Creative Industries KTN announce the ‘Leap Day Business Challenge’ as part of Social Media Week

Calling all company owners, join us for the Business Leap Day Challenge. Spend your extra leap day this year to review the way you are doing business with our experts in order to take your business to the next level.

Why we are doing this..

A recent study by IBM interviewed 1500 CEOs from around the world and revealed that nearly all of them are adapting their business models - two thirds are implementing extensive innovations, with more than 40% re-defining them to be more collaborative. 

This is aimed at company owners and CEOs who are successful, but who would like to stay ahead of the curve to secure their future. Most companies are re-evaluating the way they do business to keep up with technology disruptions. Join them to review your business model

Register now for your free worksheet written by our panel of business experts   bm@creativeindustriesktn.org

By stepping back and thinking how you can change your business model it can bring so many opportunities to your attention. This is exactly what the leap day business challenge is all about- you only get an extra day once every four years, we’re calling on companies to really make the most of it!

The ‘leap day challenge’ will be followed up by further events, including a free invitation only round table for senior execs, expert blogs, interviews which will be housed at our business model community http://bit.ly/yp5rQc.  Businesses are being encouraged to share their experiences to create a valuable dialogue about the future business models in the creative industries.

If you think your company could benefit from reviewing your business model, join the challenge today!

Register now for a free work sheet by sending your name, company name and why you would like to participate to bm@creativeindustriesktn.org. We will send you the worksheet for you to fill out alone, or with your team. All participating companies will be entered into a prize draw to win a prize kindly donated by MOO, £150 credit to spend on Business Cards, Stickers, and other print products.

 This Leap Day Business Challenge has been made possible by – The Creative Industries Knowledge Transfer Network (CI KTN) and Media-Sauce

First bloggage in new role as Theme Champion for Business Models Creativektn

Two months of meetings, deliberations, and consultations have come up with the following;ideas, themes which will be weaved throughout the year for my new part time role as Theme Champion of Business Models and Growth. I’m really excited by this theme as it offers a lots;of opportunity to creative and digital company business owners and has been a passion of mine for many years.

Why is there a need for this role?

It is particularly sad to watch big global giants like Kodak who were the pioneers of digital photography, fall by the way side. Companies are not only having to change and adapt to;survive, not only having to change their products or and services but there the DNA, at the;heart of their business. There is no constant. A recent study by IBM interviewed 1500 CEOs;from around the world and found out that nearly all CEOs are adapting their business model.

Two thirds are implementing extensive innovations and more than 40% are re-defining their business model to be more collaborative.

The way that companies do business is changing, they are

• being original rather than traditional

• building collaboration into their business model

• baking immediate decisions rather than death by committee

• understanding that what their customer sees as valuable may change tomorrow

• simplifying processes for the benefit of employees and customers

• putting people centre stage.

It is easy to wax lyrical about these ideas, but is a lot harder to implement when the day to day running. Adding the ‘Must adapt strategy or business model’ to your 20 minute free slot during the day is easier said than done.

Who this is for?

This Theme and it’s supported activity, targets company owners and CEOs who are running successful businesses, but who would like to stay ahead of the curve and seek the latest knowledge to secure their future.

Ask yourself:

How will you challenge your business model to maximise opportunity?What will be your main revenue stream in 3-5 years time? Will your current one still be as strong?

What are the benefits? Through blogs, events, interviews and discussions, my personal aim is to deliver the best;business model knowledge that exists to creative/digital company CEOs and business;owners in a jargon free format so you can grow your business, move forward on your journey of adapting your business model and save time researching.;Join us at the business model group on theconnect site where we will provide a space for learning, sharing and debate and signpost you to further knowledge inside and outside of the creative industries.

I can’t offer you a magic potion to transform your business but what I can do is show you a framework for you to start the process yourself, translate knowledge from experts both inside and outside the creative industries and share case studies of many companies who have succeeded.

Facebook Marketing Conference

Last week I worked with Chinwag to programme the first Chinwag Insight event, held in Covent Garden. We had over 30 speakers from brands and agencies talking about their recent work on Facebook.

The conference focused on how Facebook links in with marketing strategy and we covered everything from the latest changes announced at the F8 to FB ads, pages, apps, metrics and more. 

For a summary of the event and links to all the slides go to http://bit.ly/p3v1nl.

cc chinwag.

How to build a visionary company (part 1)

 Mention ‘vision and mission ‘to most people and you can see eyeballs role, it is corporate speak. If you have ever read some vision and mission statements you might have noticed that  they can verge from being entertaining and not in a good way, to being so dull that reading a company’s health and safety notice can be inspiring by comparison.

However, done right, both can be really valuable to your company, can sustain it for years to come, attract the right business and partners and maintain your relevance, irrespective of market changes.

This 2 part blog will look at:

• How to build a visionary company - Create a company which will be here tomorrow
• Mission Possible- Maintaining your relevance, by understanding one of the biggest mistakes you can make in your business.

Why is this all this important?

Companies have been telling me for a while that their budgets have been cut, and more businesses are competing for contracts/briefs. When you have to work harder to stay afloat and have 100 both urgent and important things on your list sometimes the last thing you want to think about it is the big picture. Here is why it is exactly the thing you should be thinking about now to stand out from the crowd.

What is the difference between vision and mission?

Simply put, a vision is big picture and future oriented while the mission is focused on the present. It is the vision that defines the end game and the mission is the road map that will take you there. For vision think leading, for mission, managing.  

How do we create one of these vision things?

A vision is something that will set you apart from other digital, social, corporate companies that are doing something similar, it will bring your brand to life.

Many experts have concluded that a vision should be made up of two parts:

Core ideology - defines what you stand for and why you exist.

Your envisioned future - is what you aspire to become, to achieve, to create—something that will require change to maintain. This should be made up of huge goals, ones that would take 10-30 years to achieve and a colourful picture of what it will look like when you get there.

Core ideology is made up of:

Core values - the 1-3 things that you stand for that will not ever change i.e. if you had enough money never to work again would you still adhere to these values?

And, Purpose – why are you here and doing what you are doing?

When looked at in this way vision contains some big answers to some really big powerful questions. By asking these questions you can really get to the heart of what you are doing and why you are doing it.  

How to find your purpose?

The key part to understanding purpose, it is it never reached but will guide you from afar.

One of the purposes I love is 3M’s. They define their purpose as’ the perpetual quest to solve unsolved problems innovatively’. This statement will automatically lead them into new sectors and innovations whatever they create and links all the things that they do.

To find your companies purpose ask ‘Why?’, a lot. Generally, it is useful to do this as part of an exercise but if you fancy doing it anyway it can really throw your colleagues when you start acting like a 3 year old in meetings. The kinds of ‘whys’ you could include are: ‘Why do you offer this product or service?’ ‘Why is that important?’ After 5-6 whys are the verbal equivalents to a giant spade, they help you dig deeper; you will get to why you do, what you do. That is your purpose, it is not something that you can fake, pluck from thin air or ask people to follow like a rule, it is intrinsic to what you do and why you do it.

Visionary companies understand what should change in a business and what should not.  Your core values are core to your business. Everything else is not. It can create agility in larger companies and should infuse everything your company does both internally and public facing.

This blog post is only a guide for what you can include in a vision statement, yours might be one sentence, or a paragraph but try and define one and see the difference it can make in your business.

Checklist for your vision statement

It need to be short, and use non-management speak

It should not be ordinary but extraordinary and colourful

Does it inspire you and bring your mission and people to life?

Next week we will look at :

Mission possible- Maintaining your relevance, by understanding one of the biggest mistakes you can make in your business.

 Picture by Todd Huffman

How to build a collaborative event

Guest blog for Chinwag.

Building a collaborative event is not for the faint hearted. Many event producer has run for the hills when faced with a large committee of partners let alone trying to lead a large team of stakeholders.  If, however, you are brave and follow a few guidelines the benefits of collaboration can be mind-blowing and much bigger than you could ever manage on your own.

Here is a guide based on my learnings directing Social Media Week (SMW) the London Games Fringe & Onemedia.  During SMW we had over 53 event partners, 50+ venues, 110 events and 40 experts on the advisory board. All of this was accomplished in under 16 weeks and here is how:

Choose passionate people to be part of your A team.  More specifically, make sure they are passionate about what you want the event to be about!  They have to be motivated to work for free, donate time and problem solve throughout the process of creating the event not just at the beginning.

Know what you want to achieve – What are you asking people to buy into? You need to have a clear vision, whether you create that yourself then find people who also share it or whether you build it as a group, it has to be a strong vision that does not change. How you get there will change day by day but you all need to head in the same direction.

Some people will contribute more than others , it is easy to get frustrated at this but try and remember  80/20 rule  10% + will be very active and 10%+ will be pretty active, the rest will contribute in their own way and can still make a good contribution i.e contact for a venue, a speaker suggestion also unless you are paying them wades of cash, they are doing this voluntarily.

Hand over responsibilities- probably the hardest thing to do, let go of some control, especially if you have not seen the results in the time you expected, but you need to let others have some ownership. It is easy to think, I will do this myself, but then you will create a habit of picking up the pieces. Co-ownership  and responsibility is good and people will surprise you, mostly in a positive way.

It might take longer to see results- as the group of people learn to work together and share ideas, things can look a bit chaotic for a while. Breathe through it, when it starts to come together it will grow and grow…

Create a fun environment – lots can happen virtually but there is no beating a physical meeting fuelled by food and/or drink. You might not be paying people but you can certainly make being a part of your event enjoyable!

Have a collective online system /space– when you can’t meet but need to brainstorm, solve problems. Make sure that everyone knows how to use it as that can be a barrier to entry.

Share achievements – When things go well, you can’t take all the credit for it, share achievements and also share when things aren’t going so well.

Photo curtsey of Brownslakeaquaducks