Wednesday 25 November 2009

Silicon Valley came to Cambridge - what were the ah ha moments for me?!

There was a busy programme of events, masterclasses, workshops, networking, dinners and banter over the two and a half days of the visit by a dozen or so entrepreneurs from Silicon Valley. I attended a number of the formal sessions and the dinner at the Masters Lodge at Trinity College. Apart from the energy and buzz which is so typical of events that gather together entrepreneurs - especially those with credibility what else did I get?

A conference with entrepreneurs is soooo much more fun, educational, exciting, stimulating for opportunities and positive thinking - no one even mentioned the recession/credit crunch/difficulties or any such negative challenges. Was this because we mixed Silicon Valley with Silicon Fen? Maybe.

There were specifics - such as - where and when can you succeed as a small company innovating against a giant - "when you keep out of the spotlight of the big company". I like the use of such language rather than the dry business speak of professionals.

To partner with large companies as an entrepreneurial firm - find yourself an internal champion, get past the gatekeeper to the decision makers (never overestimate the clout of your contact)because decisions in large firms requires the buy-in of many stakeholders.

Before you think that partnering is key to your business strategy ask yourself - why can't you just Go For It?

To build internet businesses - some key tips:

Ensure that you build a fabulous user experience - just think of the simplicity of the google front page.

Ask is it scalable and try and establish that fact early in the business cycle.

Set yourself tight milestones and make sure you hit them.


There were two great sound bites that I took away

SMEs die of indigestion rather than starvation
Never become half pregnant

There was a lot to learn from the two days of oxygen filled events - so a big thank you to everyone that took part in all their different roles. There are an increasing number of pictures, videos, blogs, news items all over the internet. If you are hungry enough - please follow via svc2c.com


Pictures on http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=svc2c

Monday 23 November 2009

Should entrepreneurs be cross with banks or bankers for the mess we have now?

Should entrepreneurs be cross with banks or bankers for the mess we have now?
At a debate last week at the Cambridge Union – part of the Silicon Valley Comes to Cambridge event- a few simple facts became obvious – well once we dealt with the noise in the information.
We need a banking system that works – full stop. We need it for making transactions happen. We need it for enabling the circular flow of money; enabling the provision of mortgages and lending for short and medium term.
The challenge of the Western capitalistic system seems to be that in order to provide these services – governments have instituted legislation, rules and bodies to regulate, largely it seems to me because the industry attracts people who are mesmerised by the making of money – for its own sake rather than because it is an end point of providing a service or product that adds value to society.
Usury was seen as evil until not so long ago – I wonder why!
So – while a healthy banking system is meant to help a money based economy go round, the way it is administered has lead to all manner of abuse and I do not need to rehearse these arguments here. The summary of the debate included the following issues: That by losing the plot – banks have taken much needed liquidity out of the market place so instead of having access to funds for investments, lending and generally provide for a positive role in the economy we have become distracted instead by issues of abuse and bonus payments. And it seems there is a relentless pressure from the bankers to insist they are worth it!
My only quarrel with the debaters would be that they talked about “Global meltdown” “entire economic systems” and so forth deluding themselves that only London and New York mattered...Well guys just in case you do not know where India and China are (as one of the debaters did not seem to know where Iceland was!!) you can find them on any good search engines.
In those countries entrepreneurs are somewhat relieved that although their banks are strict, cumbersome and lack in flexibility – at least they have banks they can go to. I think entrepreneurs in the present collapsed system have every reason to be cross with their bankers.

Sunday 15 November 2009

One of the fastest internet companies with cash and profits!

Once again the audiences of Enterprise Tuesday at Cambridge were treated to some insights into entrepreneurship by asomeone who is very modest about his achievements. His initial take was that he just bumbled along for about 7 years from 1990 to 1997, living off his wife’s success – a former classmate from the Indian Institute of Management and now a successful top flight executive. He had tried many ideas, projects, consulting assignments and then started to follow a pattern that he saw all around him – that people seemed to open magazines from the back, spent time on the jobs pages before turning to the contents of the magazine.
So he and his nascent team and partner formulated a jobs based website, developed business models that were based on revenues of advertising from prospective employers. All this while bootstrapping the business out of bedrooms and garage spaces in Delhi (note – not in Silicon Valley!).
The company realised the basic proposition had to be that they had content – of jobs. So they took in all the newspaper advertisement – from 29 newspapers and uploaded the jobs onto the website – www.naukri.com
This was an initial big hit – huge numbers of visits and pretty soon it became apparent to employers that they had better use this channel as well. They now get over 200million unique page views per month. The company has become the hub of the Indian talent market and this has enabled the company to develop multiple streams of revenue; advertising being the mainstay.
When they reached $80,000 revenues with 9 staff, they started to receive visits from “smart MBAs” who had joined venture capital and were now riding the wave of hype around the dot com bubble. He was amazed and turned down offers of venture capital, all of which were placing his company at around $9m valuation. Sanjeev argued that had he taken the money and tried to invest it at the time – his balance sheet would have gone negative! He jokes – that they were somewhat paralyzed by the fear of “wasting the investors’ trust and cash”
Eventually – they took in money from ICICI and being cautious – he says with a wry smile – they put the cash into deposit accounts until they could figure out a really strong growth strategy. The injection of capital did give the confidence to go for growth. The initial test of strategy came when the sales director suggested that they grow the sales team as he had seen a direct correlation between increased sales people on the ground and increased sales. So – although they are a web company, they now have over 50 offices in India and neighbouring countries and around 1600 staff, most of who are in sales. They have 200 staff that develop technical solutions to meet the needs of the recruitment market.
This is a rapid growth business by any measure and the founder Sanjeev Bikhchandani is modest to say that the early days were action packed rather than strategic. It is only with the early success that the confidence grew to start to establish a firm strategy for growth, by diversifying the revenue streams, hiring people – based on generous reward structures and eventually by placing memorable advertisements on television to drive traffic to the web http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-89JndcGK4

The growth strategy was starting to build on gaining deeper insights into why people moved (at least in India) and one of the key reasons turns out to be disillusionment with the boss! This is what they used in their advertising and the character created became a household term for “nasty boss”!
What has Sanjeev learned from his business and entrepreneurial career?
If a problem has already been solved – don’t do it
Ensure that whatever business idea you come up with scalable – especially if you want to attract investors.
Talk and listen to customers – build deep insights
Focus – do one thing and do it well
Have the courage to take advantage of being a first mover. This can give you market leadership
Improve continuously – and do it quickly and keep it moving (something they call fail fast in silicon valley)
To build teams – be prepared to share your wealth
Retain a frugal mindset at all times – it helps if things get tough
Put yourself into ecosystems where you can get lucky! (Not sure if we should rely on luck for growth – but it sure helps if you get lucky!)
What has been the biggest mistake he has made – hiring for convenience rather than for quality!
Sanjeev runs a blog on http://www.sanjeevbikhchandani.com/
He has also kindly given us his investor presentation
http://www.infoedge.in/pdfs/corporate-presentation-august09.pdf

Once again the audiences of Enterprise Tuesday at Cambridge were treated to some insights into entrepreneurship by asomeone who is very modest about his achievements. His initial take was that he just bumbled along for about 7 years from 1990 to 1997, living off his wife’s success – a former classmate from the Indian Institute of Management and now a successful top flight executive. He had tried many ideas, projects, consulting assignments and then started to follow a pattern that he saw all around him – that people seemed to open magazines from the back, spent time on the jobs pages before turning to the contents of the magazine.
So he and his nascent team and partner formulated a jobs based website, developed business models that were based on revenues of advertising from prospective employers. All this while bootstrapping the business out of bedrooms and garage spaces in Delhi (note – not in Silicon Valley!).
The company realised the basic proposition had to be that they had content – of jobs. So they took in all the newspaper advertisement – from 29 newspapers and uploaded the jobs onto the website – www.naukri.com
This was an initial big hit – huge numbers of visits and pretty soon it became apparent to employers that they had better use this channel as well. They now get over 200million unique page views per month. The company has become the hub of the Indian talent market and this has enabled the company to develop multiple streams of revenue; advertising being the mainstay.
When they reached $80,000 revenues with 9 staff, they started to receive visits from “smart MBAs” who had joined venture capital and were now riding the wave of hype around the dot com bubble. He was amazed and turned down offers of venture capital, all of which were placing his company at around $9m valuation. Sanjeev argued that had he taken the money and tried to invest it at the time – his balance sheet would have gone negative! He jokes – that they were somewhat paralyzed by the fear of “wasting the investors’ trust and cash”
Eventually – they took in money from ICICI and being cautious – he says with a wry smile – they put the cash into deposit accounts until they could figure out a really strong growth strategy. The injection of capital did give the confidence to go for growth. The initial test of strategy came when the sales director suggested that they grow the sales team as he had seen a direct correlation between increased sales people on the ground and increased sales. So – although they are a web company, they now have over 50 offices in India and neighbouring countries and around 1600 staff, most of who are in sales. They have 200 staff that develop technical solutions to meet the needs of the recruitment market.
This is a rapid growth business by any measure and the founder Sanjeev Bikhchandani is modest to say that the early days were action packed rather than strategic. It is only with the early success that the confidence grew to start to establish a firm strategy for growth, by diversifying the revenue streams, hiring people – based on generous reward structures and eventually by placing memorable advertisements on television to drive traffic to the web http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-89JndcGK4

The growth strategy was starting to build on gaining deeper insights into why people moved (at least in India) and one of the key reasons turns out to be disillusionment with the boss! This is what they used in their advertising and the character created became a household term for “nasty boss”!
What has Sanjeev learned from his business and entrepreneurial career?
If a problem has already been solved – don’t do it
Ensure that whatever business idea you come up with scalable – especially if you want to attract investors.
Talk and listen to customers – build deep insights
Focus – do one thing and do it well
Have the courage to take advantage of being a first mover. This can give you market leadership
Improve continuously – and do it quickly and keep it moving (something they call fail fast in silicon valley)
To build teams – be prepared to share your wealth
Retain a frugal mindset at all times – it helps if things get tough
Put yourself into ecosystems where you can get lucky! (Not sure if we should rely on luck for growth – but it sure helps if you get lucky!)
What has been the biggest mistake he has made – hiring for convenience rather than for quality!
Sanjeev runs a blog on http://www.sanjeevbikhchandani.com/
He has also kindly given us his investor presentation
http://www.infoedge.in/pdfs/corporate-presentation-august09.pdf

Friday 6 November 2009

Creating opportunities in technology - Experience from two Business Angels on Enterprise Tuesday

Having just spoken with David Cleevely and Andy Richards about their talk(s) on Enterprise Tuesday on the 10th of November 2009, - they see about 2 - 3 ideas per week and have to try and filter out those that excite them enough to invest in. What are the criteria by which they do this and how can we learn to use their insights and knowledge to create, sort, filter and hopefully make winning decisions on?

They will use examples from their portfolio of experiences - which include huge successes, middling companies and the odd failed business to run thorugh a general framework we can use.

Here are some headlines:

o ideas are cheap (need to be great not just good)
o timing is crucial (things are in the air; by the time you have recognised them it may be too late; on the other hand those deep in the know may be too early)
o fashions hold more sway than they should (eg Web 2.0) - so watch for the Gartner hype cycles
o you need to stress test things by talking them through (preferably with lots of people). Would be entrepreneurs who hold cards close to their chest are to be suspected. (those who have done it a few times can be given more leeway)
o the proposal should break the established dogma
o there’s a trigger point (which if missed means no funding).


David and Andy are highly entertaining and animated presenters, they are on national and international platforms when it comes to their contributions to policy, entrepreneurship and corporate lives.

I can't wait to hear them and look forward to chairing the time keeping as I am sure the Q+A session will run and run!

Sunday 1 November 2009

Meeting customer needs – Learning from Kell Ryan

The story behind the huge success of Ryanair – which has grown from a small Irish airline with 5000 passengers to an international carrier with 200+ planes, 900 routes, profits and with 58m+ passengers is a lesson to us all.
How have they done this?
A clear vision that is easy to articulate seems to be the starting point – A low cost airline! This vision is then applied with a mix of innovation and inventiveness on one side a hardnosed approach to cost control on the other. The benefit of this simplicity is that customers understand the offer very clearly.
The next point is to hire talented staff and get their buy-in with shared rewards (options schemes) and to train them into the way that the airline wants to run. The staff is mainly young – in their late 20s and they bring with them their energy. They are located in some 30 centres across Europe, so they incur no hotel costs, all returning home every night.
With this mix of vision and operational simplicity, the airline has met two of the most important needs of the customer – anon time airline that provides the lowest fares. There are no frills and everything beyond the basic service of a “bus with wings” is charged extra. This results in some 20% of the revenue coming from ancillary charges.
What else does the airline do to meet the needs of customers? Actually the focus is very clear – it is to bring down the cost of international travel – that is it. The response to any further questions on this matter are simply to see that most other airlines that try and provide full service offers do not make money and that the number of airlines that lose money is high. Ryanair is one of the few airlines in the world that makes money.
In addition to ensuring staff retention strategies, the airline has also taken steps to retain common sense and kept a continuous watch on costs. So staff helps to clean the aircraft, load the passengers and run the cabin services. Seats are locked in place to reduce maintenance charges. There are no sacred cows – so if something needs to be reduced, charged for or changed the airline will do it.
For example – they got rid of lemons from gin and tonic. This saved on time and cost and the passengers did not miss it. They have introduced on-line boarding now – so that takes away queues from airports and reduces costs further. The charge for luggage is now being copied by other airlines.
The management and the teams stay focused on costs and ensuring they do everything they can to be the lowest cost airline. But having said that – their staff are not badly paid – so it is not in this where they make savings – recognising that cabin staff do need to be rewarded and to find the right quality of pilots also takes money.

One of the breakthroughs for the airline was the rapid growth of the internet. This has enabled the airline to innovate in all manner of ways from on-line sales, ancillary bookings of car hire, hotels etc., through to now online check-in. The senior team were creative in the way they arranged to buy the website developers. They had had two professional quotations, one from a Dublin firm and another from a London firm. Both were thought to be too expensive. So they turned to a group of 4 high school students (doing their A levels) and paid them in free tickets, some cash and subsequently for two of them - jobs in the company!
In summary – the business is run on a “keep it simple and straightforward” basis – where all the staff and the passengers know that the basic offer is to fly from point to point at the lowest cost. This simplicity has turned Europe into a single continent, connecting 500m+ people at affordable prices. Through this, people are taking weekend holidays, jobs and buying second homes.
Throughout the growth of the airline - one of the other qualities they have shown is the courage of their conviction. Without hesitation they absorbed the Southwestern airline model, pushed for second tier airports as way of cutting down on airport costs and ensuring better time keeping (keeping away from busy airports, went for 100% web based transactions, charged for luggage, have now gone for 100% web based check-in and so forth. They were bold to go with A level students to develop such an important part of their business.

In meeting the core need of their customers they have shown the focus on staff retention, inventiveness in reducing costs, focus on the core offer has kept them from being complacent and are important lessons for how one delivers strong marketing programmes.
This message of simplicity and boldness is a very powerful one in entrepreneurship and management and therefore I will keep away from the frequent times in which the airline courts controversy.

Tuesday 27 October 2009

Rapid Growth Business Enterprise Tuesday 3rd November

Sanjeev Bikchandani - Founder of InfoEdge and therefore founder of several internet companies in India will be speaking about growing rapidly.

He started as a typical "garage" company in India and now employs nearly 1600 people across more than 50 offices. The internet businesses range from the biggest - "naukri.com" - which is about recruitment through to real estate and other services.

We normally hear about internet businesses from Silicon Valley and rarely from a "developing country" but here is a case of working against red tape, limited pools of experienced internet teams, an ecosystem that is still new to internet savvy businesses, challenging infrastructure etc.,

InfoEdge became the first internet company to list on the Indian stock market. The company has taken venture capital from global players and has a wonderful compound growth rate with a cash positive balance sheet. For those who would like to drill a bit deeper before the talk please see a link to the investor presentations made a few weeks ago - http://www.infoedge.in/pdfs/corporate-presentation-august09.pdf

Sanjeev is a charismatic, high energy entrepreneur who will talk about the key aspects of growing a business rapidly. Not wishing to steal his show - the talk will include how and when to be first to market - but that too in one that is emerging and therefore how to know if it is really big (with unmet problems to solve) and how to put together a team that can help to deliver on the vision and plans. There are more points he will make - but for now that is enough to whet our appetites.

By the way Sanjeev is flying over at his own cost and that makes him a sponsor as well! I am looking forward to the talk and the ensuing Q+A

Young headmaster - this is enterprise

Young Babar Ali - has taken to heart the idea of making a difference and the inspiration is that he is a young teenager who has decided to help in his community. I am going to let the video speak for itself!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/8299780.stm

Friday 23 October 2009

From deep science to a cool product

Prof Henning Sirringhaus from the Cavendish Labs at Cambridge, Martin Jackson of Plastic Logic and Bill Earner of Amadeus Capital Partners talked to a packed audience of around 400 graduates and members of the business community on how and why they have taken a tough 10 year+ journey to commercialise deep science.
From what I could gather, it started with the scientists looking at how to take the technical attributes of passing light through plastic and the convenience of plastic (it is light and flexible) to see if a product could be developed. One of the driving forces of the innovation that followed seems to be about solving the problem of convenience for people on the move.
People who need to read books, documents, articles, newspapers and myriad other content have two choices at the moment. Carrying heavy quantities of documents or trying to read on laptops – where due to the intensity of the way the screen is backlit – in the end it gets tiring. The inventors, investors and management of the project saw this as a global unmet need.
Curiously so have Sony, Kindle and others who are all rushing to market with eReaders. After the iphone this product line is likely to be the next big thing in the “boys toys” category and will likely revolutionise our reading behaviours as prices come plummeting downward in the years ahead.
So – the journey of plastic electronics as it has been labelled – started a long time ago and the team made a choice to enter the market with an eReader – due to be launched at a major event in January 2010. Hopefully they are just in time when compared to other products that are coming out this winter – before the Christmas of 2009.
The team has bigger plans for their patents and inventions, but the story is not so much about technology as it is about faith, belief, entrepreneurial risk and talented people.
The early conversations between Henning, Sir Richard Friend and Dr Hermann Hauser were formative and influential. All three eminent being physicists. Hermann being the serial entrepreneur and venture capitalists has the experience and instinct to know when to back something. It is also his vision for the next big product – and the potential to create an industry that has helped to raise over $250m dollars, research grants and subsidies for setting up a factory in Dresden. With that strong vision and business credibility, the team also has its “scientific rock stars” – some early exposure to doing business in emerging technologies and gradually a build up of a strong commercial and manufacturing team. It is probably this combination that has allowed Plastic Logic to go further than might be expected for a company that has been in “start-up” mode for over 10 years.
Over the 10 years Plastic Logic has tried a variety of business models, including trying to license the technology, but found that because it was unproven, the big manufacturers were unwilling to take it on. As a result of this market feedback, the team decided to set up its own factory and were fortunate in finding support from the government in Saxony - keen to attract a cutting edge science based company. So – the focus is on scaling up from a laboratory project about the light emitting properties of plastic to a real product that consumers can buy! This is a huge transition and requires major shifts in the talent pool from scientists through project managers, sales teams, factory skills, etc.,
How does a team sustain its motivation to go through all the various change points from a scientific breakthrough in 1998/99 to the prospect of a product launch into a growing market in 2010?
The basic answer seems to be about the excitement of creating an industry through the launch of a product. In essence – where the scale and scope of the opportunity far outweighs any sense of barriers or risk! The opportunity is seen to be vast and the team wants to be in a leadership position!
My main takeaway thought was the comment that Henning made – when the whole enterprise started he asked himself – should he focus on publishing and staying “Pure” or should he devote any time to the venturing process. At the time he was an unestablished young academic. He chose to do both! Now he is a young professor, inventor and initiator of a company that could well turn out to be at the forefront of plastic electronics. As Prof Andy Hopper said last year and on the video (see www.cfel.jbs.cam.ac.uk/resources) you can have your cake and eat it!

Sunday 18 October 2009

Understanding the needs of the market – Learning from Ryanair

Tuesday on October 27th 2009. See www.cfel.jbs.cam.ac.uk

Kell Ryan, the recently retired marketing Director of Ryanair has kindly agreed to speak to the audience of Enterprise Tuesday on the 27th of October 2009. Kell is a highly experienced marketing professional, having worked in the airline industry for many years before joining the team at Ryanair.

Ryanair has been a great success as a low cost carrier. It has brought benefits to many people beyond price reduction. People can take short term jobs in other countries; get short week end breaks, host hen nights and parties in all manner of cities, bringing tourism wealth from those who have to those who can benefit! If we want to learn to think about marketing, customers needs and having the courage to make new rules in the market place – we need to look at how one of the more successful companies does it.

Kell Ryan has agreed to tell us about the early days of Ryanair marketing, their innovations and how they value both acquiring and retaining customers through meeting the key needs of customers. Importance of customer retention, Impact of the Internet, Ancillary revenue /activity, Innovation on costs, Business model, Simplicity of Operations, Branding /Marketing and that Price is King !

Kell is charming and you will learn from him the hard nosed lessons you need to take away about how to be innovative with marketing. These lessons will generalise to other industry sectors. I can’t wait to hear from him. I hold the Otto Monsted Guest Professorship at Aarhus School of Business in Denmark and it is only possible for me to even consider such a post and to deliver on it through the growth and development of Ryanair.

Sunday 11 October 2009

How not to get divorced – lessons from serial entrepreneurs

I was at a dinner at Downing College (Cambridge) where our after dinner speaker was Jody Chatterjee who has had a rich career in many different roles. His honesty about the roller coaster ride of an entrepreneur was engaging! Jody spoke at the end of a long day of thinking about entrepreneurship in large organisations that was being run for Haniel by Ashridge Management College. Haniel is a family owned 35,000 employee organisation from Germany, with a diversity of businesses.
The others contributors were Claudio Marinelli from Nokia, Dan Sandhu from ACIS and Rob Stewart from Stevenage Packaging.
Each painted a rich picture for us to think about.
They were pretty unanimous on the fact that entrepreneurs work with a passion to make things better or to make better things – that solve problems.
Entrepreneurial people are driven by seeking freedom and autonomy to make decisions. This is a dominant theme from the conversations. If entrepreneurial people involved did not have this freedom to act and to act quickly they would wilt.
Entrepreneurs are impatient to get things done; making them hard to live and work with, but the passion to make things better comes with the impatience to get it done. The impatience also comes over as being somewhat “crazy”. So they are seen as disruptive influences within the organisation!
Very low tolerance for internal politics – in the end is it possible to be an entrepreneurial employee in a large organisation to succeed without “political skills”?
On a very personal level – everyone acknowledged the role played by their family in supporting them. The short hand was framed in the evening as “find out how not to get divorced”. The point being – what is the purpose of entrepreneurial success if in the end it breaks up the things that in the long term are what matter – family?
In the past – in my consulting role when I have been mentoring people with their ambitions to start and to grow their businesses – the key question that has stopped people in their tracks about what they want to do – has been to ask – Do you have a “contract” with your family? Do they know you will put the house on the line, the level of risk you want to take, that you will behave in a totally obsessive ways for months, not sleep much, get irritable if things are not going the way you want, feel highs and lows of emotions and you will hardly be around either mentally, physically or emotionally? The family needs to understand this in order to be able to truly support you!
Entrepreneurs I have met who have managed to be realistic about the work load and the risks and been able to get the support of the family – whether this is their partner or their parents or siblings have been truly amazing because they have a kind of freedom that others who are trying to balance their entrepreneurial ambitions with family obligations simply do not have.
It is unlikely you will find the answers in books and videos, just talk openly to a friend with wisdom.

Thursday 1 October 2009

Enterprise Tuesday kicks off on October 20th

This year the flagship course at Cambridge - Enterprise Tuesday which attracts over 1500 registrations and regular attendance of 300 - 400 is set to be a blockbuster! The main reasons is that we have made some radical changes to the format this year. In addition to the classic evenings of very high quality talks followed by networking we also have aligned with "Silicon Valley comes to Cambridge" and are part hosts to a debate at the Cambridge Union (on a Thursday!). We are also doing a networking only evening - having invited 20+ of the local successes - our Entrepreneurs in residence - to interact with the audience. This will be hosted in the magnificent setting of the Judge Business School over two floors.

There are also going to be "Live" rehearsals of elevator pitches and panel discussions on several evenings.

Beyond the format changes - the speaker line up - the headlines are as follows:

Plastic Logic founder Prof Henning Sirringhaus with his investment and management team members. This is a big current story as the research and the commercial ambition is to stimulate the start up - not just of a company - but also of an industry - in plastic electronics.

We then have Kell Ryan - to tell us about meeting customer needs. He recently retired from marketing position at Ryan Air (The name is no coincidence).

Sanjeev Bikchandani is coming over from India to talk about growing his business. It is one of the fastest growing internet companies around - and the biggest job site in India. He is a dynamic entrepreneur and is coming over just to do our talk!

David Cleevely and Andy Richards are highly successful Cambridge based Business angels and serial entrepreneurs. David is in wireless and telecoms while Andy is in biotechnology. Both are highly influential in the investment community and in their industries.

E T will be on a Thursday this year to make best connections to our regulars - and the guest line up includes the founders of LInkedIn, Twitter etc., The event has its own website - SVC2C.

Finally we hear from a panel of recent alumni of Enterprise Tuesday. People who have been inspired to get started with their own companies. They will share with us the why and the how on the evening. It is bound to be animated. The names are less famous - but the energy and the future prospects are fabulous.

Next term - we kick off with Prof Chris Winter who was co-founder of Cambridge Antibodies. He has done a number of other companies in biotech and is a hugely respected academic.

In order not to protract the blog - let me say that the last of the series is with Warren East from ARM - and I am hoping we will get as much of a public view as possible about the battle lines between ARM and Intel

Wednesday 30 September 2009

ethics in entrepreneurship

Two stories came my way recently and it made me think about what is or is not ethical in entrepreneurship.

One is somewhat trivial - the hissing and fizzing of pop stars about whether or not they support illegal downloads. What I liked within the article on Lily Allen's views is the statement by music critic John Dee that it seems the only thing that unites some pop stars into any kind of passionate debate is "the one that concerns their own personal fortune"

http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/53938,news,lily-allen-quits-music-as-music-piracy-abuse-gets-nasty

So, what goes through my mind is ofcourse that as part of entrepreneurship education, especially for the next generation how does one position ethical attitudes and behaviours in the pursuit of entrepreneurial careers when the mainstream illustrations are about whether or not artists can make money from illegal downloads and how the music industry can survive.

These are important; reflecting changes to oligopolistic contracts between consumers and the industry. They are being shatered by fragmented responses based on emerging technology. Southwestern, Ryanair and Easyjet to name a few airlines have capitalised on breaking up monopoly behaviours in the airline industry. Firms that cannot or do not respond to such changes are eventually killed off. Meanwhile consumers have benefited from being able to travel around much more easily and in more affordable ways.

I am sure the music and film industry needs similar thinking and this is on its way. In other words it is time to be creative about solving a problem rather than trying to control it or complaining about it.

But to be honest - this debate does not fire me up very much although the underlying debate about how free - free markets are supposed to be is the more philosophical argument to have.

The story that does get me really angry is based on a very fundamental question posed by Aristotle back in 350 BC (approx - I was not there at the time) - Is a Doctor a maker of money or a healer of the sick? This question still has no real answer. I was reminded of the question by a story from one of my family who lost their son recently. A young man of late 30s early 40s went into hospital with Swine Flu symptoms and sadly died there. This was at the Apollo Hospital in Hyderabad. I do not have the full story due to the distressed condition of the family - but in essence the Hospital management refused to allow the body to be taken away in one of their vehicles, insisting that the family take away the dead son in their own car or hire a taxi. Whether this is due to swineflu panic, cost management, crass stupidity of the staff on duty at the time is all not clear. But one thing is for sure - Aristotle - if he were in India today and saw the conditions of healthcare for the poor and the profit centred hospitals for the rich - he would certainly have something to say.

As always values play such a strong role in entrepreneurship. What are your own positions on such topics?

Thursday 24 September 2009

WHY ENTREPRENEURSHIP IS A REAL OPTION – Learning from Plastic Logic

Prof Henning Sirringhaus is a leading authority on organic semiconductors. Working within the Cambridge environment he and his business contacts saw the huge potential for the application of this deep science research to the possibility of creating a whole new industry based on the fact that plactics can carry current!

Henning is founder, director and continues to be a shareholder in Plastic Logic. Meanwhile the commercial team that was formed around it included Dr Hermann Hauser, serial entrepreneur, investor, physicist, eternal optimist and visionary. Bit by bit they formed a formidable team of scientists, technologists, commercial teams and through a series of dead ends, diversions and sometimes distractions they have raised over £250m in venture capital, got a factory underway in Dresden and are now launching their own product.

Plastic Logic might be the first company within a new industry? It is also potentially a huge success story based on over 20 years of research and earlier attempts at commercialisation of near to market technologies.

But who can tell – at this early stage if Plastic Logic will actually launch a new industry. Meanwhile we look to understand how and why the founders, investors and shareholders continue to have faith in a venture with long gestation periods. Most businesses operate on quarterly cycles and get impatient if there are no sales. What motivates this group of individuals and teams of technical, commercial and scientific talent to pursue Plastic Logic.
From the presentations and discussion by Henning Sirringhaus, Bill Earner (Amadeus Capital Partners) and Martin Jackson (Plastic Logic) we hope to find out more about:

Personal motivations; recognition of opportunities; the types of skills needed at different stages of the venture; risks and rewards. We also hope to learn about whether or not dilution of shares and ownership affects motivation of founders; how the funding cycles have gone and been managed and how teams have changed.

Based on this opening lecture we expect to set the scene for the remainder of the 11 lectures and networking events to bring you Enterprise Tuesday.

Here are some references for the business and academic communities:

Plasctic logic – press releases; home page www.plasticlogic.com www.plasticlogic.com/news
Plastic Logic demo www.youtube.com/watch?v=0znv3V-GsNk
Cavendish labs – Henning’s work www.phy.cam.ac.uk/people/sirringhaush.php
Amadeus capital partners www.amadeuscapital.com – investors in Plastic Logic

A Highly π-Stacked Organic Semiconductor for Thin Film Transistors Based on Fused Thiophenes
Xiao-Chang Li, Henning Sirringhaus, Francis Garnier, Andrew B. Holmes, Stephen C. Moratti, Neil Feeder, William Clegg, Simon J. Teat, and Richard H. Friend
J. Am. Chem. Soc., 1998, 120 (9), pp 2206–2207 Publication Date (Web): February 24, 1998
http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/ja9735968
Effects of Packing Structure on the Optoelectronic and Charge Transport Properties in Poly(9,9-di-n-octylfluorene-alt-benzothiadiazole) Carrie L. Donley, Jana Zaumseil, Jens W. Andreasen, Martin M. Nielsen, Henning Sirringhaus, Richard H. Friend, and Ji-Seon Kim
J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2005, 127 (37), pp 12890–12899 Publication Date (Web): August 25, 2005
http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/ja051891j
Surface Tension and Fluid Flow Driven Self-Assembly of Ordered ZnO Nanorod Films for High-Performance Field Effect Transistors
Baoquan Sun and Henning Sirringhaus
J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2006, 128 (50), pp 16231–16237 Publication Date (Web): December 1, 2006
http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/ja065242z
Binary Nanoparticle Superlattices in the Semiconductor−Semiconductor System: CdTe and CdSe
Zhuoying Chen, Jenny Moore, Guillaume Radtke, Henning Sirringhaus, and Stephen O'Brien
J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2007, 129 (50), pp 15702–15709
Publication Date (Web): November 23, 2007
http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/ja076698z

Sunday 6 September 2009

What is the best way to learn if you want to be an entrepreneur?

I am presently working on several projects connected with entrepreneurship education and there is inevitably a menu of ways to "teach" or "organise learning".

But before we stray into detail - the most Frequently Asked question continues to be - "can you teach it?". My response so far has been that it is no different from teaching management, music, math or geography or any other subject - it ultimately comes down to people wanting to learn. So - if we get past this basic question then we get to "how" questions.

Learning by doing? Learning through simulations? Use of case studies? From mentors and coaches? In the calss room based strongly on theory? Videos? On-line models of learning? Action learning - i.e. through problem solving and applying the lessons? and so forth.

Going back to the question - in the title - I would welcome some intelligent thoughts and comments on the subject. We are getting ready for the Advanced Diploma in two weeks time - (see www.cfel.jbs.cam.ac.uk); working on a review of education at Laurea University in Finland and thinking about scaling up entrepreneurship education on a global basis as a result of a major project for the World Economic Forum.

Tuesday 7 July 2009

immigration is more important than math?!

Now imagine this - that immigration has a greater impact on innovation than the teaching of math and science! Well this is a perspective taken by GigaOM and I have some sympathy with the view..because what it suggests is that people moving around the world freely taking their talent, hunger and abilities is hugely valuable to an economy. Perhaps a bit extreme as the writer of this blog only focuses on the needs of USA. So - it implies that Indians and Chinese teach the math and USA benefits from it!?

http://gigaom.com/2009/07/04/americas-secret-innovation-weapon-immigration/

To some extent the short term brain drain may well have to be tolerated (even if it seen as some kind of imperialism) so that in the longer term this tide of movement of the talent then starts to provide returns to the home country. There is evidence of this to some degree in teh shape of "brain circulation" - see for example teh Indian diaspora providing a huge stimulus to the INdian economy.

Why I like to think about such questions is that whenever I travel around mainland Europe I am struck by the almost complete lack of diversity in management, academia and naturally among policy makers. So few from other countries, other opnions and views, with the result that I see a Europe made up of a 1000 monocultures. The barriers have started to come up - for example the stupid attacks in Belfast by the Irish against the Romanians!! please forgive me for thinking that this was just a bit rich considering there are more Irish people outside Ireland! WHat if they were being beaten up?

So - the emergence of close minded protectionist barriers we see emergning around teh world is going to create a cramping of innovation, as entrepreneurs and especially entrpereneurially minded immigrants are prevented from free movement.

The USa wants to take a strategic view and ofcourse so will other coutnries. USA can probably do this because it is built on a history of immigation. For others - I think it will be really confusing by what they mean by strategic.

Time for liberals to apply themselves to this question..

comments here or via www.twitter.com/shaivyakarnam

Tuesday 23 June 2009

Is money well spent on entrereneurship education

UK Government provides millions for entrepreneurship education to schools, Further education programmes and to Higher Education. And I mean millions.

Broadly these funds go to secondary schools to ensure 5 days worth of entrpreneurship education (but political correctness means we have to call it "enterprise education" - whatever that is)

Those who have not gone to University but into more vocational education (FE) get very patchy support - mostly based on regional efforts, while in teh Higher Education sector there are two main sources of funding - one for commercialisation and one for transferable skills. Both of these manifest themselves ultimatley into entrepreneurship courses and activities of one kind or another.

There is ofcourse no co-ordination with the result that there is much redundancy, poor quality and uninformed courses. And there is some excellent work being done as well.

The UK has the luxury of actually having so much provision that we can even ask and challenge with such questions - whereas many of its European neighbours have nothing (relatively). So two questions arise:

How do we make things sharper and more effective so every Pound spent is more wisely spent and two does it matter if there is some redundancy - because at least there is something, while the neighbours still struggle with acknowledging the need.

Is this a serious matter and what shoudl we do about it?

Wednesday 17 June 2009

Entrepreneur in different languages

In Spanish: Emprendedor
In Finnish: Yrittäjä - More or less meaning someone who tries
By Carlos del Corral Product design and development manager
posted 1 hour ago
In German it's "Unternehmer" which, like in French, literally means "someone who undertakes to do something". It's a pity that the translation into English of "Undertaker" has a very different meaning !!
By Keith Haisman Interim Manager, Turnaround Director and Executive Coach
posted 45 minutes ago
And like the word manager has this term been hijacked!?

By the way for those of you who have placed comments I can't seem to figure out how to allow people to view the comments - although I have moderated and published them. There must a button I am missing! So - here are the definitions captured so far!

Sunday 14 June 2009

Oxford and Cambridge only two medieval Universities that have a strong provision of entrepreneurship education

As Cambridge celebrates 800 years of progress, which together with Oxford is the only University which is ranked in single digits!

Year, University, Ranking(08) Country

1088 Bologna 192 = Italy
1096 Oxford 4 UK
1175 Modena 501+ Italy

1200 Sorbonne (Paris IV) 239= France
1209 Cambridge 3 UK
1218 Salamanca 401-500 Spain
1220 Montpellier III 501+ France
1222 Padua 296= Italy
1224 Naples – Frederico II 398= Italy
1229 Toulouse I 501+ France
1229 Toulouse II 501+ France
1240 Siena 401-500 Italy
1258 Paris I (Pantheon Sorbonne) 288 France
1272 Murcia 501+ Spain
1290 Coimbra 387= Portugal
1293 Madrid 306 Spain

Source: Times Higher Education List of the World’s Oldest Universities that are among the top ranking Institutions

How have these two medieval Institutions risen to the top to compete with modern Universities in the USA, which is where the bulk of the very top Universities are found?

Is it that they have secured more money, that they control publications, that English has become the dominant language or because they are secular in their research and inquiry?

For me the interesting fact is that it is only Oxford and Cambridge among the medieval institutions, selected for being among the oldest, that have a provision of entrepreneurship education for their undergrads and postgraduates. They both happen to be in the UK which has embraced commercialisation and skills for employability as strong values for their Universities - so they get funded to provide this.

The long term question may be about whether such education and the adoption of new values (entrepreneurship) will deflect from excellence or continue to enhance it. If you take the top Institutions around the world - they are all surrounded by technology entrepreneurship clusters. Hmm, raises a lot of questions!

Saturday 13 June 2009

Is there opportunity in getting rid of aging?

The following is an extract from http://www.sens.org/index.php?pagename=sens_rab


Two thirds of all deaths worldwide, and about 90% of all deaths in the developed world, are from causes that only rarely kill young adults. These causes include Alzheimer's, cardiovascular disease, Type II diabetes and most cancers. They are age-related because they are expressions of the later stages of aging, occurring when the molecular and cellular damage that has accumulated in the body throughout life exceeds the level that metabolism can tolerate. Moreover, before it kills them, aging imposes on most elderly people a long period of debilitation and disease. For these reasons, aging is unarguably the most prevalent medically-relevant phenomenon in the modern world and the primary ultimate target of biomedical research.

The implication is that as researchers get to grips with the vision of the SENS Foundation - there would be a stream of opportunities. And there are enough ethical issues to get us talking as well...

Sunday 7 June 2009

Is there a word for entrepreneur in languages other than French

Over the past 6 months I have had an opportunity to travel to several countries and it seems to me that only French has a real word to capture the essence of what it is to be an innovator that brings an idea to market. English has largely borroed from the French - but has a word Enterpriser, there are similar words in Castallan (Spanish) but I would like to hear from others if their languages and cultures have a word directly translatable to "entrpreneur".

So the former President Bush got it completely wrong in one sense - the French to have a word for Entrepreneur - but do other languages and cultures?

What I found interesting in Jordan - during a recent visit is that in Arabic there is no such word - but there is one for failure - and it is not just descriptive - it is a really strong form of "insult"....

Maybe we don't need a word in other languages for "entrepreneur" - but it seems a shame...

Tuesday 2 June 2009

Never trust overpaid fools but let us not confuse ethics with education

“I hope we never again trust overpaid fools who think they know best thanks to bogus theories! This was the end line from a piece by Luke Johnson in the Financial Times on Friday 29th May in FT.com.

I completely agree that the world should not trust overpaid fools. It seems to me that while Luke Johnson makes a very valid point that entrepreneurs with a strong element of common sense and intuition as guiding principles over the jargon filled board rooms of corporate would not have made the catastrophic decisions that have led finally to companies like GM filing for bankruptcy, he over simplifies the story.
The costs of instinct, gut feel and down to earth decisions can also have a high price – it is not a perfect system. Investors always talk about the need to have a portfolio of say 10 or more companies, from which they hope one will bring in the big returns, acknowledge that four or five will remain as part of the living dead in the portfolio and accept the losses they may incur in the remainder of the portfolio. How come that intuition and common sense also lead to the endless churn of management teams as investors get fed up with their top teams and fire them in favour of yet more people coming in from their close network of people with common sense, intuition and it seems increasingly, a further requirement – dyslexia? (Most commonly trotted out as a disadvantage in articles on entrepreneurship).
Common sense and down to earth ability of entrepreneurs have also lead to high levels of success or failure in terms of the performance of millions of small businesses in the UK and indeed around the world.
Intuition and common sense are required in good measure in business, but they are not the only requirements. And it is true that highly educated individuals who have lost this ability are a burden, not just in business but also in society. Luke Johnson could have written about business ethics and societal values in his article more than about the virtues of untrained and uneducated entrepreneurs.
It is important to differentiate between formal know-what and informal know-how and indeed know-who in entrepreneurship. Often people confuse entrepreneurship education with a kind of business studies or business plan writing course. Formal understanding of business principles and theories that have stood the test of time are invaluable to the majority of people. In addition it is important to have a high level of self-awareness, social skills, and an ability to pitch a story, practical skills and to build a network of individuals who can help each other. Most, if not all of this is best learnt from practitioners and the role of Universities is to help put programmes and events in place that can provide the best of insights from formal and informal sources to enrich society with people who can make a difference. And while I agree completely with Luke Johnson that we never want to trust over paid fools again, let us not confuse education with ethical behaviours – which can be violated by both the overpaid fools and by entrepreneurs.

Tuesday 19 May 2009

Why Entrepreneurship Education Is Important for Social Inclusion

The most fundamental reason for thinking about entrepreneurship at the grass roots is to find
sustainable solutions to overcoming the injustices of poverty, which is evidenced by malnutrition, low life expectancy, indifferent educational attainment, poor access to water, inadequate healthcare and exclusion from the benefits of economic and technological progress. Witnessing progress all around while remaining poor can also create a feeling of hopelessness, dependency and low levels of self-esteem and aspiration. These are human conditions that can tear at the soul of a people. The arguments are well rehearsed and supported in many academic and policy documents, and they
are highlighted by the UN Millennium Development Goals. How can entrepreneurship education address these issues and create a wider participation in economic, social and health benefits?


We can draw a boundary around entrepreneurship education as comprising the following three components:

Personal development
Entrepreneurship education should build confidence, motivate progress, strengthen the
entrepreneurial mindset, foster a desire to achieve and inspire action.
Business development
Technical, financial literacy and skills to engage in self-employment, employment and in
entrepreneurship that can lead to self-improvement. This would include the expected
business and functional curricula.
Entrepreneurial skill development
Entrepreneurship education should provide training in social skills, networking, creative
problem solving, opportunity seeking, selling, interviewing, presentations, group leadership,
community co-operation, dealing with bureaucracy, local cultural norms and how they affect
business, etc.

There is a growing body of literature that entrepreneurial learning needs to focus as much on personal development and social skills as on business development. This would argue for a blended learning
experience where business knowledge and skills are combined with the best of tools and approaches taken from training events.

However, we need to draw on sound platforms of knowledge and understanding about
personal development. Otherwise we risk a fair accusation that we are merely running feel
good events without measurable, tangible outcomes and unrelated to any particular
understanding of human aspirations, behaviours and motivation.

Beyond the development of the individual we also need to work towards getting society and the “supply side” fit for enterprise. In seeking to create awareness and social acceptance of entrepreneurship, careful thought needs to be given to the role of media. Television and radio can present cases, news, information and engaging programmes to deliver a more positive message about enterprise and entrepreneurship. This is quite important to help overcome negativity that might exist in society and where low trust in free markets persist. In addition to mass media, NGOs and other grass roots agencies might be brought together to help engage people more directly through schools, community centres, village halls, church and other religious organizations.

On the supply side e.g. educational institutions, civic organizations, business
development agencies and NGOs education needs to cover the role of entrepreneurship education, entrepreneurial finance, fair play, regulations, managing civic administration, banking rules and so forth. They need to understand and feel the emotional content of entrepreneurship. They also need role models of entrepreneurs as change agents in society, demystifying entrepreneurship for policy, civic administration and education.

If we understand the “what” we need to think about “who” delivers. The most credible educators posses the following characteristics:

•A grasp of arguments “about” entrepreneurship and “for” entrepreneurship.
•Understand that there is more than one way in which people learn and
that educators need to tap into individual motivations, circumstances and make sense of
the wider ecosystem in which individuals continue their enterprises.
•A grasp of the practice of enterprise, through the experience of more than
one type of venture. Especially, when being from the same cultural/economic background
they are able to relate to the nuances of context when imparting the education.
•They have social capital that permits them to link their students with people who can provide practical help.


Entrepreneurship education for the supply side

The supply side needs to discuss the role of entrepreneurship education, entrepreneurial
finance, fair play, regulations, managing civic administration, banking rules and so forth. They
need to understand and feel the emotional content of entrepreneurs. They also need role models of entrepreneurs as change agents in society, demystifying entrepreneurship. They need to work towards creating higher levels of aspiration.

So what should we do to take the next steps in implementing entrepreneurship education for enhanced social inclusion?

Governments need to commit to long-term, sustained (5-10 years) funding. This is as important as the provision of health services, broader education. It can lead to people who are better equipped to participate in the economy.

Governments need to review legislation that holds back entrepreneurship. In many countries the
legislation (red tape) is so cumbersome that entrepreneurs prefer to operate in the informal sector
and so they remain outside the scope of effective assistance, outside formal banking support and
suffer many other disadvantages.

Stakeholders, such as not-for-profit organisations, large local and multinational companies, well established entrepreneurs and others need to come together in networks to create an ecosystem
in which entrepreneurship can flourish.

Multilateral Organizations such as the UN ought to create Web-based resources, knowledge-sharing
platforms and networks of educators. The world is full of teaching materials, but finding them is a challenge.

Governments and stakeholders need to provide resources (sponsorship) for access to worldclass
journals and publications so that educators and trainers can be encouraged to read what is
cutting edge and current. Many of these journals and publications are simply not available to
educators and trainers in poor countries and so they risk being stuck with old materials, ideas and
methods.

Educators, trainers and institutions should adapt their curricula, to ensure that it is relevant, cutting edge, fresh and dynamic. It is time to go beyond the “teaching of business plans”. Educators and trainers also need to be embedded in the context and provide access to resources, markets and opportunities, not just “training.”

Policy-makers, educators, entrepreneurs and sponsors need to come together in conferences on
a sufficiently large scale to raise standards, increase the volumes of participation and find appropriate local, regional and national solutions so that entrepreneurship education can have a positive impact at the grass roots.

Television must not be ignored as it has a major reach across society and can be influential in transmitting ideas and raising aspirations.

Finally, the vast majority of the working people in the world are self-employed or work in small organizations, but as yet their income levels are not sufficient to lift people above grinding poverty and hit the targets set under Millennium Development Goals. While economic and political reforms play an important role in setting the scene, people need the knowledge, skills and mindset to take advantage of opportunities. It is hoped that this contribution can help make a difference in this arena.

Tuesday 14 April 2009

Seattle and Starbucks and lessons in innovation

I am visiting Microsoft for an Innovation outreach summit - where about 11 of the world's largest companies are getting together - so a walk around PikePlace in downtown Seattle was going to be a sharp contrast to the next couple of days!

Here is an atmosphere of highly sophisticated (looking) retailers selling all manner of products which when you get them home you have to wonder - why you bought them. It is also home to the first ever Starbucks and so it is possible to envisage that from small acorns...and all that. It seems to be a matter of vision and intent as much as anything else. There is no rocket science to selling good coffee so to grow from a single shop to a global brand must simply be a matter of entrepreneurial imagination and folow through.

Now that they are as big as they - will they ever be able to do something like that again? Although I admire the company - I am not a great fan of the coffee!! Mainly because they seem to sell it in buckets rather than in cups or in quantities that one can manage - perhaps they learnt in old Dinosaur School of Waste.

Nearby there was coffee that was excellent in cup sizes you could manage and if you go anywhere else in the world you can get pretty much a "shot" and pay a price that is also pretty much a shot.

So here is the challenge - how do we keep pace with what customers want and need? Everything else as questions go seems to be noise!?

Wednesday 1 April 2009

The most ostentatious display of power and debt

Call me a grumpy old man - or it may be that it is April Fools Day - but what can one make of the fact that the American President - especially and 19 other leaders believe they have the right to the most ludicrous display of power.

3 CEOs of GM, Ford and Chrysler were asked to give up their private planes if they wanted a bail out from the US President! Well how come then that the US President travels in Air Force One, has a fleet of helicopters, cavalcades etc., etc., etc., in order to appeal to the rest of the world to help "rescue" the USA!

And are we really to believe that the advisors, senior leaders and others who got is so badly wrong in the past decade are the very ones who now have the "right" answers? Where is the intellectual debate regarding the problems and solutions? It is just so full of opinions and if we are to be dominated by the "chcago" school of economics I am nervous about how best to advice up and coming entrepreneurs about how to plan for the future?

With leaders more concerned with the display of their power and debt - jousting for positions and sound bites - it seems to me that the "man in the street" will have to learn how to be even more adaptable in the future. It is 200 years ago that Darwin was born and it seems to me that at least in economics - it is going to be the entrepreneurial (adaptable) that will survive.

Sure hard working leaders need security - so why do they not just turn up quietly, do the work and get back to their offices! I am really being a grump - but the idea that as tax payers we should see a kind of Roman Emperor entering the City just strikes me as a distraction from getting the work done!

There I have got it out of the system and hope that the leaders come up with something positive!

Friday 27 February 2009

Professor Chris Abell speaks on Astex Therapeutics



It would seem that in most countries and in many cultures – there is a clear separation between good science and business. It is almost heretical in the so-called traditional institutions for eminent Professors to engage in enterprise! Well – Cambridge, being among the top Institutions on a global basis has clearly demonstrated that such a schism in thinking is medieval!
The University of Cambridge is celebrating its 800th year birthday and the 200th year of Darwin – all in 2009! And within this context it is refreshing to see and hear a speech that flicks eminently between deep science – stuff that gets published and cited in journals of the highest standard and enterprise that results in raising some $100m venture capital while creating a pipeline of deals with the pharma industry worth over a $1 billion!
How did all this happen? First and foremost – have a big idea – even if it is not entirely clearly articulated or developed. Secondly – gather up the world’s leading scholar – stardust in academic terms. Talk to investors who understand your science and the big idea and set about helping you to shape the big idea into a proposal that can be made to happen.
So – is there luck in this? Maybe – if you think about timing and the economic environment. After all you have to have a bubble you can ride on to raise money relatively easily. But in reality so many great companies have been formed in a downturn – it would seem that a big idea and a great team are far greater influencers of success.
What did a scientist learn from “doing it”?
Starting small in a little office, and funds form Abingworth (venture capital) to fund a number of top quality post docs – got a “soft start” underway.
Started without any IP – and managed to get money for the idea and that the technology would develop and IP generated as a result of further good science in an enterprising environment
Interviewing in a fast growth business is hard and far more time consuming than you can imagine – and it is the scientist who has to engage in this along with other colleagues. It is such a crucial step.
The lab spaces get as cluttered as the University – it is the same mind set of scientists who are employed – but this makes people feel comfortable and “at home”.
Having people who are good economists around enables the company to see the cold winter approach in 2002 and so the burn rate was slowed to ensure that the company can survive any form of economic downturn.
Building the IP portfolio and publishing in top journal has been very satisfactory – giving the people and the company credibility in both environments.

Thursday 29 January 2009

Mike Lynch tells it like it is

Mike Lynch – CEO of Autonomy comes with a very credible track record – especially for a technology entrepreneur in the UK (and Cambridge). He is one of the very few people I know that has taken a company from the bedroom to being a $500m sales company in software/high tech; done IPOs, acquired a US competitor and remained CEO. The usual story in the UK is that the founders are either fired by the investors in one of the funding rounds or make an exit to take up new careers as business angels, non execs and so forth. In a way the high tech founders are serial entrepreneurs and not global CEOs.
Mike talked about building the dream team – in fact he talked about how to do this and what the background grunt and grind is – to make such a thing happen. Here are just a few tips:
The need to set a cultural tone to the business – to ensure it remain entrepreneurial by having the vision and energy of the entrepreneurial founder on tap, visible and ensuring the sense of urgency, flexibility, hunger remains at the of the agenda on a daily basis.
To hire the best people- being elitist – because the marginal extra cost of hiring the best person is minimal to the cost of hiring a second best person.
Try and get people who are obsessive about what they do, with a passion for their professional skills. They may get hard to manage – but they will have a preference for action and ensuring their work is to a high standard.
The cultural tone needs to be one where people can admit mistakes , learn and get on. You need to avoid the “myth of properly” – i.e. people who say things like “if only we did things properly around here” – because there is no such thing as properly – only things that meet customer needs.
Ask yourself – who would want to work for entrepreneurs?! the initial pay is low, there is no job security, the journey will be a roller coaster ride..The only reason someone will work for an entrepreneur is because of the likely upside, the fun and because they have bought into a strong vision of the possibilities. On this point Mike also had advice for people applying to work with entrepreneurs who have a strong vision – when you do get invited to join – don’t ask where the coke machine is!!? Entrepreneurs want to hire self-starters, people who “get-it” and will make up their own rules and get things done – not people who need a lot of nursing from the founder.
On the other side to all this rock and roll – is the simple human factor – treat people fairly, reward them fairly, take care of them when they go through some personal life issues. And work hard to kill off politics in the organisation and the potential spread of cultural poison – negativity can hurt.
The implication for leaders is that they need to remain upbeat, energetic, have a sense o f fun and at times be willing to take tough decisions – quickly.
Mike had a lot more to say (about doing business) and he was videoed – and this video will be edited and placed on www.cfel.jbs.cam.ac.uk in due course along with some of the other lectures that have gone onto to site (under resources)

Thursday 22 January 2009

Levi Roots to success with reggae reggae sauce

Levi Roots first came to public prominence on BBC’s Dragons Den series 4 episode 1, when he blew the Dragons away by making his pitch for funding by singing and playing his guitar. Two of the so-called Dragons invested in him and his product and although they took a large slice of his company for a relatively small initial cash investment, the real value it seems came later in teh quality of advice, networks and publicity they were able to generate.
So now Levi owns a small share of a large bottle of sauce rather than all of a small bottle. The crucial thing about this reggae singing musician is that he is completely in tune with the harsh reality of capitalism! He seems comfortable with the idea of sharing, being open with his ideas and inclusive in the people who help him run the business. Although in reality it seems like all his 7 children and his 4 year old grandchild are involved, not to mention his mother and his grandmother who were both strong influences on him!
So what are the top 5 points we can learn from Levi?
You need to start out in life as a self-starter, energetic and being willing to have a go. If you are inhibited and wait for others to lead you all you can do is get into trouble or just plain do nothing.
As you search around and become alert to opportunities, you might find something about which you believe in passionately – this is the starting point of forming a dream that you can then set out to turn into a business.
You need to plan for the long term, because it is going to be tough and if your dream is to make a difference and make it big you will need to be persistent, patient and keep at it over the lkng haul of the roller coaster ride.
Get real advice – find a top quality lawyer, a good accountant and get a mentor who has been there and done it before. These are almost the first steps to any form of success.
Do what it takes to stand out from the crowd. There are a lot of people, lot of ideas and if you just do what everyone else does, you will disappear into the wallpaper. You have to really learn to communicate, have a truly excellent product or service and build a top quality team that gets noticed.
Beyond these high level lessons from Levi, oozing with self confidence and driven at the same time by a sense of spirituality and common sense in business, a key moment arose in his business when his mentors turned Levi Roots from being a product based company into a brand. Levi is charismatic and a great communicator, so his shareholders have advised him to go and give speeches, build the brand and leave the sauce making and selling to the others in the company.
He has certainly demonstrated a thorough capacity to learn and be open to learning, which is something I have seen in many other entrepreneurs. This flexibility of mind, openness and yet a dogged ability to see things through is what differentiates the bright ideas bod from the successful entrepreneur. Good luck Levi – we hope to see you back in Cambridge.