Sector Focus

We speak to two more local business leaders, Jamie Wray, Ways to WOW, and Venessa Boatang, Viva Creations, to see how they are leading their businesses to future growth and how they are setting the pace for 2022…

Jamie Wray, Ways to WOW

Jamie Wray started Ways to WOW through a passion to help individuals, teams and organisations master a WOW mentality that improves their personal performance, people, customers, and community.

Ways TO WOW is an experiential training & development agency that offers engaging training workshops, team building activities and brand experience support that are designed to improve organisational culture, customer experience, brand identity and personal performance. Their training is truly unique as they use gamification and human purpose to spark creativity as well as new ideas in all participants.

With fifteen years’ experience in hospitality, leisure, retail and other high service-related sectors.

Jamie and the Ways to WOW team aim to engage, educate and empower individuals, teams and organisations to move from theory to practice by Mastering their WOW in life and business.

Jamie said "Employee engagement is at its all-time low and memorable customer experiences are becoming harder and harder to find. In order to solve these issues, I believe we need to reset and refocus on the small details that matter the most - Ourselves, our people and our customers. We’re trying to help businesses across multiple sectors transform their culture, leadership and brand experience by clarifying their uniqueness and relighting the purpose they once had.

‘Our training has also been adapted to develop each person in life AND business as we believe true transformation only happens when personal and professional values are united to improve mindset to help you in all aspects of life."

Ways to WOW has also just recently launched their new leadership programme, called WOW leadership. It’s based on mastering 6 modules they call WOW stones and unleashing your inner superhero inner superpowers through impacting and influencing others.

With a client base all over the city, Ways to Wow is ready to spread their message further with their new website; https://waystowow.co.uk/ launching soon, their first WOW event in November, and the long-term goal to expand to every major city, creating WOW moments for businesses and individuals in specialty training centres.

Transform mediocre into memorable and find your Ways To Wow by contacting Jamie for more information.

You can contact Jamie directly on; jamie@waystowow.co.uk or call 07729134345

Vanessa Boateng, Creations by Viva Skincare

Founded by Vanessa Boateng, Creations By Viva Skincare was born out of the need to create quality skin, hair care and makeup products with quality natural ingredients.

Vanessa identified the need to create quality skin care products using traditional ancient ingredients for those who suffer with skin conditions and to create a brand-new range of products using organic ingredients to produce modern fashion products.

‘There was a need to solve skincare challenges which I also suffered with. There wasn't any safe products out there which worked without side effects.’

Looking at the effects of toxic products on women’s skin, Vanessa decided to use traditional ingredients to create an alternative which is healthier, safe and sustainable which yield results. These products are free from parabens, sulphates and silicones and are cruelty free and vegan friendly.

We are currently showcasing our business and products at different trade shows and events as well as hosting a couple of Pop-Up stalls in John Lewis and Partners and Waitrose across the UK. This is in collaboration with the Great British Exchange, which allows Vanessa to showcase her brand in various cities in the UK and expanding her products to reach their target audience.

As an entrepreneur Vanessa enjoys the freedom to be creative and innovate which can be seen in Creations By Viva Skincare’s wide variety of products using organic ingredients to produce from moisturising body washes, bath bombs, facial moisturisers, body lotions and modern skincare produce range.

Vanessa projects seeing her business open at least two brick and mortar shops in the city region and her products on the shelves of major retailers across the UK.

You can explore Viva Skincare’s catalogue on their website; https://creationsbyvivaskincare.com/

EXPERT EYE: Kays Medical

When Kays Medical moved into its new Liverpool headquarters in 2017 it didn’t expect it would soon be at the forefront of what CEO Ben Ludzker calls a “paradigm shift” in workplace culture.

Kays Medical CEO Ben Ludzker

However, starting in early 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has fundamentally changed how many of us do our jobs and, as an occupational health specialist, Kays Medical found itself in the middle of an historic period of change.

“Hybrid working and working from home has become the norm across large sections of our economy,” said Ben. “But what many employers are still only just waking up to is that they have the same duty of care to their employees wherever they work. They need to wake up to that quickly.”

Kays is a family business that started off with a high street pharmacy in Liverpool in the ‘70s. It still operates three pharmacies in the city under a separate division. But from the 1980s onwards it diversified into a specialist occupational health supplier covering medical products, equipment and pharmaceuticals.

Across its business it now offers a catalogue of more than 10,000 products and services, ranging from workplace assessments, psychological health support, various training courses and an array of physical products – anything from a defibrillator to a box of sticking plasters.

And now, in a major investment, Kays is diversifying further still. On the same four-acre site of its Speke headquarters, the company is in the middle of the construction of an additional 35,000 sq ft warehouse.

Kays Logistics will see an expansion of the firm’s own logistics and supply operation and will also offer third-party logistics services to other businesses that need to store and distribute products as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Ben explained: “When we had our old headquarters in Liverpool we only had a small volume of warehouse space. So when we moved to the Speke site it was always the intention to increase that capacity.

“Now, due to the pandemic, we have seen a significant rise in demand for storage and logistics. We are all now much more dependent on deliveries of goods than we used to be. Our operations director has a background in third-party logistics. He said ‘we can start doing this’.

“When the new warehouse opens later this year we will be offering a full third-party logistics service – we’ll be doing storage, inventory management and ‘pick pack’ which means we will manage the process from start to finish, making sure that goods are sent straight out to the customers. Demand for this kind of service has gone through the roof since COVID.”

Kays itself, which employs around 80 people, wasn’t immune to the impact of the pandemic. Despite pivoting towards things such as COVID testing, the increase in the number of empty workplaces meant a big downturn in traditional sales.

Ben added: “We really took a hit last year. We are a business-to-business operation – that is a major part of our work. For long periods during the pandemic, people were not in their workplaces so demand for our goods and services fell significantly.”

In the last few months the UK has started to emerge from the pandemic but many of the changes that occurred in the workplace in the last two years have been permanent. However, says Ben, some employers are still grappling with the implications of the ‘new normal’.

“Businesses are now faced with a new paradigm,” said Ben. “Hybrid working for many businesses has become the norm. And what they need to start appreciating is that, even if someone is working from home, the employer has exactly the same duty of care as they did when they were in the office.

“Not all businesses are managing to get their heads around this, although there are many others that are more progressive and forward-thinking. They realise that they have the same responsibilities to members of their teams wherever they are working. But, how many companies have done risk assessments for people working from home?

“What happens if an employee says they developed a repetitive strain injury because they have been sitting on the couch with their laptop on their knee for the past two years? How is a business ensuring they are looking after the mental health of their staff while they are working remotely?

“Employers now have to ensure they have mechanisms in place to facilitate the wellbeing of people they may only see once or twice a week at most. For many businesses this has really heightened the awareness of occupational health – it has been a positive step in the right direction”

This, he adds, is now a real feature of the recruitment market. People looking for jobs, particularly younger people, now have very different expectations of their employers than the generations that came before them. Much more than before, they expect their employer will be prepared to look after their welfare.

Ben has also observed that this fundamental change has seen the emergence of a big divide between those people who work off-site or from home and those whose jobs cannot be done flexibly. As he explained succinctly: “A postman can’t work from home – it’s impossible.

“It is very much an advantage people in certain jobs have – those who work in offices for example – have over those that just have to be in-situ to do their jobs. But it isn’t just a blue collar white collar issue as some may portray – all of our front line workers went through this very issue during lockdown; whether a doctor or a supermarket cashier, we rely on these people to be at their place of work. It may seem unfair in some ways but it is just the reality.”

Kays works with clients in all sectors across the UK but many are still in manufacturing. He said: “Occupational health is, of course, important in office environments and we are doing more and more every year but there are obviously much greater risks and demands for our services in an industrial setting.

“We have a number of clients in the automotive sector, for example. These days they tend to be very progressive and forward-thinking in their approach. It is also true to say the larger the business the more they are on top of occupational health.

“It is when you get down to the SME level – the owner-managed businesses of which we have so many. So often they will do their own HR but, of course, they are not HR professionals or lawyers. It is more of a challenge for them and they tend to pick up in changes further down the line after the bigger firms.

“Kays is a great example of a business that has made that transition. Up until the pandemic we enjoyed several years of significant growth. And as we have got bigger, we have found our approach has become more bureaucratic and policy-driven. Little ‘mom and pop’ companies, in contrast, often have to fly by the seat of their pants.”

Ben will continue to steer Kays through its next period of growth. He says general awareness of what they do is now much higher – something that has accelerated during the pandemic.

He added: “In theory, the shift in workplace culture shouldn’t change the demand for our services because as I said, the duty of care is the same. But there is an increase in demand for Occupational Health Services as employers are now becoming more aware of those responsibilities.

“10 years ago if I told my mates I worked in occupational health they would shrug and ask ‘well what is that?’ I would say that nowadays 8 out of 10 people would know what it is. They wouldn’t know the finer details, necessarily, but there is much greater awareness now of the value of what we offer.”

Kays Medical