Knowledge Peers

Getting business social media into gear

Having spent three years developing a web based offer for businesses, a few amateur observations on social media (from someone who has received more advice from “experts” than I can care to mention).

In a parallel life, I happen to run my cycling club’s website. We have just 120 members, and you have to be a paying member to participate in any of the forums. One of the latter covers the issue of the organisation of indoor turbo training sessions (don’t ask!).  Remarkably the forum has 42 comments, many going into great detail on things like heart rate zones and power meters. The discussion string has also been visited 1,100 times. If you don’t believe me click here and find out many strange things.

Is IT strategic for the SMB?

There is no doubt that large organizations today simply could not function with their IT. The cost, indeed the ROI of particular IT systems might be questionable. But empirical evidence (eg from benchmarking by consulting firms like The Hackett Group) shows that higher levels of automation do improve both efficiency and effectiveness.

But for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs – say those up to 250 employees) then this is not so clear cut. Clearly some IT is very valuable – such as a website to allow a small company to reach a wide, even global, audience for its customers. But IT can cost a lot. Without wide-ranging in-house skills a lot of time and money can be burnt on solutions that prove ineffective, or on vendor-mandated upgrades to systems that were working pretty well already. Companies can easily struggle with networking issues, interfacing problems and seemingly insurmountable bugs. Often, one hears comments to the effect that “this IT stuff is just a pain….weren’t we better off without it?”.

'Sustainability isn’t just for eco geeks' David Lewis

I am not one to jump on bandwagons. Buzz words do nothing for me. However I do also look to improve the way things can be done. 

Last week I attended an excellent event hosted by Knowledge Peers “Sustainability: Win in Business”, the speakers included small business owners who have applied sustainability in their business, consultants and the project manager for environmental sustainability at the BBC. The event also included a tour of one of three manufacturers, McVities, Octink or Bighams all of whom who have used sustainability methods. 

We are about to become a world leader in manufacturing. Hurrah.

I’ve now read the “The Plan for Growth” issued by HM Treasury (and BIS) and co signed by Vince and George.

The forward makes for dire reading, focusing on the failures of the past 10 years. We’ve gone from 4^th to 12 in competitiveness globally, over 50% of manufacturing jobs have been lost and, to cap it all, we’re increasingly rubbish at maths (falling from 8^th in class to 28^th!). Great news that we’re in such a healthy position to reverse all that!

The Plan for Growth has some good stuff in it, particularly around finance and incentives for growing businesses. However, where’s the meat? Vince and George say we “literally can’t afford to go on like this” and.....we should “determine to become a world-leader in.....advanced manufacturing”. We’ll agree but there how?

When I spent some time in Korea (the nice bit), I was given a presentation on their Government’s strategic plan for becoming the lead player in mobile communications within 5 years (amongst other targets). The plan was astonishing, involving vast investment in broadband, industrial infrastructure, specialist science plants and a global sales and marketing strategy for the whole sector. The boards of all the big players, like LG, Samsung etc, bought into the plan.

Turning to page 89 of “The Plan for Growth” and it’s worth mentioning the complete set of actions we have planned in advance of us becoming a “world leader in manufacturing”. They are:

• Extension of capital allowances short life asset regime for plant and machinery
• Creation of University Technical Colleges
• Launch of a high value manufacturing Technology and Innovation Centre
• 9 University bases for Innovative Manufacturing
• Manufacturing Fellowships
• An extra £7m over three years for the Manufacturing Advisory Service
• £75m programme to allow SMEs to take on apprenticeships
• Creation of a degree level engineering apprenticeship
• Strengthened strategy for promoting STEM skills
• A “Made in Britain” exhibition at the Olympics
• Promotion of an international prize in engineering.

All worthy stuff, particularly the links to Universities (a must in my view)......but I doubt whether the Koreans are quaking in their boots, let alone the Chinese and much of the rest of the World. As to becoming a “world leader in manufacturing”......we can but dream.

Chris Dines, CEO, Knowledge Peers

 

 

Taking a punt in Dublin

I spent an interesting few days in Dublin last week at the IBM SmartCamp global finals. (SmartCamp is an annual competition-cum-showcase that IBM runs to attract interesting emerging technology companies into the 'IBM fold'.)

Talk about being at the centre of the action! While we were listening to entrepreneurs pitch everything from wireless sensing to water monitoring, Ireland was embroiled in a full-scale bail-out crisis. Politicians were talking tough but under the onslaught of the bond markets, it now looks to be all over bar the shouting.

With a little help from your big friend, IBM

I spent an interesting couple of days last week finding out about how IBM works with entrepreneurial businesses. IBM isn't a name that one usually associates with start-ups, but in fact this most blue-chip of companies has been keen to build links with emerging technology businesses for some time.