The business world has changed since the financial crash of 2008. We are no longer in thrall to mighty corporations; big is no longer beautiful and the small startup is more attractive. A surge of entrepreneurial energy appears to have invaded our consciousness. “Be your own boss” and “control your own destiny” are the slogans of this new age.
Or at least, this is the message of entrepreneurs such as Dom Jackman. A former City professional who worked at Ernst & Young for four years, Jackman founded Escape the City, a training company to help unfulfilled professionals find new jobs and make the transition into the new world of work. Jackman says 230,000 people read his weekly newsletter and, in a recent blogpost aimed at big business, he declared corporate employees were tired of lives of “drudgery, subordination and purposelessness” and that “time is running out for today’s status quo”.
“Movement away from traditional 20th century careers is only going to speed up as there will be more and more opportunities at companies who really care about their staff,” says Jackman. “Setting up your own thing is only going to get easier and more socially acceptable.”
There are certainly many examples of people doing just that. Nisha Patel and Nishma Chauhan left jobs in investment banking in 2013 – Morgan Stanley and Nomura respectively – to set up street food sandwich business Grill My Cheese. “Our former jobs were very different; we used to work long hours – 12-14 hours sat at a desk in front of multiple computer screens,” says Chauhan. “We were well remunerated, our salaries were in line with the financial sector. Working in finance is very much a work hard, play hard environment.”
But the pair decided they wanted to do something they truly loved and, after a year of pondering, took the plunge. Chauhan says it has been a challenge making such a switch, their first day of trading was a “disaster”, and many have questioned why they would want to leave the City to sell cheese sandwiches. But obstacles have been overcome and Chauhan believes the business has a bright future, although she admits they’d probably have been better off financially in their old City jobs. “But would we be happy? The answer to that is no. There will also be certain aspects of our old roles we miss, but neither of us would change it,” she says.
Many entrepreneurs start off in the City or corporate world, but regard it as a training ground for their later life. “My years working in the City taught me a lot about hard work, long hours and pressure, and also what it takes to be successful,” says Kirsten Samuel, a former account manager at Hewlett-Packard. She left to set up Kamwell, a consultancy business which aims to help its clients improve their working environments. Her idea was inspired by the burnout she’d seen in the City.
“I’d seen first-hand a number of people who were taking long-term sickness leave for stress, depression and even cancer. These were all fantastic, capable, talented people who were burnt out from corporate life,” she says. “I’ve always been extremely passionate and personally interested in health and wellbeing and so when the idea came to me to set up an employee wellbeing business, coupled with my strong corporate background I thought it was a winning combination.”
The corporate world is not blind to the changes taking place in society and the attitudes of people coming into the workplace. Martin Blackburn, UK people director at KPMG, says there’s been a clear shift in the company’s recruitment and retention policies in recent years. He says the impact of the millennial generation on the workplace has been significant. KPMG hires 2,500 people a year (approximately 15% of its workforce), about 800 of them graduates. But Blackburn suggests that many regard their time at the company as an additional part of their training. “The focus of these young people is much more short term, more like two to three years. Every single one of these will have the mentality that once they have their qualifications and career on track they will be thinking about leaving,” he says.
Blackburn says this has changed the company and that KPMG realises that, in order to retain staff, it must constantly offer them opportunities to develop and experience new challenges. The company is in the business of training future leaders and many will acquire an entrepreneurial edge working there, he says. He also says the exit interviews the company performs rarely show people were unhappy about pay or remuneration. Instead, the employee remains until they get a better chance to further their career and enhance their marketability. “We give people a great understanding about business, which makes them attractive in the marketplace. They are then targeted by other businesses. The difference is that graduates are now thinking about working for startups, too, not just the ‘Big Four’,” says Blackburn.
Academics also recognise that things have changed. Hari Mann, a lecturer in business and entrepreneurship at Ashridge Business School, says more people are using MBAs to take control of their lives, not to climb the corporate ladder. “Declining bonuses in the City, the loss of the concept of a job for life and increasingly tougher conditions when it comes to work life balance have meant that many talented individuals have decided to become entrepreneurs,” he says. “This is a growing trend seen by the increasing numbers of MBAs not wanting to return to the workplace following their studies, but more to use their studies to launch a venture and gain financial backing, alongside meeting potential business partners.”
Bye, bye?
As the UK becomes more entrepreneurial the big corporates do seem to be facing challenges in terms of recruitment and retention. However, they are far from dead. The big salaries and flash offices have not fully lost their allure. Also, while some employees are leaving to be entrepreneurs, others are leaving to join other big firms. The corporate world is not so foolish as to stand still in the face of such changes – it is adapting to the changing demands of its bright and aspirational workforce. But the financial crash has led to a questioning of their dominance and the entrepreneurial path is one of the alternatives people are considering.
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