As career moves go, switching from being a professional classical guitarist to the business development director of an outdoor publishing company has to be amongst the more dramatic.

And yet that’s exactly the job shift that Joe Williams made when he joined the family business, Cicerone Press.

It was a change that brought Joe closer to his love of the mountains – one of the publisher’s chief specialisms. It was also the start of a journey that will see him and his sister, Maddy, eventually take over the reins from his parents, managing directors Jonathan and Lesley Williams, who run the 52-year-old Kendal-based firm.

When he joined Cicerone Press six years ago, Joe was, as he puts it: “At the start of his business education.” Keen to expand his understanding of both the theory and practicalities of good business leadership, he enrolled in the Cumbria Forum at Lancaster University Management School (LUMS).

Joe says: “Looking back, I was a little green when I joined the programme and so it gave me the firm foundation I needed in business strategy, market orientation and creating customer value.

“Because the Forum is delivered by world-leading academics, the principles are very modern. We covered ethics, sustainability, the circular economy, corporate entrepreneurship, increasing employee wellbeing…the kind of things that business leaders should know to survive and thrive today.

“I remember attending a Cumbria Forum session with LUMS Professor Gerry Johnson and being very aware that I was being taught strategic management by someone who was at the very top of his field.

“Back then, I found some of the questions quite difficult to answer – like what our customers really want, need and expect from us – and yet now, these principles are at the heart of how we run our business.

“One of the key things I took from the Cumbria Forum is the importance of making certain things explicit within a business. At Cicerone Press, our vision, mission and values used to be implicit: things that we hoped would be understood. Now we are working to make them very much explicit, so that our whole team can get behind them.”

The start of lasting connections and friendships

Half a decade on, Joe is still in regular contact with many of his fellow Cumbria Forum delegates.

He says: “One of the primary benefits of the Cumbria Forum has been the relationships that we’ve built up as a team – particularly amongst a few of us that set up a small ‘action learning’ group.

“It has given me a support network of fellow delegates, now very much friends, who have been a constant over the last six years.

“We come from hugely differing businesses around Cumbria: one runs a chain of solicitors, another works for a plumbing company and another is in the glass manufacturing industry. Yet whether our issues are similar or different, sharing and talking them over always offers insight.”

An enduring relationship with Lancaster University

Having caught the business education bug, Joe has recently completed the LUMS Executive MBA (EMBA).

Joe says: “After completing the Cumbria Forum, I went to as many LUMS masterclasses as possible, keen to pick up as much as I could from the business leaders who are connected to the school.

“As a company, we are now making use of contacts in University’s Centre for Family Business which is helping us to prepare for the leadership transition.

“For me, the EMBA was the logical next step in that journey.

“Taking part in the Cumbria Forum kicked off a relationship with the Management School which is based on the genuine way in which LUMS sets out to help businesses. I can only see that relationship enduring and deepening in future.”

The programme is fully-funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) for Cumbrian SMEs with fewer than 250 full-time equivalent employees and an annual turnover of less than €50m.

To find out more, contact Ewan Pullan at cumbriaforum@lancaster.ac.uk.

If, when collecting your takeaway, Google Maps directs you into the grounds of the largest Elizabethan home in the North of England, you could be forgiven for assuming you’ve taken a wrong turn.

And yet, there at Levens Hall, you will find the Goat Shed, serving, as its initials hint, the Greatest Of All Takeaways. A bean and pea salad that features shoots picked daily from the 11-acre gardens, pastrami sandwiches, and a goat’s cheese sourdough pizza, are just a few of the options available to go.

Having opened its Levens Kitchen restaurant almost three years ago, owner Richard Bagot and his team had already begun to develop the culinary offering of the historic house and gardens, which is situated five miles south of Kendal.

But it was the pandemic that saw them branch out into takeaways and more, as they sought to keep customers flowing in, even when the restaurant doors had to close.

It's an example of creativity in the age of coronavirus: where leaders have identified the most successful elements of their businesses and found a way to not only satisfy but grow customer demand despite the restrictions.

And yet, for Richard, success didn’t feel at all like a certainty back in Spring 2020.

He explains: “When the full implications of the first lockdown became clear, it felt like a doomsday scenario. We were envisaging selling things and laying people off.

“The furlough scheme and grants from the government and Historic England helped cover some of the larger costs, but, as a business dependent on visitors, we had to find a way to generate an income to survive in the medium and long term.

“I was grasping for something to help me find a way through when my friend suggested I join a programme offered by Lancaster University Management School (LUMS).”

Fully-funded support for Cumbrian SMEs

It was the Cumbria Forum Covid Response business support programme, which included sessions with world-class academics and peer-to-peer learning groups, designed to help the leaders of Cumbria-based SMEs build an organisation for the future.

Richard continues: “I joined the Cumbria Forum with a fully open mind, not really sure what direction I wanted the business in. What I did know is that I wanted to take a step back from the business and think creatively but realistically about what we could do.

“We were not in a position to take on vast capital projects: our pandemic solution had to be streamlined and cost-effective whilst allowing us to make bigger margins. Instead, the Forum prompted me to think about the resources we had already, and how we could maximise their potential.

“By keeping a sign out on the road letting passing traffic know that we remained open we were able to stay in the public consciousness. It was a very simple step but more than our competitors were doing. It encouraged many of our customers to get into the habit of dropping by once or twice a week.”

The power of peer learning

Because of the pandemic, Richard and his fellow delegates joined the Forum fully online. He continues: “One of the huge benefits of taking part in the Forum is the peer learning style. The value I took from sharing experiences with other business owners, and bouncing ideas off them, was huge.

“I found that getting an outsiders’ perspective on the challenges within the business really helped my thinking and decision making. In fact, although we all came from different organisations, we often shared similar hurdles and headaches.”

Now, Richard and his thirty-strong team are continuing to build on their success: “Alongside the takeaways, we started up supper clubs and offered picnics and luxury hampers. In short, we moved from deciding to close the restaurant completely to opening it up, via the Goat Shed collection point, at every possible opportunity.

“What started out feeling like the biggest disaster known to man became an opportunity for us.

“We’re now looking forward to next year and an increase in group travel. It will offer another chance for us to build on the innovation and creative thinking that has served us so well this year, and hopefully expand the business even further.”

The programme is fully-funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) for Cumbrian SMEs with fewer than 250 full-time equivalent employees and an annual turnover of less than €50m.

To find out more, contact Ewan Pullan at cumbriaforum@lancaster.ac.uk.