Unleashing an Opportunity in Safety

For Entrepreneurs Only’s Unleashing the Entrepreneur Within programme is designed to help businesses unlock entrepreneurial talent from within, giving ambitious people the time, support and structure to lead meaningful projects that drive change.

Spotting an opportunity in safety

Paul Duffield is a Health & Safety professional with experience across the ports, manufacturing, warehousing and logistics sectors. He works for the John Good Group across its warehouse & logistics, maritime and travel divisions, focusing on compliance, risk management and improving safety systems.

When the opportunity to join Unleashing came up, Paul saw it as a chance to step into something very different from his day job. He wanted to stretch himself, move into more commercial territory, and see whether his background in safety could be turned into something that added new value for the business.

Turning PPE into a commercial question

For his Unleashing project, Paul chose to look at the group’s safety glasses e‑commerce business. On paper it was a simple question: should the business be closed, repositioned and tested, or backed with more investment to scale?

In practice, the project required Paul to dig into how the offer was positioned, how customers were being reached, and what it would really take to make the online business viable. The work was less about “is this safe?” and more about “is this commercially sound?”

Seeing behind the shopfront

One of the biggest shifts for Paul was realising just how much sits behind a successful e‑commerce operation. From understanding how the marketing team works, to the level of planning, resource and ongoing attention required, he gained a new appreciation for the moving parts that have to align to make an online business work.

That insight has changed the way he looks at commercial projects in general – not just as a product on a website, but as a set of joined‑up activities across teams.

More confidence, clearer conversations

Unleashing hasn’t completely rewritten how Paul sees himself, but it has nudged him beyond the traditional boundaries of a Health & Safety role. He feels more confident putting ideas on the table, joining commercial conversations and “having a go” at things that sit outside compliance and risk.

Day to day, the clearest change has been in how he communicates with other departments and potential suppliers. Paul is now more deliberate about being clear on objectives, value and expectations, which is already improving how those conversations start and where they lead.

Laying the groundwork

Paul says: “The focus so far has been on understanding the opportunity properly and shaping the right approach for the business. What the project has given John Good Group is a clearer view of the options, and what would be required to make each one stack up.”

Asked to sum up his experience, Unleashing has, for Paul, been a genuinely useful challenge that’s pushed him out of his comfort zone and shown how his skills can add value well beyond traditional Health & Safety.