School and Alison didn’t get on
Undiagnosed dyslexia meant she left school with no qualifications and not much self-worth, and learned early to make her own luck.
Alison’s Story
Dr Alison Edgar MBE is a UK business and motivational speaker who empowers employees with the mindset to take ownership, raising personal fulfilment and performance across the organisation. She specialises in helping teams adapt to change and build the resilience and behaviours that drive high performance. Here's what got her to where she is.
Trusted & recognised
- MBEAwarded 2020, for services to entrepreneurship & business
- DoctorateHonorary Doctorate in Education, Bournemouth University, 2024
- 2Amazon international bestselling books, incl. a WH Smith Top 10
- 30+Years across hospitality, corporate, sales & consultancy roles
Where it began
From a high-rise council flat in Clydebank to some of the world’s biggest stages.
1979
1984Hospitality was her university
At sixteen, a small family-run hotel taught her how a business really works, in real time and end to end, with nowhere to hide.
1987Around the world
Hospitality took her from Cape Town to Sydney, and gave her a first taste of leadership.
1993Selling, properly
Back in Scotland she found sales, became a consistent top performer, and learned that selling is not talking, it is listening for what someone really needs.
1998The Yellow Pages lesson
As a top performer inside one of the biggest organisations of its time, she had a front-row seat for its downfall when the internet arrived. A lack of psychological safety meant nobody spoke up while there was still time to change.
2011Going it alone
She backed herself and built a company around the school run and caring for her parents, growing others from zero to multi-million-pound turnovers and earning the nickname “The Entrepreneur’s Godmother”.
2015A voice for enterprise
Government brought her in to help shape its review of self-employment, and she was invited to the Queen’s Garden Party for her work backing enterprise.
2018Her Everest
Writing her first book, Secrets of Successful Sales, was her Everest, and it was later named one of The Independent’s Top 10 Business Books by Women.
2020It was an honour
A familiar face at Number 10 and on the BBC, in 2020 she was awarded an MBE for services to entrepreneurship and business.
2021SMASH IT!
Her second book, SMASH IT! The Art of Getting What YOU Want, became an Amazon international bestseller. Two bestsellers now: her double Olympic gold.
2023On the TEDx stage
She took the TEDx stage with How to Change Before It’s Too Late, the very lesson she first watched play out at Yellow Pages.
2024Isn’t it ironic
The girl who struggled with school was awarded an honorary doctorate in education.
2025To the United Nations
Alison was invited to the United Nations to discuss the impact of entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship on world peace, and spoke about dyslexia and entrepreneurship.
NowThe world’s stages
Today she takes The Intrapreneur Mindset onto stages all over the world, from national conferences to the boardrooms of global brands.
Alison in one minute
The idea
The Intrapreneur Mindset
Once Alison started growing those companies, helping them to build out their teams, she kept noticing the same thing. The businesses pulling ahead were never the ones with the clearest proposition. They were the ones where people acted like the place was theirs.
You can’t clone a founder, but you can teach a whole team to think like one. What those companies were missing wasn’t entrepreneurs. It was intrapreneurs.
It was the same idea she’d been carrying since Clydebank and the Yellow Pages days; ownership and the nerve to keep changing, except now it had a name and she could teach it to anyone, at any level, in any kind of organisation.
Dr Alison Edgar MBE now takes that idea onto stages all over the world. She helps organisations build cultures where people think like owners in everything they do, and get ahead of change instead of bracing against it. It’s the same thing the kid from Clydebank worked out long before she had the words for it. Don’t wait to be picked, own your patch, and whatever happens, keep changing.
What do clients say?
Alison delivered an outstanding keynote on intrapreneurship and high-performing teams. Her energy, professionalism, and ability to tailor content on the fly made a lasting impact. It resonated across all levels of our organisation.
Charlotte, Forvis Mazars Alison delivered an exceptional keynote session, The Intrapreneur Mindset, at my National Conference. Her messaging aligned perfectly to my brief, and most importantly it was relevant to the entire audience.
Julian, Schwarzkopf Alison talks about her Big Balls and boy does she have them! We hired Alison for our keynote slot and would absolutely recommend her: a kick-ass attitude that got the room buzzing and inspired the digital attendees too.
Carys, LVMH
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