Building the World’s Largest High Street Optics and Audiology Brand
Doug and Dame Mary Perkins founded Specsavers with the aim of offering affordable eye care to everyone. They will talk about how they saw the opportunity to revolutionise the optical market, following a relaxation of UK regulations, which allowed opticians to advertise products and services for the first time.
Specsavers is not built on a stock exchange model but rather on a unique joint venture partnership, where directors part-own and manage their own stores. Theirs is a values-led approach to business, which has led to a world-wide organisation that turns over 3 billion a year, operating in 10 countries and employing 35,000 colleagues.
Doug and Dame Mary met in Cardiff while studying optometry at university. After graduating they bought Mary’s father’s optometry business in her home town of Bristol, which they built into a successful chain of more than 20 stores across the south west. This provided invaluable experience when they set up Specsavers.
With Mary being Bristol-born and educated and Doug living in Bristol for 15 years (and even playing for Bristol rugby club), they will describe how their business experience in Bristol acted as an extended pilot for the birth of Specsavers and inspired their vision for affordable eyecare and audiology at scale.
After selling their original chain of stores, it took a further three years of worldwide research of partnership and franchises, which were unheard of in the medical sector, to create their unique business model.
Discuss this event on Twitter using the hashtag #BristolLectures.
Programme:
18:25 – Join the talk online
18:30 – 19:30 – Lecture including Q&A
Free event
Register for the event More informationCreative industry events in and around Bristol
In-person Bristol small business meet-up
10am
-12pm
Dareshack, Vintry Building, Wine Street, Bristol, BS1 2BD
Meet-Up
Local freelance journalist Dan Martin hosts the latest Enterprise Nation free meet-up for small business owners in Bristol and surrounding areas.
Come along to learn new skills, discover opportunities, discuss challenges, be inspired and make a group of local business friends.
Workshop Wizardry: How to run magical workshops with Mette Davis
9.30am
-1pm
ForrestBrown, 10 Templeback, Bristol, BS1 6FL
BCI Workshop
According to the World Economic Forum, critical thinking and problem-solving skills are at the top of the skills list that employers believe will grow in prominence over the next five years. But how often do we leave a workshop feeling frustrated that we haven’t achieved the intended outcome, deflated by the lack of energy or participation in the room, or annoyed that it’s been derailed by competing agendas or personalities?
Join Mette on 11th April for a half-day interactive session packed with handy tools, techniques and tips, on how to run brilliant workshops.
The CMO’s guide to conversion optimisation: optimising the customer journey, from click to conversion
9am
-2pm
Watershed, 1 Canons Road, Harbourside, BS1 5TX
Panel Discussion
Want to convert your visitors into engaged, happy customers?
Our third “CMO’s Guide to…” event is on Wednesday 17 April and will feature speakers from Microsoft, Pinterest and VWO, the world’s leading A/B testing platform.
This time it’s all about converting customers – helping you improve the whole digital customer acquisition journey, from first impression to conversion.