On Purpose has just opened its new Call for Associates On Purpose is run by a very clever group of people, and they help people migrate into the Social Enterprise space. I wish this programme had existed for me 5 years ago, as I’d have jumped on the chance (not that I wish I did [...]

Hello all you patient-to-the-world people. Yep, I’ve still been kind of crazy busy. What have I been doing? Managing & running Social Innovation Camp in Edinburgh and helping build teams to develop these six ideas. All the ideas seem to be moving forward—but I’ll have more details about that in a couple of weeks. There [...]

Difficulty in opportunity | Opportunity in difficulty There’s an old adage that the skeptic sees difficulty in every opportunity, while the entrepreneurs sees opportunity in every difficulty. Think about it. Imagine it’s 1998. Search sucks. Yahoo’s your best bet. Banner ads and the blink tag run rampant across the Internet. Pets.com has just closed its [...]

Hi both of you who are still reading this, since I apparently let aaaaages pass without an update. Current status: I’ve stopped consulting… and have a job I’ve been working the past few months with the lovely and talented team at Social Innovation Camp around growing the business that they’ve started and bootstrapped over the [...]

There’s (Sorry for being not around—I’ve been very busy with several interesting—but unfortunately confidential—projects. I can say, though, that I’ve been investigating strategies for exploring new business opportunities in developing countries rather a lot) Those of you who know me know me on my bike. I’ve had nice ones, crappy ones, and funky ones. It’s [...]

I got sent this article from the New York Times today. It was short, to the point, and completely missed the point, perhaps. What do you want to measure? Sure, of course, you want to know how much online buzz equates to rankings, but what does that really tell you of true value? I don’t [...]

The Bill The Senate just passed the jobs bill as a bipartisan effort. Way to go. They’ve proved that members of Congress can actuall work on something together and come up with a workable solution. It contains some $20bn in additional funds for highway employment, and $15bn in tax breaks for employers who take on [...]

Has apple gone too far? Let me make this clear: I think Apple makes some of the slickest technology around. Despite my (generally) being a PC/Linux user, I have had loads of respect for Apple from the early days, and particularly since the Return of Jobs, heralding the original iMac, the shift to mach-based OSX, [...]

Whole person education I am not really a fan of sports. I was a drama and computer geek all through high school and university, and never really bought into the “whole person” education argument, at least until I could see the link between team dynamics in rowing and in companies. I grew up in New [...]

I had the pleasure to speak at the Africa Gathering in London this morning. (twitter feed here). There were a number of emerging themes through the conference, and not necessarily the ones you might think– access to finance, more capital, education. Nope. What came up again and again was: TIA This is Africa. Sometimes problems [...]