This year, we’re doing something a little different to mark International Women’s day by reclaiming the ‘manel’ and showing that collaboration is key to social change
We’re inviting three panels of men from a range of industries and backgrounds to join us at this free event to discuss how, together, we can make this year’s International Women’s Day theme of “An Equal World is an Enabled World’ a reality.
Development Manager at The Business Group Salford , Jon Monk, will be joining us to share his views and experiences on our strategic panel.
We get to know a bit about Jon ahead of the event:
What is your role/organisation?
I am development manager for The Business Group Salford which was formed in 1999 by local business owners and managers to create a much needed business network and community voice. Our members include sole traders, limited companies, partnerships, charities, community organisations, co-operatives, social enterprises, public sector partners, further and higher education institutions and PLCs with turnovers ranging from less than £2k a year to those exceeding £0.5bn.
How diverse is your current leadership team – and/or what initiatives are in place that you support?
Two thirds of our board are women. We need better representation at board level from our BAME members and we are actively working to address this. We lack representation at board level from young people, a common problem amongst social enterprises in Greater Manchester, and are about to embark on a piece of work to look at how we address this effectively in house and how we can support our members to do the same. I’m hoping we’ll work with Flourish and others on this.
For most of the projects we run we make certain that we have a scrutiny panel that is as close to 50/50 men/women and 15% BAME as possible with at least one member representing our target audience.
We provide tailored business support for marginalised entrepreneurs including transnationals, women, people with disabilities and individuals from lower socio-economic groups.
What career advice would you give your younger self?
Just get on with it. I’d been told from a young age ‘don’t give a fuck about what other people think of you’ and though I’d say you probably should care what friends and family think of you that advice has stood me in good stead. I also learned pretty quickly to always employ better than myself; that too is very good advice.
Have you any role models that have inspired you during your career to date?
I met some of my role models earlier in life and that turned out to be pretty disappointing tbh, except for Fergus Henderson but I didn’t get to hang out with him for too long. I try and model myself on family and friends and outside of them there are people that I work with who are pretty inspiring in terms of their work ethic. I’m lucky enough to meet a lot of first-time entrepreneurs and watching how they work, grow and adapt is always inspiring and a great influence on my own practices.
When I first started my current job there were lots of Salfordians who influenced my attitude at work – the one that stands out most would be Josie Brown. There is now a Heart of Salford Award named after Josie and there are so many of those award winners (across all categories) who you can’t help but be inspired by.
There are a lot of successful business owners who are long-standing members of the group who have had a direct influence on the way in which I work and you can’t do a job like mine in the city of Salford without being influenced by the integrity and attitude to work of CEO and socialist Alison Page.
Join us and Jon for an evening of collaboration, debate and lots of fun! Grab your free ticket today.
