Greater London Enterprise Awards 2020

42 | Greater London Awards 2020 Business Support Organisation of the Year - UK Established in 2012, Fordham Henderson was set-up to provide business mentoring and executive coaching to clients across the UK. Following the firm’s well-deserved success in the Greater London Enterprise Awards 2020, we caught up with Co-Founder Simon Fordham to find out more. Through a team of professional, confidential, and experienced businesspeople, Fordham Henderson has been helping businesses become better, faster, larger, and more profitable in a more strategic way. Fordham Henderson was initially formed to provide expert business mentoring and executive coaching to start-ups, established businesses, CEO’s, board directors and VIP’s and celebrities. Going into further detail, Simon begins by providing us more about the firm’s history and how far Fordham Henderson has grown throughout the years. “Having run a successful business for some 25 years, our founder soon realised how lonely running a business was. For every lonely business person, he set out to provide clients with a trusted advisor and a confident sounding board. Eight years later, Fordham Henderson has helped support over 250 businesses and individuals, making a huge difference to many of them, for the better. “Clients now come in all shapes and sizes. Naturally, we excel at helping businesses to understand themselves and their business better. At the heart of our business relationships lies our integrity in business, our confidentiality, and our overall business ethics. In business you are never alone when you have us by your side, supporting, advising, and guiding you with our professional advice.” Previous experience of running a business is something many of the firm’s coaches boast and as Simon goes on to explain, this allows the firm to offer a rather unique selling point. “All our mentors and coaches have either run their own business or have managed a significant business unit in a large organisation, therefore they know what it is like to spin the plates of a business. Mentoring and coaching with empathy, putting themselves in the shoes of the business owner or CEO, they know what it feels like to be in their position. Naturally, we care about Aug20707 our clients, its business, and the people in it, and it’s for this reason we pride ourselves in concentrating on the core values of business, strategy, finance, marketing, sales, operations and most importantly people and culture.” Regarding the internal culture in place, much of the firm’s work evolves around working as a team to find solutions as Simon informs us. “The culture here is one of inclusivity with a joint approach to problem solving for both the people in the business and for that of our clients. By priding ourselves on our ability to read, understand and interpret what the client needs, we are able to match them to an appropriately experienced and qualified mentor.” The outbreak of COVID-19 earlier this year has presented many tough challenges to businesses as the year has progressed. However, the mentoring and coaching industry has been able to thrive from some of the opportunities which have come its way as Simon points out. “Hospitality and leisure and office-based teams continue to find the business landscape challenging, but we are committed to working with our clients to better understand their needs and suggest innovative ways to find solutions to harsh trading conditions. Business mentors and coaches are also seeing an increase in demand from both start-ups and established businesses as people see opportunities and an alternative way of working to support their business.” Finally, Simon discusses the benefits of being a London based business before outlining some of the firm’s plans moving forward. “London is a great city with so much to offer, why wouldn’t you want to be based there? Whether it be architecture or food and culture, the city of London and its amazing diversity is a welcoming place for international visitors or to both live and work in. “Like many businesses, the pandemic has caused us to reflect on our service offerings and how we interact and work with our clients. Whilst many businesses struggled with the enormous challenge they found themselves in, we were able to use the time we gained by looking at our business and initiating a programme of ‘flipping’ our model to an online one. Additionally, we partnered with a new coaching and mentoring digital platform, known as Delenta, to assist with all our Backoffice functions, ensuring our clients have a direct access account, allowing them to see their sessions at a glance.” Company: Fordham Henderson Consulting Ltd Contact: Simon Fordham Web Address: www.fordhamhenderson.com