Entrepreneurs

Digitalisation, Entrepreneurs, Investors, Strategy, Trend Spotting

Data seems to matter to everyone but people

So Norway is joining the space community and launching two satellites to deliver broadband to its northern regions up near the Arctic. The ground stations will be government run, they say it’s so that they remain in control, and the satellites are going to be carrying the latest defensive technologies like anti-jamming and protection against…
Entrepreneurs, Executing, Investors, Management

At last I see some certainty about start-ups

There was a time when a start-up was really early stage, typically pre-revenue, but the last five years or so have changed all that. Search the Financial Times for the phrase, for example, and you get results for seemingly all stages of ventures from IP spinouts from Universities to things like WeWork, Uber, Oyo, and…
Entrepreneurs, Executing, Investors, Management, Strategy

737Max, WeWork, and how tech can deceive

It looks as though the crew on the flight deck of the Lion Air 737Max that crashed, killing all 189 on board, behaved very differently from the crew that flew the same plane successfully the day before. The accounts of the final crash report point to a faulty sensor that convinced the plane’s software to…
Entrepreneurs, Executing, Investors, Management, Organisation

Pre-flight checks for business

Before you get airborne I used to fly helicopters, and we always used to say: “I’d rather be down here wishing I was up there, than up there wishing I was down here!”. Pre-flight checks are more important than flying: you could do one without the other, but never the other without the one. Those…
Entrepreneurs, Executing, Investors, Management

These conditions require skillful driving

Is it just me? I don’t remember a time when so much was out of the ordinary. Is it just me or is everything more bonkers than usual? For a business decision maker it’s like driving into a blizzard. It’s hard to know what to concentrate on and what to ignore. Fortunately, most of us…
Entrepreneurs, Investors, Management

Make Believe Startups

A suspense account is an account used temporarily or permanently to carry doubtful entries and discrepancies pending their analysis and permanent classification. I stumbled on a definition of Suspense Account this week. It wasn’t what I was looking for but it started me thinking how many startups ought to go into a suspense account somewhere….
Entrepreneurs, Executing, Investors, Management

Are we nearly there yet?

Executing: Sales as you go to market Nuances of progress are not seen and understood by everyone on the journey to market, which can lead to frustration and misjudgements. Boardroom frustrations My kids disliked car journeys like most do, and we became all too familiar with that most difficult of questions: “Are we nearly there…
Entrepreneurs, Executing, Investors, Management, Organisation

Experience is not what it used to be

As parents, we’re delighted when our new infants finally manage to match the shape with the shaped hole in the learning toy. We show them pictures of fish, cats, dogs, lions, and play the same “what’s this?” game that’s been played by parents and grandparents for decades. Humans are good at this pattern matching and…
Entrepreneurs, Investors, Management

Can entrepreneurialism be taught?

Gillian Tett’s thoughtful review of She Said – “A moving account of how the Weinstein story broke” – described someone that sounded like a dictator and a bully. He did build a significant company. TWC experienced financial turbulence, lay-offs and the ups and downs of the industry, but it produced a string of high grossing…
Entrepreneurs, Investors, Strategy, Trend Spotting

Human engagement is a big opportunity

Martha has created a wonderful business in Sheffield (YouTube), and she has shared her adventurous journey with her friends and customers on social media. Forge Bakehouse is now a thriving business with a growing following (Facebook). Her enthusiasm is infectious! What’s not to like as you buy your three Pastéis de Nata? ForgeBakehouse is one…
Digitalisation, Entrepreneurs, Investors, Trend Spotting

The Good, the Bad, and the Surreptitious

What is it about humans? Protest against the introduction of new technology is hardly new. How far back do you want to go? Agricultural workers were protesting in the 1830s about the new threshing machines that were undermining their livelihood. (Wikipedia) If the subject intrigues you, then try the excellent Shield of Achilles, which examines…
Entrepreneurs, Executing, Investors, Management, Trend Spotting

We need to talk about losses

Slack published its first results since going public, forecasting higher than expected losses. Why are they higher than expected? Is it because they know what they’re doing or because they don’t? The shares fell 15%, which suggests that some decided that it’s the latter. (CityAM) Elsewhere, we now know that WeWork Is the Most Ridiculous…