Entrepreneurs

Digitalisation, Entrepreneurs, Management, Strategy, Trend Spotting

WhatsApp scuppers the B2B market

Diversity today is a key topic – how to achieve the right mix of talents, backgrounds and human characteristics in the teams we build and, in many ways, how to avoid missing out because we failed to include some. My project to test WhapsApp as a business channel has delivered some startling results already, and…
Entrepreneurs, Investors, Management, Trend Spotting

These waves are exciting!

This is a really exciting time to be in the thick of early stage business, and possibly the most exciting time yet in the five decades I’ve been doing this. I stumbled on an interview with the great mathematician, the late Dr. Jacob Bronowski. (BBC) He was obviously really excited about the two epochs of…
Entrepreneurs, Investors, Management, Strategy, Trend Spotting

Are humans the ultimate differentiator?

Josiah Wedgewood had a lot to do with it. Within four years of starting in 1759, he’d begun to get orders from royalty and the aristocracy, and was one of the first to use celebrity endorsements to power sales to the growing middle classes. He was able to industrialise the production of pottery through his…
Entrepreneurs, Investors, Management

Why The Big Short was about entrepreneurs

It’s 2006 and we’re at Ceasar’s Palace at the Las Vegas Securitization Conference, and the guy at the lecturn is self-congratulatory, saying: “Ladies and gentlemen, business is good, profits are strong, and the mortgage continues to be the bedrock on which this economy is built”. He gets a huge round of applause. Of course, we…
Entrepreneurs, Investors, Management, Strategy

Selling up is a capital idea if you’re Tarzan

A new mortgage product was launched in Denmark last week, and it was a global first; the first mortgage with a negative interest rate. Jyske Bank, the third largest there, is offering a 10 year deal at -0.5%. They say that borrowers will still make a payment each month, as with other mortgages, but the…
Entrepreneurs, Investors, Management, Strategy, Trend Spotting

Elephants’ feet need not be threatening

Autocomplete has its uses, it does save a bit of time, but it can be illuminating in that it gives an insight into what the most popular searches might be. Type in Should Apple – the first entry that autocomplete suggests is: Should Apples be kept in the fridge. So what, you might ask?  That’s…
Entrepreneurs, Management, Organisation, Strategy

Change before you have to

Management is all about being proactive and avoiding problems, not being good at coping. At the inquest into the London bombings, a security officer said that their workload with terrorists was so big that “…we only had time to deal with the crocodiles nearest the boat”. In fast growth companies, the CEO’s obsession must be…