Dr David Bozward

Category: Blog

  • Institutional & Education Enterprise Requirements for Peer-Led Team Learning

    There are numerous studies (Astin (1999) and Terenzini (1996) ) who highlight the advances of peer led learning within the educational institution, creating a strong evidence base for peer led student enterprise groups.

    Astin, (1999) Proposes a student involvement theory whereby the High Education institution could use to measure ‘student involvement’ using a metric which refers to the quantity and quality of the physical and psychological energy that students invest in their experience whilst at the institution. This involvement may take many forms, such as absorption in academic work, participation in extracurricular activities, and interaction with faculty and other institutional personnel. According to the theory, the greater the student’s involvement in college, the greater will be the amount of student learning and personal development.

    Terenzini (1996) states that, students’ out-of-class experiences appear to be far more influential in students’ academic and intellectual development than many faculty members and academic and student affairs administrators think

    Slavin (1996) notes that the motivationalist critique of traditional classroom organization holds that the competitive grading and informal reward system of the classroom creates peer norms opposing academic efforts. Since one student’s success decreases the chances that others will succeed, students are likely to express norms that high achievement is for “nerds” or teachers’ pets. Such work restriction norms are familiar in industry, where the “rate buster” is scorned by his or her fellow workers Vroom (1969). However, by having students work together toward a common goal, they may be motivated to express norms favoring academic achievement, to reinforce one another for academic efforts.

    As a learning pedagogical, Peer-Led Team Learning, whether project-based learning (PBL), game-based learning (GBL), Understanding by Design (UbD), or authentic literacy. Peer-Led Team Learning (PLTL) is a specific form of small group learning recognized by Project Kaleidoscope as best practice pedagogy (Varma Nelson et al 2004). PLTL was first developed by Woodward, Gosser,and Weiner (1993) as an integrated method that promoted discourse and creative problem solving Evaluation of the successful implementations of PLTL have suggested six critical components which fits well within our student led enterprise groups, especially within the further education sector:

    • Peer-Led Team Learning in integral to the course.
    • Peer-leaders are trained in leadership skills.
    • Faculty or Subject areas are involved.
    • Materials for workshops are challenging and promote collaborative effort.
    • Space and noise level acceptable for group discussion and work.
    • Peer-Led Team Learning is integrated into the institutional structure.

    The institutional enterprise strategy will determine the characteristics of the Peer-Led group and the empowerment student are provided.

  • Finding a Social Entrepreneur

    Finding a Social Entrepreneur

    The development of social enterprise over the last few years has lead to a wider appeal and also an increase in students looking at enterprise as a career option. These students are looking at the problems within their society and developing innovative solutions to the problems of today. This will be one of the core legacies of this recession as the young have seen how corporate greed can and does lead to a range of social and ethical issues.

    We can not rely on bankers to mess up the economy so we can create greater social entrepreneurs.

    So what are the core characteristics and triggers for social enterprise and entrepreneurs ?

    Social enterprise is not new, so there is much evidence into its impact and development.  (Zahra et al). So reviewing some of the literature we essential have three types of social entrepreneur.

    1. Social Bricoleur : who is focused on small scale local social needs
    2. Social Constructionist : who exploits opportunities and market failures in order to introduce reforms in “broader” social system
    3. Social Engineer : who recognizes systemic failures and addresses them by introducing revolutionary change

    Once we understand these three types, the development of the civic, social system and revolutionary change means we can identify a number of personal characteristics or attributes which the social entrepreneurs should hold, (Brooks pp12)

    • Innovativeness
    • Achievement Orientation
    • Independence
    • Sense of control over destiny
    • Low risk-aversion
    • Tolerance for ambiguity
    • Community awareness and social concerns

    The first six are standard entrepreneurial attributes which you can find in the majority of literature and also entrepreneur tests, with the the seven being the community  aspect which introduces the social aspect of the entrepreneur.

    These characteristics allow a level of entrepreneurship to exists when triggered. These trigger points are important (e.g. Banking Crisis). There are five entrepreneur trigger points which (Brooks, pp9).

    • Environment
    • Resources
    • Perturbation / Displacement
    • Personal Traits
    • Preparation

    The majority of universities now have greater support for social enterprise, through partnerships with UnLtd and charitable organizations. These help create the right environment and provide the much needed resources to develop the idea. The education preparation for social entrepreneurship has been embedded into our education system for many years. Within the HE sector, we can see great examples from RAG, ENACTUS to formal Volunteering.

    The social entrepreneur provides an opportunity to work with a real local issue and develop an eco system which ensures  real role models and local engagement for a wider set of students throughout their degrees. This is important in developing and maintaining our local economies.

    By understanding the trigger points for social enterprise, we can help develop the skills and personal characteristics within our education system for successful social entrepreneurs.

  • New term, New version of Enterprise

    For the student entrepreneur there is a great amount of support out there. However, this support is not well co-ordinated by the suppliers or by the university or college. Of course if you google “enterprise support” you get (Enterprise Support Services UK Ltd are a cleaning company based in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire)

    However is a great list all students should take a look at:

  • Entrepreneurship – In Context

    Enterprise and entrepreneurship is a key driver in economic growth and can be a huge part of the solution to unemployment. Its impact also affects the whole of civilization because of the advancement in innovation technology as well as the creation of jobs that in consequence reduce poverty, according to Ernst and Young’s (2011).

    “Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with less than 250 employees make up two-thirds of total employment in OECD countries. The European Commission showed in its SME Performance Review that the number of jobs in SMEs had increased at an average annual rate of 1.9%, while the number of jobs in larger enterprises increased by only 0.8% between 2002 and 2008” Ernst and Young (2011).

    Ideally, governments should take an all-inclusive approach, which promotes the strengthening of the entire entrepreneurship environment. However, doing this first requires accurately measuring the multi-layered phenomenon that is entrepreneurship, as well as understanding the impact of a host of different factors on the level of entrepreneurship in a country. “These include the quality of the physical infrastructure, the health of the population, the level of education, the pace of adoption of new technologies and many other macro and micro factors” Ernst and Young (2011).

    Therefore, is it essential that a ‘framework’ that can measure entrepreneurship accurately whilst analysing KPI’s (key performance indicators).

    Among the key findings in Ernst and Young’s (2011) report:

    1. Self-confidence is key
    Our overall analysis provides a clear overview of where the G20 member countries stand with respect to fostering entrepreneurship. Combining two of our key findings — entrepreneurs’ confidence in their own country, and new business density

    2. Entrepreneurship culture
    The culture of a country can affect entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship on many levels. Our perceptions survey was central to our analysis of whether the culture of a country is conducive to Entrepreneurship.

    3. Education and training
    We go beyond looking at the overall performance of the educational system, to take a closer look at entrepreneurship specific education and assess how important this is for encouraging entrepreneurship.

    4. Access to funding
    Securing access to funding, both at the start-up phase and at later stages of enterprise development, is one of the biggest challenges for young entrepreneurs. We analyze the experiences of entrepreneurs in accessing funding across the G20 countries, and find some dramatic differences and valuable lessons.

    5. Regulation and taxation
    The regulatory and taxation environment is one of the areas in which governments have a key role in providing an enabling environment for entrepreneurial growth.

    6. Coordinated support
    There are typically a number of different agencies involved in facilitating and supporting entrepreneurship within a country. The level of support these agencies provide — and the extent to which they coordinate with one another — can make a crucial difference to the entrepreneurship Environment.

    This increasing entrepreneurship and recognition of small enterprises in the health of the economy is also highlighted in recent reports.

    According to the UK National Statistics (Nation. Stats 2012), the actual increase in the total business population between the start of 2011 and the start of 2012 will lie between 200,000 (4.4 per cent) and 253,000 (5.6 per cent).

    The 4.8 million private sector businesses employed an estimated 23.9 million people, and had an estimated combined annual turnover of £3,100 billion.

    The majority (62.7 per cent) of private sector businesses were sole proprietorships, 28.0 per cent were companies and 9.3 per cent were partnerships. At the start of 2012, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)3 accounted for 99.9 per cent of all private sector businesses, representing no change since 2011 and almost unchanged since 2000. SMEs also accounted for 59.1 per cent of private sector employment and 48.8 per cent of private sector turnover at the start of 2012.

    For (Heseltine 2012), the prize is potentially huge. There are about 3.6 million self-employed people and sole traders in the UK, and 1.2 million businesses with at least one employee. That is 4.8 million in total. It is a fact, often noted, that if just one in 10 of these businesses took on an employee, or an additional employee, that would increase employment by 480,000.

    In (Young 2012), it is estimated that if the UK had the same rate of entrepreneurship as the US, there would be approximately 900,000 additional businesses in the UK and that’s the real context for our stakeholders.

  • The real question is, IS the probability of failure is greater than the probability of success?

    Having studied statistics and quantum mechanics back in the late 80s at university (It has changed a little bit since then). I understand this life dimension runs between a number of statistic probabilities which in general provide a limited set of outcomes that on average can be determined. Thus having been born in the rural West Midlands(UK), living in a  village for the last 15 years, I will live until I’m 82 years old, as most of the street which I live on have. Job done!!

    I don’t believe in enterprise because I want to keep the status quo!! Everything must change, change is the only option,change is good, so how do I change the probability in the favor of enterprise?

    So should I even think about this?

    I was walking in the forest with my wife, its was during the snow fall last February on a Saturday afternoon. A big forest which leads no where and goes no where, its just a big forest. So what is the probability that we three sets of people meet at the same time(yes same time, same place, all within one metre of each other) these people…

    One man warring a three piece suite with two children, also carrying a pink bike
    One man caring two plastic shopping bags full of shopping
    A woman with two dogs talking on her mobile phone

    OK, I think its about 170 million to one.

    But if I could bottle it and give this to entrepreneurs who are starting a business, they would pay, being able to fix a 170 million one chance, just pure gold. Every day in my life I see these amazingly high probability opportunities come forward. I am sure I should say serendipity but  …

    The real question is, IS the probability of failure is greater than the probability of success?

    Given tomorrow, I will sit in a train carriage with a three other random people, who will never have meet, never meet again and spend a brief moment in time which will change the complete history of our galaxy.

    Those who fail are not recorded in history. Thus the probability of success is just equal to 1. (Which means the probability of failure is just zero which is why we where we are, right now)

    Given we will succeed, what path will you take in this?

  • Experience , Employability, Enterprise

    Having worked with a number of universities over the last five years, the motivation for providing any sort of entrepreneurial development is coming down to three core KPIs.

    When we consider the student within a university, they seek these three important indicators.

    Experience

    This aspect some years ago was the key reputation of the university. Now its about the enjoyment provided by the student’s union and the quality of the lecturing staff in providing an educational service. When you analysis the recent survey, the clear winners are those regional city universities which have professional on campus student services. The bottom of the table are those in major cities whose can not compete with the volume of other activities which the city offers.

    However, the table shows interesting deviations which when you compare with enterprise support at that university. For an increasing number of students the size of the student bar or the availability of a 24/7 hockey pitch are not on their radar.

    Employability

    The curriculum and the offered courses are sliding against the sledge hammer of change to accommodate the holy grail of employability and the consequential Destination of Leavers survey. Promoting and recruiting students which have less than a 50% chance of employability is an impossible task for the majority of universities.

    So embedding the opportunities to engage with business, gain valued experience and create a dialogue with employers which seek your students has to start, as always at fresher week and progress to the milk round and end with the much valued but of of reach alumni.

    Enterprise

    Everyone who goes to university should work in an enterprise. It may be government, social, charity, self employment, startup, SME or even a FTSE 250. In every case our students should know where they provide the value, which pays them their wages. Around this concept we develop our students with enterprise awareness and skills.

    I was listening to BIS minster who stated when Warwick University started their business school and student and staff tried to stop this, stating that universities and business should be separate.

    • Education and Business should always be aligned.
    • Research and Business should not always be aligned.

    Enterprise in education should accommodate the student requirements to service their desire to fulfill their career ambitions.This may be to work in business, government, freelancing or starting a business. Every single one of them should be entrepreneurial in their outlook to ensure they seek the opportunities available to them and the country.

  • Business plan competitions , the benefits for all

    Business plan competitions , the benefits for all

    The Business Plan Competition is one of the major tools for those institutions starting out with entrepreneurship as it provide a promotional platform for creating student awareness, real role models and institutional engagement. A large number of universities and colleges create an enterprise delivery strategy around this linchpin.  From this they can hang workshops such ideas creation, business skills and also more personalized services such as mentoring and accelerators.  

     

    If it is done correctly it can generate a significant interest in the student population, local business and senior management, growing at an annual rate to ensure competitors from all facility or schools within the institution. A true win win!

     

    So why should your institution run a business plan competition? 

    Enterprise Ethos

    There are very few projects within the university which develops the enterprise ethos of the institution. The business plan competition can be made to work with all academic departments, staff and students to ensure that the benefits of enterprise are understood in the context of the institution. This management tool requires careful development but will product results which will be lasting in changing the ethos.

     

    The development of students out of the class room is important in ensuring they understand that a continual approach to learning in the work place should be adopted at every stage of their life. The process of learning, developing new skills and applying them to real world problems in a creative way is one every degree student has to learn. 

    Celebration of enterprise

    The awards event should be a celebration of enterprise whereby everyone associated with university enterprise, staff, researchers, students, businesses, By engaging the Vice Chancellor to deliver prizes and keynote speech you can ensure some level of support from others within the university. 

    Skills Development 

    Students will develop new skills through a competitive behavior and engaging in a number of pre-submission sessions. This ensures that a wider number of students gain experience whilst also increasing the competitions’  finalist ability. This is especially important when dealing with the expectations of sponsors and also ensuring that a sufficient story can be provided to the press. These role models are especially important when developing a sustainable competition. When we look at shell live wire, the press and PR exposure provided to the finalist has always been exceptional, ensuring the further development of the finalists businesses.

    Student Role Models

    Student peer development is an important learning pedagogy which ensures wide spread appeal when embedding enterprise  into the student mindset. A diversity of business types and annual growth of this growth is an important factor for a student when seeking reassurance for their entrepreneurial thinking and endeavors. 

     

    It is important these role models are seen on event marketing collateral, made available during events and speak about their real life experiences. These experiences, should include The good, the bad and the ugly and should be demonstrated to the students that what ever life experiences come forward, its the learning from these that enables the entrepreneur to grow and succeed.

    Business & Alumni Collaboration

    It also brings in sponsors from businesses and more importantly alumni. These groups thrive on engaging students, their ideas and being part of the university culture. Once they get involved, they start to recruit students into their businesses, develop knowledge transfer partnership and take an active interest in the students and staff of the institution.

     

    The competition will also create and should involve the institutions alumni of key role models for our student entrepreneurs. These groups of people make great judges, mentors, business coaches, sponsors and advisory board members which are so important in ensuring staff and students understand the needs of business and entrepreneurs.

    Internal Collaboration

    Opportunities for collaboration on a single project with a large number of internal stakeholders such as the student union, the incubator, university departments and external businesses is very rare at universities. One case study is from the Liverpool university which bases the competition out of the student union ensures the highest student engagement and also attendance at the finals. This engagement then ensures wider student perception of the competition and also from the widest demographics of students, from social sciences to biology. 

    Staff Development

    The process of running the competition provides a good opportunity for staff development, providing opportunities to run a project from start to completion within one academic year which brings in the skills of marketing, student engagement, mentoring and skills development. The metrics can be easily obtained and understood by all parties and thus ensures a great opportunity for staff.

    Student & Enterprise Society Engagement

    Using enterprise society for promotion and student engagement is one of the best ways to ensure student involvement and ownership, This ensures you develop a student led approach to the marketing and earlier stages engagement of the competitors which allows them to forms founder groups. There are numerous statistics which show that a team is more likely to win a business plan competition.

     

    The vast majority, even the most success one will admit they would like to Increased business engagement, with students, with research, with course development, with CPD. The business plan competition is the first step in getting businesses on campus and meeting students, from here we can sell in all the other aspects of the university. So getting them to sponsor, attend or engage with a competitor is one the most critical parts of the universities business engagement strategy.

     

    The key KPIs for a business plan competition should be:

     

    • The total number of student and graduate entries
    • The total number of students engaged on social media
    • The number of schools which enter
    • The total prize money available 
    • The business categories
    • The total hours of skills development
    • The total number of students having skills development
    • The number of businesses sponsoring
    • The total number of businesses attending the presentations
    • Increased student perception in enterprise

     

     

  • The entrepreneurial network – selecting yours

    One of the least understated resource which any budding entrepreneur needs is a personal entrepreneurial network. When I run business startup programmes, the truly lasting resource they gain is a network of like minded people. The skill learnt is to be able to find out a common fact within 60 seconds and engage that person on a entrepreneurial level and is one of the first skills we learn as entrepreneurs.

    There are numerous entrepreneurial networks offering different types of resources to start or improve entrepreneurial projects. However when selecting a network what is the criteria you should use to make you decision. Here are seven traits to look for.

    Social capital

    When we look at social capital with entrepreneurial networks, we see a number of factors which highlight the importance of the network and the development of trust. A number of researchers have underlined the importance of networks and social capital (Aldrich-Zimmer 1986, Burt 1992, Adler-Kwon 2002). There are numerous definitions of social capital, but the most appropriate one is ‘features of social organization such as networks, norms, and social trust that facilitate coordination and cooperation for mutual benefit’ (Putnam 1995, p. 67). What social trust does the network promote?

    Collective Self-Efficacy

    Collective efficacy refers to a group’s shared belief in its conjoint capabilities to attain their goals and accomplish desired tasks (Bandura, 1986). The network should want to collaborate in collective action to address the problems within the group. This mean the continue mutual benefit should remain through the stages of enterprise development. So how will you get the most out of this network while you grow? What can you provide to the group and what will they provide you?

    Social Organization

    The network should be organized with rules, routines and opportunities to engage with every member. According to Shane and Venkataraman (2000) the domain of entrepreneurship is a connection between opportunities and enterprising individuals. This connection within the network needs to be organized for it to be effective for you as a member. Look for network which provide these connection opportunities within its social structure.

    Entrepreneurial set of norms

    The entrepreneurial network has a set of norms which will help define the enterprise development,  the business opportunities, the skills and the opportunities for future enhancement of the entrepreneur. What are the set of norms you will need?

    • Innovation – Combined with leadership, the entrepreneurial network is an indispensable kind of social network not only necessary to properly run the business or project, but also to differentiate  itself.
    • Beliefs  – Social beliefs are the expectations around which we organize daily social life. They allow us to put order into the world around us through kinship and social values. Does the network fit with your beliefs?
    • Behaviors – The behavior traits such as dominance, extrovert, patience and conformity will be held within the group. Does it contain the right mix for your success?
    • Routine –  In general, entrepreneurs manage the risks around them by developing procedures and routines that enable them to access a suitable solution when a problem arises (Edvinsson and Malone 1999; Roos et al. 2001). If you have a regular access to the group, they can form part of you risk reduction strategy.

    Size of Network

    The network should have the diversity of people but also be large enough for you to constantly finding new people and opportunities. However your person network should be solid enough for people to know you well enough to interact with and provide and receive opportunities. The critical elements of the network are nodes, (members) and links (relationships) (Gartner 1988, Burt et al. 1994, Lipnack-Stamps 1994). So

    • How well do you need to know someone to consider them part of your network?
    • How many people can you consider to part of your network?

    The network should be at ten times larger than this number. This allows for you be able to develop as a business owner and also find new people to discuss the entrepreneurial mindset.

    Diversity of Membership

    The importance of a diverse range of members in the network important in being able to quickly gain adequate human resources to fulfill the entrepreneurial achievements. These fit into the following groups.

    • Business Services: Lawyers, Accountants, Marketing, Sales
    • Co-Founders: Technologists, Scientists, Engineers, Business managers
    • Client & Suppliers
    • Partners – high skilled employees, mentors, investors

    Online Network

    The internet provides a faster and more reliable method of connecting and sharing with others. Therefore we see more entrepreneurial networks, both on dedicated sites and also on the main stream social networks such as twitter, Facebook and also Linkedin.  Twitter is many groups of people who are dedicated to enterprise providing the information which is needed to start and develop a business.  Linkedin has many groups which debate and connections can be developed to share business ideas and opportunities.

    Chamber of commerce – http://www.britishchambers.org.uk/

    Federation for small business http://www.fsb.org.uk/

    Institute of directors – http://www.iod.com/

    Enterprise Nation – http://www.enterprisenation.com/

    NACUE – http://www.nacue.com/

    Shell Livewire http://www.shell-livewire.org/

    Sandbox – http://www.sandbox-network.com/

     

  • Why is student led enterprise so important?

    It is universal accepted by policy-makers, businesses and academics that entrepreneurship is an essential skill for the survival and advancement of both large and small businesses. Therefore, an important skill to obtain whilst at university or college. There is also strong evidence exists that educational programmes in entrepreneurship have a positive effect on developing individuals’ entrepreneurial attributes (The Impact of Entrepreneurship Education on Entrepreneurial Intention), raising awareness of career options in entrepreneurship and advancing a positive attitude towards entrepreneurship.

    However, its in the extra curricular activities that the students mindset is developed, through empowerment, self actualization and the further development of the entrepreneurial mindset. This is bore out with the wikipida definition of Entrepreneurship which is the act and art of being an entrepreneur or one who undertakes innovations or introducing new things, finance and business acumen in an effort to transform innovations into economic goods.

    This means that the development of the entrepreneur is through experimentation, the tried and tested process of trial and error, with reflection and fine running at each stage. Never giving up but also taking a clear judgment of the progress and opportunities. This was presented by Peter Honey and Alan Mumford’s model (based on David Kolb’s model of experiential learning  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learning_styles).

    This is why student led societies are so important in the development of enterprise within our universities and colleges.  If we list of attributes of an entrepreneur we can start to see why Societies are great places for the development of these skills and why employers should be looking for these students.

    1. Ambition. Society leaders not only want to be successful, they need to be successful, driven by the ambition they put in 70 hour weeks. They are obsessed by their sports, the goals of the society (RAG, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rag_%28student_society%29) and also driven to ensure they will leave the society in better shape than any previous leader.

    2. Persistence. Failure is not an option. However learning from your mistakes, failures and the continual persistence to drive forward to create a winning team. I see societies such as the Eco-House Initiative (http://www.ecohouseinitiative.org/ who gained RBS ESSA Accreditation) who are trying to fix major world problems whilst still a student society.

    3. Creativity. Solving problems is the name of the game. Developing solutions for life’s problems creates opportunities , if its trying to run five minibuses for the team, developing a speaker series (http://manchesterentrepreneurs.org.uk/events) of successful entrepreneur on no budget or organizing twenty committee members to be in one place.

    4.  Tenacity. Everyone learns to the walk the same way, you try to stand, fall over, try again, fall over again and continue with this, many many times until you get it right. You know you will succeed, everyone around you walks. So just be stubborn and get on with it. Again sports teams know this, other societies learn it over a period of time.

    5. Risk tolerance. Life is full of risks, we survive by learning to gauge, understand and control these to an acceptable level. However, it’s the tolerance to risk which is personal, some people like to take larger risks than others. So standing for president of a society may be too risky for some, as failure and ridicule are too much to handle. Others will see this as an opportunity to promote themselves and get to know a wider social circle which ensures the have a more powerful network. The management of the society also handles risk as any other business, and this learning within a society is invaluable when applied to business.

    6. Personality. People like people who like them, so developing your personality whilst at university is, some will say the only reason, the main reason to go to university. Whilst some of the most successful entrepreneurs are geeks, the majority of successful people have a great personality, which engages others. In most societies the leaders are voted in and therefore presenting and conveying your personality is important for a successful outcome.

    7. Communications. In a worlds with several social media channels (Facebook, Twitter, Google+, pin interest, Youtube..) and emails coming in from all directions, the average student is very difficult to get hold of. The importance is understanding the medium which works with your community and putting in a way your audience understands.

    8. Leadership. While an entrepreneurial leader organizes and assumes the risk of his or her society, there will likely be others who follow to help make the society a success, typically a management team. Managing members and key team members is an important ingredient for a successful entrepreneur. Motivating the team to take 400 students on a skiing trip (http://theessa.com/case-study/skum-2/#.UV6aFxlAuBU) might sound easy but the research, planning, resource allocation and responsibility can not be under estimated.

    9. Adaptability. The average society has around 200 members from numerous schools which run their own timetable. Change is inevitable and is the only constant in an evolving world. An entrepreneur leader will adapt to technology, market trends, financial pressures and their customers/members. Those that have tried to organize students will know that adaptability is the core skill.

    10. Intuition. Understanding the trends and having an idea of what people want without doing a market survey (Steve Jobs never did one market survey) will allow our entrepreneurial leader to have a vision which others can only buy-in to and also have to follow.

    This is why being part of a society is so important in developing student enterprise and also creating an entrepreneurial environment for students to learn and tune these valuable skills. Enterprise Societies can help create this space for student reflection on their extra curricular activities.

     

  • The virtual enterprise industry, where is the SIC for it?

    In a week where we have had a new budget and Virtual Enterprise Conference in the same week, I think its about time we reclassified our industry into two classes. Virtual and Others under the SIC.

    Yes we should be encouraging people to start virtual businesses whereby from day one they are selling to others around the globe. You should be given help to start making use of the internet and servicing businesses in Afghanistan, Iran and the Sudan without ever burning carbon miles to get there yourself and be in harms way.

    All you have to do is pay all your taxes here. You don’t even have to warehouse in the UK, just pay your taxes.

    So what would be in my new Virtual Business Classification

     

    Creative Industry

    The Creative Industries accounted for 2.89% of gross value added (GVA) in the UK in 2009 . Relative to the UK’s total GVA, the Creative Industries GVA has increase by 0.07% (from 2.82% in 2008), but in absolute terms the GVA reduced by 1% from 2008 (£36.6 billion to £36.3 billion) . Music & Visual and Performing Arts account for the largest contribution to the number of  businesses (1.46% of the UK for enterprises and 1.21% of the UK for local units in 2011). Publishing alone bring in £11b.

    At the moment this is put into Arts, Entertainment, Recreation and other services. Yes a sector which brings in £36.6 Billion is under other?

     

    Retail

    Wholesale and retail trade continued to show strong growth in 2011 where UK exports rose by 65% from £8,609 million in 2010 to £14,176 million in 2011 (compared with a 26% increase in 2010). Total UK exports of merchanting, other trade-related and services between affiliated enterprises increased by 30% in 2011 rising from £17,254 million in 2010 to £22,356 million in 2011 (compared with relatively small growth of 11% in 2010). This may indicate a shift in UK exports patterns favouring merchanting, other trade related and services between affiliated enterprises.

     

    Professional & Online services

    This would be a new sector which bring together professional services, website services, telecommunication, email, social media and others. The virtual services sector is a massive growth sector and we need to give it the space and opportunities to take over the world . The Professional, scientific & technical is currently a category, M. Some healthcare could be put in this category. Create an industry Czar and promote it around the world, we are the virtual services hub of the world.

     

    Finance And Insurance

    This sector brings in £14B a year to the UK economy. As a sector its a very profitable part of the economy and we should ensure we are the bankers of the world. Money is only a number in a computer and therefore we should consider it a major part of our virtual economy.

     

    Education

    This is such an important industry for the UK, it now needs to focus on teaching the entire world, just as the BBC is a proved provider of news, UK Universities and Colleges needs to be the trusted providers of physical and virtual learning. We currently have 302,000 students from other countries, this should be 10 times this and another 1,000 times using virtual course. Currently category P.

     

    Others would include

    Agriculture, forestry & fishing A
    Production B, C, D and E
    Mining, quarrying & utilities B, D and E
    Manufacturing C
    Construction F
    Repair of motor vehicles G
    Motor trades G
    Wholesale G
    Transport & storage (inc postal) H
    Accommodation & food services I
    Property L
    Business administration and support services N
    Public administration & defence O
    Health Q
    Arts, entertainment, recreation and other services R, S, T and U