There was a very interesting piece on the importance of timing in business in the FT this week.  It reminded us that the best entrepreneurs and innovators in business do not control what happens around them – they just observe their surroundings and then react swiftly …

An interesting article on the BBC Business site this morning on the chicken and egg relationship between technology and ideas in innovation and entrepreneurship.  Does technological innovation drive ideas or vice versa?

It reminded me of a second interesting piece on the …

One of our Partners, Charlie, has reviewed a new book, The Wide Lens, by Ron Adner, for Management Today.  You can read his thoughts on the book and the subject of innovation ecosystems here.

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As Apple’s success continues in the post-Jobs era (to the extent that they now have so much money they’re giving it away to shareholders), an interesting comparison is made in this article between Amazon and Apple in terms of the relationships …

A couple of things have caught our eye over the last week which both remind us of the importance of taking ideas from outside influences in order to make what you’re doing better.

Firstly, 10 tips (above) taken from Austin Kleon’s book about …

An interesting interview from last night’s Evening Standard with Jonathan Ive, Apple’s Senior Vice President of Industrial Design.

He shares some refreshingly straightforward thoughts about innovation and problem solving, which seem just as applicable to business growth challenges as they are to product design.…

Yesterday marked the launch of The International Year of Sustainable Energy for All by the United Nations’ Secretary-General, HE Ban Ki-moon, at the World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi. The Secretary-General’s objectives, to be achieved by 2030, are:

1.  To …

Going green needn’t restrict your holiday choices. The Guardian presents this year’s 20 most innovative eco-tourism projects, trips and places to stay, selected by an expert panel as well as Guardian readers themselves.

This list is quite UK-centric with only 10 entries outside …

I recently came across this interesting example of social innovation in action.  Sometimes the simplest ideas for the lowest cost investment have the biggest impact.

http://wimp.com/innovationfinest/…

While Coca Cola is usually at the top of most brand studies, it comes way down the list when asking people whether brands contribute to their “quality of life”. Those at the top of the recently released ‘Meaningful Brand Index’…

With consumers tightening their belts, and a series of bad news stories damaging public perceptions of a raft of different industries, it’s more critical than ever that brands build a strong and trusting relationship with their customers.

Why do customers …

Here is an interesting post on Business Fights Poverty about how a Twitter tag managed to raise a whopping £23,000 for Mohammed Ashraf Haziq, a 20-year old Malaysian student whose robbery by a gang who had appeared to be helping him …

Business leaders face a choice: they can reform the system, or watch as government’s exert control.  A call to action from McKinsey’s Dominic Barton:

http://hbr.org/2011/03/capitalism-for-the-long-term/ar/1…

Some interesting musings from Martin Lindstrom this week on the culture of ‘more is more’: in this jam-packed world of tweets, status updates and scrolling news tickers, are consumers crying out for companies that cut through the noise and offer up only …

In his latest article for Management Today, Simon Caulkin enlists some expert help to examine the alternatives to today’s brand of capitalism

http://www.managementtoday.co.uk/features/1086015/saving-capitalism-itself/

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We enjoyed reading Anthony Hilton’s (Financial Editor of the Evening Standard and one of our Advisory Board members) perspective about the stock market turmoil last week: ‘Markets have lost faith in the politicians’…

A brilliant article by the Design Director at Ideo (the innovation consultancy) emphasises the unprecedented value of being bold enough to take prototypes out into the real world (and not just into the safe, confined settings of a focus group) in order to get real customer insights. V Water (the …

I’ve been hugely privileged to represent The Foundation at TED Global this week – and I hope that this becomes an annual tradition for someone in the firm.  Why? – because much of our work is about helping our clients …

Quite an interesting read about how Puma is apparently the world’s first “major” company to put a value on the eco services it uses to create its products.  Essentially they are monetizing their environmental impact, putting a value of £57 …

Fantastic TED talk by Simon Sinek, explaining the importance of a clear, well articulated and frequently communicated organisational purpose.  This inspires customers, staff and investors to connect with the core unchanging purpose of the organisation:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qp0HIF3SfI4

This is one of the …

This is a swift one pager showing, through the words of Lord Kirkham, the founder and until very recently owner and CEO of DFS, precisely what we mean by people in businesses seeing the world inside out (even when very …

Do big problems always require equally big solutions?

Rory Sutherland’s TED talk emphasises (using behavioural economics and some brilliant examples) that small, inexpensive and considered solutions can sometimes be more effective than flashy, expensive fixes.

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/rory_sutherland_sweat_the_small_stuff.html…

Here at The Foundation we believe that getting an ‘outside-in’ perspective on your business is crucial. What do your customers really think about your products or your services? What is their day to day experience like? Our clients often find …

Yahoo’s recent purchase of Indonesian social networking site Koprol, may not be headline news here in the UK, but it gives us a fascinating look into the social values and behaviours of Indonesia – are they really that different from …

Corporate Social Responsibility. That old chesnut. Well, you’re damned if you don’t and damned if you do, right? You declare your company’s goal as nothing more than profit, glorious profit (CSwhat? I thought that was a programme on the telly?) …

Sparked is a recently launched microvolunteering network, set up to connect volunteers with not-for-profit organisations. The premise is that there are lots of people out there with useful skills to offer and a desire to help – but not much …

One sunny afternoon at HarperCollins…

‘So Mr. McCandless you want to publish a book, tell me a bit more about it’
‘Well it’s going to be a book full of graphs’
‘Ah, I see. So you are going to create …

We love this example of how the apparently subtle act of changing a user interface button on a website from ‘Register’ to ‘Continue’ can result in breath-taking results. A lesson in the importance of understanding your customer and the nature …

John Kay has recently written a fantastic book on obliquity.  He shows how businesses that focus on customer value (rather than profits) are often the most commercially successful. We’ve recently been working with the Lean Enterprise Academy, who explained …

It’s not often you see a business stick its neck above the parapet to promise something, that by all accounts, is incredibly difficult to achieve. That’s what our client Marks & Spencer did recently with the launch of its new …

“Merci” in Paris offers designer clothes at discounted price, second hand books (along with the space to curl up and read them in), a perfume bar, a flower shop and a café, all in an amazingly designed and inviting loft …

A couple of articles that we’ve picked up recently, which for us really highlight the power plays going in the mobile market and the need for networks to be crystal clear on how they are choosing to play competitively, both …

Very funny. Though not sure what’s so irritating about “hope that helps”.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/25ead124-f70e-11de-9fb5-00144feab49a.html?nclick_check=1…

Did you hear about Hotel Rafayel? It is London’s first sustainable luxury hotel.

http://www.hotelrafayel.com/…

Brilliant article from writer and ex-cricketer Ed Smith in the latest edition of Intelligent Life.

http://www.moreintelligentlife.com/content/ed-smith/are-we-too-professional

“Measurement is another fetish of professionalism, as if something that cannot be measured isn’t quite real.”…