Here is the slide show that friends at Logistik helped to put together based to a large degree on the work of Mark Friedman on Results Based Accountability... http://www.slideshare.net/mikechitty1/rba-results-factory-slides … [Read more...]
The business of human endeavour…
August 3, 2011 by 6 Comments
For a long time now I have had real concerns about the focus of policy makers, and the projects that they spawn, on 'enterprise' and 'entrepreneurship' as being just too business oriented. It is as if the only fields of human endeavour that matter are commerce of some kind. Making money or fixing societies ills. This is especially un-nerving when you see it played out in our primary schools as 6 year olds are encouraged to wear badges that proclaim them be a 'Sales Director', an 'Operations Manager' or a 'Brand Executive'. Yuk! What about all of those other great fields of human endeavour? Climbing mountains, making art, having fun, playing sport, writing, cooking and so on. What if we encouraged our 6 year olds to wear badges that proclaimed them to be 'Footballer in Training', 'Ballet Dancer under Construction', 'Surgeon to Be' or 'The Next Michael McIntyre'? OK, so perhaps we don't need another Michael McIntyre.... but you get my point? Because what really matters is not exposing more people to the world of business and entrepreneurship. It is to get them imagining possible futures, and learning how best to navigate towards them. It is about developing people with a sense of agency and influence … [Read more...]
Smart Lord Sugar…
July 18, 2011 by Leave a Comment
Nice move by Lord Sugar to choose Tom Pellereau as his business partner. Seriously nice move because Tom's skills complement those of the Lord Sugar rather than replicate them. So many people go into business with people who share similar skills, values and attitudes leading to a very lop-sided business indeed. Perhaps half a dozen people who understand the product or service, but NONE who really love marketing, sales, financial management, compliance or governance. And I don't think that Lord Sugar is a product man. At least not any more. He is now a 'sales and marketing man' a distribution expert. Someone who can get products into the hands of the masses. I just hope that poor old Tom is given the chance to develop products that not only make him wealthy, but also make him proud and enhance the lives of the people who buy them. This would indeed be progress. … [Read more...]
Enterprise Hub or Duck Farm?
May 13, 2011 by Leave a Comment
I visited a really great community centre recently. Busy, friendly, homespun, clearly doing great work in and with the community. We were using several rooms, one of which was called the 'Enterprise Hub'. It was spotlessly clean, airy, spacious and well furnished, just like every other room in the building. But for the life of me I could not work out what made it an 'Enterprise Hub'. It was not set up for hot desking, there were no PCs, no mail boxes, none of the usual paraphernalia... So I asked the centre manager about the Enterprise Hub. The answer surprised me - but it shouldn't have done. They were looking for cash to modernise and re-decorate the room and in conversation with the local authority it become clear that the only budget with cash available was in 'Enterprise'. 'They said if we called it an Enterprise Hub we could have the cash.' I love the way this demonstrates the inherent enterprise of the community centre management team in tracking down the cash that they need to 'get the job done'. I am less impressed by what it says about some investments in 'enterprise'. I can just imagine the report to the councillors about the new enterprise hub... I remember a colleague saying to … [Read more...]
High Growth and High Start Up Rates: Why We Shouldn’t Chase Them
April 1, 2011 by 4 Comments
Colin Bell over at Winning Moves picks over this old chestnut in his latest post. Should we throw our limited resources at businesses that we believe have high growth potential or should we just go for lots of start-ups knowing that a minority of them will experience high growth anyway? The plain truth is that both are equally foolish policy goals. We simply can't pick winners/high growth businesses. So how do we know which to resource? And as Drucker said 'you can't have the mountain top without the mountain' . High growth businesses emerge from a strong and vibrant enterprise ecology. An ecology that is diverse, tightly knit and well connected (bridging and bonding, social and cultural capital). Focus on building the mountain and the top will look after itself. But please don't build the mountain by rushing to increase the start up rate. When we do this we just increase the failure rate too and that undermines aspiration and confidence. So start fewer businesses, but make sure they are good ones, team starts, well thought through and researched. Get survival rates into the 90%s after three years. Not just survival, but successful. Allow these small but significant success show the way to … [Read more...]
