THE coronavirus pandemic could spell the end of the regular five-day week in the office, according to one of Britain’s most successful businesswomen.

Jo Fairley, joint founder of the organic Fairtrade chocolate brand Green & Black’s and a string of other successful businesses, is speaking at the Innovation Showcase at Energus, Workington, later this month.

She believes that the practice of working from home at least some of the time, a necessity during lockdown, can and should become the norm for many.

She said: “It annoys me when I hear people talking about everyone going back to the office. My teams have always worked remotely.

“When I was at Green & Black’s, we employed two single mothers in key roles who would have found it impossible to work in an office full time.

“If an employee would prefer to spend three days a week working from home, take that on board. That person isn’t going to let you down.”

Jo famously sunk almost every penny she had – including the £20,000 equity from the sale of her house – to launch Green & Black’s with her husband-to-be Craig Sams in 1991. Despite that, she doesn’t see herself as a risk taker.

Perhaps surprisingly for someone often described as a “serial entrepreneur”, none of her businesses has failed.

Jo said: “There’s an advantage to being first. I’m not interested in looking at what someone else is doing and saying, ‘I want a bit of that’.”

Like many successful businesspeople, she wasn’t academic. She left school at 16 with six O-levels, written off as a failure by her careers’ teacher.

She went to secretarial college and started work at a teen magazine where they saw her potential. At 23, she became Britain’s youngest magazine editor.

Today she is an advocate for vocational qualifications and feels schools should do more to equip youngsters with life skills.

She said: “Young people need to know how to navigate the world. Schools should encourage them to use their brains creatively. There’s too little of that.”

You can hear Jo talking about innovation, the importance of branding and how businesses can embrace change at Energus’s Innovation Showcase on Wednesday September 29. The event runs from 9.30am to 1.30pm.

Admission is free. To book a place go to: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/energus-innovation-showcase-event-tickets-166937507579?aff=Generalsale