David Evans: How I beat my employers at their own game

When David Evans' ideas fell on deaf ears, he used them to set up his own business, Grass Roots Group - now a highly successful global company. Evans has never looked back.

Rejection was the best thing that happened to David Evans. In 1980, he was the European director for an American performance management company. After several years at the firm, he had plenty of ideas about how to improve it. He felt, for instance, that it should sell its services to other sectors, such as banks. But the owner of the company didn't agree. So, confident "I could do a better job", Evans, then 31, left to set up his own company.

"Back then banks were just as unwilling to lend as they are now", so he re-mortgaged his house to fund Grass Roots Group. When former clients heard he had moved on, "they started to contact me". His first was Ford Motor Company, but his big break came when he persuaded Lloyds Bank to let him work with their cashiers.

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James McKeigue

James graduated from Keele University with a BA (Hons) in English literature and history, and has a certificate in journalism from the NCTJ. James has worked as a freelance journalist in various Latin American countries.He also had a spell at ITV, as welll as wring for Television Business International and covering the European equity markets for the Forbes.com London bureau. James has travelled extensively in emerging markets, reporting for international energy magazines such as Oil and Gas Investor, and institutional publications such as the Commonwealth Business Environment Report. He is currently the managing editor of LatAm INVESTOR, the UK's only Latin American finance magazine.