24 INSIDER March 2020 http://www.insider.co.uk
LETTER TO MY YOUNGER SELF: JEANETTE FORBES
STOP! You, want to make a difference to the
oil and gas industry and gender diversity?
Who do you think you are JR Ewing from the
TV series Dallas? People like you who come
from a small town in Yorkshire do what they
have always done, work at the sweetie factory
Rowntree Mackintosh, make raincoats at the
Gannex Mill or carpets for Axminster.
You left school with O levels in English,
Domestic Science and Religious Education.
Where in that does it say Computer Science
Degree and Diploma in Management?
Now, I know you have a great amount of
passion and determination for something you
believe in but really the oil and gas sector?
Don’t you think you are well out of your
depth, and studying for a degree at night
school with a full-time job and two young
children will be challenging? Are you sure you
want that extra stress?
Not to mention the fast track Diploma in
Management 12 months later because you
have identified a “hunger for education” that
will almost push you over the edge. Why put
yourself through all that?
Can you remember the disagreements with
your family as they wanted to see you more at
home, so you would set the alarm clock and
go into work at 04:00hrs to complete your
modules to try and keep everyone happy?
You will have to thank the night watchman
many times for the cuppa he brought you to
keep you going whilst you studied at work
through the night as the family slept. Little did
he know that underneath that track suit were
your pyjamas!
You won’t know this yet but when you were
leaving the office at 06:30hrs, greeting your
CEO as he was coming in to start his day, as
you were going home to get the children to
school before starting back at the office for
08:30hrs, that this along with helping when
you were 12 years old at your grandparents’
business, will set the baseline for your
work ethic when you start a company
called PCL Group.In 1999 you will be made redundant for
the second time, a cutting blow again to your
confidence and you will feel worthless, on
the scrapheap, but you are resilient and you
will bounce back when you have licked your
wounded pride.
With the last of your redundancy, just £100,
you will begin your entrepreneurial journey
and incorporate PCL Group. Working from
the dining room table will be challenging to
say the least. You will not have the courage to
tell your parents that you have started your
own company in Aberdeen as they always
wished you would return to your roots
in Yorkshire.
Instead you will share this news with your
daughter and tell her to keep it a secret
until the time is right to tell everyone else.
Suppressing the excitement is going to be a
real test but that excitement will be tinged
with guilt as you don’t want to upset your
family. Remember what your grandfather
used to say “in business you only get out what
you put in”.
Back then sitting on the wall outside their
bungalow waiting for them to leave for the
fish market at 04:00hrs was a great adventure.
Perhaps that is where you obtained the ability
to get up and work so early, being productive
from when your feet touched the floor!
You had some great grounding. The
responsibility of getting the tea and the bacon
sandwiches for the men filleting the fish
showed you early in life that you must be
responsible and deliver what is expected.
Your company will encounter a bad debt
within two years of being in business for the
sum of £179,000. This will be one of the most
challenging times of your life. You will have to
fight for every penny and the legal costs will
be considerable for a SME to find.
This period will teach you many things
about business resilience but most of all
it will teach you about yourself and what
determination, confidence and inner strength
can provide when you still have belief, evenDear JeanetteJeanette Forbes is CEO of PCL
Group a company based in
Aberdeen providing IT support
to offshore, marine, commercial,
industrial and renewables.
She opened Grape & Grain, an
upmarket wine bar in 2017,
taking to heart advice from a
leading O&G business leader that
she should diversify her business
interests. She knew nothing
about the hospitality sector but
worked hard to learn and Grape
& Grain is now a multi award-
winning wine bar.
In addition to her own
companies, she is CEO of
Blue Gentoo and a director of
OMMICA both of which are
involved in developing ground-
breaking technology for the Oil &
Gas sector.
She is also managing director
of GoHawk, developer of the
world’s fastest flight route
algorithm for the airline industry.
She is an ambassador for
Women’s Enterprise Scotland.Jeanette Forbes