Category / Entrepreneurship & Economic Growth

Entrepreneurship in the 21st Century

Business Engagement

The BU Centre for Entrepreneurship participated in a high profile event at the EBC on Wednesday 20 May looking at Entrepreneurship in the 21st Century.

Attracting over 80 delegates, including CEO’s, Directors, entrepreneurs and BU students, the event was organised by Barclays and sponsored by BU and Saffrey Champness. It aimed to facilitate discussion with founders and experts from the South Coast and included an exhibition area where current and past BU students, Static Games, el RHEY and Cub-Bee-Hole, demonstrated their entrepreneurial skills by showcasing their own products and services.

Mark Painter, Centre for Entrepreneurship Manager, who welcomed the delegates on behalf of BU, said, ‘we were delighted to have the opportunity to support and take part in this event. The feedback from the delegates was extremely positive and I am looking forward to building on this activity and exploring other ways for us to work with organisations like Barclays and Saffrey Champness to support entrepreneurs’.

Craig Jamieson, Regional Director of Barclays Wealth & Investment Management introduced Matt Macri-Waller, Founder and CEO of Benefex, who gave an inspiring and entertaining insight into his own journey as an entrepreneur and his approach to tackling the various obstacles he has faced.

This was followed by a panel discussion, moderated by Richard Heggie, Head of Proposition and Delivery for Entrepreneurs at Barclays Wealth and Investment Management, which provided a fascinating insight into the issues, challenges and opportunities facing the entrepreneurs of today and the future.

Panel member, Nigel Jump, BU’s Professor in Regional Economic Development, reminded delegates of the challenges facing the UK in terms of needing to increase productivity and observed that it will be the entrepreneurs who will drive UK economic growth. The other panellists were Matt Macri-Waller, Founder and CEO of Benefex, Nick Fernyhough, Partner of Saffery Champness, Georgina Hurcombe, Founder and Managing Director of LoveLove Films, and Richard Phelps, Managing Director, Accountable Executive for Entrepreneurs at Barclays.

Mark Painter added, ‘this event is another great example of the Centre for Entrepreneurship working in partnership with other organisations to help share knowledge and expertise and really demonstrates BU’s commitment to engaging with and supporting the business community.’

 

Bournemouth University Students in Santander 60 Second Pitch!

Business Engagement, Uncategorized

The Centre for Entrepreneurship is delighted to announce that Bournemouth University student Alice Parlett’s Bumblebee Nest business idea – called Cub-Bee-Hole – and Peter Ramsey’s student website – Move’m – have been short-listed as two of the 10 most outstanding business ideas for the Santander 60 Second Pitch.  Vote for your favourite Student Business

 

 

 

 

 

Alice, a final year Industrial Design student at BU, recently attended the CfE’s Business Ideas Generator Hackathon and successfully pitched to our Dragon’s Den-style event for a small amount of funding to investigate an early prototype of her product.  Alice’s business idea is conservation and stunning design beautifully interwoven with current market trends. The Cub-Bee-Hole is an aesthetically pleasing hive for bees that adheres to your window, allowing you to view the bees in action whilst encouraging nesting and reproduction in a safe, nurturing home for the bees.

Essential to our ecosystem, bumblebees are dying out.  Yet, bumblebees pollinate 1/3 of our food!  Alice’s product is a woven wicker bee home that sticks to your window, with a design that allows you to see the bees nesting and at work, whilst preventing the bees from being disturbed by you.

Targeting conservationists, gardeners, farmers, parents, this product is a registered design and could be seen at the Flower Shows, Chelsea stores and garden stores nationwide soon… with your help.

Stunning aesthetics – on trend – conservation-minded – raising awareness – educational – fun.

Alice is pitching for £1500 to create a prototype that she can use to launch her business.

Move’m are also a Bournemouth University student business who have set up a website that helps student find out about rental properties from other students reviews before starting a tenancy.

Have you ever moved in to a property to find that there is mould on the bathroom ceiling, the roof is leaking and the landlord isn’t answering his phone…ever!? These are things that were certainly not mentioned on the viewing, yet when you take the tenancy, it is too late.

 

Have you ever moved in to a property to find that there is mould on the bathroom ceiling, the roof is leaking and the landlord isn’t answering his phone…ever!? These are things that were certainly not mentioned on the viewing, yet when you take the tenancy, it is too late.

Move’m has created a website where any student can review his/ her experience so that the next tenant can be confident in the property that they are moving into.

Searching for the right student accommodation has never been easier… and Move’m need £1,500 to help them develop their business further to help more students

 

 

 

 

 

***At the time of going to press, Alice’s bumblebee Nest Concept business is in 2nd place with 109 votes to Ulster University’s Little Creation’s 171 votes. Move’m is currently in 8th place with 30 votes.***

Do you have time to vote for one of the student businesses? Registering is as simple as inserting your email address and password and you have just one vote, so please make it count by voting for your favourite student entrepreneurs – Vote for your favourite Student Business 

We wish both businesses all the best of luck! #BUPROUD

The social sciences at BU

BU research, Research assessment

In response to an open email invitation, a group of social scientists from across BU met on Tuesday 17 March to discuss prospects for inter-Faculty collaboration. As in previous meetings between FMC and HSS colleagues, it was apparent that there were opportunities for more collaborative work than currently exists, and that there is considerable enthusiasm for developing links. A growing presence of the social sciences in BU, and of BU in the social sciences, was felt to be essential to BU’s development as a university with a rich intellectual community. If you haven’t received the report from this meeting by email, and would like to do so, please email Prof. Barry Richards (brichards@bmth.ac.uk)

Webb Ellis Cup visits Bournemouth University

Business Engagement

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The BU Centre for Entrepreneurship was delighted to welcome Rob Wingrove from RTH2015, who manage and operate the Official Hospitality programme for Rugby World Cup 2015, to the Executive Business Centre on the 23rd April.

Rob delivered a fascinating presentation which looked into three years of planning and development to deliver one of the largest commercial hospitality programmes for any global sporting event, and the marketing strategy and tactics implemented to achieve a forecast of over £110m in sales.

The audience were also delighted to have the opportunity to get up close to the Webb Ellis Cup, rugby’s most coveted prize, which had just returned from a journey around 15 countries as part of an international celebration of rugby.

Rugby World Cup 2015 is estimated to inject nearly £1bn into the British economy in 2015. With over 2.3m tickets up for sale, a global TV audience of 4bn and a record sponsor programme, Rob provided an interesting and detailed insight into how they have created one of the biggest corporate hospitality programmes in history in a saturated market.

Mark Painter, Centre for Entrepreneurship Manager, said, ‘we were absolutely delighted when Rob confirmed he would be able to find time in his busy schedule to visit us here at the Executive Business Centre. It was fascinating finding out more about the vital role hospitality will play in the success of RWC2015 and it was of course wonderful that Rob was able to bring along the Webb Ellis Cup’.

Mark added, ‘the feedback from the attendees was extremely positive and it is clear everyone really enjoyed the event.’

Rugby World Cup, the third largest global sporting event behind the Olympics and Football World Cup, takes place in England and Cardiff between 18 September and 31 October. The tournament will be hosted in 13 venues in 11 cities across the country.

The BU Centre for Entrepreneurship runs regular seminars and forthcoming events can be found at www.bucfe.com

Creative Industries Business Briefing – April

Funding opportunities, Knowledge Exchange, Knowledge Exchange and Impact Team, Knowledge Transfer

 

Creative Industries Business Briefing

A digest of useful information for creative industries businesses updated every month. The briefing highlights UK and European funding, support, events and training. Compiled by the KTN in partnership with Innovate UK, Catapults, Tech City, Nesta and Horizon2020.

April 2015 now available.

Upcoming CfE Event: The Business of Rugby World Cup 2015

Thursday 23 April 2015
5:30pm arrival for a 6pm start
Executive Business Centre, 89 Holdenhurst Road, Bournemouth, BH8 8EB

We are delighted to be welcoming Rob Wingrove from RTH2015 who manage and operate the Official Hospitality programme for Rugby World Cup 2015 to the BU Centre for Entrepreneurship.

Rob will be joining us to talk about the Official Hospitality programme Rugby World Cup 2015.

Rugby World Cup 2015 is estimated to inject nearly £1bn into the British economy in 2015. With over 2.3m tickets up for sale, a global TV audience of 4bn and a record sponsor programme how do you create one of the biggest corporate hospitality programmes in history in a saturated market. This presentation looks into three years of planning and development to deliver one of the largest commercial hospitality programmes for any global sporting event, and the marketing strategy and tactics implemented to achieve a forecast of over £110m in sales.

This is a free event for businesses, BU students, BU staff and BU Alumni. Refreshments will be provided, to find out more or to book your place please use the link below:

http://bucfe.com/events/the-business-of-rugby-world-cup-2015/

Creative and Digital Business Briefings are out now!

Funding opportunities, Knowledge Exchange and Impact Team, Research news

The March edition of the  monthly creative business briefing for the UK’s creative industries is now live!

This is a monthly publication that provides a digest of useful information about funding, financing, support and events to assist creative entrepreneurs with their innovation and growth agendas. This month’s edition offers edited highlights of a number of public funding programmes from leading organisations supporting our sector including: Innovate UK, IC tomorrow, Nesta, British Film Institute, Creative England, Creative Scotland & more.

Now in it’s sixth month of publication, feedback from you the community continues to inform us that this is a valued resource.

Please click here for the digital business briefing.

£6m funding – ‘Creating smart products from smart materials’

Funding opportunities, Research news

 

£6m funding opening soon for registration – 16 March 2015

Innovate UK in partnership with Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) will invest up to £6 million in collaborative research and development (R&D) projects. Information on briefing events.

 The aim of  this funding competition is to encourage the development of smart products that use a combination of functional, hybrid and multiple materials. More information & Competition registration page. 

Competition Briefing & Consortia Building Events, 9th March onwards at several locations

The event is an excellent opportunity for you to receive first hand information about the competition – its scope, application process, key dates etc. as well as meet and network with peers, potential partners, market leaders & innovators in the industry. More information & event registration pages. 

For queries about this competition, please contact support@innovateuk.gov.uk. For queries about the events, please contact steve.morris@ktn-uk.org or Andy Sellars – andy.sellars@innovateuk.gov.uk
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£4M Protecting Data in Industry

Funding opportunities, Knowledge Exchange

 

 

Innovate UK is to invest up to £4 million in collaborative research and development (R&D) projects that tackle the growing risks of disruption to internet-enabled businesses and their digital supply chains.

With the Internet of Things providing new sources of data and end-users’ ever-increasing digital footprint, it is difficult to adequately protect the interests of a business, industry or sector. There is also a lack of understanding of the effects disruption may have.  Desired proposals would address the challenge of protecting a business, industry or sector from digital disruption that could compromise data across the digital supply chain.

A series of briefing events are being run during March and April:

Belfast: 25 March 2015 – https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/protecting-data-in-industry-briefing-belfast-registration-15751274486

Cardiff: 30 March 2015 – https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/protecting-data-in-industry-briefing-cardiff-registration-15751564353

London: 31 March 2015 – https://www.etouches.com/118529

Edinburgh: 01 April 2015 – https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/protecting-data-in-industry-briefing-edinburgh-registration-15751602467

Financial technologies funding

Funding opportunities, Knowledge Exchange

 

Attend the Fintech Innovation Contest Assembly – 25 Feb 2015

This facilitated knowledge sharing and networking event, organised by IC tomorrow, a digital programme for Innovate UK, and the Knowledge Transfer Network brings together leading industry experts to explore the challenges and opportunities around innovation in financial technologies.  There will also be the chance to find out about the upcoming launch of IC tomorrow’s funded ‘Financial Technologies Innovation Contest.

If you have technology or expertise relevant to the financial services industry, or if you are interested to find out about how to navigate this expanding market, then this free evening event is for you. This session provides the opportunity to meet with entrepreneurs, brands, academics, technologists, designers, and thought leaders across a range of financial services sectors.

Register at: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/fintech-assembly-registration-15426001586

 £175K Financial Technologies Innovation Contest

The IC tomorrow Financial Technologies innovation contest will offer a total of £175k to businesses to encourage innovation within Financial Technologies. Through a range of challenges, including themes of Education, Cyber Security, Transactions, Personal Finance Management, Compliance and Regulation, IC tomorrow are looking for innovative proposals from companies with digital solutions relevant to these themes within the financial sector.

The briefing event will provide an opportunity to get insight about the challenges from our challenge partners and all you need to know about the application process for the Financial Technologies Innovation Contest.

London: 04 March 2015 – https://www.etouches.com/118520

Online Webinar: 04 March 2015 – https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/online-webinar-financial-technologies-innovation-contest-briefing-registration-15794522843

Cardiff: 05 March 2015 – https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/financial-technologies-innovation-contest-briefing-cardiff-registration-15749448023

Edinburgh: 10 March 2015 – https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/financial-technologies-innovation-contest-briefing-edinburgh-registration-15749741902

Belfast: 11 March 2015 – https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/financial-technologies-innovation-contest-briefing-belfast-registration-15749951529

SW businesses can benefit from £5k of funding from Creative England

Business Engagement, Funding opportunities, Knowledge Exchange

Creative England is offering creative digital businesses in the South West the chance to apply for a third round of Business Strategy and Innovation Vouchers.

The scheme provides companies with £1,000 – £5,000 to subsidise much of the cost of procuring expert third party services in order to aid growth.

Funded by the Creative Industries iNet programme through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the Regional Growth Fund (RGF), the initiative focuses strongly on digital innovation and business strategy.

The Creative England Innovation Programme helps creative companies build and sell innovative products and services more successfully. This work is delivered through structured projects – which include seed investment, mentoring, marketing, and business support, planning and strategy. These projects help companies jump over business barriers to grow more quickly and profitably.

In order to apply to this round, businesses must be based in Bristol, Bath, Dorset, Devon, Wiltshire, Somerset or Gloucestershire, and be able to provide a total equalling 30% of the requested amount in match funding.

The voucher scheme is part of a wider £314k programme of support through the Creative England Innovation Programme.

Applications for the Voucher Scheme close on February 27th, 2015. For more information please read the guidelines below. Companies can apply directly here.

 

A New Book of Business Ecosystems

BU research, Research news

A new book on the business ecosystem theory has been published by Palgrave Macmillan recently, which was co-authored by Dr.Ke Rong from the business school and Dr.Yongjiang Shi from University of Cambridge. This book systematically deconstructs a business ecosystem and explores the way to nurture a business ecosystem, by learning from rich cases in a global context. This book is also endorsed by Dr.James Moore as below, who originated the business ecosystem concept in 1993 and authored the most cited business ecosystem book ‘The death of competition: leadership and strategy in the age of business ecosystems’ in 1996.

The new book title is:

‘Business Ecosystems: Constructs, Configurations, and the Nurturing Process’

Authored by Ke Rong (Bournemouth University) & Yongjiang Shi (University of Cambridge)

Abstract:

In the past 20 years, the business ecosystem theory has captured the attention and fired the imagination of many involved in industrial innovation and manufacturing transformation. However, the concepts, boundaries and theoretical systems are still not comprehensively explored and structured. In order to tackle how a company can nurture its business ecosystem for future sustainable competitive advantages, Business Ecosystems provides very detailed and convincing case studies demonstrating the dramatic transformations of the mobile computing industry and the significant impact from its business ecosystem. This book systematically examines business ecosystems in an emerging industry context while fundamentally exploring and identifying four essential areas of business ecosystems: the business ecosystems’ key constructive elements, their typical patterns of element configurations, the five-phase process of their life cycle, and the nurturing strategies and processes from a company perspective. The book not only contributes to different disciplines but also provides insights to practitioners who can be inspired to develop their business ecosystems.

The book’s link:

http://www.amazon.com/Business-Ecosystems-Constructs-Configurations-Nurturing/dp/1137405902/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1422678158&sr=8-1&keywords=business+ecosystem

http://www.palgrave.com/page/detail/business-ecosystems/?k=9781137405906&loc=us

 

Endorsement from Dr.James Moore

Business Ecosystems by Ke Rong and Yongjiang Shi is a landmark in the field of business strategy.  As someone who has lived my life with managers developing business ecosystems, I can attest that the authors “get” the essence and the power of the approach.

Business ecosystems are the dominant design for strategy making in technology-based businesses today.  In practice, business ecosystems are everywhere:  producer-centered, customer-centered, people, technology and product centered.  Business ecosystems nest within others.  Business ecosystems are themselves complexly related.

The authors provide a model for studying business ecosystems in their richness. They review two decades of academic research in order to clarify the construct.  The authors show that business ecosystems dynamics reflect the principles of general systems theory, agent-based-modeling and the mathematics of networks.  Helpfully, the authors demonstrate this by exploring the logical extension of leading systems-based concepts of advanced manufacturing into the domain of business ecosystems.

They demonstrate that the business ecosystem field of application is at a higher logical type than other theories of strategy–that is, business ecosystems ideas guide leaders to intervene to continually reshape industry structure, and to do so simultaneously within multiple related industries. Leaders collaborate to establish ecosystem-wide shared values and visions that in turn support collective conduct and result in shared gains in performance.

Business ecosystems are notoriously difficult for outsiders to study.  The guiding visions of business ecosystems are inherently cross-company and cross-industry, are usually held secret by members, and peer far into the future.

Ke Rong was able to gain access to top leaders in three related very-large-scale global business ecosystems, originating on three different continents and in three forms of capitalism, all contributing to one of the most dynamic fields of world business.  The result is a narrative of great interest to executives as well as researchers.

By sketching the story in its broadest and most complete form, there is much for the rest of us to chew on, refine and question.  The breakthrough is that we can do so as a community, with this work and its methodology as a foundation.

James F. Moore, Concord, Massachusetts, December, 2014

 

 

 

 

BU conference addresses finance and lending for small businesses

BU research, Business Engagement

A conference at Bournemouth University explored some of the issues around finance and lending to Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs).

The two-day Entrepreneurship and Access to Finance for SMEs conference brought together speakers and delegates from industry, academia and government agencies to discuss the most pertinent issues of SME finance and credit risk.

A number of breakout sessions and workshops explored key issues around SME finance, borrowing and policy, while keynote speeches were also given by leading names in the finance and lending world – Thortsen Beck, from City University London, and Josh Ryan-Collins, of the New Economics Foundation.

The event marked the start of a project which will be delivered after a successful bid to the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), the UK’s leading research and training agency addressing economic and social concerns.

Opening the conference, BU’s Professor Jens Holscher, Principal Investigator for the project, said: “This is the start of a two-year project and the first of seven meetings.

“This is ‘blue sky’ and so we wanted to exchange ideas and even get new things we should be looking at.”

He added: “A key long term and strategic position of BU is to become known for regional economic development and SMEs are key, so we see this project as part of a bigger vision of regional economic development.”

The project team consists of Professor Jens Hölscher and Co-Investigators Professor Andrew Mullineux and Professor Dean Patton, with colleagues from the University of Brighton, Aston University and the University of Nottingham.

The project team will also collaborate with Professor Andreas Horsch and his colleagues from the Technical University of Freiberg in Germany, who will contribute on access to finance from Germany.

Start-up and innovation opportunities in next generation mobile

Business Engagement

The next generation of mobile communications technology, 5G, will be a flexible infrastructure capable of handling our ever increasing demand for mobile data and providing connectivity for a wide range of future technologies, from the Internet of Things to digital healthcare, and from advanced gaming to driverless cars. 5G’s short and fast network response times will unleash a new wave of exciting and disruptive applications and with experts predicting deployment from as early as 2020, this evening’s speakers will consider the opportunities for smart start-ups and innovators and share their thoughts on how entrepreneurs can seize this opportunity to create new, world-class businesses.

Register to attend the event of February 5 2015.

Confirmed Speakers:

  • Chair: Keith Robson, COO, 5G Innovation Centre
  • Professor Stephen Temple, Technical Secretary to the Technical Advisory Board, 5G Innovation Centre
  • Dr Mike Short CBE FREng FIET, Vice President, Telefonica Europe and Director, Enterprise M3
  • Gerry Foster, 5G Systems architect & Innovation Gateway Senior Technical Project Manager

Speaker biographies.

Find out more