Sahar Hashemi co-founded Coffee Republic, the UK’s first US style coffee bar chain, and built it into one of the UK’s most recognised high street brands with a turnover of £30m. She is the author of two books including the bestselling Anyone Can Do It. She was awarded an OBE in 2012 for services to business and charity. She co-chairs the government's Scale-Up Taskforce and is involved in a new coffee concept, Change Please, a social enterprise that trains and hires homeless people to become baristas.
Masterclass overview
Entrepreneurship is not about personality, nor is it restricted to start- ups. It’s a set of habits that anyone can learn – habits that are becoming increasingly important in large organisations. To keep up with the pace of innovation, big companies need to act small. They need to behave much more like entrepreneurs – more agile, curious, creative, resourceful and connected to customers; less rigid and complacent. That is what Sahar’s unique, energising masterclass is about. It gives participants the inspiration, tools and confidence to think and behave more like entrepreneurs.
Value and expected outcomes
- An understanding of entrepreneurial mindset: what it is, why it’s important and how to make space for it in a corporate environment
- Learning and practice of six tangible habits they can take away and immediately apply
What is covered?
This masterclass focuses on six easy-to-adopt, practical habits that participants can use in their work every day:
- Step into customers’ shoes – innovation and disruption doesn’t start with ideas – it starts with empathy
- Get out of the office – beware of busy-ness. Get out into the world of your customer – that’s where it’s all happening
- Become clueless – try to forget what you already know. Ask the naïve questions
- Notching up No’s – the only way to avoid failure is to do nothing. Remove the fear by allowing failure – it’s the best way to learn
- Bootstrapping – extreme resourcefulness. You can’t make new ideas happen down conventional paths – perfection is enemy of innovation
- Take 100% of yourself to work – there is a direct correlation between how much you enjoy your work and how well you do it
This masterclass is based on real, personal experience and not abstract theory. Sahar Hashemi has a story to tell which she harnesses to drive deep behavioural change.
