Why Do Startups Fail?

Why Do Startups Fail?

A while ago I wrote about why innovations fail, and I wondered about start-ups. Do they have the same problems, or are they completely different? How often start-ups fail is a matter of debate. A commonly quoted figure is that 90% ...

Making Progress Means Changing the Team

Making Progress Means Changing the Team

Getting the right people doing the right jobs is one of the major challenges in a small, growing business. We each have our particular strengths and our favoured working styles. Teams need to evolve as the business develops, and getting ...

All Innovation is Important, Not Just Some Types

All Innovation is Important, Not Just Some Types

Sometimes in conversation you suddenly run straight into a conceptual brick wall. You seem to be discussing the same topic, but somehow you are approaching it from such different positions that there seems to be ‘your topic’ and ‘their topic’ ...

Dealing With the 'Unwritten Rules'

Dealing With the ‘Unwritten Rules’

We all recognise that it is hard to make change happen. This is nothing new. In the early 16th C Machiavelli commented in The Prince “There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain ...

Trying to Sell Energy Efficiency Won't Work

Trying to Sell Energy Efficiency Won’t Work

There is a real challenge right at the heart of climate change policy in the UK. The Climate Change Act requires us to reduce carbon emissions by 80% by 2050, compared to a 1990 baseline. All parts of our economy ...

Listening to Faint Whispers from the Future

Listening to Faint Whispers from the Future

“Prediction is difficult, especially of the future.”; a quote so useful that it has been linked to everyone from Yogi Berra to Niels Bohr. Yes, prediction is difficult, but when we innovate it is essential. We should be thinking not only about the market ...

The Eco-Innovation Compass

The Eco-Innovation Compass

To make progress towards a circular economy we need innovation. New products and services, new methods and new approaches. The challenge is, first of all, to find inspiration for innovative ideas, and secondly, to be able to compare different options ...

Reducing Plastic Waste is Important but Difficult!

Reducing Plastic Waste is Important but Difficult!

The topic of plastic waste and its environmental impact has rocketed up the political agenda in the last few weeks. Blue Planet II alerted the public to the impact of our waste plastics on the oceans and the life in ...

The Importance of the Zoom Function in Strategy

The Importance of the Zoom Function in Strategy

  We live in a big and complex world faced with big and complex problems; climate change, population growth, environmental degradation and inequality. In these mega-challenges, as well as the apparently simpler task of running a city or creating a new ...

A Scaleable Approach to Improving Energy Efficiency in Buildings

A Scaleable Approach to Improving Energy Efficiency in Buildings

The UK has a problem; rather a large one. The Climate Change Act 2008 commits the UK to reduce carbon emissions by 80% from a 1990 baseline by 2050. In 2016 the biggest single consumer of energy was transport at ...