Posted on Jan 17, 2015 on Create Hub, here. Business Incubators Supporting UK Companies For the last three years Samuel Fry has worked within business incubators: centres which support companies to grow. He reflects on this time and explains why he will be sad to leave these amazing organisations behind.In early 2012, as I approached the end of my Masters Degree at University of Bristol, I had a decision to make. What kind of job should I apply for? Would I enter the world of corporate banking, the media, some form of graduate programme or perhaps join a small start-up? Like anyone, this was a difficult decision to make but one job called out to me more than anywhere else. While studying, I was one of those students that started stuff. Whether establishing theatre festivals, developing papers or creating websites; I always had a project to get going with. So, naturally I found myself drawn to areas of the university that supported entrepreneurship. Fortunately, University of Bristol had a lot to offer a budding entrepreneur – not that I would have necessarily called myself that. They had talks on how to run a business (from “Idea Generation” through to “Intellectual Property” and “Finance”), one-to-one support, a New Enterprise Competition, a couple of student-run “enterprise” societies and – most importantly for me – a business incubator called “Basecamp”. I had engaged with each of these areas of support at one stage or another, so when it came to deciding what to do when I graduated I felt that there was only one choice. Running a Business Incubator for Students One of the most amazing parts of the enterprise support at University of Bristol is its structure. Namely, that they encourage former students to manage a lot of these activities. In 2012, I was interviewed for the role of Enterprise Consultant at the university, a role which would place me as the liaison between the University’s Enterprise Managers and the student body. I was very lucky to be offered the role and so had the privileged of facilitating the work of three Student Enterprise Societies, planning speaker events, workshops, enterprise projects and challenges involving local and national businesses. Alongside my colleagues Will and Shaun, I also co-ran Basecamp, our student business incubator, which supported 130 student businesses in that academic year. Now, student business incubators are quite different to any other business incubator. The concept is not necessarily about helping them to grow their businesses as, basically, most of them do not have businesses. Some do; yet, most of them simply have an idea. So, the role of Basecamp was to help them make that idea real. It was about giving them the confidence and outlining the steps that they needed to take. These places are really important. They are a place where entrepreneurship, innovation and professionalism is encouraged while students are studying. People often claim that students are ill-prepared for the world of work; however, places like Basecamp challenge that assumption. It provides a place for students who want to get real life experience of running a business, project or society. These were students who were spending time, outside of their studies, to create and run businesses. How could you not be inspired? Exploring the Business Incubators I had a great time in the Enterprise Education team at University of Bristol. One of the other advantages of working there is that I was able to see how another incubator worked. Bristol SETsquared is a business incubator for corporate companies and university spin-outs. The incubator is connected to the university and, so, worked closely with myself and my colleagues to plan ahead for the student business incubator. Bristol SETsquared is a real success story. In 2008 it won the UKBI “Established Business Incubator of the Year” award, in 2012 it won the UKBI “Outstanding Contribution to Business Incubation” and, in the 6 years to 2013, it helped its member ventures raise some £83m of debt, grant and equity funding. For me, they were also great at introducing me to the world of professional Incubators and Accelerator programmes. These days Bristol SETsquared is part of the Engine Shed where it shares its space with other organisations that support businesses to grow, including: Invest in Bristol and Bath, West of England Local Enterprise Partnership, Digicity and WebStart Bristol. While I was there, I was also introduced to other amazing organisations, for instance: Wayra UnLtd, which supports companies that are enabling social change using digital technology, and the Pervasive Media Studio, a space which hosts a community of artists, creative companies, technologists and academics exploring experience design and creative technology. I have always been drawn to creative and artistic companies, so I wanted to find out if there were any organisations that would focus on supporting these companies. There are a number of organisations that provide business coaching and support for creative companies. School for Creative Start-Ups, for instance, was started by former Dragon’s Den investor Doug Richard to support people to start creative businesses; while, organisations like the Barbican Centre are also entering this space having recently announced Fish Island Labs, a unique new centre to kickstart the careers of a new generation of emerging talent spanning technology and the arts. Each of these organisations are really important for supporting the growth of creative businesses. However, there was another company that, on leaving Bristol, I wanted to join. Creative Business Incubator for Designer-Makers The company I joined is quite extraordinary. Cockpit Arts is an award winning social enterprise and the UK’s only creative business incubator for designer-makers. They provide studio space and on-site business support to 170 businesses at any time, in their London sites in Holborn and Deptford. You may well ask, what is a designer-maker? Well, their definition is any company with a craft element to their work. So, their studios are full of jewellers, ceramicists, weavers and other artists. The craft industry is a difficult industry to work in. Due to the processes involved, the pieces created can take a long time and a lot of skill to make. Pricing is often high. Yet, how can you put a price on the opportunity to meet the person that has made an item that you wear, or decorated your home with? What value can you attribute to the experience of seeing where a product is made? Running a craft business can be tough. Yet, those supported by Cockpit Arts are exceptionally strong craftspeople with interesting and imaginative work. They already have the creative skill. Often, what they need is business advice from their peers and expert coaches. Having started in 1986, Cockpit Arts became formal incubator in 2005. Since then, designer-makers’ turnover and profits have increased year-on-year. In 2013, research also showed that, on average, the businesses at Cockpit Arts turnover 30% more profit than the industry average. The organisation runs as a social enterprise, so any profit they make is ploughed back to support the beneficiaries most in need or disadvantaged. However, they still have a small funding gap which is why they are also a registered charity which asks for donations. This is where I was involved, raising money for the organisation whether in the form of donations or by generating other kinds of income.
Organisations like Cockpit Arts, Basecamp, SETsquared and others are there to support innovative, growing companies. It is essential, therefore, that they adapt to the needs of these companies. That is one of the things that I have found inspiring about working with them: they are quick to adapt and innovative about the way that they work. Each of these organisations are going from strength to strength because they are continually shifting the way that they work and adding new ways of supporting their businesses. It’s really inspiring working in an organisation like this as, quite often, when you spot a problem or opportunity you can change it straight away. I am now leaving this organisation to join a larger corporate organisation. This comes with a lot of positives, but I know that I will miss the adaptability of these business incubators. Not to mention the variety of inspirational companies that are being supported. So, for now at least, I am stepping away from them. However, I won’t be “leaving” them. I’ll be keeping my eye on h0w they develop and I would encourage anyone else to do the same.
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Posted on Jan 2, 2017, on Create Hub, here. How to make design decisions for different users
What happens when you need to design an application or a website for a set of users, but each of those users want very different things? Samuel Fry describes how he responded to that challenge. A while ago, I was working on a project that involved designing different experiences for different users. The tool that we were creating intended to help users conduct daily tasks in their workplace. We had 2 types of users: team members and their managers. Both of which conducted very different daily tasks. Essentially, the team had daily activities with different clients and their managers analysed how effective those team members were being. The problem that we faced was that the team members were naturally quite sceptical of how they are measured by the managers – and why. Challenge of working with different usersThe tool that we were creating was not meant to change the way that either group of users work. We were just trying to make their work more efficient and effective. However, by conducting user testing with both sets of users (and openly sharing those insights), we were naturally revealing how each of them conduct their daily activities. For the team members, this meant that they were naturally curious and concerned about what their managers were analysing. We had a great manager who said to her team, during one of our user testing sessions, that: “You are seeing some diagrams here which shows you how my mind works. Behind the scenes I have always been using the information that you and the rest of the team give me to understand what is happening on a broader level. This is not new and it should not affect your job or the way we are managing your performance. It is simply being automated now, rather than me producing these diagrams myself. Nothing is new.” But the team members were still unsure. Convincing users that new tools will help them – not hinder themThis got me thinking about different users’ view of internal systems where they report information. The aim is to help them in their job, not to create more reporting but sometimes that is the view of it. So, how do you combat this? Perhaps you keep them completely separate when it comes to sharing insights from user testing. But – what happened when the sponsor of the project is one of those sets of users who want to see the other side? Customising applications for different usersThe manager went on to say, “For your dashboard I do not want you to have any information that won’t help you in your job. This tool should not make your life harder, or mean that you have to report more. Your dashboard should make your life easier and my dashboard should help me.” This was a great manager for us to be working with as they understood the benefit of customising the application for different users. However, we still faced the challenge of ensuring that both sets of users believed that creating this solution was a great idea in the first place. My instinct is always to be open about why design choices are made. However, perhaps this suggests that there are times that it makes strategic sense to keep different users apart. That way you ensure that they are not concerned about the needs of other users and they do not ask for features that would never help them in their jobs. I would love to hear how others approach this challenge. So, please contact me if you have approached it differently. Originally posted on Jan 4, 2016 on Create Hub, here. Following your passion might not always be the answer
Many CEO’s and entrepreneurs say that the route to success comes from following your passion. Samuel Fry explains why this may not always be possible. At university I was one of those students that started things. I started theatre festivals, websites and student newspapers. I loved the idea of creating something from scratch and growing it into a something that people cherished. Naturally, I found myself drawn to entrepreneur societies. Not because I saw myself as an entrepreneur; that word felt tainted with the idea of big business. In my mind an entrepreneur was someone that had a small idea, they worked hard on it and it made them billions. I certainly did not see myself as an entrepreneur and I wasn’t convinced that I wanted to be one either. I went to entrepreneur societies for two reasons. Firstly, I wanted to see if I could get some funding to make my ideas happen. Some people would deny that this was why they went to entrepreneur societies but, in my experience at least, that seemed to be one of the main draws. Secondly, I wanted to meet cool people. People that were creating new businesses and making their ideas real. Listening to EntrepreneursOne of the main benefits of being part of a university’s entrepreneur society is that you get to hear from some really inspirational people. People who have founded their own businesses or have risen to Chief Executive level. Throughout the time that I watched them give talks, there was one phrase that seemed to come up time and time again. The phrase was “Follow Your Passion“. F0llow Your PassionThe first time that I heard this phrase I felt encouraged. Yes, I thought, I should follow my passion. I should only work on the thing that I love the most. If I do, I am likely to be more dedicated to it and more knowledgeable on the subject. It was reassuring. Yet, over time I felt less encouraged. I became frustrated. It seemed to me that if you have a passion that you can make money from, then that’s fantastic. But what if you don’t have a passion like that? Then what do you do? Ninety percent of my friends at the entrepreneur society seemed to have the same problem. They really liked the idea of creating something new, or being an “entrepreneur”, but their ideas for businesses rarely came out of a passion. Their ideas were either fun but impossible to monetise or ideas that sounded good but that they didn’t care too much about – even if they said they did during their elevator pitches. Why Not Follow Your Curiosity?A couple of years ago I listened to a podcast and I heard someone echo my feelings. The podcast was the TED Radio Hour and the episode was called “Where Does Creativity Come From?”. It featured Elizabeth Gilbert, the author of Eat, Pray, Love. In the podcast the presenter, Guy Raz, asks her about creativity. In her response she begins talking about people being told to “follow their passion”. Gilbert explains that this is one of the most “intimidating” and “cruel” things to say to people. In her words: “If somebody has one central, powerful, burning passion, they’re probably already following it because that’s sort of the definition of passion – is that you don’t have a choice. If you don’t – which is a lot of people, have one central, burning, passion and somebody tells you to follow your passion, I think you have the right to give them the finger (laughter) because it just makes you feel worse.” This was exactly how I felt. Of course, if you have a passion you will follow it whether it makes you money or not. In reality, if it does make you money that’s wonderful as most people’s passions cost them money. Instead, Gilbert suggests that if you do not have a passion then you should follow your curiosity: “Curiosity is something that anybody can access any day. Your curiosity may lead you to your passion or may it not. It may have been for, air quotes, nothing, in which case all you’ve done your entire life is spend your existence in pursuit of the things that made you feel curious and inspired and that should be good enough. Like, if you get to do that, that’s a wonderful way to spend your time here.” So, ever since listening to that podcast I have done just that. I am not following my passion as, quite frankly, I do not have a passion. I have many passions. Instead, I follow my curiosity. |