Inspiring the Next Global Entrepreneurs at Salford

This month, I delivered a lecture at The University of Salford, sharing my 17-year journey with TankSafeUK.

TankSafe® began as a small UK startup. Today we operate in 60 countries, with offices in five strategic regions and millions of devices fitted to trucks worldwide.

Along the way we’ve also earned two King’s Awards for Enterprise.

I shared stories - the good decisions, the lucky breaks, and the “I wish I’d known that at the time” moments!

We explored different routes to market, practical lessons in exporting, and the realities of building an international business from scratch.

It’s always a pleasure to deliver this session for Jonathan D Owens and his students at Salford Business School.

Their engagement this year was exceptional. The questions were sharp, challenging, and full of genuine curiosity.

But the best part came afterwards. Several students stayed behind to talk through their own business ideas. They wanted to know how they could apply the lessons from the lecture to their first steps in international trade.

Hearing their plans and ambitions was incredibly rewarding.

As I said in the lecture, your journey into global markets often starts with something simple.

If you have a website and a digital footprint, you’ve already taken your first step toward going global.