Our Inspiring Entrepreneurs Entrepreneur posters_final_6_6_17_lores | Page 13

Cynthia Guthrie ROLE QMU Court Member COMPANY NAME Guthrie Group Ltd WEBSITE OR LINK TO FURTHER INFORMATION www.guthriegroup.co.uk Guthrie Group Ltd is one of Scotland’s leading distributors of health & safety and facilities supplies. Family-owned, it has built its reputation on quality, reliability and customer service and now has an enviable client base stretching from public sector to the food and drinks industry. The company is about to launch a new venture – GuthriesIMS – an innovative inventory management system. My career has taken me from financial services, NHS, Defence electronics onto a high-profile, FTSE 20 media organisation to my current role leading a family business. I’ve learnt that you can be entrepreneurial in all of these business environments. Being entrepreneurial means that you make your own opportunities: that at times you need to be prepared to tackle the seemingly impossible and that, without a mindset to embrace innovation and change, a business, whatever its size or nature, simply cannot survive. Being an entrepreneur is not for the faint hearted. However there can be nothing more rewarding than watching colleagues develop and grow with you as you work together to create new ventures and expand the business. “I think I was always destined to be an entrepreneur, when at the age of eight I set up my own circus with the help of two friends and sold tickets at sixpence a time to my neighbours. I had fun; I had happy customers and I made a profit.”