Chocolate inspiration comes to Dauntsey’s

Budding entrepreneurs at Dauntsey’s have been inspired by a talk from Jo Fairley, co-founder of Green & Black’s chocolate, who delivered the latest Mercers’ Lecture at the School.

Prior to the talk, a group of Upper School pupils took part in a question-and-answer session with Jo. The discussion covered topics including the creation, development and eventual sale of Green & Black’s, her role as a Chocolate Ambassador and the importance of organic and Fairtrade ingredients to her business.

Jo then delivered her lecture entitled ‘The Rollercoaster of Green & Black’s; and the lessons learnt along the way’. The inspiring talk highlighted the importance of putting the customer at the heart of your thinking and decision-making. She gave the audience her top tips for becoming a successful entrepreneur:

• Be brave and be daring
• Success = hard work
• Always be willing
• Be authentic
• Be kind
• Have fun – the sound of laughter is always good!
• Find a way to deal with stress
• Find yourself a mentor

Upper Sixth form pupil, Rebecca, who attended the lecture, said:

‘I was left excited and inspired by meeting such an amazing, driven, caring, passionate and successful business woman. It will definitely go down as one of the highlights of my time at Dauntsey’s. The talk left many of us thinking what we might do to make such a big dent in the world ourselves!’