A Passing Thought On "Social" Networking..

So today we learn that the shares Facebook is selling today are valued at $18 Billion? That puts the company at what, around $100 Billion? I can't help, in passing, despair a little at this.

For a little perspective, some UNDP estimated costs:

Global cost of providing water = 9 Billion
Universal education = 6 Billion
Basic health & nutrition = 13 Billion
Maternal care = 12 Billion

When we look at what we value, and how highly; what we interact with day to day, sometimes the phrase "Social Network" seems like a dreadful irony.

If you want to, today might be a good day to tell a friend about us:
Get Involved

"Fact Friday": 10 things you didn't know about water..

1. Lack of safe water and adequate sanitation is the world's single largest cause of illness.

2. Over 50% of Hospital beds in the developing world are occupied by people suffering from preventable diseases caused by unsafe water or poor sanitation.

3. In developing countries 90% of sewage and 70% of industrial wastewater is dumped untreated into the same sources of surface water used commonly used for drinking / bathing

4. The average woman in Sub Saharan Africa walks 6km to find a protected source of drinking water

5. It's estimated that fetching water costs women/girls in Sub Saharan Africa 40 billion hours, or 5 billion workdays a year.

6. It's estimated that fetching water costs women/girls in India 150 million workdays a year, at a National cost of 10 billion rupees / USD $208 million.

7. Lack of easy access to safe drinking water is one of the greatest barriers to education and economy building in the developing world. A reduction in time spent collecting water enables women to engage in enterprise, enables girls to receive an education, and access to safe drinking water drastically reduces illness and therefore absence for all pupils.

8. Europeans spend $11 billion a year on ice cream, $2 billion more than the estimated annual total needed to provide clean water and safe sewers for the world's population.

9. Between 1991 and 2000, over 665,000 people died in 2,557 natural disasters, of which 90% of these were water related events.

10. In order to meet the water supply MDG target, an additional 260,000 people per day up to 2015 should gain access to improved water sources based on the current population. However, between 2010 and 2015, the world’s population is expected to increase every year by 74.8 million people.

Ponderings on Jeff Saperstein's RSA Thursday Lecture

I attended this week's "RSA Thursday" lecture entitled "Vision Matters: Defining Identity - how visionaries can help us not only survive but thrive" by the wonderful Jeff Saperstein who I was Twittering in favour of throughout his afternoon session at Reboot Britain.

His lecture got, and kept, me thinking so my interpretations and resultant ponderings follow for your (hopeful!) interest. I do, however, encourage you to experience the 'pure' version by viewing the slides and listening to the full audio in order to judge for yourself!

Jeff outlined how we, as individuals, need to 'define'. We draw up definitions and boundaries of ourselves, each other, our environment and our roles, in order to interpret, understand and react to the world. If our definitions of ourselves are narrow they function to restrict us, e.g:

I am a marketing person <--> I do marketing things
This is not a marketing thing <--> I won't do this thing

If our definitions are wider, however, they seek to rightly distinguish us by skill and not restrict by implementation, e.g:

I am a person who facilitates communication --> I could be a journalist, telecommunications engineer, graphic designer, language translator, therapist (!), bar tender (!!) and so on..

The particular problem with restrictive definitions he was proposing (as clearly there are varied and significant problems that can be identified with labeling people in this manner) was that it stifles innovation.

As a collection of people restricted by our labels, be it a community, company, government or NGO, we loose out on a great deal of collected skill & talent as people aren't rising up to the challenge of taking on tasks which they could perfectly well complete. This is because they fall outside of the definitions they have established for themselves (or have been established for them.. yet there is so much to say on that facet I shant even begin!)

In this way, our restrictive definitions stifle our ability to try new things, to challenge and to innovate.

Innovation, he goes on to say, is the only path to increasing productivity and there are no limits to its progress. Clearly I agree, you will never become more productive by doing the same things, the same way you always have, with the same people you always did them with.

He rounds off this domino effect saying that productivity increases wealth and wealth is still the great divider between those that 'survive' and those that 'thrive' as illustrated by discussions of geographic, digital, socioeconomic and educational divides.

The interesting tie in, for me, was the assertion that the most important and effective innovation is the way in which we work together. This links further to messages I took from his "Reboot Britain" session around the common features of highly successful technology clusters being partly a 'respect for knowledge' but hugely weighted towards the concept of an open and flexible working culture where people are encouraged to collaborate with those unlike themselves.

When brought to bare bones it is a somewhat obvious but fantastically empowering message:

By not restricting myself in terms of the way I allow myself to be defined, by working flexibly and openly with people who are culturally/experientially different from myself, and by learning from these people, I can achieve great and unexpected things. Thus adding more to my community/workplace/family and becoming a productive and instrumental force in driving positive change.

(BTW, I'll also be at the Sustainability Project panel on Mon 13th 6:30pm - so shout if you're going :)

Kofi Annan's Astonishing Facts

"4% of the 225 richest men's wealth could provide for entire globe: basic education, basic health care, adequate food, clean water and safe sewers. "

"Kofi Annan's Astonishing Facts"

(Courtsey of the New York Times News Service and taken from the United Nations Human Development Report)

Every year the United Nations Human Development Report looks for a new way to measure the lives of people. Putting aside faceless statistics like per capita gross domestic product, the report burrows into the facts about what children eat, who goes to school, whether there is clean water to drink, and so on. This year, the report takes its first look at what people have--from simple toilets to family cars--and what proportion of the world's goods and services are consumed, comparatively, by the rich and the poor. The pie is huge--the world's consumption bill is $24 trillion a year--but some servings are very small indeed.

The haves. The richest fifth of the world's people consumes 86% of all goods and services while the poorest fifth consumes just 1.3%. Indeed, the richest fifth consumes 45% of all meat and fish, 58% of all energy used and 84% of all paper, has 74% of all telephone lines and owns 87% of all vehicles.

Natural resources. Since 1970, the world's forests have declined from 4.4 square miles per 1,000 people to 2.8 square miles per 1,000 people. In addition, a quarter of the world's fish stocks have been depleted or are in danger of being depleted and another 44% are being fished at their biological limit.

The ultra rich. The three richest people in the world have assets that exceed the combined gross domestic product of the 48 least developed countries.

Africa. The average African household today consumes 20% less than it did 25 years ago.

The super rich. The world's 225 richest individuals, of whom 60 are Americans, have a combined wealth of over $1 trillion--equal to the annual income of the poorest 47% of the entire world's population.

Cosmetics and education. Americans spend $8 billion a year on cosmetics--$2 billion more than the estimated total needed to provide basic education for everyone in the world.

The have-nots. Of the 4.4 billion people in developing countries, nearly three-fifths lack access to safe sewers, a third have no access to clean water, a quarter do not have adequate housing, and a fifth have no access to modern health services of any kind.

Meat. Americans each consume an average of 260 pounds of meat a year. In Bangladesh, the average is six and a half pounds.

Telephone lines. Sweden and the U.S. have 681 and 626 telephone lines per 1,000 people, respectively. Afghanistan, Cambodia, Chad and the Democratic Republic of the Congo have one line per 1,000 people.

Ice cream and water. Europeans spend $11 billion a year on ice cream--$2 billion more than the estimated annual total needed to provide clean water and safe sewers for the world's population.

Land mines. More than 110 million active land mines are scattered in 68 countries, with an equal number stockpiled around the world. Every month more than 2,000 people are killed or maimed by mine explosions.

Pet food and health. Americans and Europeans spend $17 billion a year on pet food--$4 billion more than the estimated annual additional total needed to provide basic health and nutrition for everyone in the world.

$40 billion a year. It is estimated that the additional cost of achieving and maintaining universal access to basic education for all, basic health care for all, reproductive health care for all women, adequate food for all and clean water and safe sewers for all is roughly $40 billion a year--or less than 4% of the combined wealth of the 225 richest people in the world.

Red Button Design Pitch Published in Educational Textbook.

As you likely know, Red Button Design have twice appeared on BBC2's hit Business Show "The Dragons' Den" showcasing ROSS and seeking the necessary backing with which to launch the product.

What you may not know is that, as a direct result of the highly successful pitch James and I gave on the original episode of the show, I have had the opportunity to collaborate on a number of textbooks and for-schools initiatives to teach entrepreneurship, confident public speaking and language skills. Not least of which is the BBC's own Dragons' Den educational tie-in which has been live for 6 months now. More recently, however, one of our other projects, a Heinemann English Textbook, has made it to the publishers!

Chapter six of "Building Skills in English" covers topics including the expression of ideas, emotive language and vocabulary choice, non-verbal communication, and presentation tips; all using our original pitch, as televised, for the ROSS. (pg 135 - 153)

As such, I'd like my former teachers to take heart! As much of a handful as I may have been in the classroom, something obviously stuck and I am very proud to now be presented as a 'good example' rather than fulfilling the equally valid, yet less prestigious, role of 'terrible warning'.

Text Building Skills in English: Student Book Bk. for 11 - 14 year olds is now available to purchase from Amazon, WHSmith, Waterstones (and others) in the UK.

Doug Richard's "School for Start Ups"

If mass media hasn't taken the opportunity to remind you yet today, let me.
We are in the grips of economic disaster.
Shops are closing, jobs vanishing, bankruptcy is stalking us all and they tell us no sector is safe. With newspaper headlines reading more like the tag lines from an (admittedly very boring) US disaster movie by the day, anyone who knows anything about the economic climate is being dragged onto talk shows, begged to fill newspaper columns and guesting on local radio question time.

Understanding economics has never been so sexy.

And yet, lets face it, it still ... isn't.

This makes it all the more significant that James and I both dragged our flu-ravaged selves, pockets stuffed with Lemsip sachets, out into the freezing rain and it into town for 8:30am and knowingly and willingly spent the whole day learning about 'Entrepreneurial Economics'.

Run by former BBC2 Dragon, Doug Richard, we think getting yourself a place at a School for Start Ups event is a is a must-do for all young companies and aspiring entrepreneurs. Doug has stood in the shoes of both investor and investee, and by his own admission has had great successes and failures in both. He is also a professional speaker (incidentally he had also been the guest speaker at the previous night's John Logie Baird Awards*) and it shows in the ease with which he expresses complex ideas, throws in snippets of his vast personal experience and completely charms the audience

It was useful, engaging and we thoroughly enjoyed it.

So go here and sign up to attend, it may well be available free of change (depending on your situation). If there isn't one local to you - travel to it. Especially if you're not paying to attend. Make the effort to go, you (and the crumbling economy) will be glad you did.


* and quite frankly saved the show, but that's another story!

Field Logistics in Emergencies

In both the commercial and humanitarian sectors, logistics is the fine balance of procurement, transport & warehousing. In emergency aid and disaster response situations, getting the right materials, to the right place, at the right time, takes on a particular significance. Good logistics strategy is essential to efficient programme implementation, allowing the agency to maximise the human benefit from their budget.

We felt it would be hugely beneficial for Red Button Design to have in house understanding of the logistical processes triggered after our products are purchased, and so James accepted the challenge to spend last week away from RBD-HQ on a 5 day residential course held in Moreton-in-Marsh, Gloucestershire.

The course, "Field Logistics in Emergencies", is part of a professional training programme run by RedR, (Registered Engineers for Disaster Relief) and is internationally recognised by humanitarian aid agencies, having been approved by the Chartered Institute of Logistics & Transport to provide appropriate logistics training for the humanitarian sector.

With pedigree like this, then, it is no surprise that James is one of the younger applicants to have successfully completed this intensive course.

So 'Congratulations' to James for this latest addition to his C.V! This is a fantastic personal achievement and yet another set of skills we can add to RBD's growing competencies in the aid and humanitarian sector.

A Little Educational Role Play!

A couple of months ago we began working with the BBC on a for-schools programme they were launching based around the Television Series "The Dragons' Den".

It had come to light that a number of schools were using the 'Dragons' Den' format to teach a range of skills from confident presenting and public speaking to interview skills and (of course) business and entrepreneurship. No surprise to us, naturally, we've been involved with a number of student and for-schools programmes since we set our shaky feet in the den! Having belatedly discovered its appeal as a teaching aid the beeb decided they ought to support and encourage this, and contacted a number of the show's previous participants (ourselves included) to collaborate on some teaching materials. The first stage of this plan is a nifty education based game playable online.

It is our understanding that as time goes on the BBC intend to roll out a full education package designed for teachers, "providing unique and relevant teaching materials [to] encourage active classroom participation."

If you're a teacher and you're interested in helping shape this education package or apply for a teaching pack Visit BBC Learning

If you fancy playing James or Myself* on the BBC's shiny new online game Play Online Now!

* of course you could also play the part of one of the Dragons, Imran Hakim, Laban Roomes or Sarah Lu...but why would you when you can play as Red Button Design and challenge yourself to walk away, like us, with the best deal ever reached in the den!

James - On The EDGE!

Last Thursday Amanda and I met our EDGE team. A couple of years ago I was intending on applying for this summer programme as a student so it is a real pleasure to be involved this year as one of the host companies.

Like all the students involved with the EDGE programme this year, our team (six students from Scotland, England and America) has spent three weeks in an intensive immersion programme, learning about entrepreneurship, enterprise leadership, cross-cultural teamwork, consulting and economic development.

Having been impressed by our team at Thursday's meeting we are really looking forward to working with them over the coming weeks.


James


EDGE provides university students, school pupils and businesses with the opportunity to work together, to their mutual benefit. Second and third year students from Scottish and international universities form consultancy teams with fifth year secondary school pupils and work on projects with Scottish businesses.

NESTA Award £7,000 Grant to Red Button Design!

Following on from my post of 13/06/08 I am happy to announce that we have been offered £7,000 in grant funding from NESTA.

We have been told that the funding decisions were made on a very competitive basis and having spent 4 months on a training course getting to know the other participants and their businesses I can only imagine how difficult the decision making process was for the panel members involved.

Through a four page Executive Summary and a 30 minute pitch, each business was assessed in terms of the innovation, market opportunity and proposed use of funds. NESTA's tagline "making innovation flourish" underpins this grant and a major aspect of the grant process was demonstrating the innovative aspects of the business. Well, here at RBD-HQ we like to think that we not only have innovation in the design of our product but also in the design of our business plan, route to market and in our ambitious media and brand strategy, so we are extremely pleased to have this innovation formally recognised by NESTA.

Alongside the grant we will receive appropriate follow-on business support to ensure we spend the money on the more 'novel' aspects of our business rather than on the general administration and day to day 'busywork'. The business advisers will also send written updates back to NESTA charting our progress. We are embracing this opportunity with open arms and anticipate having a lot to report back to NESTA and your good selves!

See all 2008's grant recipients here

NESTA S46 Finale

Tuesday saw the culmination of the NESTA Starter for 6 Cultural Enterprise training programme. This year 223 businesses applied, 149 people were selected for interview and 80 individuals were accepted onto the course. This course consisted of 4 days training, 2 networking sessions and 3 one on one sessions with a business coach. The 67 businesses that successfully completed the course were given the opportunity to pitch for a grant of up to £10,000, pitching to panels in five cities over the period 27th May through to 10th June. NESTA has a fund of £180,000 this year to distribute as it pleases between these 67 bids.

James and I were one of the last Companies to pitch and stated our case for the cash on the final interview day, Tuesday.

We were pleased with the way our pitch went. Of course you never can tell with these things and it remains to be seen if our bid for finance was successful. However I do get a sense that regardless of which businesses do receive their share of the £180K everyone who was lucky enough to be accepted on this course (which is not only free to those who get through the application process but actually subsidised so all participants receive a payment into their personal bank account to help with travel costs to and from the various training and events) has found the training and networking both useful and enjoyable. I think I can speak for many of the participants when I say that there is a great deal of enthusiasm for keeping in touch and continuing to share helpful information and advice. Whilst everyone wants their share of the money there is a wider realisation that the quality of entrepreneurs on the course was astounding and this extinguishes any rivalry which may otherwise existed between our businesses.

So to anyone who completed the course I sincerely and whole heatedly wish you all the luck in the world getting this funding and to anyone who is thinking of starting or in the early stages of running a business do get in touch with NESTA to see what courses run in your area. NESTA

I will post again when we find out if we have been successful.

Special Government Invitation

I almost deleted the email I recieved titled "Special Government Invitation" - well, wouldn't you?

"This email is to invite you to join John Hutton MP, Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, to a consultation event in Westminster about Government plans to develop a new Enterprise Framework."

Yeah right.

"We are really pleased to announce that we have been asked by the Government to identify young entrepreneurs, would-be entrepreneurs and women business owners and entrepreneurs who will shape the future face of enterprise in the UK. We think this includes you and so we would like to offer you the opportunity to shape the Government’s thinking on how to inspire and support enterprise in two consultation events ...."

But no, this is for real.

I'll be heading down to Westminster to represent the young, female entrepreneurs of the UK.
(God help us all!)