Month: November 2019

A blog by Morningside Pharmaceuticals’ Chief Executive Dr Nik Kotecha OBE looking at how supporting charities benefits businesses and their employees.

Since the inception of Morningside Pharmaceuticals in the 1990s, we have always had a keen focus on supporting a wide range of local, national and international charities.

This has become part of the company’s identity and connects well with our mission, which is “making quality healthcare an affordable and accessible reality throughout the world.”

Our support includes giving to sport, education, health and the community. One example of this is our named sponsorship of the Morningside Arena, Leicester, where we are able to gift fundraising space to charities for free as part of our partnership.

The benefits to Morningside and other businesses of investing in CSR are clear. But it wasn’t until I undertook a large amount of research into the Voluntary and Charity sectors, when founding the Randal Charitable Foundation, that I fully understood how charity/ private sector partnerships are a win-win.

So how does supporting charities benefit businesses and their employees?

Charities and the Voluntary Sector have a key role to play in helping businesses become good corporate citizens. By working with charities, businesses are able to give back, which in turn builds recognition and awareness amongst your customers and the wider community in your brand, your activities, your products and your people.

For a pharmaceutical business like Morningside, we are proud of the absolute quality of our products, so supporting good causes fits well with our corporate ethos and desire to bring communities together and improve the quality of life of the people living there.

Supporting charities also chimes with people’s values which acts as a motivating factor for a company’s employees. Your people are your greatest asset and get a lot out of supporting charities. This makes them feel good about themselves because they are making a positive contribution to society and the wider-world.

Another key area where charities add real value is recruitment of talent. People become aware of a business’ charitable activities and see those businesses as great places to work. This is particularly important in the East Midlands where there is a well publicised skills shortage, particularly in high level manufacturing.

Working with charities also involves people in a ‘common cause’ which is great for team building and bringing your people together under a shared mission. Much of the time charitable fundraising in the workplace can be a lot of fun, just look at the impact of Comic Relief! It also provides a means for colleagues to socialise between departments outside of their day to day working environments.

The Randal Charitable Foundation was founded in 2017 and is dedicated to saving lives, helping the socially disadvantaged and improving the quality of life for those in need, in the UK and around the world.

A group of 5 young people from Morningside Pharmaceuticals have taken part in a live Q&A in front of an audience of 300 students and 150 local employers at the 2019 LLEP Careers Speed Networking event.

The students aged between 13 and 18, took part in the region’s largest careers event of its kind at Leicester Racecourse, organised by the Leicester and Leicestershire Enterprise Partnership Limited (LLEP) and headline sponsored by Morningside.

Twenty-one schools/colleges, who are part of the LLEP’s Enterprise Adviser Network, attended the event. The morning session saw students ‘speed network’ with employers from many different business and public sector organisations.

Pupils spoke to different employers in bursts of six minutes before the employer moved on to the next students. In that time students asked employers about their career path, job role, the organisation they work for and the steps to employment.

The event theme this year was #BrightFutures for young people across Leicester and Leicestershire to begin their career plans.  All students were given a goodie bag that included a pair of sunglasses to wear as their future is so bright!

Dr Nik Kotecha OBE, Chief Executive of Morningside Pharmaceuticals and LLEP Board member, said: “During the event 5 young people from Morningside took part in a live Q&A session, where they shared their experiences of joining the world of work, as well as the choices they made. Hearing from young people who have been in their shoes, undoubtedly, helped inform the students’ future decisions.

“The LLEP’s Careers Speed Networking is one of the East Midlands’ flagship careers events and makes a real impact on both the students and employers taking part.

“Once again the speed networking proved to be an invaluable learning experience for the 300 students who attended. It was also a great opportunity for employers, like Morningside Pharmaceuticals, to connect with their future workforce and for the students to learn about the great career opportunities available in the many sectors represented.

“The students were also a real credit to their schools, and I was very impressed with the way they conducted themselves throughout the event.”

Kevin Harris, Chair of the LLEP added: “It is fantastic to see this event in action.  We continue to build more engagement between the world of education and business through our work with the Careers and Enterprise Company. It is so important for young people to understand the careers and routes to employment opportunities available to them and hear from businesses located in Leicester and Leicestershire who could be their future employer.

“Students don’t often get the chance to speak with so many ‘real employers’ in one morning. The event was oversubscribed with the number of schools and colleges wanting to attend.  Careers Speed Networking provides the perfect opportunity for them to ask questions and find out all sorts of interesting things about business and what they need to do to get on that first rung of their career ladder.”

Congratulations to our Chief Executive Dr Nik Kotecha OBE who has has been named the Entrepreneur of the Year at this year’s Lloyds Bank National Business Awards.

The flagship national awards, held at Grosvenor House, in London, each year honour the UK’s most creative and innovative businesses and business leaders, who set new standards of excellence within their industries.

Dr Kotecha was nominated alongside some of the country’s most inspiring and visionary entrepreneurs for his work in growing Morningside Pharmaceuticals from a garage start-up in the 1990s to one of the Midlands’ leading life sciences businesses, today.

Morningside Pharmaceuticals, based in Loughborough, manufactures and supplies quality medicines to the UK and internationally. Since inception, the company has exported to more than 100 countries globally, as well as supplies NHS hospitals and pharmacies twice daily in the UK.

Dr Kotecha said: “I am truly honoured and humbled to receive this award, which I would like to dedicate to the hard work, dedication and commitment of our employees.

“Morningside was founded through an entrepreneur’s dream of making quality healthcare an affordable and accessible reality throughout the world, and has grown to become one of the Top 100 companies in our county of Leicestershire, today.

“Our focus has been on innovating and developing niche generic drugs, which in turn has enabled Morningside to grow to a size, so we are in a position to support a wide range of good causes connected to sport, education, health and the community.

“Our commitment is to work with communities to bring them together and to improve the quality of life of the people living there. I hope this national award helps shine a light on how successful businesses – through corporate social responsibility – can make a real difference to the communities they operate in.”

In the true spirit of an entrepreneur, Dr Kotecha was also honoured for establishing his own Charitable Foundation, which is focussed on saving lives, helping the socially disadvantaged and improving the quality of life for those in need in the UK and around the world.

Dr Kotecha added: “The Randal Charitable Foundation’s focus is to support issues connected to health, disability, mental health, poverty and social disadvantage, and we’re delighted to have already been able to donate significant grant funding to a number of local, national and international good causes.”

As well as his business and philanthropic work; Dr Kotecha also gives his time to the local community through involvement with Board and Advisory positions for business organisations, government departments, industry associations and charities. This includes being a CBI Regional Councillor and a Department for International Trade (DIT) Export Champion.

The judges were impressed with Dr Kotecha’s history of innovating to grow his businesses. They also commended his clear philosophy of learning every part of his companies in detail, while building a team around him, and then moving onto his next challenge.

Richard Alvin, Interim Awards Director, said: “The leaders we meet are truly inspirational, and Dr Nik Kotecha’s work with Morningside Pharmaceuticals is a stellar example of the innovation and leadership it takes to grow an organisation from the ground up. We’re delighted to be able to celebrate this incredible story of UK and international success.”

Speaking about the level of competition this year, Mr Alvin, added: “This year’s awards have seen fierce competition in every single category, building pride in every inch of our country.

“I would like to extend the warmest of congratulations to all of this year’s winners. Our entrants face the most rigorous of judging processes, so it’s no mean feat getting on the shortlist, never mind actually winning one.

“However, our winners this year have all proved themselves to be world-class British businesses and we hope that these awards continue to succeed in offering them the credibility and encouragement to continue in their ambitious success.”

For more information on the Randal Charitable Foundation visit here: www.randalfoundation.org.uk

Morningside Pharmaceuticals are proud supporters and headline sponsors of Voluntary Action Leicestershire (VAL)’s inaugural VALL Charity Awards.

The VAL, which is based in Leicester city but supports organisations and individuals across the city and county, is showcasing the stars of the voluntary sector across Leicester and Leicestershire in its first awards ceremony, hosted at the Morningside Arena, which Morningside Pharmaceuticals are named partners of.

The awards are seeking to recognise the important role that the thousands of voluntary organisations across the city and county play in delivering vital services within their communities.

There are many activities that are recognised at the VALL’s, from individual volunteers who provide fresh flowers for the local church each Sunday or charity organisations that support young adults on their journey to further education.

Dr Nik Kotecha OBE, Morningside’s Chief Executive, said: “Morningside are delighted to be the headline sponsor of the awards because they celebrate the incredible contribution that charities are making in Leicester and Leicestershire.

“Our charities make a huge contribution to our communities but often their great work goes unrecognised. We hope the recognition provided by these awards will help raise awareness of their work, enhance their fundraising potential, lead to more business partnerships and enable them to continue to benefit the communities they serve.”

Kevin Allen-Khimani, Executive Manager – Public Sector Contracts and Projects at VAL added: “There are a huge number of unsung heroes in this sector and we wanted the awards to give these individuals and organisations the recognition they deserve.”