Dr John Anderson
Principal Knowledge Exchange Fellow
Strathclyde Executive Education & Development
Personal statement
A well-known specialist in entrepreneurship and growth in Scotland, John draws on nearly 30 years of personal and professional experience working with the leaders of growth companies in both his roles as non-executive chairman / director and as Director of Growth Programmes at Strathclyde Business School, where he acts as Programme Director on the ScaleUp Institute endorsed Growth Advantage Programme and the UK Government Help to Grow Management programme. Formerly Chief Executive of The Entrepreneurial Exchange, John was a shareholding director of a young venture backed technology company engaged in the design, manufacture and distribution of laboratory equipment and co-founded a company that provided pre-hospital emergency care and healthcare industry training. As a CA in professional practice, latterly as a partner at Grant Thornton, he worked with several of Scotland’s most exciting growth companies after returning to Scotland from EY in Chicago in 1989. John is Chair of social business Homes for Good Investments; premium women’s outdoor clothing brand FINDRA; team and leadership development company BlueSky Experiences and complex well drilling engineers Merlin ERD and is non-executive director of The Beal Group, a second-generation family manufacturing company. He is also a Trustee of the Rannoch Community Trust. A founding GlobalScot, John was first Chair of the Gabriel Investments angel syndicate; participant in REAP Scotland; regular expert contributor to the Scottish Government’s National Economic Forum and founding member of the Enterprise Research Centre advisory group. He was also a founding Advisory Board Member of The Gender Index, the ground-breaking research study into female entrepreneurship in the UK. John is a former Chair of Institute of Directors in Glasgow & West of Scotland and is a member of Chapter Zero – The Directors’ Climate Forum.
Area of Expertise
- Specialist in the issues facing growth companies.
- Extensive track record in developing entrepreneurial leaders through structured peer learning.
- Substantial board experience – implementing good governance and developing effective boards.
- Significant experience of strategic and operational leadership, brand building and reputation management.
- Experienced in strategic planning, fund raising and financial management.
- Strong interpersonal skills and confident communication at all levels and using all media.
- Active mentor with a track record of developing the individual.
- Key influencer with wide business, government and media networks.
Prize And Awards
- Dean's Award for Outstanding Individual Contribution to Knowledge Exchange
- Recipient
- 2023
- Small Business Charter Excellence Awards
- Recipient
- 2023
- Strathclyde Medal - Team
- Recipient
- 2022
- IoD Scotland Non-Executive Director of the Year
- Recipient
- 2020
- Maserati 100
- Recipient
- 2016
- Doctor of the University
- Recipient
- 2013
Qualifications
PROFESSIONAL QUALIFICATIONS
Member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland -1985
Institute of Directors
- Leading from the Chair - 2021
- The Role of the Director and the Board - 2022
EDUCATION
Strathclyde Graduate Business School
MBA - 1991 to 1994
University of Aberdeen
MA (Accountancy) - 1979 to 1982
Publications
- Entrepreneurial role models in the Scottish economy
- Bottomley Colin, Cooper Sarah, Anderson John
- Enterprise Support Systems An International Perspective (2009) (2009)
- Entrepreneurial Scotland : Portraits of Inspiration
- Anderson John, Kemp Kenny, Branson Sir Richard
- (2006)
- Case 1d - Display Products Technology Limited
- Anderson John
- Entrepreneurship (1998) (1998)
- Scotprime Seafoods Limited A
- Anderson John, Martin Frank
- (1997)
- Scotprime Seafoods Limited B
- Anderson John, Martin Frank
- (1997)
- The Taylor Group B
- Anderson John, Martin Frank
- (1997)
Teaching
TEACHING / COURSE LEADERSHIP / PEER LEARNING FACILITATION
SUBJECTS / TOPICS / COURSE MODULES
STRATHCLYDE BUSINESS SCHOOL
Strathclyde Executive Education – 2015 to date
Executive MBA
- Comparative Corporate Governance
- Purpose
- Strategy Tools - Value Proposition Canvas & Blue Ocean Strategy
- Breakeven and Working Capital Management
- Preparing for the Ultimate Customer (exit planning)
- The Effective Board for Growth
- Module 3 - Internationalisation and Winning New Markets - Case Study
- Module 6 - Building a Brand Case Study
- Module 9 - High Performance Workplace - Case Study
- Module 11 - Finance and Financial Management
- Module 12 - Implementing Growth Plans - Case Study
Peter Vardy Group: Leadership Development Programme
- Purpose
- Introduction to Conscious Leadership
- Strategy Tools - Value Proposition Canvas & Blue Ocean Strategy
Sales Programmes
- Scottish Enterprise - Start Global Sales Workshop (1 day)
- Scottish Enterprise / Highlands & Islands Enterprise - Entrepreneurial Sales Strategies Stage 1 (2 day)
- Scottish EDGE - Sales Workshop (1 day)
Hunter Centre for Entrepreneurship – 1997 to date
- Lessons from Local Heroes – Scotland’s Entrepreneurial Role Models
- Multiple case studies (author of 6 teaching cases)
- Entrepreneurial Finance
- Learning from Failure
THE ENTREPRENEURIAL EXCHANGE 1995 TO 2014
- Peer Learning
EY TRAINING TEAM – 1989 TO 1994
- Introduction to Strategy
- Breakeven Analysis
- Working Capital Management
- BBC2 Troubleshooter Series Case Studies
Research Interests
As a KE professional I am not typcially involved directly in research, although I have regularly helped research-intensive colleagues and PhD students with their own research by making introductions to my extensive network of entrepreneurs and family business owners and am frequently called upon to provide a practitioner's perspective, drawing on my c30 years of experience in entrepreneurship.
I had become interested in entrepreneurship in the late 1980s when working in Chicago with EY and attended a short Babson College course “Entrepreneurship – Concepts & Practices”. It was life-changing and on my return to Glasgow with EY, was fortunate to further develop my passion for entrepreneurship during a Part-Time MBA at Strathclyde.
My MBA Project “Local Heroes – Scotland’s Entrepreneurial Role Models” (1994) was inspired by the publication of the Scotland’s Business Birth-rate Strategy in 1993 and several of my key findings were featured in a new Insider Magazine publication “Scottish Entrepreneur” in November 1994. I was subsequently commissioned by Scottish Enterprise to further develop my research by interviewing and profiling 20 of my Local Heroes for a new publication “Local Heroes – A Directory of Scotland’s New Entrepreneurs” which was published in 1995 (Scotland’s Year of the Entrepreneur) and again in 1997 and 1999.
The Babson model of entrepreneurship education uses the case method of teaching and during the adoption of the Babson model in Scotland, I was asked by Scottish Enterprise to build on my Local Heroes work and to develop full academic cases for use in each of the Centres for Entrepreneurship in Scotland (Strarthclyde, Stirling, Napier, RGU, Aberdeen and Glasgow Caledonian). In total, I authored 6 cases under the supervision of Dr Frank Martin at Stirling – Case Centre references: 395-115-1, 397-034-1, 397-035-1, 397-036-1, 397-047-1 and 397-048-1.
I co-authored (with Bottomley and Cooper) a chapter in “Enterprise Support Systems – An International Perspective” (ISBN 978-917829-927-3) entitled “Entrepreneurial Role Models in the Scottish Economy, drawing once again on my Local Heroes research.
I was part of the HCE team submitting the REF2021 Impact Case “C17 Business and Management Studies - Enhancing entrepreneurial policy, ecosystems and firm growth”. My strong relationships with the Scottish Government, regional enterprise support organisations and membership organisations, enabled HCE research to be translated into impactful practice, informing the development of a policy framework to accelerate Scotland’s entrepreneurial ecosystem (Scotland CAN DO). My peer learning expertise and personal & professional experience of working with several hundred entrepreneurs and business leaders informed the design of a suite of entrepreneurship leadership programmes including the ScaleUp Institute-endorsed Growth Advantage Programme focused on scaling high potential ventures.
At a UK level, I was a founding board member of the Enterprise Research Centre and have maintained close working relationships with Prof Stephen Roper at Warwick via The Gender Index and with Prof Mark Hart at Aston via Help to Grow.
With the success of GAP and, more recently Help to Grow, I now have very strong relationships with the ScaleUp Institute (I am regularly brought in to give the Scottish perspective on scaleups) and with the Chartered Association of Business Schools (CABS) and its subgroup of Small Business Charter schools (I have been a member of several UK-wide Help to Grow working groups).
I was also a founding advisory board member of The Gender Index and worked with Prof Shaw as Associate Principal to secure a partnership with The Gender Index for the Hunter Centre for Entrepreneurship for the analysis of the Scottish data on Scotland’s female entrepreneurship, leading to our contribution to the recent Ana Stewart Review.
Professional Activities
- Family Business Dinner - Hosted by AAB, FWB Park Brown & Family Business United
- Chair
- 14/3/2024
- Scottish National Investment Bank Impact Investors Conference
- Participant
- 4/3/2024
- The Herald Scottish Family Business Awards 2023 (Event)
- Member
- 7/12/2023
- Turcan Connell Family Business Dinner
- Chair
- 7/11/2023
- Family Business Dinner - Hosted by AAB, FWB Park Brown & Family Business United
- Chair
- 4/10/2023
- An Introduction to Help to Grow at Strathclyde Business School
- Speaker
- 20/6/2023
Projects
- Help to Grow: Management at Strathclyde Business School
- Anderson, John (Principal Investigator)
- UK Government programme for SMEs delivered by Small Business Charter Business Schools across the UK
- 26-Jan-2021
- iGAP @ Tontine
- Anderson, John (Principal Investigator)
- Pilot version of the Growth Advantage Programme designed and delivered for Galsgow City Council
- 10-Jan-2018 - 29-Jan-2019
- Productivity through People
- Anderson, John (Principal Investigator)
- Cohort based short programme for leaders of growing SMEs looking to enhance their firm's productivity in partnership with Be the Business, BAE Systems, Rolls Royce, GSK, John Lewis Partnership and Leonardo.
- 14-Jan-2018 - 29-Jan-2020
- Growth Advantage Programme
- Anderson, John (Principal Investigator)
- ScaleUp Insitute endorsed growth programme for leaders of ambitious companies.
- 01-Jan-2015
Contact
Dr
John
Anderson
Principal Knowledge Exchange Fellow
Strathclyde Executive Education & Development
Email: john.c.anderson@strath.ac.uk
Tel: 07976156121