COVID-19 SUPPORT SERIES: Living Our Values in Response to Coronavirus – Alex Brown of Nordan

Alex Brown is Managing Director of NorDan UK and sits on the Group Family Board of the Norwegian company.  No stranger to entrepreneurship, Alex has founded and sold his own businesses prior to joining NorDan in 2009.  In 2019, Alex won our inaugural Intrapreneur of the Year Award following a year of 40% organic growth in 2018. In January 2020, Alex joined the WeDO Scotland Executive Team in Glasgow.

We’re delighted to be welcoming him as guest speaker and are grateful to him for giving up his time .  He will share with us how he has used the company values as a foundation to work with his management team to navigate the business through the pandemic, including the creation of a new handbook to support staff.

“Values are a critical business tool, what happens to them during a crisis, do we:

 

1. Toss them aside and focus on the problems at hand? OR
2. Make them even more a part of how we run our business and how we trust our people?

We have a set of core values at NorDan and we have tried to use these as a compass to guide us through this crisis.

NorDan Core Values

• Honesty
• Action Orientated
• Collaborative
• Challenging
• Passionate
• People Focused

MORE ABOUT ALEX

Having started his career as a carpenter then progressing into sales with one of the UK’s largest building merchants. Alex then started a business with Norwegian business partners to import Norwegian building products to the UK construction market.

Selling his shares in 2007 and invested in a small family owned business, he then had to restructure the business in the last recession.  Since that time, he has held various CEO and Non-Executive roles. 

In 2012, Alex, along with his wife, Carole, and son, Robbie, founded a charity, the Blue Eyes Sports Foundation in 2012.  Their vision initially was to raise £50,000 to help support children in sport.  Alex has always strongly believed that there is a direct link between the skills gained from taking part in sport and success in life;  he played at junior level for nearly two decades.

Our series of COVID-19 Support Events are FREE for WeDO Scotland members and take place twice weekly in addition to our weekly Brainstorming meetings every Monday at 11am and our Social Drinks on Thursdays at 5pm.