been partially successful because the temptation is always to become submerged in the day to day. It takes real effort to stick to my core competencies of providing strategic direction and business management, but I have found that the business thrives better when I do. As an owner of a social care business I constantly remind myself that the purpose of the business is to provide a service that the community profits from and that must always be the primary motive. However, we need to be viable as a business so profits are very important but still of secondary consideration. In practice to ensure this happens I allow responsible and social care trained partners/staff within the business to make decisions where conflict of interest could have arisen if I had made the decision, such that it’s very clear, ‘people first, profits second’. Over the years we have built a multi £million social care business currently with over 80 staff employed in the various teams and still expanding. We are in the business of providing care and education and our continued success will be a function of how well we provide those services.
To that end we have developed a Code of Honour, which starts, ‘Mission first…’ This is a constant reminder that commercial success is very much related to committed people focused on providing a caring and competent service that achieves the best outcomes for the people we serve.
