We sat down with award-winning entrepreneur and founder of leading lingerie brand Ultimo, Baroness Michelle Mone OBE for our NMP Live Meets…series. In our exclusive interview Michelle discusses the changing attitudes to women in business, joining the House of Lords, and what advice she’d give budding entrepreneurs. Watch the full interview or read the transcript below.
In conversation with Baroness Michelle Mone OBE
What was your professional start in life?
I left school at 15, because my dad was confined to a wheelchair, and I did odd jobs here and there, and because I didn’t have a national insurance number they were promotional jobs, modeling jobs, and then when I was 19 I wanted some real business experience, so I applied for a job with Labatts, the Canadian brewery. I started off as an admin girl, but I was so determined to reach the top in Labatts, and I did that within 18 months.
What inspired you to start your own business?
I got made redundant when I was 24, just when I had my second baby, I have 3 kids now, and I was absolutely devastated that I was made redundant. I didn’t know what to do until I went to a dinner-dance one night wearing a very uncomfortable bra, and I thought ‘why should women go through all this pain for a tiny bit of gain? I’m going to invent something!’
And I remember all my friends saying to me, ‘but Michelle, you don’t know anything about bras, and if that could be done then someone else would have done it, and you cant even sew a button on your husband’s shirt.’ But I was just determined; I had a pair of boobs and thought I will work it out. And that is exactly what I did for 3 ½ years to invent the world famous Ultimo brand.
After the initial success of Ultimo, how did you continue to expend the brand?
Constant innovation! Innovation is key to any business success, I believe. We came up with 17 worldwide inventions, and about 105 design registrations, and we always gave the retailer something different to get the footfall into their stores. We did all the marketing for them, and we built the brand bible for them, and we did everything; I do believe that is the way for major success, sell out and then you receive more orders. So we were constantly being different to all of our other competitors, which is key.
How would you define an entrepreneur?
I think the definition of an entrepreneur is someone that never, ever gives up. We have that drive, and determination, and can-do attitude, and whenever anyone else gives up we just don’t – we always find a way of getting across the line.
We take risks everyday as well, and we put everything in to it, you know, our whole personal life goes in to the business as well, but I would never give it up for anything.
Have you seen attitudes towards women in business change?
When I first started my business 20 years ago it was really tough, it was tough for banks to take me seriously, accountant practices to take me seriously, but I have just never given up, and if they don’t want to deal with me then that’s fine, I’ll go somewhere else.
I’m not the kind of person that sits back and blames everyone else for me not being successful. If I’m not successful its only my fault, so I always find a way. But, moving on 20 years we have changed a lot for the better – we’ve still got a long way to go, but we’ve certainly improved a lot.
What needs to be done to improve equality for women in business?
Well, I think some of the quotas on the board really does help. I also think that networking events are good as well because traditionally guys have their golf, and their cricket and their football or rugby, whereas women don’t traditionally have events like that, that you can go to as a business, and personal too. So I think creating business networking events for women and mentoring.
I mentor about over 100 people at the moment – I think mentoring is key. I mentor groups of people, corporate companies and individuals. And I just see their life changing when it comes to even their weight, and their looks, and their presentation, and in their marketing skills, and their confidence – more than anything the confidence because once you get your confidence then nothing will stop you.
What does success mean to you?
Success is everything. I think at the beginning of my career I was motivated by money, but getting older I realized that money doesn’t make you happy – after a terrible divorce I realized that.
Now it’s about delivering what you say you’re going to do. Never, ever over-promise and under-deliver. Success, to me, means that everyone I’ve promised to deliver a certain business task, or to go and do an event, I don’t want them to just be happy, I want them to be extremely happy, and then I feel that success.
How did it feel when you were invited to join the House of Lords?
When the Prime Minister called me up and invited me to join the House of Lords as a life peer I actually thought it was a wind-up. But I think it just shows you that if you go to Eton, or if you’re from the east end of Glasgow and you leave school at 15, as long as you work hard, and you have got that passion, and commitment, and you have an opinion, then anyone can be there.
When did you realise you had a talent for public speaking?
I started speaking about 10 years ago, just for some charity events, and I loved it so much. I love engaging with the audience and seeing what they are passionate about, and seeing what they want to hear about.
I always do my speeches, I have got about 10 speeches on different areas, but there is one that covers everything – life and healthy body + healthy mind = healthy business. You know, after loosing 8 ½ stone, and I run every day, I really do think that has made a huge difference to my life and the business as well.
So, I give an overview of life is not perfect but here is how you can make it even better, and all the areas in your life because they all join up.
How do you engage with and motivate an audience?
I love connecting with the audience so I tend to go two hours before my speech, and I sit at the back, and I get a feel for the room. I do a conference call with the organisers maybe a few weeks before that – what are you trying to get out of the event? And I make sure I deliver.
Just about every single speech I have done everyone stands up. I witness some people in the audience crying, and full of laughter, and on the edge of their seats. Because, really, it’s a true story and I think that everyone relates to it in different areas because they’ve all had the same sort of experience as well. And I suppose that it shows the audience that if you are going through this, or you want to do this, this is how you do it and basically if you are going through this, it is normal - everyone does.
I always think that, you know, as Rafiki says in The Lion King, it’s the circle of life. We all go through these emotions at some stage in our life, and my aim is to leave that stage and to make them feel ‘I can do it!’ to make them feel uplifted and determined.
What advice would you give to budding entrepreneurs?
I think that if you want to start a business, you’ve got to come up with that idea. Don’t push yourself to come up with the idea. It has got to happen organically, and then once you get that idea do your research, do your business plan, check out who your competitors would be, check out what price it needs to be, just build it up and do focus groups with your friends and your family.
In some of my speeches I give talks on how you can do that. I also do corporate speeches to motivate teams, but then I do 10 speeches on marketing, on building a brand, on technical, on shipping round the world, on manufacturing, on PR.
Ultimo has achieved £1 billion in PR in 10 years, with not spending a penny on advertising, so I tell people how we managed to do it and if you work for an organization don’t think that they’ve got big fat cheque books. Go to your line manager, go to the company owners, or if you are a company owner think outside the box. You know, the least money you have the more creative you become.
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