realisedevelopment.net

Just another WordPress site

Big Society Business Support in Leeds

June 20, 2010 by admin

On Friday afternoon @culturevultures convened one of the best business support/development sessions I have witnessed in the last 30 years.

Some 30 creatives came together in a room donated by a local managed workspace to provide peer to peer support on a range of topics related to marketing, branding, writing and social media.  Lots of expertise in the room, lots of desire to explore and learn.  No-one labelled as an adviser – no-one labelled as a client.  Just lots of people willing to share what they knew and ask for help with what they didn’t.

No public funding at all.  Just people donating whatever they thought it was worth.  Donations were used to help pay for cupcakes and cocktails and an afternoon of fun.

Business development as it should be.

This is what the public sector could be paying for.

Filed Under: enterprise, entrepreneurship Tagged With: enterprise, entrepreneurship, outreach, professional development, social marketing, social media, twitter

Diving into #Enterprise Academia with Twitter

May 9, 2010 by admin

A pal of mine recently asked for some recommendations for academics worth following for a would be lecturer in start-up and enterprise.

I put out a quick shout on twitter and here is what I got back  within minutes:

  • Kauffman Foundation (always worth a follow – even though they are US-based) http://www.kauffman.org/
  • Centre for Small & Medium sized business at Warwick business school – http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/wbs/research/csme/ (Storey, Mole etc)
  • Andrew Atherton at Lincoln  http://www.lincoln.ac.uk/home/vc/coreexec/andrew_atherton.htm
  • ‘Best papers’ that have been presented at ISBE in recent years – http://www.isbe.org.uk/BestPapers
  • And of course Alan Gibb http://www.allangibb.com/

I also find lots of interesting stuff by following the #enterprise tag on twitter (yes, I do see it as a serious if serendipitous research tool!)

Please let me know if you find any of this useful, or any other good stuff that the twitterverse has missed!

Filed Under: enterprise, Uncategorized Tagged With: development, enterprise, enterprise education, professional development, social marketing, training, twitter, Uncategorized

Twitterfail?

July 27, 2009 by admin

I have been using twitter since February and it has been great.

I had over 1600 followers and was the 7th most popular twitterer in Leeds.  It took a lot of time and effort – but the returns were there in as much as my network was considerably expanded both at the very local and international level.  I used twitter to network with a wide range of people who shared my passion for management, leadership, enterprise and entrepreneurship.  I had even found new clients through twitter recommendations!

But on July 22nd something strange happened.  All of my followers were ‘lost’ as was nearly everyone that I follow.

I logged a support request with Twitter which they immediately deemed closed without any communication or investigation that I could see.

As some of my followers got wind of what had happened they started to to put the word out and people slowly started to follow me again.  This was a wonderful and humbling response as many people really missed my presence in their networks.

Then, today, without explanation, Twitter suspended my account.  As far as I can see I have not transgressed any of their guidelines and I do not use any automated systems to refollow or direct message people.  Many creative, constructive and potentially commercially important conversations have been disrupted.

So beware if you are investing much time in Twitter.  I would hate the same thing to happen to you.

28th July Addendum

Had some help from @delbius who works for Twitter support.  Apparently my account was trashed by a ‘bug’.  It has now been reinstated and most of the people I follow have been restored.  However my network of followers has not – at least not yet.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: communication, social media, twitter, twitterfail

PMN on Twitter

July 1, 2009 by admin

I have just set up a dedicated twitter account for PMN.  You can now follow me on twitter @PMNUK.

Check out the twitter stream at http://twitter.com/pmnuk

This account will be used to provide regular ideas, inspiration, reminders and nudges about effective progressive management.

I also tweet on @mikechitty – where the focus is more on my work in enteprise and education.

Hope this makes things better for you!

Mike Chity

Filed Under: Leadership, management Tagged With: change, communication, Leadership, learning, management, social media, twitter

New Start, ACT, NfEA and the State of Business Support

May 1, 2009 by admin

New Start Magazine have published an article about the recent NfEA conference to launch ACT – a new network for enterprise support professionals.  It certainly got my juices flowing.  Below are my comments submitted in response to the original article.

I am glad the launch of ACT went well.

When I was invited to become a supplier for ACT the prime criteria for selection was a willingness to pay NfEA several thousand pounds for the privilege!  Of course others do this kind of thing to – but that does not make it the best way to secure high quality and innovative learning for business support professionals.  When I managed BLU the only criteria for being included as an associate was that you had something great to deliver and that you consistently got good feedback.  Selection as an associate was based on a rigorous and open selection process – against priorities and learning needs identified by advisory groups consisting of civil servants and business support professionals who were collaborating to deliver public policy as effectively as possible.  It was not based on ability/willingness to pay.

I am also glad that SFEDI are reviewing the ‘issues’ with the accreditation of business advisers.  As the lead body with responsibility in this arena it will be very interesting to see what they come up with!  My money would be another ‘much has been achieved but much remains to be done’ report.  I am not anticipating any turkeys voting for xmas on this one!  I have sat with SFEDI in many a meeting where both standards and assessment procedures have been dumbed down significantly by those ‘charged’ with improving skills and enterprise just to make sure that they have an ample supply of affordable, accredited advisers to deliver the latest government funded business support wheeze.  The reality is that this is about hitting the numbers promised by politicians and civil servants, rather than ensuring that the owner manager gets access to high quality business support.

NFEA, SFEDI, IBC/A/C have been working to improve the standards of business support for decades and in that time have presided over a general decline in the quality of advice and support available through the public purse, primarily in my opinion because of political interference and the imposition of the successive waves of ‘reform’ in the delivery of business support.

George is right, there are some very good advisers out there.  Some younger than others.  But in general I believe that both the quality of the advisers, and the power of the business support process to inspire and transform our entrepreneurial base have been significantly eroded by short term thinking, too many initiatives and political interference.

Am I the only one that sees it this way?

A further observation if I may.  Anyone who seriously believes that effective business support is about ‘showing people the way’ – based on knowledge and experience of previous recessions is seriously off the pace.  Our job is not to show them the way – IT IS TO HELP OUR CLIENTS TO FIND THEIR WAY – in a world that is massively different and rapidly changing.  To help them develop their vision and follow their intuition and insights.  To adapt and innovate, not to mimic and comply.  Our job is not to ‘tell and show’.  Nor to ‘diagnose and broker’.  It is to facilitate and enable.

I remember a few years back, when I was assessing business advisers, watching one tell a young entrepreneur that he should obsess less about his need for a laptop.  “I ran my business for decades without using a laptop” he said.

And another who said that we should not worry too much about developing a good online presence for business support services because “proper business people don’t have time to surf the web”.

Web 2.0 is a very different world.  Yet how many business advisers have read Cluetrain Manifesto?  Or even Tom Peter’s Re-Imagine?

How many have the courage and the skills to bring these insights to the world of informing, diagnosing and brokering?

No, much of business support is still in a world dominated by the technologies of the past – like benchmarking; in a world where we believe that academic institutions and training providers can develop qualifications that keep up to date with emerging technologies and provide us with a workforce with the skills needed in todays’ world.   In the modern world technologies move too quickly to be codified into qualifications and training programmes.  Skills have to be learned on the job.  Most providers are teaching tomorrows’ workforce how to use yesterdays’ technologies.

I look forward to the business support industry giving up fighting the last war and recognising that there is a brand new one to be fought requiring very different methodologies.

My guess is that no-one live twittered the ACT conference!

Filed Under: enterprise, entrepreneurship Tagged With: enterprise, entrepreneurship, operations, professional development, strategy, twitter

  • 1
  • 2
  • Next Page »

Recent Posts

  • Hello world!
  • The Challenges of ‘Engaging Community Leaders’
  • Are rich people less honest?
  • 121s – The single most effective tool for improving performance at work?
  • Wendell Berry’s Plan to Save the World

Recent Comments

  • A WordPress Commenter on Hello world!
  • charles hapazari on Top Down: Bottom Up
  • Marvina Babs-Apata on The Challenges of ‘Engaging Community Leaders’
  • Steve Hoey on The Challenges of ‘Engaging Community Leaders’
  • Philippa on An imaginary open letter: To those who would ‘engage’ us…

Archives

  • November 2018
  • March 2014
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • August 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • July 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012
  • April 2012
  • March 2012
  • February 2012
  • January 2012
  • December 2011
  • November 2011
  • October 2011
  • September 2011
  • August 2011
  • July 2011
  • June 2011
  • May 2011
  • April 2011
  • March 2011
  • February 2011
  • January 2011
  • December 2010
  • November 2010
  • October 2010
  • September 2010
  • August 2010
  • July 2010
  • June 2010
  • May 2010
  • April 2010
  • March 2010
  • February 2010
  • January 2010
  • December 2009
  • November 2009
  • October 2009
  • September 2009
  • August 2009
  • July 2009
  • June 2009
  • May 2009
  • April 2009
  • March 2009
  • February 2009
  • January 2009
  • December 2008
  • November 2008
  • October 2008
  • September 2008
  • August 2008
  • July 2008
  • June 2008
  • May 2008
  • April 2008
  • March 2008
  • February 2008
  • January 2008
  • December 2007
  • November 2007
  • October 2007
  • September 2007
  • August 2007
  • July 2007
  • June 2007
  • May 2007
  • April 2007

Categories

  • Community
  • Development
  • enterprise
  • entrepreneurship
  • Leadership
  • management
  • Progress School
  • Results Factory
  • Training
  • Uncategorized

Meta

  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org

Copyright © 2023 · Enterprise Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in