Last Wednesday (25th May) saw TV and Radio Presenter Gemma Cairney unleash her inner entrepreneur, as she entered the helms of a business for the day through the Open University’s high-stakes interactive social experiment: ‘Unlock your Inner Boss Live! The CEO Challenge’. 

The day commenced with Gemma being tasked to make her first important decision: which business she would assume the position of CEO for. After being guided by the expert OU-riginals and members of the public, Gemma made the executive decision to select ‘Dream Streams’ as her business of choice. 

The fun-filled event progressed with a series of different challenges, where Gemma was steered in the right direction by the audience and OU-riginals such as Montelle Bee, Nick Bassan, Ruby Raut and more, as to how to make the best business decisions to make ‘Dream Streams’ a success. 

Making The Case for Your Business: Putting together an effective business plan 

When creating a business, the first step for an entrepreneur is to create an effective business plan, so Gemma was presented with a plethora of different factors to consider and was guided to select her top five choices to be included within her business plan. After careful consideration, Gemma chose Logistics and Operation plan as her top pick, a decision backed by 92% of the live audience. 

My Way or The Hire Way: Hiring and managing 

People are integral to the success of your business because they impact every part of it. With employees being threaded throughout every part of your business and its structure, Gemma was set with the task of finding herself an employee. 

In a ‘blind date’ style series, Gemma asked three candidates a set of interview questions to help her determine who would be the best fit for ‘Dream Streams’. Listening to audience feedback, Gemma appointed candidate number two for the position to help her bring this ambition to the market. 

The Profit Is Right! Making a business profitable and having adequate finances 

When embarking on a new business journey, it’s important to ensure that finances are in check and you have a clear plan in place as to how you anticipate to be profitable. Making a profit is essential for a business that desires to expand its operations. Earning a profit allows you to open other business locations, acquire another business, target other markets and expand your operations into foreign territory.

In this next segment, Gemma was guided as to how to make her business financially viable. The Open University tested Gemma on some financial questions where she enlisted the help of the live audience to upskill in areas including profitability and taxation. 

Leadership Leveller: Mindset and leadership 

In business, a leadership mindset involves having certain attitudes, beliefs and expectations that create the foundation of who you are, how you lead others and how you interact with and influence your colleagues. 

This task involved Gemma being asked a series of challenging multiple choice questions to test her judgement and leadership skills as a CEO. 

Future Feats: Staying ahead with technology 

With technology rapidly evolving, it’s vital that business leaders are up to date with the newest developments and implement them into their business where necessary. The right technology can help businesses to communicate with their customers, helping them become more outward focused and customer-centric .

In the final segment, Gemma and the audience were tested on tech related questions before being upskilled by the professionals on how to stay ahead with technology when running a business. 

Throughout the course of the day, Gemma was fortunate enough to have a wealth of knowledge on her side through the form of academics and OU-riginals, who helped to steer her in the right direction when making key business decisions. 

Following successful completion of the challenge, Gemma commented “I feel really accomplished and being in the CEO position for the day has fired off some of the cylinders in my mind as to how we connect with people and what we are putting out to the world. Today has really given me something to think about - it’s been a fascinating and fulfilling experience”. 

To see how Gemma got on, check out the highlight reel below which shares all of the best moments throughout the day.