The Entrepreneurial Spark Blog
Alumni Stories
Growth and success don’t happen overnight. They are driven through hard work, failure, learning and building on every tiny win. The focus of our work is to help people thrive through this journey. So the thing we love most (and we know you love it too) are the stories about what happens after people spend time with us.
The Answer Is In Your Peers
As a business owner, what do you do when you want to grow or overcome a challenge? Who are the best people to turn to for help? For a longtime local support systems were based on “advisers” – well-meaning, experienced people who would make suggestions about what you could do next.
The Mindset Case for Building Diversity
Let’s cut to the chase, this isn’t about ethics. There are lots of ethical arguments for diversity and inclusion, and doing what’s right should be fundamental to any business. That message is loud and clear. What this is about is the impact diversity can have on decision-making and risk-taking, and how your business will be better if you build a diverse team and find a way to enable that diversity to flourish.
Why Do We Bang On About Tech?
Speaking to many different organisations, both public and private, one thing keeps cropping up and it can be summed up in one quote, if we only had a pound for every time this was said: "We want to be seen as the (insert noun here) for tech"
Peer to Peer Learning
Why does it work so well? You will have seen us use this quote before “If you want to go fast go alone, if you want to go far, go together”
Social capital in a Post Covid world – better business, better society
With the challenge of ‘levelling up’ the economy even more mammoth than ever, and the consequences of not ‘building back better’ being truly dire, it is thought that SME’s are front and centre of us achieving this ambition. If they are to succeed in supporting this challenge, one thing is clear - they’ll need to go forward and create social capital - value that’s not just good for business, but good for everyone.
“China myth-busting” and UK Creativity Plus
Going global is a series of Entrepreneurial Spark - Power Hour webcastslooking at the challenges of taking your business global and how the 2020 DesignIntelligence Awards can help you get started.
Want To Go Global?
The 2020 Design Intelligence Awards provides reward and recognition for risk-takers and in support of this opportunity Entrepreneurial Spark hosted a Power Hour for UK entrepreneurs, innovators and designers on how UK start-up and scale-up firms can grow their business in China. UK scale-up firm Open Bionics are leading the charge winning £115,000 with Hero Arm in 2019.
Open Innovation and its part in Economic Recovery
Can being more open to ‘Open’ accelerate your innovation?
How Is Your Perspective Right Now?
Our sense of perspective can become frazzled and fatigued during times of crisis. When worry and uncertainty are ever present, we lose the ability to frame anything in optimism.
Learn From Today to Build The Future of Business Tomorrow
What Large Organisations Should Be Doing to Harness The Current Innovative Spirit
Ask Yourself The Hard Questions Today
If the impact of recent events now means your business as you once knew and loved it, is no longer familiar, think twice before sleepwalking into a future of unfulfillment. Instead, take time to ask yourself the hard questions……
Creating The Future - Here and Now
In his recent Ted Talk (How to shift your mindset and choose your future) Tom Rivett-Carnac says, in response to the current crisis we find ourselves in “we cannot afford the luxury of feeling powerless” and as business owners stare into the face of this ‘new normal’ if they are to have any chance of coming out of the other end with a viable proposition they must take heed.
Relish The Humans
COVID-19 has taken away our loved ones, our livelihoods and our economy. But, out of the ashes, the humanity in all of us has been reawakened and we are seeing solidarity spread much faster than any virus ever could.
Pivoting At Pace
From business models to supply chains, from governments offering some of the largest economic packages in history to remote working now being ‘the norm’. The past month has brought us one of the fastest and most widespread displays of innovation we have ever seen.
There's A New Normal In Town
“Don’t lose your ambition. This situation is unparalleled. Many have the instinct to hunker down, think small. When economies shrink, there are opportunities you will never find any other time.” - Margaret Heffernan
Morning Mindset Check-in - Episode 8
Conquer with Curiosity: Our Head of Entrepreneurial Development, Fay Watkin shares why, more than ever, we need to remain ‘curious’ as entrepreneurs and leaders.
