Straight-talking Aussie John Attridge is not a fan of the word ‘pivot’.

It’s become one of the most frequently used words during the pandemic.

Defined, in a business context, as fundamentally changing direction when your current products or services aren’t meeting the needs of the market.

But John, who has lived in Bournemouth since 2006, much prefers the words ‘nimble’ and ‘agile’.

The Founder and CEO of BBX UK points to two specific examples of businesses surviving by being agile:

• A Bulgarian sock manufacturer, faced with a slump in sales, that secured a contract with the Bulgarian government to provide face masks, boosting annual turnover from £1.75m to £8m.
• A photographer who saw his business disappear overnight with the lockdowns but successfully switched to producing backdrops for Zoom calls, charging up to £400 a time.

John said: “Both are examples of being agile and nimble, often using the same staff, same processes and same materials.

“It’s what’s saved the day for many businesses.”

The 63-year-old businessman may have started his working life mending broken pallets at Coca Cola in Australia but he’s since carved out a highly successful career based around his lifelong passion for sales.

Together with business partner David Johnstone, he founded – and then sold  – The Queensland Trade Exchange, after creating a multi-million dollar operation in the space of 13 years.

For the following 13 years he worked for the former competition across seven different countries before ending up in the UK where he now holds both Australian and British passports.

Seven years ago he set up the BBX brand in the UK and Ireland which has progressed from a fledgling start-up to another multi-million operation.

Part of the global operation BBX International, described as the largest business community of its type in the world, BBX UK clients have direct access to 97,000 customers in 13 countries.

It works on the basis of generating additional revenue for clients by selling spare capacity within the BBX community.

Business is done between likeminded individuals on a preferred supplier basis.

At the end of 2020 John challenged his team to mount the world’s first online international business show within a matter of weeks.

“They looked at me in horror,” recalled John.

The Quantum Leap into 2021 Business Show, aimed at growth-focused owners and entrepreneurs, proved a big success.

Small businesses across the world in the UK, US, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia took part with 37,800 people attending the show.

Now John is having a repeat on Thursday June 24 with The Quantum Show running from 8am for 24 hours.

It will adopt the same format with workshops, interviews and pre-recorded material, specifically focusing on Sales & Marketing and Leadership & Performance.

The show will be followed by a two-week virtual exhibition involving 400 exhibitors.

It costs nothing to attend the show – you can register for free here – while stands in the virtual exhibition are available for £200.

John, who moved to Bournemouth after falling for the vibrancy of the resort, said his main motivation for staging the event was to test new “world class and cutting edge” event software.

But he added: “We’ll also be demonstrating how being nimble and agile can put your business in the best possible position for the future.”

• bbxuk.com