Local Irvine Business Leader to Host Seminar at Glasgow Business Event

Sercon’s managing director has been invited by Scottish Enterprise to host a short seminar within the Business Growth Training Theatre for ‘Leadership: Your Secret Weapon’, where Lorraine will present her leadership philosophy/journey and how she has transformed Sercon and the company’s key achievements to date.

Under Lorraine’s leadership 2011/12 proved to be a successful year for the company. It not only marked the company’s 10^th year in business but also saw the business restructure its operations to compete more effectively in the public sector, increasing its public sector client based by 24% in one year. 2011 also saw the company refocusing its business around service excellence via a new customer care policy and the introduction of customer focused training and new systems/procedures, all of which resulted in two local business awards for Excellence in Customer Service Award at the Ayrshire Business Awards 2011 in November and The Business Excellence Ayrshire Awards in the Service category in March.

Commenting on her participation in the up and coming business event, Lorraine Stevely, Managing Director of Sercon said; “It’s an honour to be invited by Scottish Enterprise to join the excellent speakers within the Skills Development Training Theatres and I’m looking forward to sharing my experience with our business leaders.”

Lorraine participated in a Scottish Enterprise Leadership for Growth programme to help her adjust to the demands of her new role at the helm of the company. She offers her advice and experiences of her own leadership development journey as part of Scottish Enterprise’s Knowledge Series on Leadership. Lorraine’s interview can be viewed at http://www.scottish-enterprise.com/grow-your-business/Leadership/Leader-insights/Sercon-interview.aspx

Linda Murray, Company Growth Manager at Scottish Enterprise, said: "Lorraine is a great example of a managing director who understands the benefits of honing her leadership skills - to aid both her personal performance and her business' performance. We know that there's a robust relationship between strong, effective leadership and business dynamism. As well as leading to increases in productivity, innovation and skills development, companies with effective leadership have been shown to be more outward facing with global ambitions, will be headed by risk-takers focused on seeking out new opportunities and are more likely to achieve their full potential."

As well as Lorraine’s Leadership presentation within the Business Growth training theatre at 2.15pm, the theatre will also host an array of talks on funding, innovation and exporting. The event will feature another two theatres, The Business Skills Training Theatre and Digital Training Theatre, which will feature presentation of a number of topics including sales, networking, tendering, project management, social media, SEO and website optimisation. To view the training schedules visit http://www.b2bscotland.co.uk/skillsdevelopment.php

B2B Scotland 2012 is Scotland’s premier business development event. Supported by Scottish Enterprise, Business Gateway and other leading business organisations, the FREE event is designed exclusively for established business with the ambition to grow.

About Sercon Support Services Ltd:

Since its formation in 2001, Sercon has grown from a small cleaning business to a £1.7m turnover company, in both commercial cleaning and security disciplines, with the majority of its contracts spread across the central belt of Scotland. From Ayrshire to St Andrews, as well as the North of England, the company’s geographical reach is continually expanding giving the SME scope to deliver its services on both a local and regional/national scale.

To date the company’s cleaning and security services span across a range of sectors including Education, Housing Associations, Corporate & Property Management, Retail, Transport, Renewables and Local Authority.

To find out more about Sercon Support Services Ltd, visit the website at www.serconltd.co.uk or telephone 01294 217 600.

To find out more about B2B Scotland 2012 visit www.b2bscotland.co.uk