting, sharing, supporting, referring and transacting here:


http://www.ecademy.com/user/glenn

http://uk.linkedin.com/in/glenndwatkins

http://twitter.com/#!/glennwatkins

http://www.facebook.com/glenndwatkins


Our business and personal lives are so intertwined; the way we work, the experiences we share - especially as business is moving at last to being much more "social".

My final thoughts go right back to the beginning and to Larry - my brother in law who helped me all those years ago. Larry has been more like a brother to me with he and my sister, Donna, giving me the honour of Godparent to James now 10 and Lauren now 13.

Larry died last year after a hugely courageous 2 year battle against cancer aged just 55 years old. I miss him terribly as do his family - my family.

So as I move on I am very grateful to have had the opportunity, learning and experience with all the people I have connected with along the way. It's also a time for huge reflection and contemplation, as well as excitement for the future.

My core process is "Loving Life".

I think I am finally beginning to understand what that means as I continue my journey surrounded by all the people I love and respect.

Many thanks, best wishes and looking forward to more with you.

-Glenn x

P.S. You can also read and comment on this blog here, thank you:
http://inventurez.blogspot.com

P.P.S. Below are pictures of my amazing time on the Peru Netwalk…Loving Life and Pachamama (mother earth). If you have a few (more!) minutes please do take time out to view, I hope you enjoy them and thanks again.

Best regards

-Glenn

Glenn Watkins
Ecademy Chief Executive
Exclusive business networking for the digital age