Join us!
Partners
Women Executives have a Natural Advantage in Demand Creation
Jeff Saperstein and Hunter Hastings are authors of Bust the Silos: Opening Your Organization for Growth now available in e book and soft cover versions. In this article for The NextWomen they provide an insight into their theory of collaboration as a driver of growth.
Jeff Saperstein (in Paris)
Demand Creation will be the driving force for businesses to achieve sustained, profitable growth for the next decade. Simply, demand creation is the improvement of collaboration—based on new business processes supported by technology—enabling organizations to be more customer-centric and responsive.
So why is this so important for the woman entrepreneur and innovator? Since women are intuitively more collaborative and customer responsive, Demand Creation leverages natural management skill sets the next women leaders can leverage to successfully grow their businesses.
Four profoundly significant business revolutions are coming together in a perfect storm of innovation: the digital revolution, a business process revolution, a business organization revolution and the Internet revolution. Successful companies will learn to reshape their R&D, marketing, sales and IT functions and job specifications within a new customer-centric organization paradigm to take account of these changes.
A new customer-centric organization: From Inside Out to Outside In
The fundamental change is a reversal of the flow of the corporation from inside-out to outside-in. All the activities of the corporation that were outbound—R&D, sales, marketing, advertising, promotion, service centers—must now be reversed. The customer decides when they have a need and when they are ready to listen to information or receive a service from a company that might be able to meet that need. The company must restructure so it can anticipate and respond. Read more
Female Tech Start-up, Completely Novel, Shortlisted for the Young Publishing Entrepreneur Award 2010
The British Council has just announced its shortlist for the UK Young Publishing Entrepreneur Award 2010, in which 3 of the 6 finalists are female and one from a technology start-up – Anna Lewis of Completely Novel. Launched in 2004, the British Council’s Creative Economy Unit first pioneered the IYCE awards – International Young Creative Entrepreneur – to ‘celebrate the achievements and develop the potential of young creative entrepreneurs from emerging economies.’
The International Process
Initially focusing on publishing, they have since announced awards for design, music, screen (film and television), fashion, communications, interactive, performing and visual arts. Run annually, and open to young creative entrepreneurs from emerging economies, 8-10 countries are selected each year to take part from which one national finalist from each country is selected to enter the international competition. Once finalists are selected, they visit the UK on a 10 day tour during which they learn from their UK sector and judgement is made on the overall winner.
Born from the Success of an International Programme
Since its inception, over 45 countries have taken part – including Oman, India and Yemen – and as a direct result of this success, the UK compatriot programme was launched in 2007 with its initial award, again in publishing. In partnership with NESTA and The Cultural Leadership Programme, the list of awards is now equal to that of the International Programme. As for finalists of the International awards, the UK finalists take a tour of their sector in an emerging economy after which they share their experiences at a number of events.
This year’s publishing finalists, who are set to tour South Africa at the end of February, are:
• Anna Lewis, Co-founder and COO of Completely Novel Read more
Blast Off Strategies to Get You Inspired and Reach Your Goals
Allison Maslan has been an entrepreneur for the past 25 years and has a vibrant array of nine successful businesses to her credit. She is an author, life and business coach, homeopathic physician and international speaker. Allison is the president of The Blast Off Life and Business Coaching where she specialises in helping people tap into their passion and purpose and launching them into a new business and the best chapter of their lives.
Launching her new book – ‘Blast Off! The Surefire Success Plan to Launch Your Dreams into Reality ’, today, January 19th 2010 on Amazon – here Allison provides a sneak peek into her book with a guest post on strategies to ‘Get Inspired and Reach Your Goal’
What are some of your bigger goals or dreams that are sitting on the shelf…
…because life has gotten too busy for you to even think about them? You might be thinking, “I will get to them next month, next year.” Well, we know how that goes. The year passes you by and those desires are still sitting on the shelf, collecting dust. And then the frustration begins to creep in again because there is a deep longing inside you to bring these dreams to life.
Maintaining the Momentum whilst Continuing Life as You Know it
Week One: Clarify what it is you want
Nothing will happen until you get clear about your goals. Find 30 minutes of private time during one day this week and take out a pad of paper to do some creative scribbling, drawing, or journaling about what you would like to see unfold. Maybe you would like to take a trip to Portugal, learn another language, plant an herb garden, write a book, or remodel your bathroom. Perhaps a lifestyle uplift by taking more alone time for yourself, or beginning an exercise program.
Week Two: What are the large steps that need to happen to reach your goal? Read more
Deborah Meaden’s Experience of a Failing Business
cc Deborahmeaden.com
If you decide to make the jump and set up your own business, chances are you’ll be offered tons of well-meaning advice. Some of it will be helpful, some of it will be rubbish, a lot of it will be contradictory. In Common Sense Rules, the new book from Deborah Meaden, the denizen of Dragons’ Den sets out to question the truth behind the clichés. Meaden believes that it is only by busting the myths behind these clichés that the business world can really move on.
In a series of 4 articles, Deborah Meaden will reveal to the The NextWomen her best tips for Success as an Entrepreneur. Here, in the second of the series, Deborah Meaden gives her top tips for securing investment.
My first business was a financial failure. When I was 19 years old, fresh out of business school and after a brief stint as a fashion showroom model, I had moved to Italy. I wasn’t quite sure what I wanted to do – I just had a burning desire to run my own show. I have always loved art and sculpture and was incredibly inspired by what I saw during my time in Florence. The craftsmanship, style and breathtaking beauty of what was on offer moved me to make the decision to set up a glass and ceramics import business.
The next few months were a heady mix of dashing around the Italian countryside to visit factories where the air was filled with an intoxicating mix of rich tobacco smoke and chemicals, followed by endless sunny days stumbling down cobbled streets in historic cities to negotiate with immaculately turned out businessmen and women. Eventually I secured sole agency distribution rights with a good number of Italian businesses and immediately set about organising the next stage of my plan. I decided to launch my exciting new venture by exhibiting my prizes at the prestigious Top Drawer retail gift fair in London. On my trip back to the UK I was strangely nervous and apprehensive. I wondered if I had my timing right and whether the British public would be ready to recognise the extraordinary style of these Italian works and, more importantly, welcome them into their homes. Read more
Deborah Meaden of Dragons’ Den Talks About British Entrepreneurs
New Book from Deborah Meaden
If you decide to make the jump and set up your own business, chances are you’ll be offered tons of well-meaning advice. Some of it will be helpful, some of it will be rubbish, a lot of it will be contradictory. In Common Sense Rules, the new book from Deborah Meaden, the denizen of Dragons’ Den sets out to question the truth behind the clichés. Meaden believes that it is only by busting the myths behind these clichés that the business world can really move on.
In a series of 4 articles, Deborah Meaden will reveal to the The NextWomen her obervations about and the best tips for Successful Entrepreneurs
“I’ve been a Dragon since the 2006 series, and the single aspect I enjoy most, aside from jousting with my fellow Dragons, is seeing the huge variety of ideas that are presented to us. As a nation, we Brits are not short of ideas. We’ve millions of them because we are great inventors. It’s almost as if it is in our nature to ask, ‘What if I do this? Wouldn’t it be wonderful if …?’ We are all potting-shed entrepreneurs at heart and I love that.
I’ve been fortunate enough to meet hundreds of entrepreneurs, with an incredibly wide range of personalities. Yet, the ones who truly inspire my Den colleagues and me and who get us reaching for our wallets all share a remarkably similar set of values.
The Values of Entrepreneurs
- Passion
- Focus
- Insatiable desire to Success
- Intelligence
- Confidence and Self Belief
- Commitment
- Loss Averse
- Realism
Passion, focus and an insatiable desire to succeed
The beauty about having these qualities is that they take care of a lot of the other daunting aspects of being an entrepreneur. Far too many people, for instance, are held back by their fear that they are not born sales people. I suspect that the multitude of entrepreneurs who tell me they ‘can’t sell’ are actually very good sales people. If they are passionate about what they do they can’t fail to sell their dream to other people, and they’ll be able to convince not just their customers, but also their staff, their bank manager and their investors.
Intelligence
An entrepreneur has to be quick minded and bright. That doesn’t mean they need to have gone to a top-notch public school, have a string of qualifications and be clever in an academic way. Read more
What Would Google Do? Jeff Jarvis’ New Rules but Where is the Business Model
Illustration of Jeff Jarvis talk
Today is the second day of The Nextweb conference, which is practically sold out. Interactive media professionals, founders of web based companies and investors gather to listen to inspirational people -actually men -with their messsages about the next web. This morning Jeff Jarvis was on stage who just published his new book: What Would Google Do? A question that a lot of people ask, when thinking about a new product, service or brand, and he monetized on this idea by publishing this book. Jarvis gave a lot of short tips, that companies should embrace to be succesful.
New architecture
- Do what you do and link to the rest
- Join a network/be a platform
- Think distributed
These tips are a result of the notion taht “If the news is important it will find the consumer”. Actually, The Guardian released its content as an API just this week in order to follow these rules of new architecture.
- Do business in public
- Everybody needs a litlle SEO
- Your customers are your ad agency
New Society
- Create an Elegant organisation
New economy
- Small is the new big
- Manage abundance
- Join the open source and gift/free economy
- Mass market is dead: it’s niches
New ethic
- Make mistakes well
- Life is a beta; that by itself yields collobaration
- Be honest
- Be transparent
- Collaborate
- Don’t be evil
New imperatives
- If you hand over control, then people take control.
At the end of the talk Jarvis confesses that he does not always walk the talk, as the book that he published was published in the old fashioned way, as a book, which is not searchable, not digital, not based on open source reviews, not very transparant, and to be bought via offline and online shops. And therein lies the flaw and the 1 million dollar question in all these new rules; how to make money out of the new set of rules. Jarvis says, that also he has to make a living, i.e. he uses the old business model.
So there we are back to the discussion about business models.
Sneak Preview – Top 100 Movers and Shakers in Online Fashion
On Tuesday 7th April, The Independent will publish Online Fashion 100 – 100 individuals and duos who are inspirational and influential in online fashion, whether they work on the retail, content or technology side of the business; entrepreneurs, bloggers and stylists alike. Compiled by Leon Bailey-Green, an online fashion consultant, digital marketing strategist, blogger and judge for the Drapers Etail Awards, Leon:
“…wanted to do something to recognise the entrepreneurs, bloggers, marketers and even photographers who are making a difference in the online fashion industry, whilst also providing a useful ‘who’s who’ resource for everyone in the industry.”
Leon has given The NextWomen a sneak preview of his top 100 which we can exclusively reveal includes:
- Michelle Dewberry, Apprentice winner and founder of Chiconomise – the weekly fashion discount email.
- Dolly Jones, editor of online Vogue
- Sarah Curran, founder of My-Wardrobe
- Susie Bubble, blogger at stylebubble
The book has been well endorsed, with a foreword from TV stylist Nicky Hambleton-Jones: ‘Online Fashion 100 by Leon Bailey-Green is an invaluable source for anyone who’s interested in fashion from a personal or commercial perspective’ and contributions from model and lingerie entrepreneur, Caprice Bourret: ‘Online only retailers such as Figleaves have played a key part in my sales strategy. I am a huge advocate of this medium.’
To check out the top 100 go online at The Independent on Tuesday 7th April where you will be able to find the list in its entirety. For a full downloadable copy of the eBook complete with additional information visit leonbaileygreen.com.
Making it – women entrepreneurs reveal their secrets of success
Making it- by Lou Gimson and Allison Mitchell
Steph Cutler was a successful fashion designer, designing amongst others for Ted Baker, until one holiday she realised one of her eyes wasn’t functioning well. The devastating news was confirmed later that day; she was to lose her vision. Not one to panic, she went travelling, taking pictures she knew one day she would no longer be able to see . On the first day of a new job designing for NEXT, disaster struck and she realised she could no longer function normally. Eliminating ‘can’t’ from her vocabulary, she decided to turn her weakness into a strength and set up a training business for the visually impaired. Now living by the adage – ‘If in life you are dealt lemons, make lemonade’ – she runs a very successful training venture.
Steph is one of eight female entrepreneurs that are considered to have ‘made it’ and who share their experiences and insights in this book. Read more
Book review: Spare room start up – how to start a business from home
Spare Room Start Up – How to Start a Business from Home, is a practical guide for anyone who wants to become their own boss in the comfort of their home. Written by Emma Jones, founder of Enterprise Nation, the book covers three topics – business, lifestyle and technology – with lessons from both Jones and other business founders.
The book is friendly and personable, without the reams of information found in so many books of a similar title, but still with all the essential content. The aim is to prove that starting a business need not be stressful or expensive, and with a little hard work can be fit around a balanced home life.
See Jones in this clip, as she introduces her book Spare Room Start Up.
Art Project: dresscode of social groupes in Exactitudes
London city girls
European Director of TED, Bruno Giussani, points us to “Exactitudes“, a truly amazing art project about similarities in the dress codes of different social groups. Take a look at the dress code of Babes, Formers, Ghoullies, Women in Charitas (Rotterdam) and London City Girls (see photo) and many more social groups.
(How would the dresscode be of TheNextWomen or Femal Internet Heroes?)
- br/>
Extras
-
