Dr David Bozward

Category: Blog

  • 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

     

  • The power of story time

    I came across  Sarah Kay who is a Poetess and Storyteller and it reminded me of the power of story telling. The human brain has been programmed for millions of years by listening and remember stories. We all love to sit and listen with great interest at stories and I would like to thank her for reminding me of it.

  • Good governance is good entrepreneurship

    Over the last five years we have learnt how entrepreneurship can lead us down the wrong road. Having entrepreneurial bankers risking our saving is not a good place to be. I also watched Manchester United lose at home in the champions league and it was expected given the events of the last five years. Football lacks good governance, everyone knows this from the top (who enjoy great wealth from the game) to the bottom whereby fans get to see there teams spend every more money in creating spectacular entertainment. The same is in in many religions.

    As an entrepreneur, having to report to a group of people who may or may not agree with you is a major issue which you will try to tactically eliminate. However it is important to hear the truth, however hard from those who you trust and not from the fans, shareholders and voters. These three groups will never ever be pleased and therefore if you are pleasing them now, you are in about to fall. The independence  of others ensures your success, this is why mentors are so worth their weight in gold.

    This is one of the reasons I agree with more woman on the boards of companies, also diverse educational mixes. It reduces the group think and ensures a healthy debate occurs on all subjects before moving to a consensus. This is one of the major parts of good goverance, a diverse range of views who provide guidence, knowledge and thought behind every decision you make.

    The banks have failed to engage diverse educational background into there management stuctures which led to no one pointing out the obvious. i.e. Should we be investing in this at this time?

    The NHS have failed in Staffordshire becuse of the same reason. Everyone was happy to get their wage and not question, why are these people dying and how can be make this better?

    The same happens in government, small businesses and multi-national businesses. Its common as people like people who like them. We don’t like people to question us, we like people from our tribe (university, ethic group, gender or golf club), if we and everyone else is happy why should we ask for change?

    The fact is we all have to be entrepreneurs, and this is what entrepreneurs do, look at the system and say, I’ m going to make this better. It may be painful, risky and I am not going to be liked for saying this, but the world is going to be a better place after i have done this.

    And once I have done this, I willl ensure others have the opportunity to question me and make me continue on this path, never ever giving up because I have won this one battle. Afterall being an entreprenur is a war against complacency.

  • A few ways to look at phone hacking

    If you know anything about me, its I  just love mobile phones, your don’t spend three years of your life doing a PhD in the subject without a little bit of passion. So when I read about the Phone Hacking, three questions come to mind when I think about this subject. So as an engineer, geek and entrepreneur.

    1. Why did the technology fail?
    2. Was it designed this way for a reason?
    3. How do I make money from this?

    Voice mail is a very profitable part of the mobile operators portfolio the best being SMS. So stopping customer, in fact anyone accessing it is never going to be an option. One of the core problems with profitable businesses is that they tend not to innovate around these big revenue areas. You see this in many tech businesses especially in the mobile industry, look at Motorola in 1G, Nokia in 2G and someone with drop the ball in 3G. Its the old frog in the boiling pan story.

    Voice mail has been the same for fifteen years with little innovation or business model development across the entire global industry. I am sure the technology has changed but not the service or the business model. Its just waiting to happen with billions of users across the globe this is a truly unified service, its voice mail.

    Even after the event we the consumers are not told how to protect and keep this private. Why hasn’t there been adverts on TV telling us, the public how to stop anyone hacking into our voice mail and putting every message in the open press.

    Is it because no one wants to know who leaves a message on my voice mail system or is it designed this way?

    Even since Turin proved knowing what people are keeping in their message box, helps you win wars. There is no government on the planet who would want a secure voice mail system.  It just wouldn’t make not sense to make it secure. Just think of how you could use voice mail message to set off all sorts of nasty stuff, only unlocked and decode by single voice recognition activation at a time and place set by the sender. 007 would be busy for months.

    However, there is always a profit to be made from every situation. So what is it?

    – Security audits for famous people. £10,000 and we will check all you voice mail systems on weekly basis against your phone records to ensure date and time of login matched your phone records.

    – A secure ISO 27001 rated voice mail system which is accessed via a secure app on the phone. Voice mail is send and received via secure encrypted channel. All messages are activated by finger print and voice recognition and co-geolocated by the phone.

    – An apps which logs into voice mail when messaged and downloads to a phone within five minutes. Therefore no messages are stored for more than five minutes.

    The possibilities are endless and with a billion customers, so are the profits…

     

  • Its great to be nice – A rant!

    We don’t get a lot of stories where the nice guy gets the girl, the car and all the money. If he’s nice to start with then he has to get mad first, which defeats the object. Even Peter Parker has a dark side. Bruce Wayne, well enough said.

    OK, There is one thing I DON”T like and that bullies! It’s a red rag to a bull. So Game On!!!

    So over the last few months I have noticed people in business who should know better treating young people (who are trying to enter the work place through work placements, graduate schemes for the first time) in a way that someone who has been in industry for some years would have sat them down and provided them with a few treats of colour and wisdom.

    Many FE colleges require their student learners to gain experience and these students try calling, writing and emailing local businesses to gain this experience. The response they get is just shocking.

    So we all have to start somewhere and in those first steps into employment we will (hopefully) make a few mistakes and learn to be better people. Young people need the support to grow, its obvious, but our small businesses need to engage to make this happen. Small businesses are afraid of young people, they are not sure of their skills, ability, work ethic or how they will fit in with existing staff. So there are major risks in employing young people. Thus, apprentices. They see them are needing lots of support (and a minority do) which will drain their business

    UK SMEs employed 14.1 million people and had a combined turnover of £1,500 billion. Youth employment would not wiped out if the 4.6 million SME businesses employed just one more person each.

    We should have a national “Take on a Work Experience Day” whereby small companies with less than 10 people (which is 95% of all businesses) should take just one person on for two months.

    After all there are just three ways to deal with bullies, (1)get everyone in the room and get them to find common ground, (2)take the bully over the playing field with all your mates, their friends and some tools and sort it out once and for all, or (3)ban the bullies. So lets try the first option!!!

     

  • Winter Wonder Land

    Not everyone likes business, not everyone wants to pay taxes and working long hours is just the pits.

    So in Britain a little snow means you don’t need to go to school. This educates everyone to understand that they don’t need to go to work when it snows. The entire country closes down because we have been educated to stay at home. Education is a powerful tool for social engineering.

    Its also very hard as a parent to go to work when you have to look after children at home.

    After all, it just takes one day off (e.g. A royal Wedding) and we are all in recession!

    So if we wanted to end this recession we would understand that work helps increase the economy. The work ethic of the German’s ensures their success. Everyone has to play their part. Every little helps!  So why do we let notification of recession or even a little cold weather let us fail.

     

    Every entrepreneurs needs an stable environment which enables business.

    We can see new freedoms in some countries has meant economic failure as the system is broken down and people can not rely on others. We take so much for granted, yet in many countries they can even rely on others to provide the products or services which keep them in business. We have such a stable system which allows us to succeed.

    If the UK was open for business every day of the year, we would not be in recession.

     

    Business needs a positive press

    If the media is telling you that Africa, Middle East, South America…etc is so bad. Our business people will not go there and do business. The majority of companies in this country are small, we don’t have large sales and market research departments. We look for opportunities based on the limited amount of knowledge and time we have available. So if the all TV stations are telling us these countries are bad, our economy is going to stay out of them.

    If our SME’s increased their sales by 10% to international customers, we would not be in recession.

     

    Every Business needs a global financial system

    Even the smallest business can sell to the global market. Put up a web site and just wait for the global orders to come in. However, once those orders come in, there is just one thing we need, that’s the money in our bank account. Without a global financial system, which ensure we can move and receive money, our opportunities are very limited.

    If London was the banking capital of the world, we would not be in recession.

  • Virtual Enterprise saves Christmas

    Virtual Enterprise saves Christmas

    When I read the news that online retail is the winner for Christmas 2012

    “According to research from e-commerce software company ChannelAdvisor, eBay sales were up 36.6 per cent year-on-year on Christmas Day 2012, while Amazon UK sales increased by 27.7 per cent.

    On Boxing Day, eBay saw sales rise by 49.3 per cent year-on-year and Amazon recorded an increase of 44.7 per cent.”

    I come to the following conclusions,

    The small retailer won in 2012 with the small virtual companies in the UK wining over the larger stores. So Tesco increased by 18% and ebay sales by 36.6%.

    “Tesco : Online sales increased 18 per cent driven by multichannel initiatives such as click and collect and grocery ‘drive thru’ that lets customers order online and pick up shopping from the local store at a chosen time.“

    The high street has become an leisure experience centre, where buying is just one small aspect, an not the most important one. The first reason to go into the high street during Christmas was to see the lights, have some mulled wine with friends and family.

    The small virtual businesses in the UK is more efficient than any physical shop.

    • They don’t have fixed overheads, which those cementing their business on the high street do. The high street provide little or no flexibility for a business.  Those providing leases (pension funds and equity) want too much and base their revenue on increased property value.
    • They don’t pay massive business rates which are just another tax on property and makes the high street a none starter for the majority of business.
    • They don’t have to pay business electricity, gas and high insurance for a high street property.
    • They don’t’ worry about security or riots which occurred in the UK a few years ago. Ebay and Amazon look after all the security.
    • They have a worldwide market, which ensures you have a global reach and not just your local town.

    They are on trend and therefore it’s a good time to start a business selling your products and services in 2013.  Take a look at http://virtualent.co.uk/ which is a conference for those considering or have started a virtual business.

  • Why are Mexicans richer than British Entrepreneurs?

    I was looking through the Forbe’s rich list (http://www.forbes.com/billionaires/list/) and noticed a few trends.

    The first is that the majority of richest people in the world are self made entrepreneurs.

    1. Carlos Slim Helu
    2. Bill Gates
    3. Warren Buffet

    In fact the list is split into new world and old world wealth, the majority of the successful self made entrepreneurs are based in the new world. This is because the majority of the growth in the world, the majority of the worlds population is in the developing world. Its also easy to start a business, no tax, red tape or health and safety to learn, manage and report on a monthly basis.

    However, its doesn’t stop you starting a business in the UK which sells into these markets.

    The second point is that Carlos Slim Helu, a mexican can become richer than any British person. The richest British person is at number 78 which is Gerald Cavendish with $11b. Forbe’s write about him “The sixth Duke of Westminster, Gerald Grosvenor, remains the U.K.’s wealthiest landowner, with his fortune increasing this year along with the property market in London.”

    So the richest person in the UK is not a self made entrepreneur, its old money which is inherited, in fact old world wealth based on the value of land and property in London.

    So during 2013, I am going to find out…

    So why don’t we have more entrepreneurs?

    Have we lost our entrepreneurial spirit?

    Have we become happy to earn the minimum wage?

    Have we all been educated past starting our own business?

    Have we made it too difficult to do?

    Do we know how to run a service business