In through the outfield

15 February 2009

The Gift of Inner Success book launch

Tuesday evening in the Business & IP Centre was the launch of The Gift of Inner Success the latest book from the British Library’s partner business coach, Rasheed Ogunlaru.

The fact that the event had been hastily re-scheduled from the snow hit previous Tuesday and yet was a full house, indicates just how popular the charismatic Rasheed is becoming.

As he says on his blog of the evening, “The event was an evening of inspiration, celebration, connection and was attended by a rich range of spirit souls. “

Rasheed kindly gave a copy to the Centre, and using my recently acquired speed reading technique (of which, more in a later blog post) I managed to whistle through it on the way into work the next day.

The theme of the book is about how we need to give ourselves the mental space (a difficult challenge given the daily demands on ourselves) in order to listen to our hearts. Rasheed is a great believer in allowing yourself to trust yourself to let your heart rule your head.

15 February 2009

British Library Entrepreneurship Training Day

Last week was a pretty hectic one for me.

It began with an all day Entrepreneurship Training Day on Monday 9 February. The day introduced postgraduate students to the Library’s collections, and the ways we can support entrepreneurs. Although the students were a bit reticent in the early part of the day they gradually warmed up, and we ended up with a fascinating closing session. The title was “Street smarts and book smarts – are business people and entrepreneurs really talking the same language as entrepreneurship scholars? How can academia actually help business in the current economic climate whilst still producing high quality peer reviewed outputs?”.

I was privileged to chair contributions from Dr Tristram Hooley (Senior Manager: Stakeholders and Networks, Vitae), Simon Butt (Director of Communications, NCGE – National Council for Graduate Entrepreneurship) and Dr Jim Gazzard (Enterprise & Technology Executive, Royal Veterinary College). In addition we were joined at the eleventh hour by the British Library’s partner business coach, Rasheed Ogunlaru. The students, who were evenly split between those who were planning to start their own business and those who were studying entrepreneurship, came up with some excellent questions

One questioner was met with an unexpectedly strong response from the panel. He wanted to know why he should move from his safe and secure research job, with guaranteed funding for the next three years, to the risks and uncertainty of starting his own business. The panellists asked him how he could be so sure of his future employment with government cuts in education funding expected almost any day now. For many people entrepreneurship is the safer option, as they are their own boss and more in control of their destiny.

1 February 2009

Light green is the new black

I can’t claim to have been in the forefront of the environmental movement, although I have just installed a hyper-efficient condensing boiler at great expense (the old one was done for).

So it has come as something of a surprise to discover that various tones of ‘greenness’ have been catagorised and documented.

This knowledge was triggered by a reference to Light Green – The Eco-chic Emporium.

According to Wikipedia, light greens are just one of three shades of green.

Dark greens, light greens and bright greens

Alex Steffen describes contemporary environmentalists as being split into three groups, “dark”, “light”, and “bright” greens.^[7]

“Light greens” see protecting the environment first and foremost as a personal responsibility. They fall in on the transformational activist end of the spectrum, but light greens do not emphasize environmentalism as a distinct political ideology, or even seek fundamental political reform. Instead they often focus on environmentalism as a lifestyle choice.The motto “Green is the new black” sums up this way of thinking, for many.^[8] Though many environmentalists of all stripes use “lite green” to describe products or practices they believe are greenwashing.

In contrast, “dark greens” believe that environmental problems are an inherent part of industrialized capitalism, and seek radical political change. Dark greens tend to believe that dominant political ideologies (sometimes referred to as industrialism) are corrupt and inevitably lead to consumerism, alienation from nature and resource depletion. Dark greens claim that this is caused by the emphasis on economic growth that exists within all existing ideologies, a tendency referred to as “growth mania”. The dark green brand of environmentalism is associated with ideas of deep ecology, post-materialism, holism, the Gaia hypothesis of James Lovelock and the work of Fritjof Capra as well as support for a reduction in human numbers and/or a relinquishment of technology to reduce humanity’s impact on the biosphere.

More recently, “bright greens” emerged as a group of environmentalists who believe that radical changes are needed in the economic and political operation of society in order to make it sustainable, but that better designs, new technologies and more widely distributed social innovations are the means to make those changes – and that society can neither shop nor protest its way to sustainability.^[9] As Ross Robertson writes, “[B]right green environmentalism is less about the problems and limitations we need to overcome than the “tools, models, and ideas” that already exist for overcoming them. It forgoes the bleakness of protest and dissent for the energizing confidence of constructive solutions.”^[10]

As well as being light green, you can also be light black, by adopting an Ecofont. As reported on SpringWise, Dutch creative agency Spranq has developed a font called the Ecofont that’s designed to extend the life of ink cartridges and toner. This new font has lots of tiny blank circles resulting in a saving of up to 20 percent less ink than standard fonts.

27 January 2009

Support for disabled people to start their own business

Leonard Cheshire Disability logo#

One of the great things about working in the Business & IP Centre is the chance to be involved in supporting entrepreneurs from minority groups. Sad to say this includes women:

Women are half as likely to be involved in start-up activity as men. Independent start-up activity amongst women is 3.1% of the female adult population but is 6% amongst men, while the equivalent figures for job related start-ups are 1.3% and 2.6%. (Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, GEM, Jan 2004)
Key Women’s Enterprise Statistics and Trends

Disabled people actually have higher self-employment levels than their non-disabled equivalents (although it is argued this is in response to lack of paid employment opportunities)

DISABILITY AND SELF-EMPLOYMENT: EVIDENCE FROM THE UK, LFS, Melanie K. Jones and Paul L. Latreille∗
WELMERC, School of Business and Economics, University of Wales Swansea, June 2006 (pdf).

So it is good to know we have team up with Leonard Cheshire Disability to run a one-day conference for people with a disability who are interested in setting up a business or working for themselves.

Make your Business Succeed
Tuesday 3 February 2009
10.00 – 16.00
British Library Conference Centre
96 Euston Road
London NW1 2DB

17 January 2009

Is Creative Commons the future of copyright?

smallcover2 I listened to a fascinating discussion on In Business on Radio 4 recently with Professor James Boyle of Duke Law School.

Professor Boyle is the co-founder of the Center for the Study of the Public Domain, and Chairman of the Board of Creative Commons, which is working to facilitate the free availability of art, scholarship, and cultural materials by developing innovative, machine-readable licenses that individuals and institutions can attach to their work.

Although not arguing for the end of all traditional forms of copyright. For instance the intellectual property within movies will still need to be protected in order to recover the significant cost of production. However, he argues for a much more flexible approach to use of creative output.

In this spirit he has ‘published’ his latest book The Public Domain: Enclosing the Commons of the Mind both in hard copy and as a free download under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike License.

Professor Boyle explains his reasons for taking this approach by indicating that the free publicity gained will lead to more sales than those lost to free downloads.

“Why am I allowing you to copy the book for free? And why is Yale University Press letting me? To understand why I am doing it, watch this video by Jesse Dylan. And if you want to understand why it makes economic sense to my publisher, read this short article.”

This may seem like a risky or foolish approach to those with a traditional view of Intellectual Property, but there is growing evidence of its success. The latest high profile example is from heavy metal band Nine Inch Nails, who’s Creative Commons licensed Ghosts I-IV was ranked the best selling MP3 album of 2008 on Amazon’s MP3 store.

In other words, a music album that can be legally downloaded and distributed over the Internet for free, has sold more than any others for $5 each, and earned over $1.6 million in revenue for NIN in its first week.

This is all makes fascinating reading given my participation in the next Real Time Club event, Intellectual Property: Success Story To Be Extended? Just Desserts or Global Gridlock? on 27 January at the National Liberal Club in London.

6 January 200930 October 2012

Business nightmares and how to recover from them

This is the title of our forthcoming entrepreneurs’ masterclass on Wednesday 21 January featuring:

Rachel Elnaugh, one of the original Dragons’ Den team and founder of Red Letter Days
Gavin Griffiths, writer and ex-owner of the Erotic Review
Bradley Chapman of business networking site Millionaire Impossible
Aamir Ahmed of furniture company dwell

Given the current turbulent economic we thought it would be helpful to hear from a panel who have survived their own roller coaster ride and built business success on the back of the lessons learned.

Rachel Elnaugh has recorded an introductory message below.

[youtube=http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=w3P5rYWAi8g]

More information and booking details for Business nightmares and how to recover from them.

6 January 2009

The best guide to starting your own business?

starting_your_own_business Thanks to an interview with Crimson Publishing founder David Lester on SmallBizPod late last year, I have discovered what I currently consider to be the best book on starting a business. Using the tried and trusted ‘Ronseal‘ approach, it is called Starting Your Own Business: The Good, The Bad and The Unexpected.

As you can see from the cover shot, it begins as it means to go on, being frank and honest. David doesn’t shy away from the difficulties pretty much all new business face, and includes plenty of examples from his own experience. He even starts the book with a health warning in the section “Do you really want to start a business?”

He talks about both the highs and the lows:
“…business highs are up there with some of the best feelings we can have. I will never know what it feels like to score a winning goal in a cup final, but I’m sure the best moments running your own business come pretty close. You should expect your own business to also deliver possibly the lowest lows you can imagine, too. … To start your own business and seek those highs, you need to be willing to face those lows and come out the other side.”

You can read a few sample pages from the book to help make up your own mind using the look inside feature on Amazon.

6 January 2009

Trendwatching’s six trends for 2009

trendwatching_logo1 From the same people who produce Springwise the marvellous source of entrepreneurial ideas which I frequently blog about, comes Trendwatching‘s predictions of consumer trends for 2009.

As always, they have invented an intriguing set of ‘new’ words to cover their predictions for the year ahead.

1. Nichetributes, which is about the power of making products and services relevant by incorporating ‘attributes’ and features that cater to distinct (if not niche) consumer lifestyles and situations.*

2. Luxyoury: On to every brand professional’s favorite topic (or so it seems at times): The Future of Luxury. How will luxury brands fare this year? What will define luxury over the next few years? The answer to a large degree is, ‘luxury will be whatever you want it to be’. After all, what constitutes luxury is closely related to what constitutes scarcity. And while scarcity in traditional consumer societies was for decades defined by the biggest, the best, and the most expensive ‘items’, the ‘2009 consumer arena’ shows a bewildering number of ‘scarcities’, some of them invented purely to overcome the abundance now found in traditional sectors. More than ever, scarcity is in the eye of the beholder, especially those beholders who are desperately trying to be unique.

3. Feeeback 3.0: Which major consumer trend will continue to give (or take?) in novel ways in the next 12 months? Try TRANSPARENCY TYRANNY. Big in 2007, bigger in 2008, and even bigger this year. To get a feel for all transparency sub-trends, get your hands on our 2009 Trend Report (not free), but for now, let’s focus on FEEDBACK 3.0, which is one of the trends-within-a-trend that is starting to make waves. Basically:

* FEEDBACK 1.0 (one of those early web phenomena) saw outraged individuals posting scathing reviews, feedback and complaints, often to the delight of other netizens. Brands remained unaware or chose not to listen, dismissing these outbursts the way they’d dismissed any kind of customer dissatisfaction for decades.
* FEEDBACK 2.0 (which we’re in right now) is about these rants—and some raves—having gone ‘mass’(no, make that MASS!). The long-predicted conversation is finally taking place, albeit amongst consumers and not, as intended, between corporations and consumers. Companies have started to take note, but to a large degree still choose to listen, not talk back, trying to ‘learn’ from the for-all-to-see review revolution. Which is surprising, to say the least, since a quick and honest reply or solution can defuse even the most damaging complaint.
* FEEDBACK 3.0 (which is building as we speak) will be all about companies joining the conversation, if only to get their side of the story in front of the mass audience that now scans reviews. Expect smart companies to be increasingly able (and to increasingly demand) to post their apologies and solutions, preferably directly alongside reviews from unhappy customers. Expect the same for candid rebuttals by companies who feel (and can prove) that a particular review is unfair or inaccurate, and want to share their side of the story.

4. Econcierge: No, there will be no ‘eco fatigue’ in 2009, mainly because it’s hard to ignore or to dismiss the mind-boggling fortunes (and the accompanying power shifts and reductions in pollution) that are in store for those who figure out how to get the world off its addiction to oil and coal. Which means a steady stream of eco sub-trends. While we hope the likes of ECO-EMBEDDED and ECO-ICONIC are now firmly on your radar, here’s one more to start the new year with fresh, green brainstorming inspiration:

ECONCIERGES are firms and services dedicated to helping households go green in any possible way. And while any advice that reduces a household’s (harmful) consumption is beneficial enough, the fact that such advice leads to savings makes this a very 2009 development. In the coming 12 months, count on cash-strapped consumers to embrace sustainability with a vengeance, but first and foremost for monetary reasons. Next? How about helping consumers to make money by being green, by for example letting them generate and sell excess power to the ‘grid’?

5. Mapmania: Will this year be the year in which all things ‘contextual’, ‘app’, ‘local’, ‘urban’, ‘tags’, ‘lidar’, ‘smartphone’, ‘convenience’, ‘Cell ID’, ‘spontaneity’, ‘infolust’, and ‘GPS’ finally come together in one orgasmic celebration of map-based tracking, finding, knowing and connecting? Embraced by eager consumer masses who will flock to anything from friend-finders to lowest-gas-price-locators? Aided by services that already know which street users are on?

6. Happyending: The umbrella trend for the next 12 months? HAPPY ENDING!
2009 is an excellent year for those businesses keen on showing consumers that they really care. Much more on ‘caring’ in our upcoming February 2009 Trend Briefing, which will focus on GENERATION G, but for now: offering respect and relevance (NICHETRIBUTES), listening to real-time needs and wants (FEEDBACK 3.0), helping people to save money while being green (ECONCIERGE): all of this will not be forgotten by consumers that are currently feeling the heat.

img_happy

30 December 2008

Launch a small business in 10 steps

Starting a business is a complicated and demanding activity which can often overwhelm first timers. So it is great when someone breaks it down into digestible parts. In this instance Dan Matthews at LaunchLab.co.uk has written a two part article which breaks business start-up into ten steps.

I have listed them out below to give you a flavour, but you will need to read both part one and part two to get the full low-down.
1. Learn about your market

2. Write a business plan

3. Create a ‘business’ legally

4. Get proper funding

5. Find business premises

6. Buy the right tech and equipment

7. Developing products and services

8. Recruiting staff

9. Advertise and market your business

10. Get paid