It takes a lot to surprise me these days (i am just too old I guess) but I have to tell you that last night I was surprised…very pleasantly I have to say. I was invited to the first anniversary of the BNI Lisbon Lider Club (which when said in Portuguese sounds like Bennie…). BNI is a 22 year old business and professional organisation that allows one person from each trade or profession to join a chapter (group…and you can have various chapters in a city). With over 4,900 active chapters, and 100,000 members, it is said to be the most successful business referral organisation in the world. (more…)

 

 BNI and the Jets [3:00m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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I actually forgot where I took this quote, so I immediately apologise to the author….(found it….) but I think it’s something Startups and even experienced companies should be aware of. The extract of the article that is interesting is this - which should be remembered by all would be entrepreneurs:

Companies like Dogster that constantly examine user data - especially the discouraging stuff - are finding the information increasingly vital online. “Instead of working on a feature for months trying to get it perfect,” Rheingold says, “we’ll work on something for two weeks and then spend two or three days listening to users and fine-tuning it.”

Where old-economy giants once boasted of running “zero-defects” operations, today’s successful Internet businesses embrace defects as a way to get things right. Some management consultants even advise their clients to “get good” at screwing up.

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I have, for some time now, been looking for the PERFECT explanation as to why I get sleepy spells in conferences. I mean, we have ALL (and I mean ALL) been caught closing our eyes when someone’s presentation is, quite frankly, not up to scratch. It doesn’t matter how interesting the theme or how beautiful the person making the presentation actually is. If you have a boring PowerPoint, it will make for a boring presentation.

So, if you think your presentations fall into this category YOU SHOULD HAVE A LOOK AT THIS….

In fact, if you are going to make a presentation in the near future, YOU SHOULD ALSO HAVE A LOOK AT THIS:

http://lifehacker.com/software/presentations/stop-death-by-powerpoint-323554.php

And while you are doing that, you may also want to look at these:

http://presentationzen.blogs.com/presentationzen/2005/09/visual_simplici.html

http://www.presentationzen.com/presentationzen/2005/11/it_was_one_of_t.html

Your next presentation will surely be different…..I know mine will…..

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So often you or you, together with one or two friends, think “wouldn’t it be great to have my own business…become my own boss…be responsible for the things I do in our lives…taking an idea to another level…” Chances are, you would have actually sat down and talked in detail and tried to find out exactly what is involved (the process and the costs) and before you start, you realize that the financial risk is too much and it would probably be best to not start…let’s fact it, the odds are stacked against you and the probability for failure is just too high. And you would have often wondered “what if…” (more…)

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I have always been a great believer in kids as I do consider them the future of a nation. The fact that I can still (almost) remember how I grew up and the experiences that I have had over the years, I look apon young kids and see the pure enjoyment of life and the expectation and anticipation they perceive.

Of course we cannot buy their youth nor can they buy our experience. But it really is fun giving them the benefit of our experience and getting them to form the basis of a business understanding and how they will see themselves being part of the great big world.

I am at the moment, involved with a 19 year old finishing his design course and who is a crack in the construction of websites. It’s not that it is his vocation in life…he just happens to be good at it. OK he has had some informal training (in designing websites) and coupled with the experience he has gained from the course he is involved in at college, he spent sometime looking around the internet and got the bug.

But what really is quite refreshing is that he can very easily understand from the experience being with someone in business and begin to see a future and a position he can enjoy for himself.

I actually believe that companies of the future will be a collection of smaller companies coming together to form a larger structure as and when necessary, while at the same time, maintaining their own individual company. It’s like animals forming a zoo or trees forming a forest., a colection of athletes forming a team…..they are part of an official structure, while still being able to maintaining their individuality.

I visited the offices of United Spaces in Stockholm, Sweden in 2003, where there co-existed several individual small companies working on their individual projects for their individual Clients, although sharing common infrastructure, like receptionist, meeting rooms, copiers, kitchen, etc.

One of the very interesting cultures that was encouraged by the managers of United Spaces, was that at the end of each friday, all these micro companies came together to discuss the experiences of the week and where invitations to form a larger team for a specific proposal would be discussed. Each micro company had the possibility to form a larger depending on their availability.

I imagine the future to be individual micro companies coming together to form a company of a larger dimension. These micro companies will be specialists in their field and therefore bringing expertise necessary to the team.

What is, for me, more interesting, is that the enlarged company will not have people dragging their heels or not coming in tomorrow, on not liking the boss, or all the other negatives that exist in a large company. People are there because they want to be there and because the work is interesting. Not because they are being told by their boss to do this, that or the other.

Micro companies are people who assume the responsibility for their life and who are prepared to put their necks on the block.

Getting young kids in this frame of mind and watching them become enthusiastic about the future is very rewarding. I shall continu this theme and tell you more about how things develop.

In the meantime, you should look at the results of the first two weeks: www.Mission2Design.com

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