Sir Bob Geldof – passionate about collaboration
Collaboration can change the world
Collaborating with people, organisations and governments has been part of Sir Bob’s life in getting results. And there has been plenty.
Listening to Sir Bob talk for 2 hours without an uhmmm or an uhrrr was brilliant.
What stuck me most was his enthusiasm and passion telling us how he mobilised Band Aid with his network of friends, business partners, a telephone and persistent collaboration with people to deliver a successful outcome.
When was this?
Well the end of July which was a very busy for me as it was for most people I’m sure. Trying to get everything done and organised before you go on holiday is always a mad time. But this year it was no different just a lot more enjoyable.
I attended the Entrepreneur Summit in London during July for 3 Days. This was organised and hosted by Chris Cardell who arranged for several Entrepreneurs to speak over the 3 days.
One of the highlights as I mentioned was listening and meeting Sir Bob Geldof.
Business collaboration
The other guest speakers included business entrepreneurs who have both failed and succeeded – several times over. What was common to them all was how they collaborated with other people and businesses to get their results. Trying to do everything your self is very limiting. Each of the speakers told their story with some brilliant insights and included :
Richard Denny – the UK’s leading sales trainer. He certainly knows what it is all about and revealed some interesting insights into the UK culture of sales and buying. He was also a very witty and delivered his presentation brilliantly.
Karen Brady – was the youngest MD in the UK at the time she took over Birmingham City Football Club when it was in dire straits and turned it around into a profitable football club – unheard of! The way Karen sees the issues, develops a collaborative strategy with her employees by focusing on a few key principles she has developed through her career was very revealing.
Gerald Ratner – we all remember his famous speech when he said that Ratners jewellers products were “total crap” which saw the fall of Ratners. As Gerald illustrated his speech has been voted consistently the worst mistake of all time and yet, after being at the top and then eventually being sacked by a Chairman he hired to come back and create a multi million pound health club and now operates the UK’s biggest online jewellery store was an amazing story. Again his presentation was witty, illustrated exactly what you need to do to be successful – learning by your mistakes, failing quickly and moving on, although it took him several years before his wife told him to get up and get going!
Sir Paul Hartunian – The world’s leading expert on Entrepreneurial PR was certainly an eye opener on how the world of PR operates. His claim to fame was the person who sold a pieces of a famous bridge in the US and then had CNN on his door in matter of hours and ran his story for 3 days – and as you know CNN runs its news stories every half hour! How much would that have cost if you had to pay for it?!
Lastly and certainly if not the best was Sir Bob Geldof
Global collaboration
I thought Sir Bob was famous for being the lead singer in the Boomtown Rats and organising Band Aid. That in itself was a major achievement, but as I learnt Sir Bob has done so much more.
As an entrepreneur I agree he must certainly be one of the UKs best entrepreneurs. What he has and continues to achieve in helping to relieve some of the despair and tragedy in Ethiopia and across the world starting back in the 80’s, mobilising people from around the world to deliver the Band Aid single, Live Aid Concerts was an achievement most people said was impossible to do – be he and others did it. Sir Bob has continued to carry on this work and in doing so, continues to save millions of people’s lives.
As well as continuing to carry on this work, lobbying governments around the world about their responsibilities in helping fellow human beings Sir Bob has also simultaneously started up his own broadcasting companies, continued his music and now has a successful solo career.
His life story was very interesting but his attitude and passion is something I have never seen before and helps you to understand how he was able to do and is still doing, on such a global and powerful scale. Being a rock star helped but without Sir Bob’s obsession and ability to collaborate and take on issues that seem impossible to everyone else to resolve, he took action and there are millions of people in the world who are thankful that he did, along with all who helped and supported him.
An inspiration to us all.
Warmly,
Jason
