Gordon Whyte's Blog of the daily challenges of an Entrepreneur

2012-01-24T13:18:00.005Z

Profile

Gordon Whyte

Introduction:

I am an entrepreneurial senior operations executive with broad experience in General, Operational and Change Management of which more than 20 years at senior international level. I have managed multi-disciplined teams delivering complex projects worldwide in high technology based businesses, including multinational and start up businesses

Business experience includes:

• Hands on experience off managing six company start ups / SME’S with P&L responsibility

• Strategic business development, with hands on face to face customer experience

• Extensive senior operations experience, setting up new manufacturing operations, or developing outsourced manufacturing operations

• Developing business plans and financial modelling

• Leading fund raising both in Europe, North America and Middle East.

• Leading technology transfer and IP / Patent development

• Establishing and expanding businesses ensuring high profitability.

• Developing outsourced manufacturing resources in low cost countries.

• Main business focus has been Semiconductor, Electronics, Photonics, Solar / Cleantech and Display technology

Main achievements include:

• Led manufacturing division to be profitable after two years from start up doubled revenue year on year prior to successful IPO in ’96 and subsequent sale to SDLI (USA)

• Introduced four new products to the market including the worlds first 10 GHz integrated driver modulator in 2001

• Launched world’s first optical ASIC platform for complex optical integrated circuits.

• Set up LCD micro-display manufacturing operation

• Co-Founder off a silicon CPV company

• Lean manufacturing introduction SME

“Doing whatever is required to achieve the Objectives”

To conclude: broad international experience, sound knowledge of value-added

mechanisms in different industries, understanding of all stakeholders

requirements, customised solution provider, profitability, sales and result orientated.

Email: gordonw63at yahoo.com

Linkedin Profile: http://uk.linkedin.com/in/gordonwhyte

Lean Six Sigma Tools

2011-10-20T15:50:00.000Z

This will be an introduction to Lean manufacturing tools :

The table below will give an outline off tools and there specific use

Matrix

2011-09-28T15:27:00.002Z

Profile

Gordon Whyte

Introduction:

Business experience includes:

• Hands on experience off managing six company start ups / SME’S with P&L responsibility

• Strategic business development, with hands on face to face customer experience

• Extensive senior operations experience, setting up new manufacturing operations, or developing outsourced manufacturing operations

• Developing business plans and financial modelling

• Leading fund raising both in Europe, North America and Middle East.

• Leading technology transfer and IP / Patent development

• Establishing and expanding businesses ensuring high profitability.

• Main business focus has been Semiconductor, Electronics, Photonics, Solar / Cleantech and Display technology

• Lean manufacturing implementation

Main achievements include:

• Led manufacturing division to be profitable after two years from start up ‘ and doubled revenue year on year prior to successful IPO in ’96 and subsequent sale to SDLI (USA)

• Introduced four new products to the market including the worlds first 10 GHz integrated driver modulator in 2001

• Launched world’s first optical ASIC platform for complex optical integrated circuits.

• Reduced customer returns by 40% and improved delivery performance by 50% with a cost reduction of 20% overall.

“Doing what is required to achieve the target”

To conclude: broad international experience, sound knowledge of value-added

mechanisms in different industries, understanding of all stakeholders

requirements, customised solution provider, profitability, sales and result orientated.

Email: gordonw63 at yahoo dot com

Working out the point at which your new business becomes sustainable

2011-09-22T13:09:00.001Z

How to calculate your break-even point

Your break-even point is the point at which your business is producing enough revenue each month to cover all your fixed and variable costs. Once you reach this point, any additional income generated each month is profit.

Estimating as accurately as you can when you will reach this point is an expected part of your business plan. In other words, you need to work out exactly how much you will need to sell each month, and at what price, to break even.

Before you can work this out you need to determine your start-up costs and monthly running costs, taking into account any fixed costs, such as repayments on loans, salaries, etc, as well as variable costs (costs which will vary depending on how much you sell, such as manufacturing costs, freelance costs, etc). You then need to build in your projections of how many products you will sell, or how much demand you will have for your service, per month.

By comparing your projected monthly revenues against your total monthly costs, you should be able to come up with a point at which you start to move into profit, that is, your break-even point.

Calculating the break-even point will give you an excellent idea of the costs involved in your business and the level of sales you will need to generate to cover your costs, which in turn will affect your overall business strategy.

How much business you have to generate (either number of products or units of service) in a given time to break even can be calculated using the equation below. You will break even when:

Total revenue per month = Total costs per month

Unit sale price × Unit sales = Total monthly fixed costs + (Unit variable cost × Unit sales)

(Unit sale price × Unit sales) – (Unit variable cost × Unit sales) = Total fixed costs

(Unit sale price – Unit variable cost) × Unit sales = Total fixed costs

Unit sales per month = Total fixed costs/Unit sale price – Unit variable cost

Once you know how much you need to sell in one month to break even, you can work out from your sales projections how long it will take for your business to reach this point. You can also see in the table the elements of the equation that you need to change to reach the break-even point sooner.

Good advice on starting up an SME

2011-09-08T14:19:00.000Z

This is a good read and a well laid out summary of the challenges of starting a company I found it on http://www.startups.co.uk/ , It started me thinking around the subject of fast growth, how it can mask company inefficencies, but on the other hand it allows you to have cash to fix problems quickly and without budget constraints.....

Company name: Versarien Ltd

Website: www.versarien.co.uk

Founders: Neill Ricketts, Will Battrick, Jim Murray-Smith

Age: 41, 32, 61

Based: Gloucestershire

Staff Numbers: 3

Date started: 20/12/10

Tell us what your business does:

Versarien is an advanced materials company specialising in a new form of metal foam with exceptional heat transfer properties.

Where did the idea for your business come from?

Versarien is commercialising a technology that has been developed from a Technology Strategy Board project. The original concept was the product of some research from the University of Liverpool but Versarien has significantly developed this original idea.

What’s your unique selling point?

The material replicates structures that occur in nature – in this case with a very large surface area and excellent heat transfer properties. The product is unique in that it is very scalable, material-efficient and cost-effective to manufacture.

What were you doing before starting up?

I am a graduate mechanical engineer who is passionate about UK innovation and manufacturing. I was made redundant from my last job as a main board director of a UK technology PLC. This company was one of the best performing shares on the AIM market during my time there and created significant shareholder value.

Have you always wanted to run your own business?

I have run my own business previously. I find the constraints of most organisations and the inability to think outside of the box very frustrating. I like to develop good teams that outperform expectations. However some corporate people tend to be intimidated by this fast progress. I like to work in companies that do not limit their success by their own blinkered approach.

What planning did you do before you started up?

We worked hard (and continue to work hard) to plan. We spent a large amount of time on developing a good business plan. A number of contacts aided in the market research.

How did you raise the money to get started?

We are still raising money and it has been a very difficult few months. Raising money for a pre-revenue business is one of the hardest projects I have ever done. It is harder to raise a small amount of cash than a much larger one. We have had a few rejections but only if our technology didn’t fit a sector.

Is your product manufactured in the UK or abroad?

Our product is manufactured in the UK in small numbers at the moment. We use the capacity which is available in the supply chain when needed and source our raw materials in the UK.

What challenges have you faced and how have you overcome them?

We have had to be very creative in trying to manage a limited budget and still achieving everything we need to. We have had to forego wages and put everything we have into the business. Prioritisation has been the key, in my humble opinion, and using every trick in the book to beg, borrow – but not steal.

Where is your business based?

We are currently operating from my office in Gloucestershire (at home), but we are hoping to move into a factory unit shortly. We have located a very favourable unit on a revitalised Rank Xerox site in Mitcheldean, and Gloucestershire First has been very supportive in helping us.

How have you promoted your business?

We have networked heavily, cold-called and built a website. Our marketing is in its infancy and we have just commissioned a press release that will be distributed to our target sector.

How did you decide how much to charge for your product?

We have looked heavily at the market and our offering provides a higher performance for the same price.

How many staff do you have?

We only have three at the moment and another three waiting to join. We tend to use sub-contract services and contacts when needed.

What has your growth been like?

We are not in a position to offer our product in volume yet, but we hope to be profitable in month nine of the plan. We are ahead of where we thought we would be.

What’s the impact on your home life been like?

The lack of available funding and the pressure to keep going has been very disruptive on home life. The constant stress and will power to ‘maintain the faith’ is very difficult. Everyone wonders why you bother and why you don’t get a ‘normal’ job. It can be very lonely. The team around me is very supportive though and I have a great network of people in similar situations.

What would you say the greatest difficulty has been in starting up?

The greatest difficulty has been finding a way to get to the funding that is available. The current flux generated by the reorganisation of government support hasn’t helped, but it is there if you work hard at it.

What was your first big breakthrough?

There have been a few, but the best would be either attaining a generous Technology Strategy Board grant, securing our first substantial commercial order or getting through to the final of a national competition.

What would you do differently?

I would not have relied on optimistic funders, but chosen to use the funds we had to get on with the doing – and done less of the talking. Given hindsight I would have bootstrapped the business at a much earlier stage.

What advice would you give to budding entrepreneurs?

I’d advise to set a good plan, to be very critical of your plan and to ask for lots of advice. If you can find a mentor who has gone through it then you will learn a lot. Turn over every opportunity out there.

Where do you want to be in five years’ time?

We hope to take the company public in three years and that it will be a significant global materials supply company by this stage.

Your guide to raising capital

2011-08-24T06:51:00.002Z

If you need to calculate cap tables...want to know "if I sell for $100M, how much money does everyone receive" this web site by Jeff Boardman (founder of LearnVC), will supply the tools to help work these things out..it is also stuffed with good information on raising capital for the entrepreneur. Have a look round and see what you think.....www.learnvc.com

have a great week...

Regards

Gordon

Some tips on Pitching...

2011-08-11T12:41:00.004Z

Lessons from the Den, week 2: how to ensure you’ve got the facts at your fingertips

Failing to grasp the key figures is one of the most dangerous mistakes in pitching (despite what we saw in the latest episode of Dragons' Den)8 August 2011

If The first two episodes of this year’s Dragons’ Den are anything to go by, it seems you can make all manner of mistakes in your pitch and still walk away with money, providing your idea is good enough. First we had Georgette Hewitt, who went to pieces during her presentation in last week’s show and still secured a £60,000 investment; then, last night we saw the husband-and-wife team of Liz and Alan Colleran lose all grasp of figures in the face of the Dragons’ scrutiny, and still wangle £80,000 out of newest addition to the panel Hilary Devey.

However, despite these two successes, it’s hard to escape the conclusion that, in both cases, the investment was secured in spite of the pitch, not because of it. In fact the Collerans’ mattress-and-duvet combo might well have secured an even better investment from one of the Dragons had they not made such a dogs’ dinner of their financials.

In real life, a pitch with such obvious flaws may not have received such sympathetic treatment – so it’s important to avoid the mistakes the Collerans made if you pitch for investment yourself. If an investor asks you for hard facts, and you reply “we’d know when we get back to the office” as Liz Colleran did, many angels and VCs would eat you for breakfast – so it’s important you know your business inside and out before you sit down to present your vision.

Here are five tips to ensure you’ve got all the answers at hand before you meet the investors:

1. Make sure you know your financials in every detail
When pitching to an investor, you need to be able to talk about your financial history – not just the sales, profit and turnover you recorded last year, but for every year since you started trading. It’s also important to have firm figures for overheads such as fuel, bills and rent, and for your overall wage bill.

An investor will be really impressed if you can tell them about economies of scale. Daniel Priestley, a business guru who has previously hosted training events with ex-Dragon James Caan, told us:

“Many products are expensive to make in small runs, but as soon as you hit certain numbers, it’s all profit – that’s the point at which an economy of scale is reached. You need to know exactly where this point is.”

2. Map out your product strategy
As well as thinking backwards – how do I explain what’s already happened to my business? – you also need to be able to explain your strategy, and map out the way you want to take the business forward in as much detail as possible. According to Daniel Priestley, “you need to look at your product strategy. What is the product, and how does that product make money, how much money is available to market that product, and what could be the second or third product down the line?”

Like the Collerans, the trio of Christian Hartmann, Tom Callard and Martin McLaughlin managed to snare a Dragon’s investment with their mainstream popcorn product. However, once again, their pitch was riddled with errors and omissions.

According to Daniel Priestley, they were “quoting their costs, rather than how much they would sell the product for. They needed to tell the Dragons how much they would sell to retailers for, how much mark-up they would make, and what they would make further down.”

3. Back up every claim
If you’re going to make a big claim, you need to be able to back it up – as we saw when the two DJs talked about jumping from £40,000 to £500,000 profit, without any substantiating evidence. The Dragons ripped them to shreds for this throwaway forecast, and what had begun as a promising pitch lay in tatters.

If the DJs had been able to cite forward orders, or asked an independent source, such as a business mentor, to back up their forecasts, they may have been able to convince the Dragons that their ambitious targets were achievable. If these resources hadn’t been available, they should have set their sights much lower. As Daniel Priestley told us, “if they’d quoted a more normal forecast, say £80,000 to £120,000, they’d have had more chance.”

4. Understand the market
When the hopeful with the bath Bluetooth system said he wanted to charge £400 per unit, you knew he’d lost his audience. He had fallen into the classic trap of judging the product through his own eyes – convinced of the genius of his invention, he had set a whopping price tag on it without thinking about what consumers would actually pay.

In working out the market rate for your product, you can use forward orders, written expressions of interest, customer receipts – even quotes gleaned from your own market research. With this kind of supporting information behind you, you stand a chance of luring an investor – but if not, you’re probably going to leave empty handed.

5. Understand what the investor’s looking for
Ultimately, you have to try and put yourself in the investor’s shoes – why would they put their hard-earned cash into your company? An angel or VC isn’t going to risk their money without good reason, so you need to have a clear picture in your own mind of what they’re looking for.

With this in mind, it’s crucial that you market your company as a grown-up, fully-fledged enterprise, rather than a fleeting dream. As Daniel Priestley said, “most of [the Dragons’ Den applicants] refer to what they had as an idea, and descried it as an idea. It’s much more powerful to describe what you’re offering as a product or a business. When you suggest an idea to your mate in the pub, that’s appropriate – but an investor wants to know whether you’ve got a product or business.

“You need to show you have intellectual property, you have distribution, you have brand, you have market acceptance, you have a passionate team committed to the project, and you’ve got some sort of barrier to entry. Remember that entrepreneurs aren’t talking in the language of speculation – they’re talking in the language of value.”

Article on www.startups.co.uk

Communicating With Your Investors

2011-07-28T10:35:00.001Z

Some Thoughts on Communicating With Your Investors

By Rob Go of NextView Ventures

Given that small institutional seed rounds are becoming more and more common, I thought I’d share a few of my thoughts on how to best communicate with investors. After raising this sort of round, it’s usually the first time an entrepreneur has to think about putting some structure of investor updates and communications. These aren’t set in stone, but some practices that I think make sense and have been effective.

1. Do investor due diligence. Before thinking about investor communication, I go back to the importance of doing due diligence on your potential investor to understand what their expectations are and what their behavior is typically like. My partner Dave blogged more about that topic here. The worst thing is to be misaligned after the investment about what you think is appropriate for the company and what your investor might think makes sense.

2. Establish a board, or a board-like governance structure. This seems intimidating, but has many benefits. First, getting investors to commit to board involvement is a great way to make sure your VC is committed to your seed round (that is, if you have a large VC in your round). Second, if you are planning to raise VC money in the future, it’s helpful to have established the cadence of regular board interactions early, and I think it’s actually good discipline to do this and get regular feedback from your board members. Plus, it helps you work out the kinks of running a board so it’s not such a shock to the system come the series A. I typically prefer small boards of just 3 people. Larger ones can work too if everyone collaborates well together. The nice thing about small boards is that you can also invite your strategic angel investors to come periodically to contribute as well without things getting too unwieldy. Just make sure they do their homework beforehand and can contribute!

3. Some of our portfolio companies have informal boards. It’s more of a regular investor “stand up” meeting that is pretty efficient. But the expectation is that the major investors are present and engaged, and for the most part, this has been true. Sometimes, our co-investors have sent 2 partners to these meetings, so it’s nice to know that it’s being taken seriously. Of our 13 portfolio companies, 10 had/have formal boards during the seed stage, and the rest had a more informal structure.

4. Make investor communications short, but frequent. I like the cadence of a 1-2 hour board meeting every 4-6 weeks. In the meantime, a weekly or bi-weekly update I think is helpful to keep investors caught up (I prefer this in email form because it’s more efficient for everyone). The goal of this level of communication is not to get the approval from your investors on your performance. The goal is to make sure that your investors are armed with the information they need to help you.

5. Pre-wire and focus. The goal of your 2-hour board meeting should be to spend as little time as possible on general updates and non-critical governance issues. Regular business updates should already be absorbed by your investors through your written updates. What you do want to spend time on is the 1-3 most critical strategic issues that you are facing and need practical help on. I’m an advocate for a quick chat with board members a few days before the meeting to say “ok, you get where the business is right? Can we agree to focus 50%+ of our time on issue A and B?”. This is a good way to introduce tough conversations too, so that you don’t get an unthoughtful gut reaction, but a constructive discussion about challenging issues like fundraising, missed targets, disfunction in the exec team, etc.

6. Give assignments and follow up. I’m always surprised when investors need to ask “how can we help?”. Remember, we all tell our LP’s that we are immensely helpful to our portfolio companies, so make us follow through on that! The best way to make sure that investors follow through on what they say they will do is to get them to say what they will do publicly and follow up publicly. A follow up can be an email that says “as next steps, thanks in advance to investor A helping with X, investor B helping with Y, and thanks to investor C for already doing Z!”.

http://robgo.org/about/

A Gold Key to Success for the company founder

2011-07-20T12:07:00.003Z

I read a book by Randy Komisar "The Monk and the Riddle" a must read for anyone wanting to start thre own company, the essence of the book for me was that your start up is not your retirement policy, it is your life, it is something you can do for the rest of your life, it is your passion...see the article below by a Charlie O'Donnell , Charlie is a Principal at First Round Capital in NYC ..this is a interesting a so true spin on Customer development

live in the problem not in the solution how customer develop

I'm not a lean startup zealot, but there are obviously lots of aspects of it that can lead to a ton of insights about your business. Talking to customers is, of course, a good thing. I'd never argue against it.

I have seen, however, the customer development process wind up looking like a street corner salesman selling watches out of the inside of his coat. "Don't what this?" "What about this?" "I've got more in the car of my truck if you want them in blue."

What's lacking is an innate understanding of the customers problems before they go through the ideation phase. I find that some of the most sound entrepreneurial efforts are one where the founder has lived the problem uniquely in some way. Either they actually were the customer (and by customer I mean someone who pays for this kind of service) or they've literally spent years thinking about it--as an enthusiast or insider. I didn't come from the recruiting industry when I started Path 101, but I had been obsessed with career discovery as a mentor and educator for eight years before I thought of an idea I wanted to pursue.

That's different than, "hasn't this happened to you?" kind of approaches. Just because you had to wait on a line once doesn't mean you know nearly as much as the person in charge of people flow and traffic at Madison Square Garden. Similarly just because you've been to a conference doesn't mean you know nearly enough to provide the industry with a game changing piece of software to run them all. Its possible, but unlikely.

If you don't have unique insight into the nature or the problem, customer development is going to be random and unproductive. Its like being a doctor where you don't know why the patient is sick, but they feel better after you give them a Tylenol. It may appear like you've solved the problem, but it was just dumb luck that you addressed a symptom. That won't do much in terms of informing you as to a long term course of treatment or what happens when your Tylenol doesn't solve the problem as well as you thought it did.

I think a lot of companies suffer this when they're in new entrepreneurial ecosystems or ones outside of major cities where innovation is happening in the biggest industries. The startups tend to be really consumery spins on things they've seen on Techcrunch--as opposed to more organic solutions to problems they've experienced uniquely.

The first time I ever met Chantel Waterbury from Chloe & Isabel, she told me in detail about the issues in the direct sales jewelry business--a huge market but one that suffers from inferior product quality and poor branding. People don't exactly associate "fashion forward" with "tupperware for jewelry". To have enough insight into how to solve that, you need to be more than just someone who likes jewelry. You need direct experience to understand how to get high quality and stylish fashion jewelry made at a reasonable price. She launched fashion jewelry for major brands and was the top seller of CutCo knives on the West Coast--paid her way through college doing it. Sure, she'll pay attention to her customers, but she's starting from a position of experience that at least puts her in the right ballpark day one. That's what makes customer discovery a place to hone your idea with relevant feedback and not a random spin of the Wheel of Startups.

http://www.thisisgoingtobebig.com/ Blog of Charlie O'Donnell

Are your customers killing your business

2011-07-13T12:18:00.003Z

3 Signs You’re Trying Too Hard to Please the Customer

Somewhere between the tragic Casey Anthony verdict and the final Space Shuttle launch, you may have heard about the slow train wreck that is Rupert Murdoch’s now-defunct News of the World.
If not, then here’s all you need to know: People working for the British tabloid are alleged to have hacked the voice mail accounts of numerous public figures, including members of the royal family and a murder victim. By shutting down the newspaper, it’s thought that its owners will be able to derail an official investigation.
I mention Murdoch’s problem for two reasons: First, I worked for Dow Jones & Co., which News Corp. now owns, after graduating from journalism school. And second, because I think I have a unique understanding of what happened, if the allegations against the newspaper prove to be true. I wrote my thesis on journalism errors, and I’ve made a few big mistakes myself, so I know what the now unemployed reporters at the News must be going through. I feel for them.
The News of the World’s sin isn’t “losing its way” as it claimed in its farewell edition last week. It was a much more common one in the corporate world: It was trying too hard.
Simply put, the reporters wanted so badly to give their readers what they thought they wanted, that they allegedly went too far to deliver it. In a hyper-competitive environment, that’s an easy thing to do–in every industry.
Three Signs A Business Has Gone Overboard
In an effort to provide the best possible service, companies often go too far to please. Here’s how:
1. They talk too much. Answering the phone, “Good morning, how may I bring a smile to your face today?” or signing off with, “Have a magical day!” aren’t just annoying to some customers. They often smack of insincerity. One well-known luxury hotel chain used to require its employees to use words like, “certainly” instead of “yes” and “my pleasure” instead of “OK” when interacting with guests. That drove some of its customers nuts, who often thought they were trapped in some kind of 19th-century costume drama.
2. They hover. This frequently happens on the sales floor with inexperienced salespeople. Instead of letting a customer browse, associates attach themselves to the “prospect” and follow that person around the floor. More experienced salespeople will give the customer a little room. But customers still know they’re being followed, and it can make them uncomfortable. The only thing worse than that are employees who openly fight over who gets credit for the sale. That’s not service; it’s stalking.
3. They wanna be your friend. A little hyperbole, particularly used in advertising, is perfectly acceptable for most shoppers. But with the growth of social media, companies are trying to present themselves as more than just customer-friendly and transparent. They also want to be your buddy. Check the Facebook or Twitter accounts of your favorite businesses, and you’d think you’ve found your long-lost friend. Nothing can be further from the truth.
Sure, all these things can irritate consumers. But they’re not as much of a turn-off as a company that isn’t trying at all.

No one knows how the hacking scandal will end. But I’d hate to see news organizations owned by News Corp. try less hard, if doing so means the product is boring and predictable.
Then again, I’m something of a contrarian, if not a heretic. I don’t think journalism is a religion. In the 21st century, it’s become just another form of entertainment for most consumers — including me.

By Christopher Elliott Who is a consumer advocate, syndicated columnist and curator of the On Your Side wiki. He’s the author of the upcoming book Scammed: How to Save Your Money and Find Better Service in a World of Schemes, Swindles, and Shady Deals, which critics have called it “eye-opening” and “inspiring.” You can follow Elliott on Twitter, Facebook or his personal blog, Elliott.org or email him directly.

R&D tax credits explained ( Maybe)

2011-04-21T11:28:00.002Z

R&D tax credits can help bring a company so extra income, you have to be smart on documentation of projects and improvements but it very interesting to see where you can recoup soem of your costs, but my advice is seek council from a recognized advisor some one who knows your industry and has a track record, ask around , or talk to your auditors. I found this article which will explain the basics. Enjoy

R&D tax credits explained

The government tax break that gives you money back for investing in innovation,
The chancellor announced sweeping changes to the research and development (R&D) tax credits system in his 2011 budget, offering greater encouragement for entrepreneurs to invest in original research and product design. But what exactly do the changes entail, and what do they mean for small businesses?

Essentially, the changes announced the budget have significantly increased the tax breaks available to companies which invest in research and development.

Under the new rules, a company which runs a dedicated R&D scheme can claim up to 200% relief on corporation tax for any money they spend on the project; essentially, this means the company will pay no tax on the cost of its programme, and receive an additional 100% corporation tax discount. The amount of relief will rise to 225% in 2012.

Furthermore, for those companies which make a loss on their R&D programme, the government is now offering payable credit for up to 24% of the project's total cost - a major boost for the tech start-ups which are being strongly encouraged by the current administration.

Definition

But before everyone starts rushing out an investing in a ground-breaking research project, it's important to know what an R&D project actually is. There's no point splurging thousands of pounds on R&D if it doesn't meet the government's criteria for relief.

At its most simple, R&D refers to research which directly contributes to the creation of new and innovative products, processes and services, or simply the enhancement of knowledge and understanding. The project must have wider relevance, and benefit, beyond the profit margins of the company carrying out the work. If you're thinking of carrying out an R&D project purely for your own ends, you won't get tax credits for it.

On the other hand, if you want R&D tax credits, you must prove the research is linked to what your company does. If you make industrial cleaning products for a living, and then suddenly decide to build a new type of spaceship, the government won't look favourably on your R&D application.

Finally, it's important to know what sort of industries and sectors qualify for R&D relief. The credits are primarily designed for companies in the science and technology sectors, such as manufacturing, engineering and hi-tech; if your company operates in the humanities or social sciences sectors, you probably won't get much joy in applying for relief.

It's also worth noting that your research must be original - i.e. it should not duplicate research which has already been done - and your findings must be borne of a systematic process - if you've just got lucky with a random piece of investigation, or happened upon an amazing discovery while going about your usual business, you'll be wasting your time if you go in search of credits.

How can you apply to get an R&D tax break?

If you feel that the work you are undertaking, or plan to undertake, qualifies for R&D tax credits, it’s imperative that you apply for consideration. As the old saying goes, there is no harm in asking. If you fail to apply for R&D tax breaks, you could miss out on valuable savings, putting your entire project at risk and damaging the viability of your business.

All claims relating to R&D tax credits must be included in your company tax return, or amended return. As a small business, you should put a tick in box 99 of the form to pinpoint the size of your company, then insert a figure for the enhanced expenditure in box 101 – this is the amount you spent on the R&D project, multiplied by 2.

The normal time limit for making your claim is two years after the end of the relevant Corporation Tax accounting period. This figure should also be included in your calculations of the profit (Box 3) or the loss (Box 122).

And the boxes don’t stop there – you’ve also got to put the amount payable in boxes 87, 89 and 143 – and put an X in the ‘repayment due for this return period’ box, found on page 1.

Ref www.startups.co.uk

Job Advert for Micro Electronics packaging process engineer

2011-04-18T08:45:00.004Z

I am looking for a Process engineer with the requirments below, if interested please email me on:

E: info@optocap.com

T: +44(0)1506 403 550

W: http://www.optocap.com/

Process Engineer Job Outline.

Degree or HND with relevant experience.

5 years industrial experience in the development/manufacturing of microelectronic or optoelectronic products.

Relevant experience in the any of wafer saw, wirebond, pick and place and precision placement equipment.

Familiarity with Telcordia, Jedec and IPC reliability requirements for optoelectronic, and semiconductor products/packages.

Knowledge of assembly processes for optical components such as LEDs, laser diodes and photo detectors including optical alignment would be an advantage Proven ability to manage technical projects to successful completion.

General Experience of working with external customers.

Used to working in small multi-skilled teams.

Good communication skills.

Entropy and change management

2011-04-05T08:03:00.002Z

From Toilet Paper to Typhoons: Why managers need to let go

During one of the episodes of the Wonders of The Universe series on BBC One, Professor Brian Cox introduced us to the concept of entropy. Entropy is a term used by physicists to explain the way in which things move inexorably from an organised to less organised state. As Professor Cox explained, this is the natural law of the universe. For example, when we build a car we take raw materials such as metal, leather, plastic and glass and arrange them in a highly organised way to make a car. But if we then leave that car for long enough the metal will rust, the glass will become brittle and break and the leather will dry out and turn to dust. If the car is left for a very long time it will eventually disappear altogether. This thought left me wondering about the nature of organisations. If a progression from order to chaos is the natural order of the universe, then is this same pressure present in organisations and, perhaps more importantly, what is the optimum position for an organisation between the extremes of rigid inflexibility (low entropy) and complete chaos (high entropy)? This question is not as crazy as it might at first appear. Take as an example of an organisation with a low entropy value the last company in Britain to produce hard toilet paper. For those of you lucky enough to not know what this is, hard toilet paper was shiny on one side and formed painfully sharp edges when scrunched up. It was however what people used to wipe their bottoms until the introduction of soft toilet tissues in the 1950s. However, the hard paper was cheaper and it was not until the 1990s that the last UK company making hard toilet paper went out of business. Clearly, that organisation was so set in its ways and so resistant to change that the introduction of soft tissue, quilted tissue or even moisturised and scented tissue completely passed it by. Perhaps the reason for this seemingly blinkered approach can be found in the history of organisations and in particular in the philosophy and practice of management. Developed in the late seventeenth and early nineteenth centuries, the purpose of management was to enable the business-founders who led the industrial revolution to coordinate the activities of the huge workforces they employed. Prior to that, most businesses were small cottage industries where a formal management process was not needed. Because the workers in those early organisations were the means of production, their activities needed to be coordinated and closely supervised. So, when Henry Ford said he wanted all his Model T cars to be black, he used his managers to ensure that his orders were carried out and that each and every car was indeed black. Provided that either nothing changes or that the pace of change is slow enough for the business founder or chief executive to anticipate and direct all the necessary changes, this low entropy organisational model works well. Indeed, the massive growth in prosperity of the Western economies during the last 150 years or so stands as testament to just how well it has served us. More recently though the pace of change has accelerated to unprecedented levels. The combined effects of mechanisation and globalisation mean that a new innovation launched on one side of the world today can be copied and become a commodity product within a matter of weeks. For example, did you know that the Disney Corporation releases, on average, a new product every 3 minutes, or that most consumer goods companies will today be selling products that did not exist 6 months ago and that will no longer exist in 6 months time? In this fast-moving world where the number of decisions an organisation needs to take every day vastly exceeds the capacity of a single person, the traditional role of management in enforcing blind obedience to directions from above has changed. Today's managers need to be leaders of change as well as supervisors of the process. And in this environment, too much stability is a bad thing! So to be more agile and more receptive to change, an organisation needs to be less stable and therefore more chaotic. To illustrate the benefits of this higher entropy model, take the case of the Typhoon Eurofighter. This aeroplane was deliberately designed to be the least stable aircraft in the world. It is in fact so unstable that if it were not for the numerous computer systems that monitor and control its every movement, it would be impossible to fly. Yet it is this instability that also makes it the most manoeuvrable aircraft in the world. In the Typhoon the pilot is therefore not really piloting the aircraft at all, that is done by computer. They are instead acting as a leader – setting direction and initiating changes. The challenge in building the Typhoon was therefore to find the right balance between chaos and organisation. Too much chaos and the aircraft would be un-flyable, too little and it would not be sufficient manoeuvrable. In organisational life this same dilemma is represented by the balance between management and leadership skills. The discipline of management is all about stability while the discipline of leadership is all about change. John Kotter, the legendary Professor of Leadership at Harvard University famously summed it up in his book "Leading Change" when he said that in times of stability a balance of 80% management 20% leadership is appropriate, but that in times of change these percentages should be reversed. Since no one would dispute that in organisational life the pace of change is greater today than at any time in the past, the question we should all be asking ourselves is whether we have got the balance between management and leadership right, or whether our organisational entropy score is too low?

About the Author Alistair Schofield is Managing Director of Extensor Limited.

www.extensor.co.uk

How to know when a venture capitalist may really be your friend

2011-03-18T12:37:00.003Z

How to know when a venture capitalist may really be your friend ?

Light hearted look at this subject....

Live from the Cleantech Forum, the largest investor conference for energy and environmental technologies, our take on how to tell if the venture capital investor you are talking to really may be your friend. Only partly tongue in cheek.

1) when you ask how things are going, he moans about all of his portfolio companies who are suffering; and doesn’t tell how all of them are getting traction.

2) when you ask whether they’re actually investing this year, he tells you no, their fund is full but he refers you to an investor who has just raised a fund (and doesn’t tell you, “oh yes; we’ve still got one or two deals left to do and we’re exploring raising our next fund” – VC code for I’m out of money.

3) when you ask for advice, he actually tells you the terms of the last couple of deals they’ve done.

4) in your due diligence, he shows you the business plan of one of his portfolio companies who competes with you – instead of handing yours to them.

5) he starts offering to meet at YOUR office and then picks up the tab for lunch.

6) he gets your kid an internship at one of his companies.

And, the final way you know the VC you are talking to may really be your friend:

7) he hands you his resume.

Have a good week....and by the way a VC never makes friends with anyone but another VC :)

Three steps to building a better top team

2011-03-10T12:29:00.002Z

Three steps to building a better top team
When a top team fails to function, it can paralyze a whole company. Here’s what CEOs need to watch out for:

Few teams function as well as they could. But the stakes get higher with senior-executive teams: dysfunctional ones can slow down, derail, or even paralyze a whole company. In our work with top teams at more than 100 leading multinational companies,1 including surveys with 600 senior executives at 30 of them, we’ve identified three crucial priorities for constructing and managing effective top teams. Getting these priorities right can help drive better business outcomes in areas ranging from customer satisfaction to worker productivity and many more as well.
1. Get the right people on the team . . . and the wrong ones off
Determining the membership of a top team is the CEO’s responsibility—and frequently the most powerful lever to shape a team’s performance. Many CEOs regret not employing this lever early enough or thoroughly enough. Still others neglect it entirely, assuming instead that factors such as titles, pay grades, or an executive’s position on the org chart are enough to warrant default membership. Little surprise, then, that more than one-third of the executives we surveyed said their top teams did not have the right people and capabilities.
The key to getting a top team’s composition right is deciding what contributions the team as a whole, and its members as individuals, must make to achieve an organization’s performance aspirations and then making the necessary changes in the team. This sounds straight-forward, but it typically requires conscious attention and courage from the CEO; otherwise, the top team can underdeliver for an extended period of time.
That was certainly the case at a technology services company that had a struggling top team: fewer than one in five of its members thought it was highly respected or shared a common vision for the future, and only one in three thought it made a valuable contribution to corporate performance. The company’s customers were very dissatisfied—they rated its cost, quality, and service delivery at only 2.3 on a 7-point scale—and the team couldn’t even agree on the root causes.
A new CEO reorganized the company, creating a new strategy group and moving from a geography-based structure to one based on two customer-focused business units—for wholesale and for retail. He adapted the composition of his top team, making the difficult decision to remove two influential regional executives who had strongly resisted cross-organizational collaboration and adding the executive leading the strategy group and the two executives leading the retail and the wholesale businesses, respectively. The CEO then used a series of workshops to build trust and a spirit of collaboration among the members of his new team and to eliminate the old regional silo mentality. The team also changed its own performance metrics, adding customer service and satisfaction performance indicators to the traditional short-term sales ones.
Customers rated the company’s service at 4.3 a year later and at 5.4 two years later. Meanwhile, the top team, buoyed by these results, was now confident that it was better prepared to improve the company’s performance. In the words of one team member, “I wouldn’t have believed we could have come this far in just one year.”
2. Make sure the top team does just the work only it can do
Many top teams struggle to find purpose and focus. Only 38 percent of the executives we surveyed said their teams focused on work that truly benefited from a top-team perspective. Only 35 percent said their top teams allocated the right amounts of time among the various topics they considered important, such as strategy and people.
What are they doing instead? Everything else. Too often, top teams fail to set or enforce priorities and instead try to cover the waterfront. In other cases, they fail to distinguish between topics they must act on collectively and those they should merely monitor. These shortcomings create jam-packed agendas that no top team can manage properly. Often, the result is energy-sapping meetings that drag on far too long and don’t engage the team, leaving members wondering when they can get back to “real work.” CEOs typically need to respond when such dysfunctions arise; it’s unlikely that the senior team’s members—who have their own business unit goals and personal career incentives—will be able to sort out a coherent set of collective top-team priorities without a concerted effort.
The CEO and the top team at a European consumer goods company rationalized their priorities by creating a long list of potential topics they could address. Then they asked which of these had a high value to the business, given where they wanted to take it, and would allow them, as a group, to add extraordinary value. While narrowing the list down to ten items, team members spent considerable time challenging each other about which topics individual team members could handle or delegate. They concluded, for example, that projects requiring no cross-functional or cross-regional work, such as addressing lagging performance in a single region, did not require the top team’s collective attention even when these projects were the responsibility of an individual team member. For delegated responsibilities, they created a transparent and consistent set of performance indicators to help them monitor progress.
This change gave the top team breathing room to do more valuable work. For the first time, it could focus enough effort on setting and dynamically adapting cross-category and cross-geography priorities and resource allocations and on deploying the top 50 leaders across regional and functional boundaries, thus building a more effective extended leadership group for the company. This, in turn, proved crucial as the team led a turnaround that took the company from a declining to a growing market share. The team’s tighter focus also helped boost morale and performance at the company’s lower levels, where employees now had more delegated responsibility. Employee satisfaction scores improved to 79 percent, from 54 percent, in just one year.
3. Address team dynamics and processes
A final area demanding unrelenting attention from CEOs is effective team dynamics, whose absence is a frequent problem: among the top teams we studied, members reported that only about 30 percent of their time was spent in “productive collaboration”—a figure that dropped even more when teams dealt with high-stakes topics where members had differing, entrenched interests. Here are three examples of how poor dynamics depress performance:
The top team at a large mining company formed two camps with opposing views on how to address an important strategic challenge. The discussions on this topic hijacked the team’s agenda for an extended period, yet no decisions were made.
The top team at a Latin American insurance company was completely demoralized when it began losing money after government reforms opened up the country to new competition. The team wandered, with little sense of direction or accountability, and blamed its situation on the government’s actions. As unproductive discussions prevented the top team from taking meaningful action, other employees became dissatisfied and costs got out of control.
The top team at a North American financial-services firm was not aligned effectively for a critical company-wide operational-improvement effort. As a result, different departments were taking counterproductive and sometimes contradictory actions. One group, for example, tried to increase cross-selling, while another refused to share relevant information about customers because it wanted to “own” relationships with them.
CEOs can take several steps to remedy problems with team dynamics. The first is to work with the team to develop a common, objective understanding of why its members aren’t collaborating effectively. There are several tools available for the purpose, including top-team surveys, interviews with team members, and 360-degree evaluations of individual leaders. The CEO of the Latin American insurance company used these methods to discover that the members of his top team needed to address building relationships and trust with one another and with the organization even before they agreed on a new corporate strategy and on the cultural changes necessary to meet its goals (for more on building trust, see “Dispatches from the front lines of management innovation”). One of the important cultural changes for this top team was that its members needed to take ownership of the changes in the company’s performance and culture and to hold one another accountable for living up to this commitment.
Correcting dysfunctional dynamics requires focused attention and interventions, preferably as soon as an ineffective pattern shows up. At the mining company, the CEO learned, during a board meeting focused on the team’s dynamics, that his approach—letting the unresolved discussion go on in hopes of gaining consensus and commitment from the team—wasn’t working and that his team expected him to step in. Once this became clear, the CEO brokered a decision and had the team jump-start its implementation.
Often more than a single intervention is needed. Once the CEO at the financial-services firm understood how poorly his team was aligned, for example, he held a series of top-team off-site meetings aimed specifically at generating greater agreement on strategy. One result: the team made aligning the organization part of its collective agenda, and its members committed themselves to communicating and checking in regularly with leaders at lower levels of the organization to ensure that they too were working consistently and collaboratively on the new strategy. One year later, the top team was much more unified around the aims of the operational-improvement initiative—the proportion of executives who said the team had clarity of direction doubled, to 70 percent, and the team was no longer working at cross-purposes. Meanwhile, operational improvements were gaining steam: costs came down by 20 percent over the same period, and the proportion of work completed on time rose by 8 percent, to 96.3 percent.
Finally, most teams need to change their support systems or processes to catalyze and embed change. At the insurer, for example, the CEO saw to it that each top-team member’s performance indicators in areas such as cost containment and employee satisfaction were aligned and pushed the team’s members to share their divisional performance data. The new approach allowed these executives to hold each other accountable for performance and made it impossible to continue avoiding tough conversations about lagging performance and cross-organizational issues. Within two years, the team’s dynamics had improved, along with the company’s financials—to a return on invested capital (ROIC) of 16.6 percent, from –8.8 percent, largely because the team collectively executed its roles more effectively and ensured that the company met its cost control and growth goals.
Each top team is unique, and every CEO will need to address a unique combination of challenges. As the earlier examples show, developing a highly effective top team typically requires good diagnostics, followed by a series of workshops and field work to address the dynamics of the team while it attends to hard business issues. When a CEO gets serious about making sure that her top team’s members are willing and able to help meet the company’s strategic goals, about ensuring that the team always focuses on the right topics, and about managing dynamics, she’s likely to get results. The best top teams will begin to take collective responsibility and to develop the ability to maintain and improve their own effectiveness, creating a lasting performance edge.

About the Authors
Michiel Kruyt is an associate principal in McKinsey’s Amsterdam office, Judy Malan is a principal in the Johannesburg office, and Rachel Tuffield is an alumnus of the Sydney office.

The authors wish to acknowledge the contributions of Carolyn Aiken, a principal in McKinsey’s Toronto office, and Scott Keller, a director in the Chicago office.

Are You Ready to Start Your Own Business?

2011-02-18T12:17:00.001Z

Are You Ready to Start Your Own Business?
By Elaine Pofeldt

We’ve all hatched potential escape plans from our desks, and if you're reading this, you're one of those people who want to get past the daydreaming phase. Look, if you have a great idea (that part is up to you) and do a bit of smart planning (we'll help with that), starting your own company within the year isn't as out of reach as you might think.

Rocket Lawyer's Charley Moore
Take Charley Moore. Through his experiences advising small business owners as a corporate lawyer and later selling a software product called Family Lawyer, he noticed a vast, unmet need in the marketplace in 2007. New startup founders urgently needed help with preparing documents like incorporation papers and business contracts for employees — but couldn’t afford to hire a lawyer for every legal task.
So six months later with his own capital, he launched Rocket Lawyer, a website that helps small business owners prepare legal documents based on templates created by attorneys. The key to launching quickly, he says, was a small team and a well-defined project. The five-employee startup took off, and quickly attracted the attention and $3 million in funding from a small group of investors and Lexis Nexis. The company now does about $10 million in annual revenue.
Moore isn't the only one who's been busy launching, recession be damned. In 2009 the number of new startups reached its highest level in 14 years — even exceeding the startup boom peak of 1999-2000. And 2011 brings new advantages: Washington's renewed focus on small business has helped bring about a $30 billion federal loan fund and incentives for banks to start lending again to small businesses, a new tax break that could let you deduct health insurance costs for yourself and your family from self-employment taxes, and a host of other benefits for startup founders.
So will 2011 be the year you become your own boss? Let's get down to the nitty gritty details as to how you can make it happen, both personally and financially. Read on for some key questions to ask yourself:
1. How important is it for you to maintain your lifestyle?
Even if your business grows quickly, you're probably going to have to forgo a salary in the beginning so that you can reinvest your earnings in the business. Unless you rely primarily on a spouse or partner’s income, you may have to make some tough choices that affect everything from your social life to your children’s education.
When Sara Morgan left her corporate career as a Web developer five years ago to start her own Web consulting firm, the divorced mother had three children to support, private school tuitions to pay and a mortgage. To give herself the financial freedom she needed, she sold her house in Baton Rouge and bought a cheaper one in a small town with good public schools, so she didn’t have to pay tuition. She now pays herself 60 to 70 percent of her former salary but has more time with her children and says she’d never go back to corporate America. “In some ways, I feel I would rather go to jail,” says Morgan, who loathed the office politics and stress.
2. What could make you fail?
It may seem pessimistic to list potential threats to your business and look for ways to mitigate them before they’ve even happened. But blind optimism is not your friend now. This exercise, known as a risk analysis, is essential for successful business ownership, says Nat Wasserstein, a crisis manager with Lindenwood Associates.
He recently worked with a company that leases the coin-operated amusement rides that sit in front of many stores. When the owners did a risk analysis, they realized that the greatest potential threat to their business was a poor relationship with any of the store managers who controlled the turf in front of the stores. Result: The owners made it part of their business plan to keep the managers happy by, for instance, volunteering to move the rides any time a sidewalk sale was planned. Today, the business is thriving.
3. Are your significant others on board?
It's one thing to ask a spouse to become the primary breadwinner for a while or to take on more childcare, if necessary. But the bigger question to ask is if he or she will back your "plan B" in a worst-case scenario — like, say, raiding your joint retirement savings in a cash-flow crunch. “People often focus too much on the business plan, and there’s not enough alignment with the life plan,” says Andrew Sherman, a partner at Jones Day who advises many small business clients.
4. How much money does your family depend on to survive?
Be realistic about how much you’ll need to live on — and run your business during the pre-revenue phase — and make sure you have at least that much money saved before you get started. Many business owners have to close up shop earlier than planned because they’re undercapitalized and don’t anticipate likelihoods like customers who pay them late. You don’t need the stress of wondering where next month’s mortgage payment is going to come from.

5. Are your other investments tied up in stocks or other potentially volatile investments?
You may want to reinvest them in safer vehicles, like bonds, CDs or fixed income securities. Your risk is this new business.
6. Do you have access to additional capital if you need it?
When women’s fashion designer Gaby Basora got an order from Barney’s and then a slew of other retailers who wanted to sell her clothes five years ago, she had to quickly borrow $320,000 from friends and family. The bold move paid off. She now generates $4.5 million in sales and released a collection, Tucker by Gabby Basora, in Target in September. Better yet, she isn’t up to her ears in debt, thanks to a decision to keep operations lean. “I have paid back most of those loans,” she says.

2010-12-30T14:25:00.001Z

Sales Projections – Newbie vs Reality
Want to immediately identify yourself as a total sales/revenue noob? Make the following statement while talking to an investor (or a peer, the postman or your dog) about how your derived your revenue projections:

“We estimate that we can capture X% of the current market which will generate $YYY millions.”
Gut check moment….do you know what is wrong with that statement? No? Here it is, plain and simple. True sales projections are derived as a result of understanding how many opportunities a sales person can close in a given year. This includes online marketing/sales efforts. Even if a sales person is not directly contributing to a sale (like converting a website member to a paying account), there is a metric that one needs to derive to form the foundations of revenue projections. You need a formula based in reality.

By saying that all your company needs to do is capture a percentage, you are telling the other party that you have not gone through the thought process of how opportunities will be generated (above the funnel), how they will be converted (in the funnel), how long it will take to convert, what revenue will be generated per account, and when you will lose that customer (below the funnel).

This is the difference between a ‘Top-down” and “Bottom-up” strategy. Top-down strategies are basically WAGs (Wild Ass Guesses) stating some unrealistic percentage of market as a revenue number. Bottom-up strategies use reality to derive a revenue figure. When the VP of Sales conducts an annual sales meeting with his/her team, the individual sales people in the room don’t commit to sales figures based on a percentage, they think about the cycle of “bagging and tagging” a new customer. They also think about attrition rates and incremental revenue from their existing customer base. They consider all the factors that lead to a sale and then, based on lead generation, provide a projection that is a reflection of reality.

For example, Dr Suess starts a new company selling moss covered credenzas. He hires a marketing person to start generating inbound sales leads and then finds a sales person to close them (I am overly simplifying this, so go with it!). Dr Suess asks the sales person how much revenue he can “close” this year. The sales person pauses and thinks to himself;

“It takes me 2 weeks to get a meeting with a new lead, another month to ship them a sample, then a couple more months for them to decide. The first order is normally 10 units at $1000, assuming a first time buyers discount of 50%, which will take another month to run a credit check, set them up in our system and get the actual order from the customer. So it will take me about 4 months to close each new account, generating $10,000 per customer. I think I can find and handle about 10 sales over the course of the year so that makes $100,000 in revenue.”
He then tells Dr Suess he can generate $90,000 (giving himself a little wiggle room) in the next year. Dr Suess nods approvingly and writes down this number as the sales persons commitment. Let’s just assume the cost of living in Whoville is VERY low and profit margins are high.

The thought process the sales person went through is Bottom-up. It is based on his real experience selling credenzas and is therefore more realistic. If he had taken the Top-down approach the number might be completely unattainable. If the market was $100,000,000 and he made the noob mistake of saying he could close 0.5% of the market, he would have signed up for a revenue figure of $500,000. Given the sales cycle, what are the chances this sales person would close 50 account in a year? Slim to worse-than-dead.

This is why, when people talk about potential sales as a percentage of market, most people think they are just throwing out a mentally-lazy number and haven’t done the math. Someone with experience would state a number and maybe talk about how that number was derived. The beauty of a Bottom-up approach, especially when seeking investment, is this level of understanding helps the entrepreneur also deal with the wonderful question, “If you doubled your sales staff, how much more could you make?” Translation, “I am interested and might be inclined to give you more money because I trust your analysis.” Not a bad problem to have.

Hope you have a great 2011

The 'accidental entrepreneur'

2010-12-27T12:35:00.004Z

Hi Folks,

Hope you are all well and have had a good break over Chirstmas and Newyear (as I write new year is still to happen). I had stopped posting for a while as I was visited by my insurance underwriters off my unemployment insurance (HBOS ) and asked how much money was I making with my Blog?...well that was a laugh...but to keep things on the up and up and make sure I did not upset HBOS again, I decided not to write again until I had a new job, which I have a temporary ( 6 months) contract with a microelectronics packaging company http://www.optocap.com/ good guys, I have worked with them in the past on two projects, one for a microdisplay company ( http://www.forthdd.com/) and another a stealth CPV company, these guys are just through an MBO so it is interesting times ahead for them.

Now to the post of today....I saw this article on the http://www.bbc.co.uk/ website wrt an entrepreneur, who stumbled in to starting companies, he makes some interesting comments, so enjoy:

WizPatent's Casey Chan: The 'accidental entrepreneur'

The commercial success of a medical research project led orthopaedic surgeon Casey Chan into the world of tech-start ups

By his own admission, Casey Chan stumbled into entrepreneurship.
He trained in engineering and medicine, but now divides his time between lecturing and researching at the National University of Singapore and creating new technology companies.
While working as an orthopaedic surgeon, Dr Chan became involved by chance in a research project to increase the strength of bone cement used in joint replacement surgery.
The system he designed turned out to be a commercial success. He believes the opportunity gave him the first taste of developing technology into a commercial product.
Dr Chan's latest innovations, WizPatent and WizFolio, arose after he wanted to patent a product but needed to sort through existing, similar patents to check for infringement or copyright issues.
"It's not just a matter of getting the documents," he explains.
"There's a whole series of knowledge management after you have gotten the documents."
Dr Chan found the process frustrating.
"The difficult part is making the decision on what you have retrieved, which means you need to decide which are the patents that are relevant to what you need to do.
"Then you need to organise it so that you can make a final decision based on your analysis."
The cumbersome procedure led him to develop WizPatent, a software system for managing patent documents.
It allows users to download and sort patents in an orderly fashion.
Demand
Dr Chan launched WizFolio soon afterwards to help users organise other forms of digital documents that can be cumbersome to manage, such as research papers.
"I've been developing software for the last 15 years," he says.
"And I've found that developing software is not any different from developing any other commercial product.

"My advice for people who are starting up…is it's very important that they actually pay themselves”
"You go through a whole series of processes. The first thing is identify if there is a need for such a product.
"Don't go and try and commercialise a product because you think it's a good idea or because the technology is cool. You want to make sure there is somebody that wants the product you are making."
Dr Chan believes his previous experience with start-up companies in Silicon Valley in California was invaluable when it came to creating his own company to launch WizPatent.
"I talked to a lot of other people that had been starting their own companies and then I invested in a number of these companies and got to know the process," he says.
But he admits that his lack of marketing drive has hampered the success of his company.
"The launching of a product is something that we don't do very well as entrepreneurs and that is one of the major deficiencies I consider myself as having," he says.
"If I were to do it again, I'd probably raise some funds from outside investors and hire a marketing team. I think that's very, very important. We did not do that, so right now we are just breaking even."
Failure
"I often think that jaywalkers are good entrepreneurs," says Casey Chan.
Casey Chan believes that all entrepreneurs experience failure repeatedly and that eight out of 10 new businesses "are probably going to fail".
"There's a lot of lessons to be learnt from a failure," he says.
"But you want to be able to get up from a knock-down position… to utilise the learning that you have derived from that particular failure."
For those reasons he is adamant that entrepreneurs should never leave themselves financially vulnerable when starting up a company.
"My advice for people who are starting up… is it's very important that they actually pay themselves. What you don't want is an entrepreneur who failed and is not able to recover from it."
Personalities
Indeed, Dr Chan believes many entrepreneurs fail due to unexpected considerations.
"The biggest challenge I have, in terms of a start-up, is actually not the technology itself," he says.
"It is dealing with the personnel.
"When you are in a start-up company, every employee is a key employee and managing that is the hardest thing."
He says he has first-hand experience of the consequences of not getting this right.
"I have been involved in a number of start-ups. Many have failed, and many of them failed not because of the technology. They failed because of personality."
The experience has taught him that in start-up companies "the whole arrangement has to be very transparent".
He advises that particularly in collaborative ventures, everyone should get a "fair deal" and that agreements should be put in writing.
Ultimately, however, Dr Chan believes entrepreneurship is about risk and risk-taking.
"I often think that jaywalkers are good entrepreneurs," he says.
"They tend to take the risks and they want to get things done very quickly."

Trouble ahead for the Cleantech markets Europe wide

2010-09-29T09:16:00.005Z

I was reading an analysis from Citi group on the prospects for the European Utilities to meet there extraordinary capex demands
being faced by the Utility Sector in the decade to 2020 as it tries to meet the
enormous costs of government imposed environmental regulations and embark
upon large scale asset replacement cycle, this directly impacts the Cleantech sector, the summary below makes an interesting read, it points to still more reductions in the cost of energy required, and the capex, if companies are going to survive through the next decade

The €1trn Euro Decade –European Utilities
European Utilities sector is facing a decade of unprecedented investment
requirements. Across the five major markets (UK, Germany, France, Spain,
Italy) we estimated that the investment requirements totaled €800m in the
decade 2010 to 2020, and across the EU as a whole the figure could easily top
€1trn.
One year on we revisit this issue and ask what has changed? Unfortunately for
the governments of Europe who are driving the capex surge and are relying
upon the Utility sector to deliver their very expensive environmental policies,
the main developments in the past 12 months are all negative for capex. The
main developments are:
1. Costs up: Estimates of the total capex spend required by 2020 to
meet environmental targets and replace/re-new aging assets has risen
from €800bn to €938bn for the five major EU markets. Rising
equipment costs and additional requirements on Utility companies in
areas like energy efficiency have outweighed the delay in some
replacement expenditure;
2. Risks up: Events in Spain and Germany over the summer have
substantially increased investor perception of political risk in the Utility
sector in our view. This is particularly damaging where Utilities are
making very large investments in order to meet government
environmental targets. Much of this investment is fundamentally
uncommercial and relies upon government directed subsidy. If
companies do not have complete confidence that the subsidy regime
will be maintained beyond their investment pay-back period then
investment will not flow in our view.
3. Woeful sector performance: Since March 2009 the European Utility
sector has underperformed the wider market by 26%. Of particular
worry to policy markers should be that the underperformance has
been concentrated in the large cap generation based Utilities – the
very same companies who are expected to do most of the heavy lifting
on the capex front. The European Utility sector has been significant
de-rated both relatively and in absolute terms. This suggests that
equity investors are much less confident over the sectors future cash
flows and reflects a substantial increase in the cost of equity.

Can the Sector Finance €938bn?

From the Citigroup Global Markets report they have built a sector wide model to try and ascertain how much balance sheet headroom exists to fund the required capex. We assume that companies seek to maintain at least an A- credit rating and that power prices average
€55/MWh. With these assumption we calculate that the sector would have a
funding shortfall of €277bn that would need to be met largely through issuing
equity if it were to meet the total capex spend requirement of €938bn. Given
the cost of equity faced by the sector, such a level of equity issuance is, in our
view, highly unlikely

How lessons learned in other can help the emerging Industries

2010-09-01T15:36:00.002Z

How lessons learned in other Industries can help the emerging Industries:

I was at a CPV conference a couple of years ago in San Diego, and one of the companies presenting, went through how they had improved the productivity and quality, and I was amazed at how rudimentery the techniques they had used to achieve it, and they thought this was "rocket science". This articel might help some off you who are struggling a bit to increase profit, or are struggling to get yours mind around product costs etc, and remember these techniques can be used even when outsourcing product.

A better way to measure shop floor costs

The CEO was coming to visit, and the senior plant manager at a large biotech production facility was uneasy. The latest numbers from the Finance Department hadn’t been good: the plant’s labor costs were rising, while margins were slumping. When the CEO asked what was going wrong, the manager could only describe his difficulties getting his hands around the problems.

As he explained, standard accounting measures based on the cost of goods sold meant that he couldn’t tell for sure whether margins were declining because fluctuating production volumes were reducing operating efficiency or because variations in the mix of high- and low-margin products were bringing down the plant’s average margins—or both. He thought the numbers should be better, given his knowledge of what was happening on the plant floor, but he had no way to dig into the operating details to explain quarter-on-quarter changes in productivity. That would require a much finer-grained understanding of the many components of product costs. The CEO gave the plant executive three months—until the next operating review—to come up with a better answer.

The plant manager knew he faced a devil of a time parsing the many activities of the biotech facility. For starters, the plant had seven distinct production areas and thousands of stock-keeping units (SKUs). In one laboratory-like section, PhDs mixed customized chemical products by hand. Elsewhere, fermentation and cracking lines processed biologic inputs. In another wing, staffers surveyed a continuous stream of capsules and vials as they passed through a fully automated production line. An assembly line for medical instruments occupied one wing; other areas housed testing and packaging lines. Some product families had hundreds of SKUs because of slight differences in key ingredients or concentrations. Swings in the monthly volumes and mix of production compounded the difficulty of pinpointing cost problems.

Imprecise cost accounting and its distortions

This plant was complex, but its problems are common. The issues facing its managers resemble those bedevilling myriad processes used in the fabrication of semiconductors, the production of specialty chemicals, and other applications with thousands of SKUs and complex production environments. Similarly, in our experience many managers who oversee shop floors consider traditional cost-of-goods-sold accounting—the widely used measure of operational performance—a blunt instrument. Fixed costs for capital equipment and inventory charges, for example, are averaged across SKU groups, masking changes in variable costs. When products are scrapped, that could often be due to poor forecasts by the marketing and sales functions, an issue that should be recognized in productivity measures. In most factories, multiple products often pass through the same production lines and share the same workers, making true cost assignments difficult, so the averages applied distort the true cost picture. Volume and mix swings accentuate the problem. Finally, when output volumes rise or fall, costs often don’t follow in lockstep, since there’s a time lag in consuming inventory.

The effects of getting measurements wrong can be substantial. Without good cost data, it’s hard to decide how to price products or even how much to produce. A hazy understanding of which production areas in a plant perform poorly leads to bad investment decisions. Multiplied across a large corporation’s manufacturing footprint, even minor plant-level miscalculations can have a significant impact. That’s a serious handicap in the current economic climate, since slower growth and more intense competition put a premium on operating efficiency. In plants we have examined, true costs vary from those assigned by traditional cost-accounting methods by 30 to 100 percent.

A new basis for measuring costs

The plant manager, knowing that he had no time to waste, quickly put together a team of experts, from a variety of functions, with the best knowledge of the plant’s processes and costs. The members of the team divided up the tasks facing it. Some undertook full-day fact-finding missions across the plant to get a more detailed understanding of the way processes flowed and the production staff was configured. Others pored over data on the cost of materials, labor, scrap, and overhead. After two months, the group had a plan for tackling the issues.

Clearly, the key was developing a radically detailed understanding of what happened to costs as the product mix and volumes shifted. The team mapped out three steps to accomplish this goal. First, it would define new product pathways and subpathways—granular “factories within factories” that made it possible to assign costs more accurately. Next, using a regression analysis of historical data, the team would detail cost drivers for each subpathway, an analysis based on past relationships between input costs and output produced. Finally, to account for dissimilar products, as well as for changes in the product mix and volumes, the team would define standardized “manufacturing units” (see below) that would allow productivity to be measured across time periods.

Using pathways to fine-tune product segments

The team grouped the plant’s product lines into pathways according to their common characteristics, such as the types of workers handling them and the processes used to manufacture them. In some cases, different pathways share labor or machinery. These high-level pathways, for example, separated biologics from chemical solutions and from instrument assembly. To delineate costs clearly, each pathway had its own measure of output: grams of gel for biologics, milliliters for chemicals, and pieces for instruments. The result was a set of distinct product families, each comprising several narrowly focused lines that shared common traits.

Building profiles of cost drivers

The next step was to identify cost drivers for each subpathway to help estimate input costs by the amount of output produced. Team members mined data on materials, labor, capital costs, scrapping charges, and other costs for each subpathway’s finely tuned production units. The team used statistical estimates to build these profiles, because materials and labor costs don’t rise and fall in linear fashion as output changes. (A 15 percent increase in the output of chemical solutions, for example, raises total hourly wages by only 10 percent, thanks to scale economies.) To estimate these cost and volume relationships, the team performed hundreds of regression analyses on historical cost data.

With the pathways and information on cost drivers in place, the factory team could accurately assign the amounts of chemical and biological compounds, labor inputs, and in-process scrap that went into, say, the creation of a vial. Take the example of a shop floor area that processed both vials of chemicals and biologic capsules. Traditional accounting averaged labor costs for this area across all the biologic and chemical products that passed through the line; only minor adjustments were made for variations in the mix or in volumes. The new data on cost drivers, by contrast, made it possible to measure labor costs down to a fraction of a penny for each of the more precisely defined product pathways.

Standardize output with manufacturing units

These new metrics gave a highly accurate picture of how costs varied within each pathway when volumes or the product mix changed. But the team still had no way to get a broad picture of productivity fluctuations across the entire facility and across time periods as mixes and volumes changed. This was an apples-and-oranges problem: as the mix of vials and capsules fluctuated, there was no meaningful way to add vials measured in milliliters to capsules measured in grams across time periods to get a baseline output figure.

With pathway and cost driver analysis, the team could assess productivity change across periods by modeling the predicted production costs of each pathway and comparing them with actual incurred costs. To solve the apples-and-oranges problem, the team denominated these input costs in standardized manufacturing units, which allowed costs at the most granular levels to be rolled up to pathways and, critically, to the site level. This approach provided the big picture on costs and changes in productivity (for a before-and-after example, see the interactive exhibit, “Product pathways reveal true costs”).

Product pathways reveal true costs

Pathways and standardized manufacturing units reveal how costs vary when volumes or product mix change.

Here’s an illustration. In a base quarter, the biologics pathway might produce 1,000 grams of gel at an expected cost of $500 (in direct and indirect labor), the chemicals pathway 500 milliliters at an expected cost of $1,000 (also in direct and indirect labor). The computation assigns a value of 1 manufacturing unit for every $50 in production costs, so the first pathway earned 10 manufacturing units ($500 divided by 50), the second pathway 20 ($1,000 divided by $50), for a total of 30 manufacturing units. If in a subsequent quarter, the actual cost of producing 1,000 grams of gel fell to $450, the cost per manufacturing unit would fall to $45, from $50—for a productivity gain of 10 percent. Similarly, changes in total costs in other pathways can be compared with regression-expected costs and the totals rolled up across pathways for a view of overall productivity change at a site.

Applying the lessons

At the next quarterly meeting with the CEO, the new metrics were in force. Repeating the pattern of past meetings, the Finance Department reported numbers that seemed to show persistent problems. Labor costs and the number of labor hours worked had fallen, indicating a falloff in business. Meanwhile, raw-material inputs had skyrocketed. Using the newly developed pathway cost numbers, however, the plant executive showed that production volumes rose substantially in the instruments line but had dropped significantly for chemicals. The production of instruments involves high costs for materials but not much for labor—the exact opposite of the pattern for chemical products. That explained how the cost of goods sold could climb in the face of declining hours.

What about productivity? An analysis based on manufacturing units showed that it had risen by 5 percent. While the product mix had shifted substantially, total output, as measured by manufacturing units, had risen by 3 percent; the inputs used to produce those manufacturing units had fallen by 2 percent.

The CEO incorporated the new metrics into company-wide reporting practices, and the gaps between operations and financial-performance measures diminished across the organization (see sidebar, “Managers’ checklist: Locking new cost measures into company practice”). A clearer picture of product margins allowed management to drop a range of poorly performing SKUs and to shift resources to higher-margin products. A more detailed understanding of costs led the company to realize further economies by shifting some production to sites where higher volumes would help absorb high fixed costs. The new measures also entered the company’s performance dashboards, and factory managers began tracking leading indicators of productivity, such as in-process materials scrap and labor utilization rates, on a daily basis.

In the wake of the recession, the demand for increased operating efficiency remains high. But disparities between financial and plant measures of costs and productivity exist at many manufacturing facilities. A better alignment, based on the enhanced gathering and analysis of data, can improve efficiency and provide a stronger foundation for pricing and product strategies.

About the Authors

Jon Duane is a director in McKinsey’s Silicon Valley office, where Nazgol Moussavi is a consultant and Nick Santhanam is a principal.The authors would like to acknowledge the contributions of Susan Ringus, an alumnus of the Pittsburgh office, to the development of this article.

Spinning out a business is just the start

2010-08-24T11:31:00.004Z

I found an interesting article in the scotsman today it was praising the number of start ups produced by Edinburgh University spun out during 2009, but if you dig down some interesting statistics can be found, the investment raised across the 40 companies equates to £75k, this was raised across public bodies and financial institutes, if we looked at the funds under management in Scotland by the financial sectors this not a even a blip on the P&l, and that cash does not go far, at one of the hi-tech business incubators you can pay £250 /SqM a month for accommodation/lab space.....

The really interesting piece of information, but not from the Scotsman but one of the comments was that out of "111 companies employing, on average,3 people, at least 2 of those 3 will be the technical originators". I would agree with this comment, and it points to the need for these companies to be able to access, the commercial skills and resources to help them build there companies, but will not be able to as they do not have the financial resources to do so, if Scotland wants to generate jobs, and see us getting out of this hole we are in there needs to be a rethink in how these start ups are financed and supported.

What is the answer, I am not sure, (But I have a few ideas), but unless we get it fixed soon, there will be a large attrition rate for these start ups, yes it is good to see Scottish innovation, but it will be better to see lower unemployment and more international Scottish companies.

Does Your Service Suck?

2010-08-14T12:57:00.003Z

This a fundamental part of your business, it could stop that all important repeat business or word of mouth business, and it does not take much to make a customer paying or not dislike your business. Companies underestimate the power of customer service...think about the last time you called your favorite bank and got a call center in a far off non english speaking country , (not all are bad) This article suggests a low cost method to see what your own company is like, or if you like I can have a look for you.

Does Your Service Suck? Do Business with Yourself and Find Out

By Michael Hess

How many of you put your own business through its paces, either as an actual customer or a spy? I’ll bet not many, and for those who do, probably not often enough. It may seem like obvious, old-school stuff, but there’s no better way to see how you really look to the world — and to test the quality of your service and your people — than to “do business with yourself.” If you never look in from the outside, it’s like being in a room with no mirrors: Your fly might be down, and everyone knows it but you.

There are many ways to test your own company. I urge you to do at least a few of the things below at least a few times a year. For these self-examinations to be effective, it is critical that you approach them without defensiveness, pride, ego, or company-think. Just be Joe Outsider, be honest with yourself (the odds provided below are based on brutal honesty), and be prepared to say, “Boy, we really stink at that.”

Give yourself a call: Most automated customer service systems drive customers crazy. Typically the level of insanity is directly proportionate to company size, but even small companies have been known to serve up some telephonic hell. So ring yourself up and try to accomplish a few phone service goals. And above all, test how easy or difficult it is to get to a real person quickly.
Odds you’ll be OK with it, 59.5%. Odds you’ll be thrilled, 19.4%
Pay yourself a visit: If your business involves walk-ins, well, walk in. Of course, in a small business where everyone knows everyone, this is a silly idea… unless you are really good with disguises. But if your company is larger or has multiple locations, and you can get away with it, do the age-old “secret shopper” test (or have a trusted friend or relative do it). See what it’s like to be a visitor on your planet.
Odds you’ll be OK with it, 71.7%. Odds you’ll be thrilled, 30.9%
Surf your site: If you have a website and you don’t use it yourself, you are missing (or avoiding) one of the simplest and most important self-tests for any business. You must make the time, on an ongoing basis, to surf and test every nook, cranny, function, and feature of your site. I guarantee you will find things that need fixing.
Odds you’ll be OK with it, 79.1%. Odds you’ll be thrilled, 20.8%
Buy yourself something: Whether by phone, online, in person, or even by mail (yes, there are people who still do that), complete a transaction with your company. Browse, get assistance, buy, and even return/exchange. Again, if you might be recognized, use a trusted shill. But one way or another, you absolutely must test the customer experience from start to finish.
Odds you’ll be OK with it, 72.1%. Odds you’ll be thrilled, 26.9%
Sell yourself something: This is for advanced players. Most companies give “cold-callers” the runaround, and many treat them like dirt. Sometimes it’s hard not to, when for every reasonable call there are many more unwelcome and often annoying solicitations. But people who sell you things are part of your business. And if your goal is to run a business with class, this is a challenging but necessary element of it… perhaps the ultimate test. Can you accommodate legit inquiries, while dispensing with pests efficiently yet as politely as possible?
Odds you’ll be OK with it, 38.8%. Odds you’ll be thrilled, 9.6%

There are other tests as well: See what people are saying in online forums and social media, read your literature and your press, talk to customers, employees and suppliers. Create a detailed checklist of the things you want to test (phone courtesy, hold time, ease of online checkout, delivery, etc.) and grade yourself honestly.

One of my favorites: The “google suck-test.” Go to a search engine and enter “[your company name] sucks.” Hopefully nothing will pop up about your business. Plug in just about any major company or brand name and you’re almost guaranteed to see plenty. Take it as a cautionary tale. I do it from time to time and am proud to say Skooba Design has gone its entire ten years without sucking. It’s the only time I don’t want search engine hits.

One way or another, find a way to see your company from as many outside perspectives as possible.

Do you test your own business? If not, stop reading this and start doing business with yourself. But if you do kick your own tires, I’d love to hear how you do it and what you’ve learned.

from BNET

Career Coaching on a budget

2010-08-11T15:26:00.003Z

I came over this post on Career Coaching and it resonated with me, I have mixed feelings about using a Career Coach, no doubt they know there stuff, and can tell you how to dress, how to speak, how to mingle, how to think, but then I think at the end off all that coaching, who are you really, it is not you. I would rather take time out and evaluate, do a SWOT analysis on yourself if you need a structure, but understand what are your core values, and your strengths, play to them and look at how to combat your weaknesses, that's what Sir Richard Branson did, he built a team around himself, guys and girls who were best in class at what they did, and he led them, that's what a good entrepreneur should look to do, understand yourself, and then build the team, or tool box that strengths the weak part of your game, and "γνῶθι σεαυτόνgnōthi seauton" OR "KNOW THYSELF"

Your Best Career Coach: The Future You

The best coaching you’ll ever get will not come from another person. It will come from inside you.Take a deep breath. Take a deeper breath. Imagine that you’re 100 years old and you’re getting ready to die. Before you take that last breath, you’re given a wonderful gift: the opportunity to go back in time and talk with the person who is reading this blog post today, to help this younger version of yourself have a better life — both personally and professionally.

What advice would the wise 100-year-old you — who finally knows what really mattered in life — have for the you that is reading this blog post? As you think of the older you, whatever advice comes to mind, just do that.

In terms of performance appraisals, this is the only one that will matter. At the end of the day, the only person that you will need to impress is that old person that will one day look back at you from the mirror. If that old person thinks that you did the right thing, you did. If that old person thinks that you made a mistake, you did. You don’t have to impress anyone else.

Some good friends of mine had the opportunity to ask old people who were facing death what advice they would have for their younger selves. Three themes emerged:

1. Be happy now. Don’t wait for next week, next month or next year. A common regret of old people was, “I got so focused on trying to get what I did not have, I failed to appreciate all that I did have. I had almost everything. I wish that I would’ve taken the time to appreciate it.”

I ‘ve asked thousand of parents around the world to complete this sentence, “When my children grow up, I want them to be…” One world is mentioned more than all of the other words combined — no matter what country I am in. What is that word? Happy.

Do you want your children to be happy? Do you want your parents to be happy? Do you want the people that love you to be happy? Do you want the people who respect you at work to be happy? Then, you go first. They want you to be happy, too.

2. Build relationships and help people, especially friends and family. When you’re 100 years old and you look around your death bed, no fellow employees will be waving good-bye. You’ll finally realize that your friends and family are the only ones that care. They are the ones that matter.

Of course, building relationships and helping people are also keys to ultimate satisfaction with your professional career. I have asked many retired CEOs an important question about their professional lives, “What were you most proud of?” So far, none have talked about have large their offices were. All they talked about were the people they helped.

The main reason to help people has nothing to do with money, status or promotion. The main reason is simple: the 100-year-old you will be proud of you if you did — and disappointed in you if you didn’t.

3. If you have a dream, go for it.

If you don’t try to achieve your dreams when you are 25, you probably won’t when you are 45, 65 or 85. None of us will achieve all of our dreams. The key question is not, “Did I achieve all of my dreams?” The key question is, “Did I at least try?” Old people almost never regretted the risks they took that failed. They almost always regretted the risks that they failed to take.

No one else can tell you how to find happiness, who to love or where to find meaning. Only you can answer these questions. The best coachingthat you will ever receive will not come from any other person, it will come from inside you. So, what advice would the “old you” have for the you that just read this post? If you don’t mind sharing your thoughts with other readers, I’d love to hear them.

By Marshall Goldsmith
Bnet

Gordon Whyte say's be prepared

2010-08-09T16:33:00.005Z

This article below emphasises a motto I learned with a young boy scout, Be Prepared. Your Industry may not be the Solar industry, but just ready through it and see how easy it is to get caught out.

Polysilicon supply chain issues emerging as spot prices rise,
says Barclays Capital

Just when it was safe to say that the severe polysilicon shortages from a few years ago were long-gone and that a era of oversupply boded well for users in the solar industry, issues have emerged within the supply chain that are forcing spot prices higher once again. According to a report from Barclays Capital financial analyst, Visal Shah, checks have shown that spot prices have risen to as high as US$70-80/kg, yet spot prices were at US$55-60/kg range, only a few weeks ago. Bottlenecks were said to have appeared from polysilicon through to wafering, according to the analyst.

Shah noted in his investor note that there were several issues most likely affecting spot prices at the moment. There have been polysilicon supply issues due to production halts due to technical problems such as fires at LDK’s polysilicon plant, which Shah said had meant the plant needed to be shutdown recently.

This had led to LDK attempting to secure as much polysilicon for its wafer production operations due to strong demand for wafers.

Another producer in China, Xinguang had shut operations completely, while it worked to replace old production equipment and systems originally supplied from Russia to modern technology that would enable the company to compete better in the future. Barclays Capital said Xinguang’s capacity before the shutdown had been 1,200MT/yr.

The well documented recent power outage at an REC run plant was also cited as a catalyst behind polysilicon shortfalls and higher demand for spot polysilicon.

However, the report also links capacity mismatch issues at the wafer and cell segment of the supply chain notably that checks has shown that ingot capacity currently exceeded wire saw capacity, which remained ‘tight.’

In periods of high-demand for wire saw systems, lead times can extend considerably due to the complexity of the machines and set-up times before entering production. Although key equipment suppliers such as Meyer Burger and Applied Materials HCT arm have added capacity over the last few years to meet the last major wave of orders, the current wafer capacity additions are on a completely different scale than those seen in 2007 and 2008.

Barclays Capital noted that one customer of Applied Materials HCT arm had equipment scheduled originally for delivery in February, 2010 but received the order five months later.

Although common practice to multiple-source wafering equipment, demand for equipment is high and difficult to find suppliers without supply constraints as all equipment is usually made to order.

Shah also noted that there had been an overall higher than anticipated wafer and cell capacity additions in July to August timeframe yet manufacturers were unable to obtain polysilicon, especially on the spot market.

Shah believes that most polysilicon suppliers have contracted nearly 100% of the volumes to long term contracts in order to avoid the sharp swings in spot market, leaving suppliers unable to fulfil increased demand from the spot market, despite attractive prices.

Talk soon Gordon

why VCs don't get entrepreneurs

2010-08-02T13:23:00.004Z

It has been a while since I have posted here, I will get back to regular posting now, it has been a busy time the last 6 weeks, after being made redundant, I took a week out to recharge and analysis the last job with www.narec.co.uk , it was interesting and a challenge, opened my eyes to the failure of the government to manage these sink holes for our hard earned taxes, but that is another story, anyway the article below, stirred me to step up my search for my next job, which is more and more looking like it will be outside the UK...hope you enjoy the article... " class="headline">William Chase: Down to earth

Spud king William Chase

The founder of Tyrrells tells GB how he won a prestigious international award for his British-made vodka and explains why VCs don't get entrepreneurs.

It might come as a surprise, but the world’s finest vodka is distilled and bottled less than 50 miles from Birmingham.

Chase Vodka was named best in show at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition, beating 249 rivals from Russia, Poland, Sweden, France, the US and every other vodka-producing country. It’s produced in Herefordshire under the supervision of William Chase, still a ‘humble potato farmer’ as he describes himself, but probably better known as the man behind Tyrrells Crisps, which he sold for £40 million to private equity firm Langholm Capital in April 2008.

While he’s clearly immensely proud of his vodka’s international standing, Chase does his best to tear down any shreds of mystique surrounding what goes into it. ‘It’s all down to the equipment,’ he explains, adding that the spirit is turned from liquid to vapour 50 times inside a traditional copper still with modern add-ons. ‘We could make up stories about how it’s all about having exactly the right kind of potato, but when you’re mashing it up, distilling it...’ He has a habit of not finishing sentences, but the implication is clear: one mashed-up spud is pretty much like another.

In fact, that’s not entirely true. A large part of the appeal of Chase Vodka, and Tyrrells Crisps for that matter, is down to the fact that the potatoes that go into it come from Chase Farm in Herefordshire. That’s how he can be confident it is ‘pure, as good as it can be, fully traceable’. But in the vodka’s case, the distillation process and the lack of any filtration afterwards is the real key to its success. It comes at a price: Chase Vodka costs £33 a bottle, and Chase intends to hold the premium. ‘That’s why we’re in no rush to expand,’ he explains. He sells about 1,000 bottles a week and annual sales are around £1 million.

Slow burner

A late developer as an entrepreneur, Chase’s fame and wealth has come in the fifth decade of his life. The first 40 years were very different. ‘All the decisions you make in life, the crossroads – whether to go to university or not, the people you meet, how you get into one occupation or another – I find it fascinating,’ he says, the rhythm of his speech like a winding country road. ‘When you’re young, it’s all about the glamour – you might want to be a fireman, an airline pilot. I wanted to be a farmer. But I couldn’t make money. I tried as hard as I could, but I couldn’t make enough to have a nice lifestyle.’

'I didn't want to sell my brand at Walkers prices'

Though Chase’s account of his early days is softened by the success he has enjoyed since then, life was certainly no rural idyll. He borrowed money at the age of 24 to buy his father’s farm and struggled for years to try and make it work. By 1992 he was paying his bank ‘about 30 per cent interest’ on his loan, a consequence of the very high rates of the time and the fact he had exceeded his agreed limit. ‘That nobbled the business,’ he says. ‘I sold the car and started again with nothing.’

He now sees the bankruptcy as a formative experience – ‘it did me a lot of good’ – but it took him another ten years to hit on his winning formula for Tyrrells. In the meantime he made a living as a middleman ‘supplying supermarkets with pretty-looking potatoes’, an increasingly successful business as giants such as Tesco grew in strength and became fussier about the look of their products.

Love-hate relationship

Chase’s relationship with supermarkets has always been complicated. After a well-publicised fall-out with Tesco in 2006, he was depicted by newspapers as the winner of a David and Goliath struggle against the retail giant’s bully-boy tactics. In fact, he speaks highly of the soon-to-retire Tesco CEO Terry Leahy and believes that supermarkets ‘did a lot for the food industry’ in the 1980s by cleaning up hygiene standards and offering families food that was consistently safe to eat.

‘I have nothing personally against Tesco,’ he says. ‘If we didn’t have bar-coded, pre-packaged food, shopping as we know it physically wouldn’t happen. People will say “poor farmers” but the most important thing is that they want their food to be on the supermarket shelves and they want to know it’s not going to hurt their children.’

At the same time, Chase recognises that supermarkets’ buying power has made things very hard for farmers, forcing them to either go down the premium route, as he has done, or massively increase their scale and efficiency to drive down costs. ‘It’s tough out there,’ he admits. ‘When you are just supplying a commodity you’re at the end of the chain, and if there’s anything left for you then you take what you’re given.’

Crisp moves

It was this squeeze on prices that in the end drove Chase to the conclusion that he needed to move up the value chain – to create a brand that people would pay a premium for and keep it out of the mainstream supermarkets.

Tyrrells was born in 2002 with the help of a bank loan: the start of a ‘fantastic educational process’ that taught Chase about branding, marketing and PR, just as being a middleman between farmers and supermarkets had taught him how to use personal charm to get a deal done.

Chase believes passionately that ‘there is no book of rules in life – if you believe there is, nothing ever happens’. He got his crisps into Russia by sending a single container to a retailer, who came back for another one. Before long, the product had spread all over the country. ‘To get your brand overseas, people will say you need to pay listing fees, you need marketing, advertising and so on. All we did was seed it,’ he recalls.

There were mistakes, too. In the early days of Tyrrells, Chase tried to get by with a packaging machine that wasn’t up to the job and spewed out every other crisp packet onto the floor, wasted. ‘That almost caused the business to implode,’ he notes. In the end he had to buy a proven model.

Arguably, Tyrrells benefited most from Chase’s natural flair for PR. He lost half his potatoes one year due to flooding. Rather than drowning his sorrows, he took a boat out into the middle of a flooded field, took some pictures and sent them to all the newspapers.

Cut to the Chase

What really raised Tyrrells to prominence, however, was the spat with Tesco. The supermarket, not an official supplier of Tyrrells crisps, got hold of some and started to sell them at a reduced price. Chase’s objections were ignored until he sought legal advice, at which point Tesco unexpectedly backed down.

‘I didn’t want to sell my brand at Walkers or Kettle Chips prices,’ says Chase. ‘The next thing I knew I was doing about 20 interviews. It was a hell of a decision, a difficult thing to do.’ But it paid off: not only did Chase win the important battle to control his own prices, but the story was covered by all the major newspapers and the BBC.

Chase maintains that he had no intention of selling the business until he was approached by Langholm. ‘It just came up. I didn’t really want to sell. Some days anyway, I wish I’d never sold.’

Langholm had a persuasive argument. Its offer valued Tyrrells at £40 million, ten times its annual profits (sales were £14 million). For a man whose understanding of the value of assets had been shaped by decades of hard business experience, the offer was simply too good to refuse.

‘If a company is worth £40 million but just on its profits, not on its assets, it wants selling,’ he says. ‘At the time I was getting divorced and I thought it would help with all that. It didn’t, in the end.’

Goodbye Mr Chips

There is definitely a tinge of regret in how Chase talks about the sale. Although he still has a 20 per cent stake in Tyrrells, the deal with Langholm involved him leaving the company immediately.

‘A lot of entrepreneurs are mavericks, and the first thing VCs want to do is get rid of them,’ he muses. ‘Nobody prepared me for that – the fact that they see the entrepreneur as a total nutcase. They can’t deal with the fact that this person is coming into work every day doing everything by feel. They couldn’t possibly do things like that. Everyone has to be responsible, accountable. And of course they have to work like that.’

'I didn't really want to sell. Some days, I wish I never had'

It’s a bit like his view of the supermarkets. Both intensely practical and deeply idealistic, Chase understands why things have to be the way they are, but he can’t help a rebellious tendency to challenge the status quo. If someone gets out a laptop to show him a presentation, he tells them to put it away. ‘I’m not a corporate type. I’m quite arrogant about it. I’ll tell people I don’t want to see all that rubbish – just use your charisma and charm and see if you can sell me something.’

Tyrrells’ current management team, on the other hand, are ‘proper corporates who believe in a book of rules’. Though they still call him for advice on occasion, decisions are sometimes made he doesn’t agree with – like the launch of three flavours of crisps before the general election, one for each of the major parties. ‘That bombed. You must never get political. I had the idea for a credit crunch crisp – I thought it was a great idea but they didn’t do it.’

Fortunately, Chase still gets an adequate outlet for his creativity. The man who brought us parsnip, beetroot and carrot flavoured crisps is now selling marmalade vodka and has visions of potato-based cosmetics. ‘Premium cosmetics is a market I would love to get into, but it’s very difficult,’ he explains, before his sensible side kicks in. ‘Of course, vodka is number one. We don’t want to become a jack-of-all-trades.’

He hasn’t lost his flair for PR, either. Recently, he stepped in with an offer to save the government website lovechips.co.uk, which has been threatened with the coalition’s axe. If people didn’t know there was a government website to promote potatoes, they do now.

It’s typical of the way Chase likes to do things – audacious, attention-grabbing, but with an underlying message about his values, which for all his grasp of marketing remain firmly rooted in the soil.

from Growth Business

http://www.growthbusiness.co.uk/channels/entrepreneurs/business-leaders/1270728/william-chase-down-to-earth.thtml

Sales process for the Start Up

2010-06-02T09:21:00.004Z

One thing you will have noticed when you talk to an investor is there passion for your sales projection, order book and customer sales funnel, nothing gets an investor ready to sign up and part with the cash more than a strong route to a growing market. The scary thing is if you were asked what is your sales order process can you show them ? from the initial enquiry through to the repeat order, do you have a customer satisfaction feedback process ? The process I will show here would be modified to suit your own business , but it captures the essence of what you should be doing...nothing complex just Keep It Simple Smarty.

An Intro to the Super-Simple Sales Process
extract from
Don’t Be Afraid of the S-Word
By Uzi Shmilovici

Fortunately, managing sales is actually much less daunting than it might sound. My company uses a very simple seven-bucket sales process. It goes like this:

1. Track and categorize new business leads. If you receive an email or a phone call from a prospective customer, you want to record the discussed project/deal in this stage. Try to understand where the leads came from. Tracking that will help you understand which marketing channels work best for you. Did they see your website? Hear you speak at a conference? Learn about you from a colleague or friend?

2. Determine the quality of the lead. All leads are not created equal. Upon receiving the lead, try to assess if this lead is qualified. More specifically:

* Do they have the budget to work with you? You can gently ask this in the first call or even mention your usual rates for such projects and evaluate your prospect’s response.
* Are they of the right size? If you’re used to working with startups on two-month projects, working with Fortune 500 companies on two-year projects might be unrealistic and unwise.
* Is the prospect serious about this project? Assess whether or not they are ready to pull the trigger. Is there budget allocated for the project? Is there a timeline for kicking off the project?
* Are you passionate about this project? If you have many potential leads in your pipeline, you may decide it’s not worth pursuing a project that seems too boring or not challenging enough.

Remember that client who said that we were “pretty expensive” for them? A qualifying question in the first phone call could have saved us many hours of working on this deal. If you decide that the deal is unqualified, you just save it under another bucket: the unqualified deals bucket. On the other hand, if it’s qualified, move it forward in the process to the qualified stage.

3. Gather the requirements for the project. This will usually involve securing documents from the customer and/or meeting them face-to-face to gather the requirements. The purpose is to confirm that you want to do the project, and to gather enough information to write a quote.

4. Prepare the quote. If a deal arrives at this stage, you want to win it. Particularly, if you are juggling a number of quotes, it’s wise to set reminders so you don’t miss any deadline. Failure to submit a quote on time signals to your potential clients that you are not professional and unable to handle even a straight-forward follow-up.

5. Close the deal. Nothing can guarantee that you will actually win a deal but two crucial best practices can definitely increase your chances:

* Confirm receipt of the quote, and respond to any concerns. Call your prospect to check that she received your proposal, and to see if she has any questions. You don’t want to lose the deal because of a simple misunderstanding about your approach or pricing.
* Follow up again, and demonstrate your expertise. Set a reminder for yourself to follow up with her within a couple of days. When you make that next call (or email), try to pepper the conversation with a few comments that demonstrate your knowledge and generosity.

6. Celebrate. Congratulations! You’ve won the deal! Keeping track of all the deals you close will help you understand what kind of deals you typically win and will help you improve your qualifying process. Also, try to understand where those deals originated. If 80% came from your portfolio website on Behance, then you should keep growing and improving it as it is a major source of business.

7. Or, analyze and regroup. Lost the deal? Ugh, bummer. But, this is a great opportunity for you to learn why this happened. Try to understand and keep note of the reason for every deal you lose. Losing too many deals because you are expensive? Maybe you should consider lowering your prices or, better yet, seek a different type of customer who can afford your high-quality work.

How much can following this process improve your sales? 10% improvement? 500% improvement? I’ve seen both. It depends on how effective you are, how good your work is, and how much you care about making the sales happen.

As my friend said, we are all selling at the end of the day. So, stop being afraid of the S-word. By finding a way to balance your creative role with giving sales the proper attention, you can improve the projects you’re working on and grow your business.

Gordon Whyte

Customers, What do they really think about your company

2010-05-18T10:40:00.002Z

Customer feedback or not

I have myself lost track slightly of my customers in times gone past, once the PO is placed and the Invoice paid it's on to the next fire to fight, funding event, board meeting, flight to catch, in a small early stage company 2 to 3 employees, it is hard to follow up regularly, if your cutomer based is more that 40 companies, you end up priotitiseing the customer base and chaseing up the next order, you never take too much time to get to know what your customers think about you, what you could do better, and where there buisness is going etc, these things are taken care off when you grow and can afford a biz dep person, but until you get there , it's up to you. I myself spend time now and make it a point to touch bases on the phone with the main customers regularly every couple of weeks..and the rest by email every 4 to 6 weeks, I have found that this has improved the business and customer retention.

This article below details customer feed back questions, some you should know the answers too anyway, but others are interesting it can be found on the Bnet UK webpage>

10 Customer Feedback Questions You Need to Ask Yourself

Lots of organisations invest a lot of time, money and effort in getting customer feedback. I also think that lots of organisations waste lots of time, money and effort in getting customer feedback.

Why? They ask the wrong questions, they ask lots of questions, but don’t actually listen, or they listen to the answers and then do nothing about what they hear.

I’m all for getting customer feedback –- it’s a great source of ideas, opportunities, improvements, and it demonstrates to your customers you care, provided you do listen and then take action.

Too many organisations simply get boxes ticked, go through the motions, and ask questions that don’t make them too uncomfortable.

So, just to get you thinking, here are 10 questions you might want to consider asking your customers that challenge the status quo and possibly improve your performance, attitude and relationships.

What attracted you to us originally? This helps get a view of how you are seen in the market place and what are the things that appeal to your customers.
What would you do if we weren’t here? This may give an insight into the value they place on you as a supplier — Would they actually notice if you disappeared?
Can you name one particular individual who has impressed you in our organisation? This highlights your customer champions, and maybe some of your unsung heroes. If they can’t name anyone, what does that say about the way your people interact with your customers?
What one thing could we do better? Just one thing -– it may highlight their priorities and key issues.
Why do you buy from us? This highlights your strengths –- some of which, you may not be aware of. Be careful how you phrase this one. You might sound as if you’re doubting yourselves.
If our business was the best in the world, what would it look like? This one stretches the imagination, and even though you may not be able to deliver exactly what they say, it may give you a few ideas about what they see as important.
Name one thing that we do or don’t do that irritates you –- The key is doing something about it.
Who can we learn from? This helps you identify who your customers see as role models, and might just point something out that’s not happening in your industry you could learn from.
What would you say to someone else who asked you about us? Their initial response to this is often a revealing one.
What is the one thing we should never stop doing? This one tells you what they really value about you.

You may feel you can’t ask these questions to your customers. That’s not a problem, as long as you can find some questions that you can ask.

Article by Andy Hanselman he is an independent consultant specialising in improving business competitiveness. He has authored two books: ‘Thinking in 3D – Creating A Business That’s Dramatically And Demonstrably Different’, and ‘Revolutionise The Profitability Of Your Business’, and is currently writing his third, ‘Maximising Customer Relationships’.

Negotiation:- Make or Brake the business ( deals and wheels)

2010-05-05T11:04:00.003Z

Negotiation:- Make or Brake the business:

Deals and wheels

I have been absent for a while from blogging , I have been joining the other 8% of the population in the UK who are looking for there next job. I did see a post on negotiating deals and it struck a cord with me, I remembered how it was always hard to get the techie guys to negotiate prices with suppliers they just accepted the deal and cost the company. I am not saying that everyone should negotiate the cost, but it is a good habit to get everyone to participate in who is dealing with a supplier or customer, build the culture.

I used to ask the Tech guys did they always take first offer when buying a car? it is a life skill that will stand you and your company in good stead for the future. I have negotiated with the 800lb gorillas, www.tsmc.com , www.umc.com , www.smics.com ,www.appliedmaterials.com LDK, REC to name a few, and following the golden rules of strategic supplier negotiating I have managed to get better service and pricing, a lower price may not be the best way forward, but better terms, free design help, failure analysis to mention a few all can be bundled as a better deal.

These are the few gems I picked from the post by Martin Gaston on BNET
( http://blogs.bnet.co.uk/sterling-performance/2010/05/04/a-bluffer%E2%80%99s-guide-to-negotiating/)

1. Tell it like it is

If you’re sending mixed messages to your supplier, they won’t know you’re unhappy. Be clear about what you can afford and what you expect. If you think a quote is too high, say so. Don’t be afraid to be honest.

If you’re unprepared to buy at a certain price then tell them you’re not interested and then return to the negotating table to work out a better deal.

2. Do your homework

If you’ve been dealing with a supplier for a long time, have you actually sat down and considered the costs of switching to another business? Are there hidden costs to switching that your supplier’s all too aware of — or could you do better with another business. Knowledge can be powerful — and may be all you need to get a deal re-evaluated.

If you’re looking to renegotiate a contract, do your homework and demonstrate you’re already aware of the what’s on offer in your market and of the alternatives available. If you can demonstrate where your supplier is falling down on service, they’ll be forced to do better or risk losing your business.

3. Be realistic

It’s natural to want to want as much for as little as possible, but it’s also worth thinking about whether or not your demands are realistic. The economic climate might require that you cut costs, but it’s also important carefully to maintain service levels.

If you go into a negotiation with an unreasonable set of demands, suppliers may see your business as more trouble than it’s worth. What is essential? What can you live without? Answer these questions before you speak to your supplier, or you may feel railroaded.

4. It’s about compromise

You might be tempted to walk away from an unfair quote, but instead of closing down the negotiations entirely, think about what you’d be prepared to compromise to hit your financial targets.

It might sound obvious, but negotiations are about essentially about give and take — if you’re unprepared to give anything up, you and your supplier lose out.

5. Say what you mean

… and mean what you say. There’s no point in threatening to ditch a software provider to go open-source if you have absolutely no intention of doing it, for example — it’ll just make you look silly in the eyes of your current suppliers.

Be honest, upfront and consistent with your message then you’ll find yourself cultivating better results and working relationships with your essential suppliers.

I hope this helps.....

and any leads for a new job for myself will be rewarded :)

Have a good week

Thoughts on Technology Transfer

2010-04-15T14:28:00.005Z

I have been looking at technology transfer methedology of late, I have transfered technology in the past, for a selection of companies and universities, and I have assembled some thoughts on the technology transfer from academic institutes and a proposed model that I have used many times in young companies.

University technology transfer - why so difficult?

Universities produce lots of research, patents, and base technologies. Few of them ever make it to the commercial market. Yet, lots of recent college grads start companies that bring amazing innovations to market. Why the disconnect? The obvious conclusion is academic versus business thinking. Not so fast. If that were true, corporate research labs would transfer most of it's research into new and existing products. The truth is a very small percentage of corporate research ever makes it to market.

The biggest factor seems to be the fundamental differences between research and product development. Research focuses on advancing technology without being constrained by business requirements. Product development starts with examination of customer needs and business requirements, and matches existing technologies to the problems.

Technology Licensing - Most big universities have Technology Licensing Offices that handle technology transfer on behalf of the university. MIT in Cambridge has one of the best TLO's I have worked with. VCs are constantly looking at technologies from universities more so in North America, but my guess is they represent less than 5% of the companies they fund, probably much less. What are the issues with TLO deals?

Disagreement on value of technology
No proven customer/market fit for the technology
Key technology researchers will not transfer with the technology
Complicated Intellectual Property (IP) ownership issues
Long term royalties that may not make sense for the product evolution

Its All About The People - VCs invest in people not technologies. Entrepreneurs have a balance of business sense and technology smarts that is very rare. Matching entrepreneurs to technology wizards is where VC firms add a lot of value. They have a list of serial entrepreneurs that they know and trust. Magic happens when they match these entrepreneurs to cool new research.

So how do you handle the technology transfer once you have the IP agreed, well you can use a model such as the Stage-Gate Process

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The Stage-Gate Product Innovation process is a carefully designed business process – the result of the world’s most comprehensive research into understanding what discriminates product success and failure. Pioneered and developed by Dr. Robert G. Cooper, it is the world’s most widely implemented and trusted product innovation introduction process.

A Stage-Gate Process is a conceptual and operational roadmap for moving a new-product project from idea to launch. Stage-Gate divides the effort into distinct stages separated by management decision gates. Cross-functional teams must successfully complete a prescribed set of related cross-functional tasks in each stage prior to obtaining management approval to proceed to the next stage of product development.

So I hope this has given you some things to think through when you are ready to do soem technology transfer, or you could give me a call

Regards
Gordon

I am looking for a problem to solve, a company to build..and to keep in the good books with the bank and money lenders :) at the same time

2010-03-26T14:26:00.003Z

"I am looking for a problem to solve a company to build..and to keep in the good books with the bank and money lenders :) at the same time"

I would like to enlist the help of my readers in my search for a new position, I have started to look for a new role, so if you have a challenge in your business or need some help and think I can be off assistance please feel free to get in touch, or if you know someone else who could use my help then by all means let them know as well. The other thing would be if you are looking yourself for a new role then please feel free to get in touch or maybe if you are local we can meet up and maybe we can help each other out at the same time. I have inserted a personal summary and a brief synopsis of the last three years work in the Solar Industry as a starter. I hope you all have a good weekend and keep the faith.

LinkedIn Profile : http://uk.linkedin.com/in/gordonwhyte

Summary Gordon Whyte ( Cert Mgmt (Open) )

Entrepreneurial senior operations executive, who has managed multi-disciplined teams delivering complex projects worldwide in high technology based businesses, including Multinational and start up businesses. Has selected and managed sub-contract manufacturing businesses, utilizing low cost countries and mainland European organizations, (including semiconductor foundries, PCB board manufacturing, discrete active components and sub assemblies), has introduced new products from feasibility study through to commercialization with supporting cost reduction and product reliability programs in place, within an aggressive time to market and budgetary framework. I have managed multi site operations and where necessary rationalized operations to meet the businesses strategic short term and long term objectives. I have raised over $200m in investment through Venture Capital,Government funding. Areas of technology worked in, Semiconductors, Cleantech, Display, Electronics, bio-technology,Telecom

Feasibility study of Solar Technologies as they are applied in the field, understanding the ultimate cost of energy for a variety of technologies.
In depth review of the concentrated solar industry to pin point the competitive technologies and develop a wining strategy for the LGBC technology.
Feasibility study of setting up a low to medium concentrator manufacturing facility in the UK, Spain and Asia.
Developed financial models for all the above scenarios, modeling cost of product , cash flow, capital expenditure and running costs.
Worked with the turnkey suppliers of solar cell manufacturing lines to develop project plans for the deployment of 20/40MW manufacturing lines, these are companies like Centrotherm, Rena, Oerlikon.
Led the acquisition of an existing solar cell manufacturing line in central Europe, and developed a plan to run in-situ at its present location.
Led on the acquisition of the equipment only of the above solar cell manufacturing line, while finding a location in the UK to support the operation.
Developed the supply chain for the operation, working with chemical and wafer suppliers, contract negotiated with the major wafer suppliers, like REC, LDK, NORSUN and other Asian suppliers.
Led Business development and helped secure with the team over 20 new customers.
Developed business plans and engaged with the Investment community to raise funding
Promoted the business at trade shows and conferences around the world

Managed the research and manufacturing business unit that would have been the technology provider.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Some links to help with your jobsearch:
LinkedIn http://tinyurl.com/329oyh>

The second site I'll recommend is Recruiters OnLine Network, an online network of professional recruiters. You can freely search through posted jobs and find recruiters based on their focus or what they recruit for.

Recruiters OnLine Networkhttp://tinyurl.com/32km45>

Next is career resource site that offers tools, tips and more to help you manage your career. Its name is JibberJobber and it allows you to keep track of all of the information that you collect during a job search.

JibberJobber - <>http://tinyurl.com/2svuef>

The fourth, and last web site, is SimplyHired. They are what is called an aggregator. They comb, search and gather job postings from hundreds of site and it is freely available and searchable at their site.

SimplyHired - http://tinyurl.com/drtz5

Alternatives to Redundancy

2010-03-25T09:00:00.007Z

As I am now in the process of working out my redundancy notice, served to me at the end of the last Whitestar Solar board meeting (Incubated @ www.narec.co.uk ), I thought this article was very timely "alternatives to redundancy". I don't have a problem with the guys taking a cost cutting option to pull the plug on the project, they are funded by One NorthEast (www.onenortheast.co.uk ) and they need to please there masters and as the route to whitehall and the purse strings is focused on renew-ables with propellers (see the narec website for the multi-million pound government funding received £50m+) therefore the fastest growing renewable sector worldwide Solar PV does not warrant anymore support and leaves at risk the jobs of the UK's only independent Solar Research facility,they are trying a last minute attempt to recover the situation and save some of the jobs.

Alternatives to redundancy

Redundancies may not suit your needs

Letting good people go should always be a last resort. Emma Wood, a personal consultant at NorthgateArinso Employer Services, considers measures companies can take before filling out the P45s.

Temporary options

• Stopping overtime
Most employees when paid overtime are paid at an advanced rate. Look at employing basic rate employees to cover this overtime.

• Reducing hours
Talk to your employees about temporarily reducing their hours to a four or three-day week. Also, look at shift patterns – can these be reduced or alternated? You may also want to negotiate a temporary change in rate of pay.

• Re-training
Look at widening the skills of your staff so they can be redeployed into different departments within the business.

• Sabbaticals
Many members of staff may be looking to take time off to travel the world or even spend time at home with families. Sabbaticals are a great option to consider as they are always unpaid.

• Layoffs
These are often used as a short-term alternative to redundancy. This allows you to send people home on limited pay or unpaid for a specific amount of time.

Permanent options

• Natural wastage
During difficult times some of your employees may wish to resign. Also, if you have employees currently going through dismissal processes, make sure you keep on top of these.

• Early retirement
Some of your staff may wish to take early retirement.

• End all temporary contracts
Although these have a fixed termination date, you do have the flexibility to end them sooner.

• Introduce specific purpose contracts
If you are employing new staff for a defined period, there is no need to give them full-term contracts.

• Compromise agreements
These are useful if you have no other alternatives. You will need to remember that the employee will need to seek advice to ensure this is a correct legal document. You should seek legal advice as well.

VC partner to start-up CEO-Gamekeeper turned poacher

2010-03-04T08:20:00.003Z

Gamekeeper turned poacher

I read this article on a recruitment website I frequent...more so of late as redundancy looms...it caught my eye because I know the guy who had written it Mike Zimmerman, he was a contact I had developed in Australia as part of my "find a job in OZ" campaine, I did have a few interviews even offered a job ( www.digislide.com.au), but that is another story. I digress, Mike was a partner for technology venture partners (www.TVP.com.au) who are an austrailian VC that invests in ICM start ups (gamekeeper) who has started (poacher) his own company BuildingIQ (www.buildingIQ.COM).

In the article he reflects on the change andMike has some salient points to make on being a CEO of a start-up.

From VC partner to start-up CEO - a different view

By Mike Zimmerman

Ex TVP Partner Mike Zimmerman contemplates the view from the other side post his latest transition to CEO of start-up BuildingIQ.

How life has changed.

Late in 2008, I left my position as a partner at Technology Venture Partners, one of a very few technology venture capital firms in Australia. My time at TVP had been both enjoyable and challenging, as I spent almost 8 years investing in Australian start ups trying to make it big overseas. I learned a great deal from my partners, and even more from the experiences of sitting on boards and working closely with a number of entrepreneurs as they went through the ups and downs of their early stage companies.

I’m now on the “other” side. In October 2009, I started a software company called BuildingIQ which helps reduce energy consumption in commercial buildings. I’m the CEO and have a small but very capable team of 4 people working in operations and engineering. The foundation of our technology is based on work done by scientists at CSIRO’s energy research centre, who still actively collaborate with us. To get the company off the ground, I worked closely with Exto Partners, a small investment firm with a lot of experience in early stage commercialisation. I’ve raised a small amount of capital and we’ve been fortunate to be generating revenue almost since the day we launched.

As I reflect on what it’s been like to have moved across the table from investor to entrepreneur, the obvious things to flag are the differences. It’s very different, to be sure, but how specifically? Here are some of the bigger things:

1. Details matter: as an investor, I tended to focus on the big picture – was the investee company going after the right market opportunity, did they have the right people on the team, would they hit their numbers? As an entrepreneur, these things still matter, but they only happen if you can deliver on the details that make it so. “Going after the right market opportunity” requires you to spend lots of time with customers and others in the market, read and learn everything you can about your competitors, and deliver the right product with the right pricing and distribution strategy at the right time. Much easier said than done. “The right people” means writing a good job spec, talking to everyone you know for references, and interviewing then reference checking furiously. “Hitting your numbers” means generating and following up leads, making pitches, negotiating and closing contracts, installing product and then launching with customers without overspending. Lots of little steps to get to the big ones.

2. Going deep: Before I left TVP, my portfolio companies were in sectors as wide ranging as optical networking, mobile social media, internet fraud and voIP software. By definition Australia as an investment market is very wide and not very deep, so I was never focused very narrowly or going become an expert in any single field. Now as an entrepreneur, I need to be an evangelist for our sector as well as our specific company’s offering. I also am selling to people with 20-30 years experience in a sector, and trying to be convincing about why our stuff is as great as sliced bread and can’t be gotten anywhere else. In short, I have to be an expert in my field to be successful.

3. Ability to make it happen: Early in my career I had a great few years consulting with Bain & Company. Ultimately I left the sector because I couldn’t handle working up the strategy and recommendations but not being responsible for delivering results. I then got a taste of execution in a start up in Silicon Valley for 4-5 years during the web 1.0 days. As a VC you’re closer to the grindstone than in consulting, but it’s still not the same. You can be involved in strategy decisions, in hiring and in funding, but there’s a lot you’re not involved in, and you’re certainly not on the line for delivering. As the CEO, the buck stops with you, and that means you have to do anything that needs to be done, from ordering the business cards to closing sales to keep the door open.

So there are lots of differences, but I still find myself very thankful for my time as a venture capitalist. It’s helped to remind me of a few things I think are critical in a company at early stages. These include:

1. People, people, people: Being an investor and board member, I saw time and time again how important it was to have the right people involved in a company, and how costly it was when someone wasn’t a good fit, especially if they stayed around too long. So I’m trying now to be very thoughtful and picky about people, and encouraging my execs to do the same. So far I feel we’ve done a great job and I can already see the benefits even though it is early days.

2. Have a board and leverage it: Even though we’re still a very young company, we have an active board of 3 directors, with formal meetings and papers. As an investor, I always felt that there was benefit -- even for an early stage company -- to stepping back from the day to day and reflecting on progress, raising big issues and making strategic decisions on a regular basis. Moreover, I’ve formed an advisory board with people who can be very helpful on specific things but are not possible or practical to have working with us full time.

3. Alignment with investors: As a VC, I don’t think I spent enough time with my CEOs understanding what their motivations and goals were, and then being honest about whether those goals fit with what we as investors needed. Poor alignment between founders and management can really screw up a company and usually becomes most evident at the critical junctures in the company’s life: fundraisings and exit. One thing Exto and I did – and this was Exto’s idea – was draft up a letter agreeing how the company would be run, our initial thoughts on strategy, fundraising and exit and what would happen if we ran into conflict. It forced us to get everything out upfront, and ensure there was alignment from day one. I would recommend this approach to anyone starting a company with co-founder or taking on investors.

So life has changed, definitely. I’m having a great time as an entrepreneur and my world is very different. But having spent a number of years working as an investor has been invaluable and will serve me well in my start up. Next up: retirement!

NPI are you happy with the introduction off new products in your company

2010-02-23T14:16:00.004Z

This topic is an interesting one from a personal point if view, I have worked with start up companies for a while now, and I am amazed at the idea generation that happens when you get a group of "geeks"/ techie founders together in a new company, the sad thing is that only a fraction hit the market and make a good ROI. There are many reasons for that, some of which are included in this article, if this process is not running effectively in your business then you will have major problems cropping up. There is this critical balance point in an early stage company of lack of resource and stretching the technology road map, it all depends on the focus of the founders and investors how it develops, is it a quick in and out make a buck, or to build a long term company, my thoughts are take the pain up front and have a robust NPI strategy( like my patented NGPM strategy) and have your cake and eat it later.

www.mckinseyquarterly.com

The path to successful new products
Businesses with the best product-development track records stand apart from their less-successful peers in three crucial ways.

JANUARY 2010 • Mike Gordon, Chris Musso, Eric Rebentisch, and Nisheeth Gupta

Is your company finding it hard to develop new products? If so, you might try learning from the masters.

We found—after surveying more than 300 employees at 28 companies across North America and Europe—that the businesses with the best product-development track records do three things better than their less-successful peers: They create a clear sense of project goals early on, they nurture a strong project culture in their workplace, and they maintain close contact with customers throughout a project's duration.

The teams in our study that embraced these tactics were 17 times as likely as the laggards to have projects come in on time, five times as likely to be on budget, and twice as likely to meet their company's return-on-investment targets.

While we focused on companies in the automotive, high-tech, and medical-device industries, we believe that product makers of all stripes could benefit from our work.

Here is a closer look at what we found:
Keep it focused

Whenever project requirements were clearly defined and communicated to teams before kickoff, the project had a greater chance of success.

In our survey, 70 percent of the people working on high-performing projects—those that ranked in the top quarter of a performance index linking best practices to outcomes—said they had a clear view of the project's scope from the beginning, compared with just one-third of poor performers. We found that not thinking through a project's scope early on—say an appliance maker asks developers to design a new cooking range in the four-burner category but then later expands the project to include ranges with six burners—can create delays.

The teams with a clear understanding of project requirements appeared better able to make trade-offs between product performance and things like cost, time to market, and project risk. Only 19 percent of poor performers said they had the necessary information to make those decisions.

Top performers also focused more intensely than low performers on staffing projects with the right people: 47 percent of the former researched employees' skill sets before the project kicked off to ensure the project team was well rounded. None of the low performers did.
Nurture a project culture

The top-performing companies in our survey also nurtured a strong project culture by making product development a priority. They made more of an effort than the laggards—39 percent versus 12 percent—to minimize staffing disruptions due to external demands and to staff projects adequately. When people with critical skills become overburdened, they often decide on their own which of their many projects is the most important, a decision best made at the management level.

Two-thirds of top performers compared with 39 percent of poor performers said team members focused more on the success of the project than on satisfying the needs of their job function when those interests competed. They also were more likely than the laggards—44 percent versus 17 percent—to give team leaders responsibility for reviewing team members' job performances.

Three years ago, a North American medical-device maker in our study began an effort to stem market-share losses. Recognizing that one of the company's underlying problems was that project culture was weak, the device maker gave senior team leaders ownership of projects from beginning to end, as well as authority over staffing, personnel reviews and, in some cases, profit-and-loss responsibility. The new structure encouraged leaders to make better decisions, resolve conflicts quickly and reduce delays.
Talk to the customer

The successful innovators in our study kept in close contact with customers throughout the development process. More than 80 percent of the top performers said they periodically tested and validated customer preferences during the development process, compared with just 43 percent of bottom performers. They were also twice as likely as the laggards to research what, exactly, customers wanted. That made them better able to identify and fix design concerns early on, minimizing project delays.

The medical-device maker we mentioned created a matrix to identify and weigh the importance of various product features to different customer segments. It then tested trade-offs between product performance and things like price by bringing in surgeons and other medical specialists to use the product in simulated clinical settings. That allowed the team to fine-tune the product well before launch.

The result? Three years after starting its effort to shore up market share, employee satisfaction with product development increased, time to market improved for all projects—up to 40 percent in some cases— and overall gross margin rose six percentage points.

Customer service or not....bad service will hurt your bottom line

2010-02-18T10:58:00.005Z

Customer service or not

Ok this is a rant, but hopefully it will be a constructive rant, how is your customer service performance, take a minute and rate yourself ? go for broke, pick a customer at random and ask them how your customer service was, ok take the step of the cliff, and ask a customer who had a problem with your company, what they thought. I think that would probably make you smile or maybe wince, I have had occasion during the last two days that ended up with me making a formal complaint, one was my housebuilder Meridian homes ( www.meridianresidential.co.uk) , the other my Bank "The halifax"( www.halifax.co.uk ). The scores on the door is Meridian 1, Halifax 0, this is the second time the Halifax have messed up big time, and this time will be the last. Meridian after a slow start came back strong and are sorting things out, The Halifax well, they do not bother about who they mess up unless it is there good friend Gordon Brown, who likes to spend our money and give it to the banks to spend on bonuses for the fat cats ( http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7666570.stm) and http://preview.tinyurl.com/yaxyd5x . I do think the Government had to help out, but with the lack of morals the banks have shown, you would think the Government would have sorted them out, but I am sure there will be a few board positions opening up for them soon.

But that is enough of the rant, please have read at this article I found on BNET , it is an interesting slant on how a third party can effect your own customer service rating.

Even champions of customer service can get it wrong, especially if they leave their reputations in the hands of third parties, as John Lewis Partnership (JLP) supermarket chain Waitrose appears to have done.

I was forwarded a blog by Mark Samuels in which he complains of being charged £25 for having his car parked outside a London branch of Waitrose for more than two hours. (Personally, I think anyone who spends longer than two hours in a supermarket should be awarded £25.)

Samuels was understandably infuriated by this disproportionate fine for overstaying his allotted time in the parking space and wrote a letter of complaint to the Waitrose customer service department. He received a quick response, but was told that the car park for that branch was run by a third party, Britannia Parking, and he’d have to take his grievance up with that company.

Digging around, I’ve discovered a number of consumer forums where Waitrose customers are complaining of being stung with large fines for parking longer than two hours in other Waitrose parking lots run by the same company (Waitrose has different arrangements with other private companies and local authorities, so not all stores are affected).

Some have raised questions over the legality of these fines and Britannia Parking’s adherence to car parking regulations.

Other complaints are around inadequate warnings for shoppers that they risk a fine if they occupy a parking space for too long.

Whether or not Britannia is within its rights to levy these fines, it is Waitrose’s customer service reputation that is suffering.

Such is the consternation over these parking fines, one customer has even complained about it on the official Waitrose website forum. This complaint was replied to with the same form-letter sent to Samuels, only with a different branch substituted.

Waitrose, like its sister brand John Lewis, ranks highly in customer service surveys and trades on its reputation. In this instance, though, it has come away looking like it doesn’t care how its customers feel.

At the centre of this gaffe is the strategy of using a third party to handle a part of its customer interaction — parking facilities. Waitrose clearly has no control over what customer service strategy Britannia Parking decides to adopt, but shoppers won’t make the distinction. They see themselves as Waitrose customers, being unaware of the existence of Britannia Parking until they are handed a fine.

Bad news can spread fast. There’s a danger more customers will launch forum discussion strings and tweet about bad experiences. If a form letter on its own site is an indication of Waitrose’s response, it seems it’s unprepared to deal with online customer dissatisfaction.

And what does its parking policy say? At the very least, it puts out the message that shoppers are welcome at the stores, but only for a limited time.

For a retailer that otherwise holds the views of its customers so dear, this is a curious strategy and it really should know better.

In the retailer’s defence, a spokeswoman for Waitrose said: “We pride ourselves on ensuring our customer’s shopping experience with us is an enjoyable one from the moment they arrive at the store, which includes providing convenient access to car parking spaces. We therefore employ companies, where required, to manage Waitrose-owned car parks to ensure that this is the case.

“We are always careful to ensure signage is clear to let customers know what the terms of parking are, however, our branch managers generally know their customers well and we trust them to exercise their discretion. In practice this means being flexible over parking limits if they know that a particular customer needs extra time to do their shop. We would welcome any customer who believes they have been given an unfair parking fine, to speak to a member of the branch management team.”

The myth of the NDA

2010-01-29T13:47:00.003Z

I have been asked in some strange situations to sign an NDA, and never thought to ask a VC to sign one, I found this post by Christian Mayaud www.sacredcowdung.com and I think it will help those who struggle with this topic. I have just worked out the cost of managing NDA's for this project I have been working on for the last two years and it comes close to £100k.

REALITY: Nothing Screams "I'm Clue-less" Louder than asking for an NDA.
Read my lips: "NDAs are
a) Unenforceable and
b) Even suggesting an NDA makes you look like a complete idiot."

The request to sign an NDA is yet another red flag that VCs see all the
time. So let's set the scene: VC enters the conference room where the
entrepreneur is about to present -

Clue-less Entrepreneur: "Would you mind signing an NDA first?"
VC: "No problem." (VC thinks: "Oh man. Not another one!")

(Use of the word "one" refers equally to the NDA and the entrepreneur)

What is the entrepreneur really saying when requesting that executed NDA?
a) "You might be a crook."
b) "What I am about to reveal to you is so earth-shattering that it is a
distinct possibility that you will drop everything in your life and try to
steal my idea and do it without me."
c) "If I force you to sign an NDA, you will think I am being a responsible
businessman. "
d) "My ideas will seem much more important if you have to sign an NDA first."
e) "I need to guarantee you will never ever reveal to the world how truly
stupid my ideas are."
From my experience, only answer "e" makes sense to me. Over the years, I've
signed hundreds, if not thousands, of NDAs. And, so far, I have yet to
learn anything from the subsequent disclosure which -
I didn't know already,
I hadn't seen at least ten times before,
Wasn't easily discovered in the public record,
Wasn't generally known by industry participants, or
Wasn't so stupid, mundane, or derivative that I couldn't imagine why
anyone would ever consider wasting any time on it.

So it’s always being hard for me to take anyone seriously if they request an
NDA. From my own past, I can dredge up two relevant stories:

Story #1
in the mid-1980, I was working late one night with a patent attorney.
Being a curious, but naive, engineering graduate student, I asked the patent
attorney if people ever had to worry about their patent attorney stealing
their ideas:

Attorney: "Hmmmm . Only in the unlikely scenario that the attorney could be
guaranteed at least $5 million in cash."

Me: "Huh?"

Attorney: "Well, I figure $5 million is the life time earnings of a typical
patent attorney."

Me: "Huh?"

Attorney: "Well, if a patent attorney was ever caught stealing a client's
ideas, he would never be able to work again - so really, the temptation to
steal an idea would only be if - a) it was a guaranteed pay-out, and b) the
pay-out exceeded his subsequent lifetime earnings."

Me: "Gee, that makes sense."

(In retrospect, what I should have said was: "Gee, it's comforting to know
I'm working with a patent attorney who has thought through so precisely
under what circumstances it would be appropriate to consider stealing a
client's ideas." )

Of course, being a chronically naive idiot, I didn't really appreciate what
he had just told me . which bring me to -

Story #2

It's the early 1990s and I'm visiting the first VC on the road show for my
first venture-backed company -
Me: "Gee, would you mind signing an NDA first?"
(I remember being so proud at the time that I even knew what an "NDA" was.
One of those "insider acronyms" that would surely prove I was part of "the
club.")
The Kind and Patient VC: "Sure . no problem."
(He signed it without hesitation and handed it back to me.)

Me: "Gee, thanks."

The Kind and Patient VC: "By the way, do you mind me letting you in on a
little secret?"

Me: "Wow! . sure thing!"

The Kind and Patient VC: "It's something you should probably think about
from time to time. Building companies is really all about execution - not
ideas .you know - the old 5% inspiration, 95% perspiration rule .Anyway, no
matter how great your ideas are and now matter how great your plan is, it's
unlikely anyone will ever understand those ideas and plans better than you."
Me: "Uh? . Yeah?"

The Kind and Patient VC: ". and people like me, who make a living working
with people like you, would always chose to work with you first ."

Me: "Uh? . Yeah .OK ."

The Kind and Patient VC: " . and the truth is - most people never act on
ideas or plans anyway - you know: never really commit to the whole
perspiration part ."

Me: "Uh? .Huh?"

The Kind and Patient VC: "Let me explain it this way - Even if you were to
go down to the corner of Broad and Wall Street - ground zero for the
financial markets - and randomly pass out 1000 copies of your business plan,
no one will ever execute that plan without you - no matter how great it is."

Me: "Uh? .Oh . soooo, you're saying I'm an idiot for asking you to sign that
NDA."

The Kind and Patient VC: "No . just reminds me you're a little green."

Okay. I'm a little slow, but I finally got it -

Key Principle: CONTEXT = TRUST

- not an NDA!

Am I saying an NDA is NEVER called for?

Pretty much . It's a little like asking an Eskimo to agree in writing to
never use a refrigerator . It would be a very very rare circumstance indeed

An up todate “financial Indiana Jones" book review

2010-01-28T09:52:00.003Z

I have met a few unique financial guys in my time, while killing time in airports, or at conferences, where there are always deal makers around, these guys when they talk with you , and start to expound on a deal or the making of a deal, you cannot help to get a tad excited about a possible new adventure. I once had an interview with the one of the senior guys from FOXCONN, it was for a role in the Czech republic, and jimmy asked me a few questions, then the next hour was spent with him telling me how set up the European operations, with only himself and an office admin, and very limited language skills, it was an adventure, and he was tempting me with similar adventures, the job never came to be at that time, but a door had been opened to a new area of exploration. At that time I was reading a book about early market development in China, I was preparing to spend a lot of time in China, it was called Mr China, and it portrayed an adventure in China of a group of financiers, well I have found another book that is as good as or even a tad better by Robert P Smith, he was called by Forbes the “financial Indiana Jones”, Robert was a debts trader in the emerging nations, he lived and worked in some of the words hot spots, both as a Government official and an entrepreneur, I would recommend this book , for anyone interested in finance and travel, it is well written and you will not get bored, it will also be a good read for someone who can never understand why you do what you do, have a platinum air miles card, and know smatterings of 12 or 13 languages, and your dinner talk is about high speed taxi journeys in lands that people did not know existed or care.

Book see below
www.richesamongtheruins.com
Riches among the Ruins

You better not be a one man band or you company will suffer(Unless you are a hitman)

2010-01-25T09:23:00.003Z

It has been a while since I posted, reasons are many I have been busy getting my house sold and finding another one, and as I mentioned previously my present project is being closed down, so I have been spending some time seeing what else is on the go, I have a couple of projects being talked about, but until they happen, I am still searching. I have had lots of offers to work for free (sweat equity) but that's not what I am looking for, been there, done that. I saw this post on teamwork, and I thought it very apt, as there does not seem like there is much of that in the UK and Scottish Governments at present. maybe they will have a read at it as well.

6 steps to team working (one approach)

There are six basic steps and two basic principles: trust and collaboration.

Step 1: Choose one goal: This might be something you introduce, or build with the team, seeding ideas to the group. It’s not essential that it’s group-driven. It is essential that it’s ambitious, exciting, and singular. Setting a goal around incrementally improving at the day job just isn’t going to cut it.

Step 2: Define Plan A: Giving a goal to a facilitated group and letting them work out ways to achieve it, without a whole load of constraints, is a fantastic way to engage them with both the project, and with each other. The term “Plan A” is deliberate. Most teams will come up with various options, and more will emerge on reflection. Calling it Plan A give you, as a group, the ability to adapt the plan as it moves, helps with consensus and reduces rejection as other alternatives are still options for the future. Stay clear on the goal; be flexible on the route.

Step 3: Define success: Start with a discussion about success, and what it would mean — try and make this at a personal level. Moving from the goal, back through the plan, it’s easy to introduce a discussion on key deliverables and major milestones without ever losing the thought “we really want to do this”. Encourage the team to discuss how they might measure progress and achieve each stage, so they can ensure success.

Step 4: Define the price: By now, the team should be sold on the project, so what’s the price? Inevitably it means stopping, or changing the way current work is delivered. This is where teams often get really creative if they want to see the project go ahead. I’ve seen teams decide to do their own time and motion studies and then radically change the way they worked, within a couple of weeks, in order to free up time to do something more exciting.

Step 5: Establish who owns what: As a shrewd observer of people, you will have already started to see who is really keen to make the project work, who is most excited about which element, who is just riding the wave, and who is already getting cold feet. Sometimes teams pick themselves there and then, other times you may need to shape the decision, but “one volunteer is worth many pressed men” could not be more true. Not everyone will be passionate about every project, but everyone on every project should be passionate about the ones they’re on. And after all, someone’s got to do the day-job.

Step 6: Do what you can to help: Your job now is to help clear their way. To encourage, support, recognise and, if necessary, help steer through some of the obstacles and challenges that lay ahead. The team have to know that you’re there, that you care, and that you can help them when they’re stuck or lost. You have to know that it’s their project now, not yours.

By Martyn Drake found on BNET

What the VC is looking for from your pitch

2009-12-15T11:37:00.002Z

How To Pitch

I just read an article on what a VC looks for from an entreprenuere's pitch by Raj Kapoor who is a VC at the Mayfield fund, (before that he sold his company snapfish to Hewlet-Packard) . The Mayfield Fund has over $2.8billion under management, Raj has made some investments in online social networking companies in China, Baihe, Quanr.com and a host of other US and Indian companies.

The article was first posted at www.TechCrunch.com

A VC’s Advice On How To Pitch VCs

Its been almost five years now that I’ve been in venture capital. I finally know what i don’t know.

The one thing I do know is how to give better advice on pitching VCs now that I’ve sat through hundreds of pitches and made 8 investments. I gave some advice in an earlier post—this one builds on it at a deeper level (three years later)

I’ve mentioned in the past that there are some key things you should include in your presentation when you are pitching a VC. David Cowan’s post on what to include is a great starting point. I thought I would expand on this and add some of the nuances within each section. This may not apply to all types of companies but I think it works for internet-related businesses.

Also, I’ve found that if all the informoation below is addressed succinctly in an executive summary or first pitch deck, it can help us make a much faster decision —which is what the entrepreneur wants and so do we. If we believe the story is lacking in too many areas, sometimes we just pass as there is too much else going on. At the same time, providing too much information is a problem as, like you, we are time-strapped and attention-starved. I think most of the points below can be addressed in a few compelling sentences or slides.

What Do You Do? The first thing we want to understand is what you do, very simply. What’s the problem/solution or what’s the new experience that you think is exciting? Why is this important to your customers? For mass-market internet businesses we want to understand if this appeals to a wide or narrow audience and if it’s a frequent (daily) habit or something done once in a while (which is tougher to build a brand in the consumers mind). Don’t talk vision or market at this point. Zero in on what you are about.
Reveal Your End Game. VCs typically don’t invest in just the first product or service being the end game or in a company’s whose biggest goal in life is to be a feature of a platform or “add-on” acquisition. We want to understand that your product has really big potential and could be a platform possibly for others—like Facebook or Twitter. Don’t be afraid to dream a bit. Here’s an example from one of my companies - “Rubicon Project will start solving the sharp pain point of optimizing ad networks for publishers and will leverage this position to be the trusted platform to help monetize all inventory for a publisher – the Control HQ for all revenue for web publishers”. You won’t be penalized for having audacious goals.
What Is The True Size Of Your Market? No, Really. The important point here is whether it’s a big enough market to be interesting to a VC. Too often entrepreneurs simply state the size of the online ad market for an internet content business or the size of a retail category for e-commerce sectors. We’re less interested in the top down market sizing and more focused on your Total Addressable Market (TAM). If you sell widgets, how many customers are really out there that are interested in your widget (segment the market) times what price you get for your widget. The more thoughtful and realistic you are about how you define the customer set, the faster we can make a decision. We don’t mind getting surprised on the upside later on.
The Secret Ingredient Is People. Teams are critical and too little time is spent on them in pitches. Don’t just include where you’ve worked but include in your slide or exec summary why this team is the best for this opportunity. In many businesses, domain expertise matters a lot, so highlight that. In some consumer businesses, its less about experience and more about product insight and relentless execution—highlight why you have that. In other words, figure out what’s most important to the task at hand and make sure to tell us how each person will help accomplish that—not just where everyone worked and went to school. In an early stage deal, Team and Market are the most important factors as everything else will change and a great team with wind at their backs will make it happen. Also, be upfront about your holes/weaknesses in the team (and your own weaknesses) and if and when you believe you will need a new CEO. Self awareness is one of the most important traits we look for in leaders.
Go-To-Market Strategy. This is often ignored or not given enough thought. What is the path of least resistance that you can take in terms of customers (be specific here), channels, and initial product focus. Your go-to-market strategy should ideally be in your control (versus reliant on big, unproven partnerships) and take as much risk off the table as possible in the least amount of time. You need to go through customer acquisition economics if you pay for customers (lifetime value vs CPA) and why you will spread for free if you don’t require marketing. Address how you will make it as painless as possible for consumers to adopt the solution and how you will build on top of that. Also, your go-to-market focus should not force you into a niche that’s hard to maneuver out of.
Be Honest About What Stage You Are At. We need to understand what stage your company is at. Are you at the idea stage or pre-traction in terms of customers and momentum? Do you have momentum but are still working out the business model? Or do you have both momentum and a solid understanding and proof behind the model. The clearer you are about where you are, the faster we can make a decision. Be upfront and honest on the risks and how you will deal with them. If you have momentum, show graphs of key metrics over time (not just a snapshot of where you are)—we want to understand the shape of your growth curves and how your key metrics are performing against your expectations.
Your Real Competitive Advantage is Being Different In The Long Term. On the internet, there are at least 25 companies that are or can compete with you on almost anything you do. Often times, it’s all about execution but we want to see if there are fundamental factors which will help you outdo your competition—very hard technology/IP, network effects in your business that will make it hard for others to catch up (such as with Wikipedia, Google AdSense, Facebook, Twitter) or a fundamentally different business model that will be hard for an incumbent to change (for instance, it wouldn’t be easy for Electronic Arts to cannibalize its retail games with free to play online versions). While we want you to list all your competitors (be exhaustive otherwise we won’t have confidence you know your business and have done your homework), its not useful to only show a chart of your competitors comparing features or positioning on a 2×2 chart. That is a very static view and any competitor worth their salt will morph and/or expand features to keep up with competition. If its all about execution and there are no fundamental advantages, then you should focus on why your team will out-execute all the others (a tougher sell but possible).
Product, Product, Product. If it’s a live pitch, a demo is really key—but keep it short and to the point. Don’t go into all the cool features—we are most focused on how its simple, intuitive, solves the problem and how well built it is and frictionless from a user experience point of view. You can talk about some of the cool new features but the first meeting isn’t about going through your product requirements. If it’s part of an executive summary or deck, this is harder but at least a few screenshots of the key experience flow are helpful.
Plausible Financials. It’s tough to create believable projections for an early stage company. I suggest showing what it takes to get to $50M or $100M of revenue in terms of customers, products, pricing, and so forth, as that’s what we are focused on. Show a simple table of key assumptions to get there and speak to why its believable. We also want to know how much capital you think you will consume to get sustainably cash flow positive so the nitty gritty forecasts do matter—but be able to explain the key drivers and why its capital efficient (profitable under $5-10M of investment) or requires significant investment.
The Ask. Make sure to put down how much you want to raise. Often a range is a good strategy as it usually depends on the valuation/dilution. But there should be a minimum amount that makes sense to significantly reduce the risks in the business. Importantly, highlight what risks you will remove and what momentum you expect to have about 6 months before you run out of cash. We are very focused on whether we will be able to successfully raise a round at a higher valuation, so tell us what you think it will take to do that.

I hope this helps. If you can nail the points above, it can be a 30-45 minute meeting and I think you’ll get a quicker and more definitive answer from a VC. Good luck with your pitch!

By Raj Kapoor

Company Culture from both sides of the coin

2009-12-03T16:43:00.003Z

Company Culture from both sides of the coin

What do I mean , well there are two view points at least, maybe even four, but I will stick to the two of them today, this will be a short post as it has been a long long day. I have been talking to recruiters on and off every day over the last week or so and part of those discussions are what prompted me to this subject.

So the easy part:

Company Culture for the Boss:

The company culture can either grow your bottom line or hurt your bottom line, and staying level is hurting the bottom line by the way IMHO. What can you do to make sure you have a strong culture look for the signs..positive sub-culture groups, war stories on outstanding performance, strong group bonding outside of work,low staff turn over, if people get on outside work they will generally work together better. I know there will be some folk reading this and saying that's crap, "I pay them to work and that's the end of it", that will give you my friend the performance you deserve, flat line ultimately. I always grow a positive culture whenever I can as this makes my life that much easier and keeps a strong bottom line. There is loads to add to this but I am keeping it brief for today, feel free to engage my services if you want to explore further or have a look at www.companyculture.com.

Company Culture for the Employee or prospective Employee:

Take time and find out as much as you can about a company before you join, you may find the culture not so good, but at least you will know, and this will taylor your first 100 days. You can do this work before you target your job hunt if you have the freedom to choose, but do it anyway before you interview, how I hear you cry, well use the social networks and professional, like LinkedIn , Facebook, Eacademy, Spoke, Twitter, Zing, Zoominfo, get in to the discussion groups targeted at your industry of choice and start digging asking question, use the search function to dig folk out from the company, get busy with Google and get searching, there are many ways to find out what you want to know, and I suggest that you do it. If you know the culture of a company you may join you can work out long term what the prospects are going to be for you before you start, and if you will like working in that culture.

Summary:

Culture is not something that only a few people can develop, it is the corporate body that chooses what culture they will make, I used to run a shift in a semiconductor factory that was staffed by ladies of a certain age, that in its self set the culture, I am not saying that you cannot control and redirect slightly and manage behaviour, be we make the culture we work in. There have been document projects that have tried to change the culture, it takes a while and a lot of face time to make that happen, so Entrepreneur make the culture part of your armoury to win, don't let it pull you down, and don't become distanced from it.

Gordon Whyte - WhiteStar Solar Ltd.-Resume

2009-11-26T09:55:00.004Z

I thought I would do a bit of self advertising on my Blog today.

Over the last two and a half years I have been involved in spinning out a solar cell manufacturing business from a technology incubator center, this has been an interesting but difficult gig, the stuff I have been involved with this gig is as below:

Feasibility study of Solar Technologies as they are applied in the field, understanding the ultimate cost of energy for a variety of technologies.
In depth review of the concentrated solar industry, system build, operations and manufacturing challenges and variety of technologies.
Feasibility study of setting up a low to medium concentrator facility in the UK, Madrid, Asia.
Developed financial models for all scenarios, modeling cost of product , cash flow, capex and running costs.
Worked with the turnkey suppliers of solar cell manufacturing lines to develop project plans for the deployment of 20/40MW manufacturing lines , these are companies like Centrotherm, Rena, Oerlikon.
Led on the acquisition of an existing solar cell manufacturing line in central Europe, and developed a plan to run insitu at it's present location.
Led on the acquisition of the equipment only of the above solar cell manufacturing line, while finding a location in the UK to support the operation.
Developed the supply chain for the operation, working with chemical and wafer suppliers, contract negotiated with the major wafer suppliers, like REC, LDK,NORSUN and other up and coming Asian suppliers.
Led Business development and helped secure with the team over 20 new customers.
Developed business plans and engaged with the Investment community to raise funding
Helped promote the business at trade shows and conferences around the world
Help to manage the research and manufacturing business unit that would have been the technology provider.
Travelled over 200k miles economy, taken every form of transport available, eaten nearly every kind of food known.

In my spare time researched and performed due diligence on Wind, Waste to energy projects in different regions of the world.
The team was on average 1.5 to 2 people with the help of the odd friend and consultant

Why do I tell you all of this, this the minimum you will need to be prepared to do to get your business started, the hard part/fun part is when you actually see the money and start to build your company, have fun, feel free to catch up with me if you need any help, paid would be good, I have a lot of free custom already.

feel free to peruse my CV below:

Gordon Whyte

E-mail: gordonw63 at yahoo dot com

Executive Profile

Operations Management · Business development · System Implementation

I am a technically aware, dynamic, results-driven executive with a proven record of successfully developing and leading operations in cleantech and high-technology environments. Demonstrated accomplishments in early stage business development and new product introduction across a variety of markets. Change manager adept in startup, reengineering, and high-growth technology environments, Visionary planner and analytical problem solver with a “big picture” mentality. Strong leader adept at managing and motivating cross-functional teams. Excellent communication and relationship building skills. Experienced with developing outsourced manufacturing partners and strategic suppliers. Has over 15 years experience working with venture capital supported companies, both in Europe and North America, he has helped raise private equity funding for five early stage companies.

· Operations Management

· Quality Control

· Continuous Improvement

· Process Reengineering

· Lean Manufacturing

· Systems Implementation

· Project Management

· Project Outsourcing

· Business Development

Core Competencies include:

====================================================================================

Professional Experience

Whitestar Solar Ltd – Blyth, UK 09/07 to present

Chief Operating Officer / General Manager

Responsible for the management of the research center, cell and module manufacturing, research and development, product engineering, evaluating solar technologies and analyzing there impact on the market with regards to cost of product sold, cell performance. Leading the commercialization of the research centers photovoltaic solar cell technology. Prepared the business plan for £20m investment and is engaging with the investment community. Working with various turnkey photovoltaic equipment suppliers to develop a new factory build project, worked with local authorities on selection of suitable manufacturing sites across the UK and explored available grant options.

Ø Preparing business plan for technology spin out, and presented to investors

Ø Establishing supply chain, negotiating key supply agreements.

Ø Leading sales and marketing function, developing customer base to 20 customers

Ø Evaluation and selection of production technologies for large scale manufacturing sites.

Ø Developed technology road map to develop next generation solar cell manufacturing.

Ø Improved production efficiencies by 25% and reduced product cost by 35%

Forth Dimension displays –Dunfermline, UK 10/2004 – 08/2007 www.forthdd.com

Director of Micro display operations

Responsible for manufacturing operations of micro-displays and sub-systems for helmet mounted and projection television applications. Restarted closed micro-display fabrication manufacturing foundry and established robust supply chain. Recruited management team and supporting operations team. Worked within a fabless semiconductor model to supply, develop new silicon backplane and asic driver devices for new products. Reduce customer returns by 40% and improved delivery performance by 50%. This role had extensive travel in China and Taiwan. Help to implement a reorganization of the business to increase the possibility of long term success.

Key Achievements:

Ø Restarted the pilot manufacturing line

Ø Established high volume manufacturing partners for the microdisplay and drive electronics

Ø Implemented ISO 9001 and NPI strategy throughout the company wide.

Ø Negotiated supply agreements with major component suppliers

Ø Implemented SAP 1 for financial modeling and supply chain management.

Ø Restructured the operations to focused on head mounted display core business

Ø Secured funding from venture capital partners of £3m to support restructuring of business

Ø Responsible for continuous increased revenue for 15 months.

Ø Implemented ISO 9001 and NPI strategy, company wide.

rosebank technologies –Edinburgh, UK 06/2003 – 10/2004

Chief Operation Officer

This was a short term project to set up an advanced semiconductor process development organization, using spin-on-glass based thick films and deliver a solution to a tier 1 semiconductor process equipment supplier. Responsible for operations, engineering and development functions. This was an opportunity to recover IP from the liquidated Terahertz Photonics an early stage photonic start-up.

Key Achievements:

Ø Developed business plan for organization and executed

Ø Secured access to business premises and negotiated low start overheads

Ø Led business development with Applied materials for process development project

Ø Secured SMART funding from Scottish Executive for proof of concept project

Ø Co-Authored a Patent on SOG for DTI / STI next generation semiconductors

LITTLE OPTICS, INC. – Annapolis, MD, 02/2002 – 10/2003 www.littleoptics.com

Vice President of Operations

Direct day-to-day operations for this manufacturer of integrated optical ASIC’s for a diverse market covering biotechnology, communications, and the military. Define, develop, and execute manufacturing and outsourcing strategies leading towards a fabless manufacturing model. Oversee administration, human resources, facilities, and quality management. Develop and administer budgets. Monitor company wide projects. Manage and orchestrate wafer fabrication engineering and advanced process development teams. Manage all facets of product delivery. Serve as expert consultant for advanced packaging team. Developed and implemented company wide and outsourcing partner ISO 9001 quality programs. Managed senior operations management team and coached the founding staff. Present program progress to Board of Directors. I helped to raise $7 million in venture capital funding this allowed the organization to position it’s self to be acquired by Nomadics Plc and secure the future for the employees and return shared holders value. I could see my role disappearing as part off the acquisition, so I planned my return to the Scotland and take up the project with Rosebank Technologies.

Key Achievements:

Ø Developed and implemented process improvements to reduce operating costs 35%

Ø Established strategic outsourcing partnerships with a range of manufacturing companies

Ø Aggressively managed supply chain reducing consumable and raw material costs 30%

Ø Instituted and implemented low-cost manufacturing strategy, reducing design cycle time 25%

Ø Directly developed and implemented company wide budget control and planning policies.

Ø Developed an outsource manufacturing base for Wafer fabrication and Packaging services

Ø Secured venture capital funding of $7m

MICRO PHOTONIX INT. CORP. – Phoenix, AZ, 06/2000 – 02/2002

Director of Manufacturing

Managed organization wide operations across three manufacturing divisions for this producer of telecommunication sub systems of this venture capital funded buisness. Established and implemented world-class manufacturing facilities supporting production of lithium niobate integrated optical components and hybrid RF amplifiers and integrated modules. Oversaw implementation of Telcordia and ISO9001 quality programs. Recruited, hired, and managed operations, manufacturing, logistics, and engineering staff. MicroPhotonix was raising capital from the venture capital community just prior to the 9/11 terrorist attack in the USA, the attack caused the VC community to stop there investment activities until they could this impacted our ability negatively to secure adequate funding and the company closed down. I then left to join Little optics.

Key Achievements:

Ø Led design and implementation of four new products in 2001

Ø Successfully negotiated manufacturing licenses for advanced optical components.

Ø Secured manufacturing licenses worth $3m plus in revenues

Ø Supported funding activities raised $13m

Ø Brokered sale of assets and IP to overseas corporation

JDSU – Essex, England, 1995 – 2000

Senior Manufacturing Manager

Oversaw a wide range of manufacturing initiatives for this $24 million venture capital funded opto-electronic component company. Developed and executed production facility from R&D pilot line. Devised and executed process and production control systems. Recruited and developed wafer fabrication and component assembly teams. Led development for future generation of products supporting OC192 applications. I left this role to develop my career with experience of working in the USA in a new start up organization.

Key Achievements:

Ø Assembled teams and established processes to develop world-class manufacturing facility

Ø Led project to develop an efficient process capability, this included new process and equipment introduction, resulting in line yield improvement of 35%

Ø Led project team charged with wide-scale facility expansion/enhancement initiative; increased throughput 200% and component assembly 100%

Ø Supported IPO on the Alternative Investment Market

Ø Supported acquisition of company from IOC to SDL/ JDSU

THE TOWER – Montrose, Scotland, 1993 – 1995

Manufacturing Consultant

Established, developed and managed consultant firm. Developed and executed management and personal development programs. Led reengineering and change management projects supporting small- to medium- sized high-tech companies. Orchestrated and conducted team development courses.

SEAGATE MICROELECTRONICS- Shift Production Manager, 1993-1994

NEC SEMICONDUCTORS (UK) Ltd.-Livingstone, Scotland, 1981-1993

Served as key member of pre-production team charged with establishing innovative six-inch wafer fabrication facility in Europe. Facilitated multiple projects throughout three-year foreign assignment.

Closing down your business ...hope you don't need to use this post.

2009-11-11T14:14:00.002Z

Closing down your business

Some folks have been talking to me about closing down a business and how hard the process is, emotionally and physically this article may give you some guidelines...also see Roger's other articles on the subject at: www.askthevc.com.

Article by: Roger Glovsky-who is a founding partner of Indigo Venture Law Offices, a business law firm based in Massachusetts, which provides legal counsel to entrepreneurs and high-tech businesses. Mr. Glovsky is also founder of LEXpertise.com, a collaboration and networking site for lawyers, and writes blogs for iLaw2.com and The Virtual Lawyer.

The primary responsibility for shutting down operations and liquidating assets falls on the managers and/or owners of the business, at least until or unless the creditors or court system takes over. This could come as a nasty shock to some investors. Many angel investors or even venture capitalists enter a transaction with the intent of just contributing money. They may be surprised to learn some day that the management team for the company they invested in have all resigned and that no one is remaining to wind down the business, sell off the assets, or pay down the liabilities. Suddenly, one day the investor or owner receives a call (most likely from a creditor) asking what they plan to do with their company and how they plan to address the outstanding liabilities. Not a happy call for the investor or owner.

Whether you are a manager or an owner faced with winding down a business, the goal of the person winding down the company is to fulfill his or her fiduciary obligations and preserve the management's or owner's business reputation. The first step is to assess the financial situation of the business. The second step is to take note that time is of the essence and the longer it takes to do the first step, the more time, money and reputation it will cost the management or owners.

When you buy an existing business, you typically do what is referred to as "due diligence" to make sure you know what you are buying. Similarly, when you are winding down a business, you must do your due diligence to make sure you know what assets and liabilities the company still has and how best to handle them. This is what I call "reverse due diligence". Reverse due diligence involves all of the same information that a buyer or investor might request for a growing business, but for a different purpose: the purpose is for marshaling assets and managing liabilities to maximize value on the downside. In normal due diligence, a buyer will scrutinize financial information and disclosure schedules looking for hidden liabilities that may detract from the value of the acquired company. In reverse due diligence, the person winding down a business is looking for hidden assets that can maximize value and facilitate the settlement of the company's obligations.

So, what information do you need?

1. Financial Information. Most importantly, you need to get a good handle on the financial situation. Are there current financial statements (e.g., P&L, balance sheet, cash flow) prepared by an outside accounting firm? If not, start with the most recent tax return and review all information relating to income, balance sheet, assets, liabilities, and capital structure. Are there internal financial statements prepared by the company? Is there a Quickbooks file (or other accounting software) that can print a transaction report for the current or prior years? What might be the "off-balance-sheet" assets? Seek help from the company’s accountant and financial advisors to make sure that the financial information is accurate and up to date.

2. Taxes. Make a list of all states in which the company is obligated to pay taxes. What is the process in each state for submitting final tax returns? What tax good standing certificates are required for dissolution? What are the outstanding tax obligations (e.g., payroll taxes, estimated taxes, annual taxes, sales taxes)? What obligations are coming up in the near future? What tax obligations or tax filings will be required after the company ceases operations? What money will you need to reserve for payment of taxes after dissolution?

3. Hard Assets. List all assets, including both "hard" assets and intangible assets. Hard assets include computers, equipment, furniture, products, and inventory. Are the assets leased or owned? Are the assets worth more sold separately or combined with other assets (such as a product line or customer contract)? You may want to start with the most recent balance sheet to identify major assets that have been capitalized. Which assets are most valuable? Which assets can be sold easily (e.g., using brokers, auctioneers, eBay, or Craigslist)? Are there any strategic assets that may be desired by vendors, partners or competitors?

4. Soft Assets. Soft assets are intangibles that include securities, accounts receivable, contract rights, bank accounts and cash. Intangibles also include intellectual property such as patents, copyrights, trademarks, websites, blogs, and domain registrations. Is there technical information or process know-how that employees (or former employees) could document and make available for sale? What is the value of the brand and how can it be transferred? Is there software or technology (or other IP) that could be licensed? Can customer lists be sold?

5. Potential Buyers. Can you identify a specific list of potential buyers? Who might have a strategic or competitive business interest in some or all of the assets? Consider vendors, contractors, customers, strategic partners and affiliated entities. Would business brokers or investment bankers be able to find potential buyers? If not, are there auctioneers or liquidators who would help fire sale the assets?

6. Lenders. What loans or financings has the company entered into? Are there other credit arrangements? Make sure that you review executed (i.e., final) drafts of all documents. What do the documents require? Which creditors or obligations take precedence? What happens in the event of default? Are there any personal guarantees? Can the loan or financing arrangements be renegotiated?

7. Employees. What are the current payroll obligations? How should they be managed during the wind down process? What bonuses, vacation pay [Ed. Note: and sales commissions] and accrued expenses are owed? What payroll taxes will be due? What employee benefit plans need to be cancelled or terminated? How will this affect employees on COBRA? Can you save money by switching to a Professional Employer Organization (PEO)? Are there any other forms of compensation (stock, deferred compensation or other incentives) that have not been documented or paid? What employment contracts exist and what restrictions will remain enforce? Can you or a potential buyer solicit employees? Are you treating all employees fairly and equally? How will your actions affect employees that you might want to hire again for a future venture?

8. Customers. Make a list of all current customers, past customers, and prospective customers. Which customers have outstanding receivables? Are there open orders? Should open orders be cancelled or delivered? Which customers have you collected money from but won't be able to deliver products or services? What prepayments from customers should be refunded? How much of the receivables can be collected after the company ceases operation? Which receivables should be written off as uncollectable? At what point should you notify customers that you intend to cease operations? How long can you hold out for a buyer to take over a product line or business? Are there any long term agreements for services? What goodwill can be salvaged or business reputation maintained by transferring unfinished projects to another service provider?

9. Vendors. Make a list of all suppliers and contractors. Be sure to review current versions of all agreements, including any addendums or renewals. Which vendors do you owe money? What leases are there for real estate or equipment? Are there any long term contracts? Can you negotiate an earlier termination or buy-out of the contracts? Can you get the contract modifications in writing? What are the notice requirements and other obligations upon termination? How many days in advance must notice be given? Are some notice requirements sooner than others? Are there any security deposits or prepayments (e.g., insurance) that will be repaid to the company?

10. Records; Compliance. Review all corporate records, paying particular attention to obligations upon dissolution or liquidation of the company's assets. Make sure that you have current copies of all corporate (or LLC) records including charter, bylaws, stockholder agreements (or in the case of an LLC, the Operating Agreement). Are there any security, investment or other financing documents that affect the owners’ rights or the distribution of assets? Are there any documents that assign responsibility or indemnification upon default of obligations? Are there regulatory filings or other compliance obligations? What licenses or registrations does the company have and how should they be withdrawn or terminated? Are there any environmental issues or other compliance obligations that will continue after operations cease?

Review all of the assets and liabilities carefully. Are the assets worth more or less than the company paid for them? Are there any assets with hidden value (such as websites with significant traffic or popular domain names)? We have had some clients sell domain names alone for more than $500K. Some of these assets may have more value to competitors than they do to the failed business.

After you have gathered the information above, you should be able to make a preliminary assessment as to whether the company's net worth is positive or negative. Be sure to review the assessment with the company's accountant, attorney and other professional advisors in order to determine when to cease operations and to plan for the orderly liquidation of assets. The professionals can help to structure and guide the wind down strategy. There are many financial and legal pitfalls for the unwary. It does not have to be time consuming or expensive, but the assessment does require a trained eye to avoid potential issues that might arise later after the assets have been liquidated and the proceeds disbursed.

The above list is just a sample of the most common items to consider before winding down a business. There are many more items that would be included on a typical due diligence checklist. The financial information and due diligence should be performed with the utmost care and accuracy to make sure valuable assets or significant liabilities are not overlooked. Are there may major items that we have failed to mention? What information did you find the most useful in winding down a business?

Gordon

Some tips on etiquette for business travel to India

2009-10-28T11:28:00.002Z

With India now having a strong global business presence, which is expanding continuously, it is crucial that as UK business professionals, we are aware of how to behave and interact appropriately with fellow business professionals from this continent.

The subject is huge, and with cultural differences within India itself, it could easily fill a volumes.

However, let me give you my top tips for successful business interactions:

Never touch a person’s head, even to pat a child, the head is the seat of the soul
Beckoning someone with the hand or finger is insulting as is standing with your hands on your hips
Never point your feet at someone. If your shoes or feet touch someone else, make sure you apologise immediately.
The word ‘no’ is considered harsh in Asian culture. Evasive refusals such as ‘maybe’ or ‘I’ll try’ are preferred and regularly used.
Always use formal titles when interacting with Asian clients, however many times you’ve met them.
The use of leather products including belts, handbags and briefcases may be considered offensive.
It is generally not socially acceptable for Asian women to be touched by any male other than husband or child. This is obviously changing as more and more Asian women are entering the corporate world and travelling globally for business, but if in doubt only shake hands with an Asian woman if she offers her hand first.
Asians take themselves very seriously so the UK dry sense of humour and gentle banter that we take for granted is unlikely to be well received.
Be aware of the deeply established caste system and understanding dharma and karma
It is inappropriate for a man to make any comment about a woman’s appearance.
It is considered impolite to address a person who is older or holds a higher status by their first name. In Hindi, the first name is usually followed by “ji” to show respect.

The business etiquette within India is changing rapidly as more and more Asian people are entering the global business arena. But be aware that the above points are very well ingrained in their psyche so always err on the side of caution and be led by your client/colleague. You are far more likely to need to adhere to letter to the above if you are visiting the Continent as opposed to receiving visitors in the UK.

Picked these tips up from Katie Day who is a people changer at personal development consultancy Unlimited Potential. She is also guest lecturer at Warwich Business School. She worked with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development from 1995 to 1999, advising on cross-cultural exchange.

Growth of the web since 2000, and the opportunities it is bringing

2009-10-15T12:15:00.002Z

Growth of the web since 2000, and the opportunities it is bringing

2020 vision for the web

Online copy of newsletter here

The growth of the web since 2000 has been massive and in the 'new' economies - China, Brazil, Russia, India, Eastern Europe that is likely to continue apace. It’s not until penetration reaches that of the phone that the market will mature. That’s lots of growth as the figures below indicate.

WORLD INTERNET USAGE AND POPULATION STATISTICS 2009

World Regions	Est. pop. 2009	Users 2000	Users Latest	Pen %	Inc %	User %
Africa	991,002,342	4,514,400	65,903,900	6.7	1,359.9	3.9
Asia	3,808,070,503	114,304,000	704,213,930	18.5	516.1	42.2
Europe	803,850,858	105,096,093	402,380,474	50.1	282.9	24.2
Middle East	202,687,005	3,284,800	47,964,146	23.7	1,360.2	2.9
North America	340,831,831	108,096,800	251,735,500	73.9	132.9	15.1
South America	586,662,468	18,068,919	175,834,439	30.0	873.1	10.5
Oceania	34,700,201	7,620,480	20,838,019	60.1	173.4	1.2
WORLD TOTAL	6,767,805,208	360,985,492	1,668,870,408	24.7	362.3	100.0

Given this likely growth what will the web look like in 2020?

Well, there are two sides to that coin – the way the technology works and then the ways we use it and, of course, forecast vision is less likely to be accurate than optical.

Technology

According to technology expert and entrepreneur Nova Spivack, the development of the web moves in 10 year cycles.

In the first decade, most of the development focused on the back end. In the second decade, focus shifted to the front end and the era social media, mash-ups and experiments to make the web more interactive. The next cycle will shift focus to the back end again. Then by 2020 focus will return to the front end and we'll see thousands of new ways to use the web.

Some of the predictions for the next 10 years are the:

‘ever present’ web will merge with all other forms of entertainment and everything will be delivered via the web. Everything (phones, fridges, the lot) will connect to the net and you will have a constant connection to the web at work, at home, driving, in the pub or restaurant, in fact wherever you are.

semantic web and artificial intelligence where all information is categorized and stored in such a way that a computer can understand it as well as a human. The web will capable of analyzing data and extrapolating new ideas for you. In fact people already feel that, as one of our readers, Tony Cox, wrote after one of our recent articles: "The Internet is evolving like a primitive brain building neural connections to integrate the myriad of input signals for evaluation, selective storage and sending of response signals. The conscious mind is only aware of that which demands attention, with most work dealt with automatically and subconsciously."

three dimensional web - one single virtual world with buildings, shops and other areas to explore and people to interact with in virtual reality and real online personalities. However, standards for programming and graphical design would be much more complex and expensive.

above or some combination thereof.

Web usage

So what will the backroom developments mean for what we do on the web? Well, Seth Godin has characterised these next developments as:

ubiquity – because it is about activity, not just data, and most human activity takes place offline

identity – because the deliverable is based on who you are and what you do and what you need

connection - because ‘you're nothing without the rest of us’.

We are already seeing some of these changes with the growth of social media and the launch just recently of Google Sidewiki – a new feature of the Google Toolbar that lets you leave comments about any website. When some else running Sidewiki views that web page, they'll see your comments.

But in the future Godin sees much more potent applications. He gives examples of how this will work too, such as:

I'm typing an email to someone, and we're brainstorming about doing a business development deal with Apple. A little window pops up and lets me know that David over in our Tucscon office is already having a similar conversation with Apple and perhaps we should coordinate.

I'm late for a dinner. My GPS phone knows this (because it has my calendar, my location, and the traffic status). So, it tells me, and then it alerts the people who are waiting for me.

Some of this is not so far away. Google Wave has just launched and has a lot of features, such as:

Real-time: In most instances, you can see what someone else is typing, character-by-character.

Extensions: Just like Facebook developers can build their own applications within waves. Google Wave code will be open source, to promote innovation and adoption amongst developers

Wiki functionality: Anything written within a Google Wave can be edited by anyone else

Playback: You can playback any part of the wave to see what was said.

Drag-and-drop sharing: Drag your file and drop it into a Google Wave and everyone will have access.

The Social Issues Research Centre says that the web in 2020 will:

“……….meet human needs more fully than it does at present, with many resulting social and political implications. It will have come to provide a renewed forum for social cohesion and democracy as well as continuing as a platform for information, entertainment, communication, shopping, etc. ……… If a Web application, however complex and sophisticated, does not fulfil a timeless human need then it will not succeed. While technology changes, people in general do not………. We reinvent tribal groups in which we find a true sense of belonging, whether they be the familiar youth subcultures………. or the more staid and respectable………. ‘grown-up’ groups with which we are so familiar………. As basic mechanisms for bonding and social cohesion are eroded in the faceless anonymity of modern towns and cities, we re-create new means for satisfying our timeless needs. In this sense, nothing changes much apart from superficial style. The Web increasingly serves such needs, allowing us to establish and maintain the same social bonds……….”

Hence Marshall McLuhan’s Global Village becomes truly real and as Jeremiah Owyang, says: “people connect to each other – rather than institutions………. Consumers will rely on their peers as they make online decisions, whether or not brands choose to participate……… The community will take charge and that's going to happen whether or not marketers or brands participate………. Social networking will only continue to facilitate the power shift toward the consumer.”

The crucial thing about all of this is that it completely changes the dynamic. For many years now the dynamic has been biased towards companies. As examples, branding and price promises have been two of the ways that companies have been able to maintain profitability whilst ‘reassuring’ consumers, i.e.

The purpose of any brand is to undermine the homogeneity of products so that pretty much indistinguishable items – whether cola or lager or denim or something else – have a substantially different value because they are marked with the label ‘Coca’ or ‘Pepsi’ or ‘Virgin’ or ‘Carling’ or ‘Heineken’ or ‘Budweiser’ or ‘Gap’ or ‘Levi’ or ‘Top Shop’. The advertising industry is dedicated to establishing consumer preference for one brand or another. This provides companies with increased profitability.

With the ‘range’ of goods currently available how could we possibly know about all of them or what they are worth? Our knowledge of the market and its goods is far from perfect, hence advertising campaigns offering that ‘If you find it cheaper elsewhere, we’ll refund twice the difference’.

Clearly, if you had perfect information you would know it was cheaper somewhere else to start with and, if you wished to ‘maximise your utility’ buy it there. This also provides companies with increased profitability.

In the social web market where much more perfect knowledge may exist (like small towns in 1750) then will brands that are really ‘just commodity products’ be able to exploit these situations?

Maybe, but it will take a significant change in attitude from top down to bottom up thinking, thinking which REALLY puts the consumer first ( 'ask not what your community can do for you - ask what you can do for your community' ) and not the CEO’s pay package.

Richard Hill

richardhill@e-crm.co.uk>

...

A dragon from Dragon's den that I like

2009-10-01T11:44:00.003Z

A Good Dragon

In the past I have been a tad disparaging of the BBC 2 program "dragons den" I still am, but more so about the companies producers for selecting prospective entrepreneurs who should not be there, I feel sorry for them, they have some good ideas, some crap, but the good ones are poorly presented with the wrong preparation before hand, if they had spent sometime with an experienced Entrepreneur, or a company like www.go.uk.com , they would have brought much richer presentations and better deals to the Dragons. Anyway back to the article I noticed in www.startups.co.uk it was an interview with one of the better Dragons, Peter Jones, he brings smart money to a deal and stays involved, hands on, now this can be a good thing or bad, depending how it works out in the business, but generally it is a good thing, Smart money is a multiplier. The article is below, a good read and some good ideas, something I am passionate about, helping Entrepreneurs to be a success.

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Peter Jones

As one of only two original Dragons’ Den panellists still on the BBC2 hit show, Peter Jones has seen his fare share of budding entrepreneurs run their ideas past him. But having just launched his new Enterprise Academy, for which funding came from both the public and private sector, he’s really putting his money where his mouth is. Startups spoke to Peter about his ambitions for the academy, why he thinks Britain’s entrepreneurial mindset is in dire need of a change, and what he really thinks about his fellow Dragons.

You’ve just opened the doors for the September term of your new Enterprise Academy. What’s the journey been like?
I first wrote about the introduction of an academy for enterprise back in 2006 in my book Tycoon. From inception to launch it’s been three years but it was only the latter part of 2007 that we started to make real headway. It’s been amazingly refreshing working with the government on this. We’ve clearly hit a nerve and I feel very lucky to have established Britain’s first enterprise academy.

Is launching the academy your proudest moment so far?
From a career perspective it’s definitely up there in the top three. It’s something I’ve always wanted to do. But my absolute proudest moment is becoming a dad. Nothing can beat that – not even the best deal of my life.

What are your long-term goals for the academy?
We’re going to change the complete landscape of enterprise learning in this country and start with a cultural shift. I truly believe that anybody and everybody can become a successful entrepreneur but first they have to change their belief system. Being typically British we always ask ‘Can I?’ but we will be teaching the students the meaning of ‘I Can’. That might sound flippant but it’s at the heart of where we need to be. We clearly have a lack of skills when it comes to entrepreneurship in this country and we need to change that.

The academy will offer complete support from a mentoring based system where seriously successful entrepreneurs will lay down the foundations of how they made it. But also, all our tutors are successful enterprising people in their own right. It’s very difficult to find a business man or woman that also has teaching experience but we’ve done it.

What’s the single most important entrepreneurial skill?
One of the things about being an entrepreneur that we often don’t like to accept is that it’s a lonely road. You’re continually motivating people and patting others on the back. Although you’ll always need specific people to go out and do a multitude of things for you, a big part of being an entrepreneur is the ability to understand the overall business from a helicopter’s perspective and then get each of the components working with applied focus to the best of their ability.

Do you have a favourite Dragon’s Den investment?
I don’t have a favourite but I am lucky enough to have the most successful Den investment. Who’d have predicted that a singer songwriter from Jamaica would walk up the stairs singing about his product and he would end up a multimillionaire. Reggae Reggae Sauce now generates 12-14 million bottles a year and has licensed out the brand to a range of different things. It’s become a brand that’s right up there, and the next step it to take it over to the States.

Are any of your investments purely financial transactions?
No. I don’t have any investments that I’m not personally involved in. I’m not a person that likes to just give money. I just don’t see the point in that. I’m a people investor and I’ve active in all deals to varying degrees.

Which other Dragon do you enjoy working with the most?
I haven’t had the opportunity to work with Deborah yet despite sitting next to her in the Den, but I do get on really well with her. Theo and I work together a lot. We’re friends and we know each other well. He likes to jump on the back of a lot of my investments and likewise, I often like to follow his lead.

Much to everyone’s, even my, shock and horror, I also work well with Duncan. I couldn’t describe in words what I used to think of him, but over the last 18 months I’ve really started to understand what he’s all about. I respect him because he’s straight talking but also a really charming guy, and he’s become a good friend.

What about James?
James is a nice guy but I like to call him the cat – as in copycat. If I set up a website, he copies it. If I decide to set up my own fashion label, he’ll do one too. He hasn’t got a shred of fashion sense in his body. He’ll go into a house and think the flowery curtains would look good on him. My message to James would be to stop dressing like the interior design of property and learn about true fashion. He needs to go back to copying me but I can’t see him in stripy socks. He’s not that cool.

Can money buy you happiness?
Yes. Without a doubt. Money gives you choices. I’ve been in both camps and I’d much rather have money than not. It’s great to walk into your garage and see a lovely Ferrari in there. Money can make you happy as long as you remember it isn’t everything.

What’s your biggest tip for business success?
For a dream to become reality you need to make it real enough to believe in. If you’re pitching an idea to somebody, make it real to whoever you’re aiming the pitch at.

Gordon Whyte

PLUS Market an alternative to the AIM Market

2009-09-22T12:54:00.004Z

Thinking of an IPO, have a look at your options, an AIM listitng will cost you £200k a year a PLUS listing will cost you £50k, thats a lot of cash for a new listed company. The Post below takes you through the PLUS market.

PLUS Markets is rapidly gaining favour among advisers and CEOs of ambitious, entrepreneurial companies. James Harris finds out why

The word around the markets is that PLUS, the small- and mid-cap stock exchange, has fared better than others, and proved resilient in the recessionary storm. As a result, the market is attracting much more interest.

Companies on PLUS tend to be capitalised at less than £50 million. This is seen as a factor in the market’s growth as it means these ventures are on a market with similar sized businesses, which helps increase their profile and visibility among investors. ‘Our focus on growth companies is meeting a real need in the market,’ explains PLUS Markets’ Vivienne Cassley. ‘Companies can trade on our market knowing they won’t be competing against lots of billion-pound businesses.’

Recent successes include 3D Diagnostic Imaging, a developer of scanning technology. The company has raised more than £2 million since it was admitted to PLUS in April, while business training company Winning Pitch has seen its turnover increase by 43 per cent since its December 2007 listing.

The total market capitalisation of the companies quoted on PLUS (around 200 at the end of August) increased by 34 per cent to over £2.5 billion in the first half of 2009. While set up to attract entrepreneurial-sized companies, it’s fair to say that PLUS also has its fair share of heavy hitters, not least RAK Real Estate, which listed in February via a reverse takeover with a market cap of £600 million. The next biggest company on the market is football club Arsenal Holdings, valued at £470 million. ‘A lot of the new entrants have tended to be more established companies,’ observes Karen Gilbert, also at PLUS Markets.

Strictly business

Many cite a lighter touch to regulation and the lower fees as a major factor in why PLUS is managing to tempt business away from the Alternative Investment Market (AIM), the junior market of the London Stock Exchange. While AIM fees and compliance can cost up to £200,000 a year, the average annual cost of a listing on the PLUS-quoted market is a more modest £50,000.

But maintaining the quality of the companies on the market is key to PLUS’s success, says Cassley: ‘Regulation is appropriate to the size of our companies. Everything is there to protect investors but we keep it simple. The emphasis is on allowing companies to generate returns for their shareholders while not tying them up with red tape.’

The exchange is also gaining ground internationally. Around ten per cent of the market consists of non-UK organisations, and as Gilbert notes, ‘International companies on PLUS are from all over the world and from many different sectors. While our focus is very much on building the market for growth companies in the UK, international companies are also important to our business.’
One of the thriving international companies on the market is China CDM, a carbon emissions broker admitted to PLUS in December 2006. The company’s market cap has soared from £25 million to £86.3 million, and it has raised £15 million since coming to market.

The growing popularity of PLUS means it is now seen less as a gateway to AIM and more as an important market in its own right. ‘With four new advisers joining the market this year and a really strong pipeline of companies, we are really building momentum,’ says Cassley. ‘People are taking notice and advisers are adding PLUS to their toolbox.’

To e-mail Vivienne Cassley click here
Capital Markets,
Standon House,
21 Mansell Street,
London E1 8AA
Tel: 020 7553 2033

pitching to an angel Investor

2009-09-17T10:49:00.003Z

A source of funding for the 50k to 500k investment can be the Angel Investor this is some information to help you get started.

To start what are Angel Investors?

An angel investor or angel (also known as a business angel or informal investor) is an affluent individual who provides capital for a business start-up, usually in exchange for convertible debt or ownership equity. A small but increasing number of angel investors organize themselves into angel groups or angel networks to share research and pool their investment capital.

Some resources to find Angel Investors:

www.angelinvestmentnetwork.co.uk
www.theangelinvestor.com
www.angel-investors.
www.swain.org.uk
www.go.uk.com

How to pitch to an angel

In today’s turbulent economic climate, securing business funding can be a minefield for entrepreneurs. With credit from banks drying up, many small business owners are turning to alternative forms of funding such as angel investment. However, this can put added pressure on those who are not used to ‘promoting’ their business in front of potential investors. Here is a list of top 10 tips to help entrepreneurs deliver a successful business pitch:

Elevator pitch – Business owners should be able to pitch their products or services in any circumstances, even when they have a very limited amount of time. An elevator pitch is a quick, yet comprehensive, overview of a business short enough to be delivered in the time span of an elevator ride.
Prepare – As Mark Twain said “It takes more than three weeks to prepare a good impromptu speech.” Pitching to a potential business angel could dramatically change the future of a business. Preparation is key to take advantage of this opportunity.
Setting up the stage – If possible, it’s always ideal to prepare the room of the meeting well in advance. This is especially important if the pitch includes a product demonstration or the use of multimedia aids.
Look your best – A common concern for small business owners is choosing the right clothing for a pitch. Wearing a suit is usually preferred as it shows a level of respect for a potential investor. A general rule of thumb is that in these circumstances you can never overdress!
Know your numbers – When looking for investment, small business owners should know their accounts inside-out and be able to discuss them with investors in detail. Commit key figures to memory and prepare a one-side ‘crib sheet’ to avoid forgetting crucial information due to nerves.
Have a clear strategy in place – A solid business plan that identifies the strategy is crucial. The plan must contain a commercial idea which will provide an eventual profit for investors or, as a minimum, sufficient profit to repay the interest and the principal on a loan.
Product vs. People – Investors are interested in not only the product, but also the marketplace, the competition, the management team, the eventual exit strategy and of course the entrepreneurs themselves. Business angels are investing in people as much as companies, as they plan to work together over the long term. Establishing a rapport with the potential investor is key to a successful partnership.
Care – Business angels invest their own money and they would expect to see business owner putting themselves on the line for their project. If an entrepreneur doesn’t show commitment to what he/she is doing, why should investors?
Be honest, even about tricky subjects – A question that angel investors frequently ask is “what are the risks in this business?” Small business owners must be prepared to discuss contingency plans and potential difficulties the business could face. Angel investors will appreciate a realistic assessment and honest responses as opposed to a rose-tinted view.
Feedback – Regardless to the outcome of the pitch and if funding gets secured, receiving feedback from potential investors it’s invaluable. Entrepreneurs should be prepared to receive negative feedback and take it on board to refine their business ideas.

Finally, remember, no small business owner is alone. The support of experienced investment agencies and other professional advisors should not be understated. In addition, if small business owners prepare thoroughly and follow these best practice tips they will be well-placed to successfully attract potential investors despite the downturn.

By Michael Weaver is chief executive of business investment agency Beer & Partners.

Reasons Why Even Top-Notch Executives Fail

2009-09-15T09:07:00.003Z

10.5 Reasons Why Even Top-Notch Executives Fail

1. Absence Of A Clear Strategic Direction
2. Failure To Create A Sense Of Ownership
3. Absence Of A Comprehensive Goals Program
4. Failure To Align The Goals Of Every Individual, Team, And Department To The Strategic Direction
5. Using An Inadequate Definition Of Leadership
6. Inability Or Unwillingness To Hear Bad News, Especially About Oneself
7. Failure To Develop And Use Measurements
8. Failure To Hire Or Retain The Right People
9. Failure To Facilitate Two-Way Communication
10. Failure To Empower Others
10.5. Unwillingness To Ask For Help

Synopsis of a book by David Herdlinger, He is a coach. His company, Herdlinger Associates,
provides personal and team coaching services for individuals and organizations worldwide. Through the powerful dynamics of coaching, he has helped thousands of executives and professionals at all levels and in all types of organizations unleash their potential and achieve more than they ever dreamed possible.

www.tenpointfive.com

Gordon Whyte

Keep it cheap. will you start Up

2009-09-10T12:40:00.002Z

Whether you are starting a dog washing business or founding the next search engine empire, you will be more successful if you keep it cheap. Do not quit your day job so you'll have time to develop. Don't get those expensive offices. Don't invest in 5000 flyers or a telephone book advertisement. Make every possible effort to start your business on a shoestring, and to grow it only with the revenue of paying customers, because that is how you maximize its value.

A start-up, is by very definition, an untested business. It doesn't have the product, customers, delivery methods, management team or pricing strategy required to succeed. What it does have, is freedom.

If an entrepreneur keeps his nascent business cheap, he has the freedom to design a solution that combines customers, products, services, prices, delivery mechanisms and one or more hardworking professionals to create a ‘virtual machine’ that makes more money than it spends. He has the time required to come up with a business that has the capacity to grow. He can keep his prices low, his quality high, his company under control.

If an entrepreneur burdens his ‘baby business’ with high fixed costs, like his own salary, a big office, with big marketing expenditures, long before it is in a position to repay those costs, he makes it harder for his business to succeed. In a worst case scenario, entrepreneurs burn through their life savings, their credit, and burden their business with debt it will never repay. An entrepreneur in this position has lost the ability to define his business so it suits the market it must live in. In effect, he has cut it off from the people it must serve in order to survive.

Your business should be very solid before you accept outside investment for it. The more financial partners you have in a business that isn't up and running, the more difficult getting the company up and running will be. When you are playing with other people's money, they have expectations about how you will spend it. Since they have never run your business successfully, their ideas about where the money goes and what it does might be entirely wrong. If you want to have the freedom to make the right choices, let them keep their money until your business is ready to grow.

For example, the boys from Google created the earliest versions of their internet search engine while working in a dorm room. Their startup costs were very low and no one was taking a big pay check. Only when they had a proven technology that had demonstrable value, did they accept outside investment. They were looking for money to scale their business, not to develop its core technology. This is why Google's founders are some of the wealthiest young men in the world.

As an entrepreneur you may feel like you are doing it all wrong when your office is in the garage, and your idea of a business lunch is a pasty down at the pub. The truth is, what your business needs is your best efforts to create a cost effective, streamlined, easy to deliver, scalable product or service that meets the needs of its customers. It needs you to get it into the black as quickly as possible and to keep it there.

Doug Richard is the CEO of School for Startups and original BBC2 Dragon