A NEW AGE OF ENTERPRISE

I’m writing a new book about start-ups and before you ask two inevitable questions – why another book and what’s new to say anyway -  let me tell you how the research I’m doing has transformed my mood. I’ve talked to over 30 start-up people so far and only a few over sixty have displayed occasional discontent with the geopolitical disarray we are currently encountering. Nearly everyone is cheerful, optimistic and full of ideas. No one mentions Brexit.

There is a spirit of adventure in the air. The so called “snowflake generation” is conspicuously absent. The word on the entrepreneurial block is young people today are marvellously industrious. It occurs to me that this is because they’ve been largely selected from outside the dinosaur corporations that have historically demanded loyalty, punctuality and putting in the hours as the young people’s expected contribution to the employment contract.

We live in a new world where respect, freedom and inspiration are bywords.  A world where employer and employee alike want to make a difference, want to be relevant and want to grow themselves as well as the business. And yes it’s very tempting and easy to generalise and stereotype. The start up world of today is not romantic, nor is it cushy.  However the start-up engineers to whom I’ve talked show a wonderful talent to analyse, learn and pivot.

Theirs is a world of collaboration – sharing ideas and office space – and of caring about each other’s feelings (not ‘snowflake’ stuff before anyone snorts but empathising and recognising being human as opposed to being an alpha-male manager is the best way to increase productivity and creativity).

It’s also a world of change and disruption. On Sunday I visited Parham House in Sussex, a wonderful Elizabethan house with spectacular gardens and a great history. I stared at Elizabeth1’s motto – “semper eadem” = always the same. Even 500 years ago people wanted stability, even then they wanted to keep England great. But stability and 2018 don’t synchronise. We live in turbulent times and it’s only those who can surf the waves of change and shape our world who’ll thrive. “Always the same” served Heinz, Persil, Mars, Ford and IBM well for a long time. They used to say “no one got fired for choosing IBM”;  now they say “no one survives who isn’t choosing a better, cheaper, faster way.”

When Ferran Adrià closed elBulli his 3 Michelin star restaurant it was because he couldn’t do it any better. Similarly the glorious Anthony Bourdain went a step further in taking his own life having been everywhere and seen and done everything he’d dreamt of. They’d both run dry.

But a lot of people today are determined to find a better way

Beware you fat, old, lazy sectors rich in margin and low in innovation – yes stand up lawyers, accountants, estate agents, supermarkets, builders and so on. Beware because the start-ups are out to get you. Beware because this is a new age of enterprise.

IS YOUR GOOD MOOD SWITCH ON?

I’m an unashamed optimist. Not that being cheerful come what may always makes sense – the First World War was full of optimistic generals. But clicking on the “let’s go for it” switch – click - usually results in a better result than wrenching at the “aagghh! How typical, I feel awful - I expect today’ll be another shocker too” switch.
Is it too much to expect there’ll be more good nature than bad? Is it a surprise that crime, teenage pregnancy, house fires, drug abuse and alcohol consumption have all massively declined in this country over the past decade. Don’t believe me? Go check.

 

Is it a surprise that we have a bigger manufacturing industry than France, that we make more vehicles in the UK than we did in 1980 and 50% more than we did 4 years ago?

In a developed world increasingly dependent on service industries is Germany with its relatively old fashioned industries and high labour costs concerned about its lagging service sector – only 2/3 of its GDP compared to the UK’s 80%?

Are we all doomed in the UK?
If you listen to the hail-fellow-well-met Mr Farage you’d think so.

I saw a bit of Question Time on Thursday. He was on the panel. It was in Boston, the one town in the UK where immigration is a particularly tricky issue. Well in the part I saw our Nigel was murdered by a reasonable “immigration may be difficult but it’s an integration issue and as much our fault as theirs” audience. They were brilliant, open minded and kind.
But especially encouraging was Benjamin Zephaniah, the Birmingham born Rastafarian poet who is best known through his brilliant poem “Talking Turkeys” which starts, but you’ll remember it…

“Be nice to yu turkeys dis christmas
Cos' turkeys just wanna hav fun
Turkeys are cool, turkeys are wicked
An every turkey has a Mum.”

The panel was talking about the closure of the Portsmouth shipyards. Grave faces all round.  Farage “it’s a crying shame”. There was talk about our strategic vulnerability as an island and the prospective invasion of the Falklands. And Benjamin quietly said:- “I just wonder what would happen if peace broke out worldwide. I mean would we need these warships? Mind you I worry about all those jobs. Can’t we make nice cruise ships there instead?”

Click. On goes that switch.

And finally a great quote from the American writer, William Saroyan:

“Try to learn to breathe deeply, really to taste food when you eat, and when you sleep, really to sleep. Try as much as possible to be wholly alive with all your might, and when you laugh, laugh like hell. And when you get angry, get good and angry. Try to be alive. You will be dead soon enough.”

Click. Click. Click

LETTER FROM JOHN SCOTT IN JORDAN

It’s now August 2012 and too early to make sense of what started in early 2011 and what has come to be known as the Arab Spring.

Having only lived in the Middle East since early 2012, my observations are initial and tentative:

• For the moment, nobody really knows why it all kicked off and why it spread so quickly or, at the same time, why it has taken so long to kick off
• Nobody knows where it will lead 
• The peculiarities of e.g. culture, history and religion are evident in each country where the Arab Spring has had an impact so drawing general conclusions about the region is unwise
• After 30-40 years of being bottled up, the  jinn is out of the bottle and will never return, in a part of the world where the jinn are influential
• It has been thrilling to watch the events in Tahrir Square and in Libya; deeply worrying as the events in Syria unfold with the international community either unwilling or unable to intercede; and uplifting to see democracy advance, if only in fits and starts and with results which are not always welcome
• People are endlessly optimistic but realise that the apparatus of state control and influence will not disappear overnight and may return at any stage
• The explosion of people power has been felt in the workplace, in schools and universities – it has touched any number of institutions
• Young people are now more willing to express their views and in general people are less deferential
• Technology has played an important part in enabling the Arab Spring but also in controlling it and smothering its consequences
• Normal life appears to continue as huge waves of change take place around us, although the Arab Spring has shaped what people read, what they discuss, where they go on holiday etc
• It’s not over, even in countries where it has yet to start

My favourite story – a friend is an academic and lecturer; he tells me he had to rewrite his curricula on a daily basis as events unfolded around him; his students are more demanding and more willing to challenge him and the material which is presented to them; but the biggest change is in his family where his position is not as strong as it was and where his children do not afford him complete respect solely because he is their father and head of the house.

The most challenging member of the family is his youngest daughter.

www.colourfulthinkers.com

Why I stopped blogging, tweeting…and bothering…

To my readers – yes you sir, over there dozing…sorry; and you madam, looking slightly grumpy.

My apologies.

It was my back, you see, which went into chronic pain and I rather lost whatever plot there was, which given the way the global economy seemed to be heading put me in good company.

We don’t talk about pain but when it gets you, you are gone.

God preserve us from, for instance, a pain-filled US President – Roosevelt, Kennedy – how did they cope?

Anyway (as if you needed to be told) a simple, relatively non invasive procedure later and now I’m almost human.

And back to asking four questions:

1. Isn’t it going to be get a whole lot worse in 2010?
2. Don’t we need it to?
3. Shouldn’t we coach all our young people to cope with this new, erratic world as a number one, key priority?
4. Isn’t this sense of change exhilarating – the new worlds, opportunities and excitements?
   

Being optimistic wasn’t that easy in 2009 but the resilience and creativity of those around me was inspiring. Trust me, trust us, 2010 will be better. And new ideas are what will drive it.

It’s nice to be back (as it were).