Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Thursday, March 10, 2011
The Most Valuable People in Your Network
The Most Valuable People in Your Network
I came across this Harvard Business Review posting on the value of networks.
I like the two illustrations. The most effective network is Susan's network. Richard spends more time than economically necessary talking with people who know each other.
copyright HBR 2011.
Practically, this means we need to think about where our electronic links are taking us. If we are circulating too much with people we have known forever or people who themselves are all spending time in the same meetings and interactions, then we are not getting the performance impact we can from social-media tools. Bigger is not better. The magic lies in the new ideas and perspectives that can come from connections into different networks.
I came across this Harvard Business Review posting on the value of networks.
I like the two illustrations. The most effective network is Susan's network. Richard spends more time than economically necessary talking with people who know each other.
Practically, this means we need to think about where our electronic links are taking us. If we are circulating too much with people we have known forever or people who themselves are all spending time in the same meetings and interactions, then we are not getting the performance impact we can from social-media tools. Bigger is not better. The magic lies in the new ideas and perspectives that can come from connections into different networks.
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
UNIVERSITY OF EAST LONDON Business Incubation Centre
From patronage to incubation
Rather than mentoring, the Business Incubation Centre at the Knowledge Dock at the University of East London (UEL) matches patrons to starting women entrepreneurs. I there a difference? We think so, after visiting UEL today. Patrons bring a presence into the room, having a patron lets you know that they think what you are doing is worthwhile = worth spending their time on. Patrons are people who have experienced the roller-coast of being in business and can listen to you from their wealth of experience.
But perhaps my idea of patron is coloured by my experience at UWEAL in Kampala. When UWEAL’s patron enters the room, we expect brilliance and we know that we are at an event that is worth attending. So imagine my confusion when I was trying to park my car at a rural Australian railway station, and the sign said “For Railway Patrons Only”. Was I a patron? Did I have to pay a special fee to be a patron? It finally dawned on me that patrons in Australia are simply people that give you their business. Patronizing a cafe has nothing to do with making the cafe small. Patronizing a woman does make her small.
In the end, the value of a word is the value you give it. And at UEL they choose to imbue the word Patron with a sense of dignity and value.
We met with Danielle Sheerin, a very engaged and passionate woman from Employability and Enterprise, who introduced us to her colleagues Thorsten Klein and Jackie Chandler. I was struck first by their passion for the work they do, then by the clever way they utilize EU funding. To start with the latter: they don’t bother with applying for EU funding – usually funding for 4 years – if they can’t turn it within 8 years of commencement into a viable, self-financing activity. This approach is in stark contrast to a different institute we visited, whose funding strategy is based on “let’s see where the money is”. No, the BIC develops a concept, finds EU financing to develop it basically as a start up, asks the University to support to program for the 4 years after subsidy ends and expects to have a business arm at the end of the process.
Their concept is a three-tiered business incubation and support service. 60 new business entrepreneurs – students - use the BIC’s hatchery, a room with partitioned cubicles and desk top facilities that entrepreneurs can access 24/7. They can ask for advise, talk with each other, or just get on with developing their business.
When the business takes off they can move into a shared office space, where one or two desks are separated by partitions from other businesses in the room. The companies get their chair, desk, chest of draws, filing cabinet, printer and desk top computer. They have the advantage of being able to bounce ideas off other people in the room, a receptionist, and meeting space for client contact.
Then there is a third level, and we saw the company Yoomi. John Lewis is an engineer who invented a way of heating babies milk without dunking the bottle in hot water or a microwave. The bottle is fitted with an element you can switch on. Mothers who express milk or use other milk products are buying this product as if they had been waiting for it. The elements are manufactured in South Africa and assembled at the site in UEL. Pauline Ofong of UWEAL, who in a past life had a one-stop shop for all the needs of pregnant women an women with young children, was delighted at meeting John. I will not be surprised to see the Yoomi baby bottle introduced one day soon to Uganda.
Pauline Ofong and I are excited about possible future cooperation with UEL. They are happy to take interns, and UWEAL may consider sending an intern to BIC to learn how everything is done. Having such a centre in Kampala, perhaps in cooperation with MUBS (Makerere University Business School), would provide great opportunities for business development in Uganda.
Monday, March 7, 2011
Celebrating International Women's Day
On Saturday 5 March Sancoma organised an International Women's Day celebration.
In our week of staggered comings and goings, one woman from the Ethiopian delegation, one from the Tanzanian delegation and three from the Ugandan delegation attended. Each and every one experienced value, finding valuable new contacts and getting important new leads.
The event was set up as a trade fair and a conference, with a gala dinner after. Trade relations were established. A London entrepreneur in search of fabric for the embroidered bedspreads she makes was delighted to meet Engedaye and begin to discuss importing Ethiopian cloth for her work.
Ugandan Maria found several potential importers of her pineapples.
Dina Bina moved the crowd with her speech: What will you do, London? The tenor of her speech was: in Africa women are moving mountains to participate in the opportunities that international trade offers. East African women in London can be part of the experience. They can certainly be responsible for developing wealth.
Councilor Elizabeth Kangethe of the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham continued on the same theme. The Councillor had been very confronted by the fact that only 5 of the planned 12 African women entrepreneurs met with her two evenings earlier. The others had been denied a visa for the UK and were still trying to get in to the country. She shared that East African women with UK passports had so many possibilities. Not only can they move easily between the UK and East Africa, they can move easily within Europe. Yes we can, she said. We can grasp the opportunities available.
Throughout the conference, photo's taken during the week of intensive meetings flashed on a screen. They come from The Reporter, Sacoma's online magazine. Check it out!
Perhaps one of the most exciting parts of the conference was the 20 minute presentation by Kevin Ma on the opportunities the Olympics offer all of us in 2012. He described the many opportunities available to entrepreneurs with the Olympics around the corner. Anyone wanting to win a contract, large or small, to feed the athletic team of your country or sell fresh produce on the markets - or supply door jams for hotel doors for that matter - can sign up on www.competefor.com. Once you have done the sign-up you have access to the hundreds of opportunities available at any one time.
The event went late into the night. Perez Ochieng received many well-earned compliments for making strong networking events like these and bringing great people together.
In our week of staggered comings and goings, one woman from the Ethiopian delegation, one from the Tanzanian delegation and three from the Ugandan delegation attended. Each and every one experienced value, finding valuable new contacts and getting important new leads.
The event was set up as a trade fair and a conference, with a gala dinner after. Trade relations were established. A London entrepreneur in search of fabric for the embroidered bedspreads she makes was delighted to meet Engedaye and begin to discuss importing Ethiopian cloth for her work.
Ugandan Maria found several potential importers of her pineapples.
Dina Bina moved the crowd with her speech: What will you do, London? The tenor of her speech was: in Africa women are moving mountains to participate in the opportunities that international trade offers. East African women in London can be part of the experience. They can certainly be responsible for developing wealth.
Councilor Elizabeth Kangethe of the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham continued on the same theme. The Councillor had been very confronted by the fact that only 5 of the planned 12 African women entrepreneurs met with her two evenings earlier. The others had been denied a visa for the UK and were still trying to get in to the country. She shared that East African women with UK passports had so many possibilities. Not only can they move easily between the UK and East Africa, they can move easily within Europe. Yes we can, she said. We can grasp the opportunities available.
Throughout the conference, photo's taken during the week of intensive meetings flashed on a screen. They come from The Reporter, Sacoma's online magazine. Check it out!
Perhaps one of the most exciting parts of the conference was the 20 minute presentation by Kevin Ma on the opportunities the Olympics offer all of us in 2012. He described the many opportunities available to entrepreneurs with the Olympics around the corner. Anyone wanting to win a contract, large or small, to feed the athletic team of your country or sell fresh produce on the markets - or supply door jams for hotel doors for that matter - can sign up on www.competefor.com. Once you have done the sign-up you have access to the hundreds of opportunities available at any one time.
The event went late into the night. Perez Ochieng received many well-earned compliments for making strong networking events like these and bringing great people together.
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Inspiration galore at 8 am
Thursday began with a 7.30 cab ride to a breakfast meeting organised by the Hainault Business Park Ltd. They are an intermediary organisation's dream!
Watch our video here.
Hainault is only 10 minute's from bustling Ilford, Essex, where we have established ourselves this week. (Cranbrook Rd, where both the Sacoma offices and our Hotel are, is called Sacoma Street by our group.)
Imagine a business park. Warehouses, recycling plants, offices. Car sales. It is an industrial area, and as we are learning this part of London has been one of the most depressed boroughs for many years.
The business park had been a place you do not want to bring your clients. Ruffians caused havoc constantly. Cars were ignited. Rubbish was everywhere, the place looked a mess. The business owners paid rates but nothing was ever given back to them.
Five years ago the business owners realised that if they worked separately to change this situation, no change would happen. "United we stand, divided you fall" became their motto and they established themselves as a Business Improvement District. They were inspired by New York Mayor Guiliani's Broken Window Policy - the idea that if there are broken windows in a building more people will throw bricks to break more windows. To stop people from breaking windows and creating disrepair, ensure that nothing is broken. The Mayor cleaned the underground, stopped people taking free rides on public transport, and created a community-based approach to ensuring that New York became safe.
Now the Business Park is safe and people are doing business with each other. The FUNDING for the change - the thousands spent on fencing, for example, came from matching funding. Whatever the owners themselves contributed, the association found matching money from the council and other public authorities. In today's meeting alone businesses volunteered 5000 pounds!
What made everything really possible was a great relationship with their bank, and with the police.
I am looking forward to hearing what our delegation go out of the meeting. Not only did we get a lot of input on how to run a great intermediary organisation, there were good contacts there. We met the people from Gateway to London - important for our exporter' contacts with partners in the UK.
Sacoma is doing a great job getting our delegation in touch with good business relations and with advanced intermediary organisations that inspire. The exposure visit is very valuable.
==========
A business improvement district (BID) is a defined area within which businesses pay an additional tax or fee in order to fund improvements within the district's boundaries. Grant funds acquired by the city for special programs and/or incentives such as tax abatements can be made available to assist businesses or to recruit new business. BIDs may go by other names, such as business improvement area, business revitalization zone, community improvement district, special services area, or special improvement district. BIDs provide services, such as cleaning streets, providing security, making capital improvements, construction of pedestrian and streetscape enhancements, and marketing the area. The services provided by BIDs are supplemental to those already provided by the municipality.[1]
Watch our video here.
Hainault is only 10 minute's from bustling Ilford, Essex, where we have established ourselves this week. (Cranbrook Rd, where both the Sacoma offices and our Hotel are, is called Sacoma Street by our group.)
Imagine a business park. Warehouses, recycling plants, offices. Car sales. It is an industrial area, and as we are learning this part of London has been one of the most depressed boroughs for many years.
The business park had been a place you do not want to bring your clients. Ruffians caused havoc constantly. Cars were ignited. Rubbish was everywhere, the place looked a mess. The business owners paid rates but nothing was ever given back to them.
Five years ago the business owners realised that if they worked separately to change this situation, no change would happen. "United we stand, divided you fall" became their motto and they established themselves as a Business Improvement District. They were inspired by New York Mayor Guiliani's Broken Window Policy - the idea that if there are broken windows in a building more people will throw bricks to break more windows. To stop people from breaking windows and creating disrepair, ensure that nothing is broken. The Mayor cleaned the underground, stopped people taking free rides on public transport, and created a community-based approach to ensuring that New York became safe.
Now the Business Park is safe and people are doing business with each other. The FUNDING for the change - the thousands spent on fencing, for example, came from matching funding. Whatever the owners themselves contributed, the association found matching money from the council and other public authorities. In today's meeting alone businesses volunteered 5000 pounds!
What made everything really possible was a great relationship with their bank, and with the police.
I am looking forward to hearing what our delegation go out of the meeting. Not only did we get a lot of input on how to run a great intermediary organisation, there were good contacts there. We met the people from Gateway to London - important for our exporter' contacts with partners in the UK.
Sacoma is doing a great job getting our delegation in touch with good business relations and with advanced intermediary organisations that inspire. The exposure visit is very valuable.
==========
A business improvement district (BID) is a defined area within which businesses pay an additional tax or fee in order to fund improvements within the district's boundaries. Grant funds acquired by the city for special programs and/or incentives such as tax abatements can be made available to assist businesses or to recruit new business. BIDs may go by other names, such as business improvement area, business revitalization zone, community improvement district, special services area, or special improvement district. BIDs provide services, such as cleaning streets, providing security, making capital improvements, construction of pedestrian and streetscape enhancements, and marketing the area. The services provided by BIDs are supplemental to those already provided by the municipality.[1]
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