According to the anthropologist David Graeber, most people in our economy are doing “bullshit jobs”, meaningless activities that only serve the machine and feed the hierarchy rather than make a real difference or economic contribution. Fewer and fewer people are doing productive jobs because these are increasingly being automated away, as was predicted by the […] Read More…
I love the Business Model Canvas*. I know it’s a bit sad but ever since I first saw it in the book “Business Model Generation”, I have been besotted. It just fits the way that I see things, the way that I think about businesses. As a tool, I’ve used it** with businesses of all […] Read More…
No-one wants to read your business plan. I know you’ve spent hours on it. And that’s just the formatting. But no-one’s interested in reading it. It’s a work of fiction that’s out-of-date the second you finish it. It’s about as relevant to your business as Game of Thrones but, without the sex and violence, much […] Read More…
I first came across the word “Intrapreneur” when I read a book review in Marketing Week magazine many years ago. I remember thinking “I might be one of those” and “I must read that book”. It turned out I was (and I didn’t, which was probably an error on my part). An intrapreneur is an […] Read More…
I am a big fan of the Business Model Canvas as a tool to get people to think about their business models and play around with ideas. It’s fun, it’s accessible and it generates lots of questions and discussions. I use it a lot. www.businessmodelgeneration.com I ran a workshop the other day to introduce it […] Read More…
There is a general perception that you need to have a ‘Big Idea’ for your start-up, a compelling vision, a clear picture of what you are trying to create. The heroic entrepreneur, armed with this brilliant idea, this killer app, carries all before them and triumphs over the vicissitudes and setbacks to build a successful […] Read More…
I’ve been reading and studying around the new thinking on ‘Entrepreneurship’ (I don’t find that a useful word. Let’s call it “starting companies”). I was pointed at The Lean Startup because “you talk about the same stuff as is in the book”; and I loved it. I was already a big fan of Business Model […] Read More…
“If I’d have asked people what they wanted, they’d have said a faster horse”. People (well, geeks and start-ups types) love to trot this quote out about Henry Ford. He didn’t use market research or focus groups, he saw a need people didn’t know they had. It shows what a great visionary he was. Only […] Read More…
Last night I attended the excellent “Don’t Pitch Me Bro”event at the Wayra UK Academy, run by the multi-facetted 3beards (who also run Silicon Drinkabout and Digital Sizzle). You may have spotted it has been subtly retitled for Movember – you can support the Digital Sizzle team here. This is a ‘show and tell’ […] Read More…