Go 50-50 With Branson?

If you have read tone of the earlier editions of Richard Branson’s autobiography “Losing My Virginity”, I strongly recommend picking up the latest version. Although demonstrating an early flare for social entrepreneurship through the start of student councelling service in the late 1960ies, Branson has later developed a sense for combining business and environmental issues. This is manifested not only in the non-profit foundation Virgin Unite and The Elders, but also as a part of the business strategies in many of the Virgin companies as can be seen in the sustainable development report.

I hope all schools of entrepreneurship, including Branson’s own, the Branson Centre of Entrepreneurship, put this book on their curriculum reading list. It has it all: stories of how to design and develop businesses, its impact on friends and family, daring adventures and tragic accidents, intricate intrigues, global peace work, fighting AIDS, TB and malaria, and so on. Although the book is, of course, only one side of the story it nevertheless made me understand better why Branson was awarded a knighthood in 1999.

I’m also very fond of the Virgin website with its cheeky approach to everybody wanting to discuss business prospects. A recent opportunity for keen and innovative bloggers was recently launched: become a guest blogger av Virgin.com! As I haven’t yeat found out how to compete with all these talented young people who know how to make full use of all the nifty technology available, I make a point of declaring that the deal is not fair and not in line with Virgin policy. If I’m to be a guest blogger at Virgin.com, I think it’s only fair that Sir Richard contribute to lenamholmberg.blogger.com!




We Want Peace official video supported by Virgin Unite and The Elders.

Furnish Stories

Last month an article in my daily newspaper caught my eye. It was about a newly formed design company called Design by Leftovers. Together with other artist they give life to old furniture, but the refurbishment does not stop there. To each chair, wardrobe and sideboard they make up a story to go along with it. Meet Lola, the jazz singer from New York, or Charlotte, the shy rider, or Tiffany or Vera or… They call their furniture pre-loved, a term I like a lot!

I wish they had been around when I had my armchairs restored a couple of years ago, because then the design might have become a little more daring than the chocolate brown cloth they are wrapped in now. However, with respect to stories they are full of them since one was bought by me for my first own real home and the other was purchased by my parents for my Grandmother’s last residence, a room at a nursing home.

Not only furniture is remade in this fashion. The song “All by Myself” is for many people associated with the movie “Bridget Jones’s Diaries” (and many think Celine Dion is singing, when in fact it’s Jamie O'Neal). However, for me it brings back memories of my early years when I borrowed my sister’s Eric Carmen record and sang along this tune. My favourite though, was and is Everything. Come to think of it, I don’t think she got it back. And lucky me I can still play it, because I bought an excellent NAD stereo back in the 1980ies when the CD technology was quite new but hadn’t replaced the gramophone record yet. Still going strong. Still loved.

Acting Entrepreneurs

Last night one of the TV channels showed an old interview from 2004 with Hugh Jackman. It was from the show “Inside the Actor’s Studio” and James Lipton asked the questions.

I didn’t know Jackman had a background in musicals, but there was also many other new things I learned. I vagely knew about the Alexander Technique as a way of becoming more relaxed in your movements, but I had not put it in the context of English upper-class behaviour as Jackman did. When doing the “Kate and Leopold” movie, he had to take classes in how to act as a gentleman. He pointed out that the manners require you be not stiff at all but as a way of being very agile but also polite and really listen to others. To be present and aware. Mindfulness.

In schools in Sweden today it’s really popular to talk about entrepreneurial learning and teaching where you focus on what you need to learn to become an entrepreneur. To me, the pedagogics is very similar to problem-based learning (check out this teacher’s approach to entrepreneurial maths). However, maybe this needs to be combined with more theatre lessons where all the entrepreneurs-to-be learn how to better observe other people (and perhaps also animals) in order to really get to know them, and also become better listeners. Very good competencies for successful entrepreneurs wanting to co-produce products with customers and to be really good managers.

So You Think You Can?

My absolute favourite competition is “So You Think You Can Dance”. With millions of American teenagers calling in to vote each time and with spin-offs in more than 15 countries, I’m sure it’s a huge commercial success although it has fierce competition from shows like America’s Got Talent. It has a number of nifty features such as the young ambitious dancers from all over the US and with a background in all kinds of dance, the talented choreographers and the competent jury and a very tall and brainy hostess. And it is often breathtaking beautiful. But it has many other qualities:

• Selecting the contestants based on both talent and coachability, and making them dance solo, in pairs and in ensambles.
• A passionate jury focusing on constructive feedback and not afraid to show their emotions.
• Clever combination of jury and audience voting.
• Good mix of music, where new talents are introduced (for example SYTYCD 4 featured Lady Gaga’s first televised U.S. performance.
• Good use of social media with a website as its hub but with a presence all over the place.
• Interesting combination of competition and foundation, demonstrating a higher purpose (developing dance throughout the US/world) for example through announcing a national dance day.
• Excellent scenography with lovely costumes, make-up, lights, camera, editing… and an enthusiastic audience.
• A very good start for the contestants’ careers not only through the TV show but with the following tour together with former stars.

It would be so cool if I could find a way to implement just a tiny tiny bit of all this in “competitions” I’m involved in! What if for example research funding could be distributed not only according to an expert panel’s opinon but in combination with votes from the research community?

Feeding Black Ducks Bullshit

A mallard-loving friend of mine told me about the Black Duck Test. At first, I thought he was talking about Black Swans, but apparently he was referring to a much more common kind of event. Rumor has it that the Black Duck company is well on its way to do a Google. That is, to be so successful in branding that the product name becomes the general one for a phenomenon.

A Black Duck Test is used when, for example, an investor wants to get a grip of to what extent Open Source code has been used in a piece of software and what licences apply. The use of Open Souce can help developers find a way around the "software iron triangle", by reducing cost and time but not features. However, if badly managed in terms of origin the code can be nightmare if you want to sell the company and the investors want to do a technical due dilligence.

From London Spring 2008

In Sweden right now, it's not possible to open a newspaper or watch TV without being bombarded with political messages. General Election Day is September 19 and it's going to be a close fight between the two blocks, with red-green and centre-right coalition. However, since this is Sweden, there's little difference between the blocks where everybody agrees upon the ambition to keep the welfare state and that more companies and entrepreneurship are needed. The major disagreements concerns what taxes to raise and lower. The established parties are also united in their strong detest of the anti-immigrant party, and I sincerely hope we can keep them out of the Parliament.

It's interesting to see new kinds of services in relation to the election. All parties have been inspired by Obama's use of the Internet, and are now freely experimenting with various kinds of social media. But there are other examples such as the media companies who have started blogs where citizens can ask for verification of political claims such as Faktakollen. You can also get the major party leaders as cut-out dolls, although I'm afraid I don't think they'll make it to Stardolls.

However there's one important service missing. In politics memory is short. For example, the Socialist Party which usually is very pro Keynes, is now complaining about the way the current government has been running the finances where lots of public spending has been used to keep unemployment down. So what I would like is a kind of Black Duck Test for party manifestos, where it can be checked to what extent parts have been taken from older ones or even other parties', but also to what extent the negation of current politics can be found among former critique of others. Now, that would be a service I could engage in!

In Bed With Jeremy Northam

All frequent flyers have their own tricks to fight jetlag. Mine is to use audiobooks. It might result in having to listen to the book many more hours that planned but it works well with me. It fills your mind and in contrast to a book, you don´t need to have the lights on.

I have just finished listening to ”Brideshead Revisited” excellently read by Jeremy Northam, one of my favourite British actors. According to a review of this and its predecessor read by Jeremy Irons, both have their merits. Could it be attributed to the fact that both actors attended the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School?

However, the very best audiobooks according to my taste are the dramatisations such as the Paul Temple mystery series, for example The Madison Mystery, Dorothy L. Sayers’ Unpleasantness At The Bellona Club and Elisabeth Kostova’s The Historian. Then you bring a full cast to bed and not only a Trollope!

Feast or Famine?

As a vegetarian, I thought it would be a good idea to attend the Land introductory session at the Tällberg Rework the World conference. Here several projects were presented, addressing better use of land such as the Jagritikullu initiative empowering women through providing better energy sources for cooking and Idesam focusing on deforestation in the Amazon. But what really caught my attention was this video from the  Multimedia Institute on the Environment University of Minnesota because it had such a powerform format and message. I'm happy for our decision to serve vegetarian food at the FOKUS Innovation conference June 16-17 in Göteborg!