Communities Within Communities

There's so much diversity ...

POSTED BY JACKY SHERMAN ON 28/09/2016 @ 8:00AM

Welcome to the new face of my blog! It's the first public change I am making as we transform The Referral Institute into the brand of Asentiv®. More on the rebranding when our new website goes live over the next few weeks ...

A beautiful and progressive county; Northamptonshire is built on communities within communities.

I'm really excited about being involved in that project and look forward to sharing with you the new initiatives we have coming up. Sign up for my weekly email newsletters so you don't miss out.

In essence, the changes reflect our evolution from a single product training company to offering a wider range of consultation and support to companies who want to grow their business through collaboration and building referral communities.

When I was discussing making this change with my Web Developer Steffi Lewis, I was looking at what image I could put at the top of the blog that reflected my philosophy of building communities. What I chose were multiple pictures to represent the diversity of locations within the county where I go to meet my clients.

When I started my business in Northamptonshire, I had a vision to contribute to the success of something I thought of as the Northamptonshire Business Community.

Then I got to know the area better, and I realised that there was no single community in the county, in businesses or otherwise. What there is, is a huge range of quite diverse communities, all quite distinct, divided by geography and history.

"Just to give you a flavour, the M1 motorway divides the county"

In the west, the Silverstone circuit has a growing reputation for high-performance engineering and sits next to Towcester, a market town with a race course, which reminds us of the rural nature of much of the county.

This leads up the A5 through stunning country villages full of people who either commute south or have built small businesses from home until you reach Daventry which looks more towards the Midlands than the south. Then in the south, the pull is more towards Milton Keynes and across to Oxfordshire.

Eastwards, Northampton itself is rooted in a long history of the leather and shoe industry which survives against the odds to this day. In need of a facelift for sure, but the town has corners that constantly surprise me and some truly inspiring famous sons like Francis Crick of DNA fame.

It also has some amazingly creative small companies who punch way above their weight, both locally and internationally. Whilst in the north, through more stunning countryside, we reach Corby that speaks of heavy industry with a rich, distinct Scottish heritage reminding us that migrant working is not a new phenomenon.

"All of this diversity creates flexibility and that is probably why Northamptonshire is thriving today"

What pulls it together is the interwoven nature of the relationships between businesses locally and that extends out across the international business world.

At the heart of these networks are our clients, the professional individuals and companies who provide support services for these diverse companies. By working collaboratively, our clients have the resources to service the needs of all of these diverse communities.

A huge variety of business networking groups, both formal and informal, act as the threads that link all these people together.

"Four years down the line, my vision has evolved along with our company"

I now see our role is to facilitate new and stronger relationships between the wide range of professionals who, by collaborating together, build their own personal business communities that operate in and across the variety of locations and industries within the county and beyond.

By working together, they can generate amazing business together.

Until next time ...

JACKY SHERMAN