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smartest brains in business
Welcome to Smarta’s rst eBook.
To mark the entering o not jst
a new year but a new decade
we thoght we’d ask 30 o the
smartest brains in bsiness how
the thoght the entreprenerial
landscape wold evolve over the
net 10 ears.
Entrepreners, marketers, investors,
athors, pblishers, models-trned-
retailers, Dragons, and Twitter roalt
alike, we asked them two simple qestions:
This eBook captres their views not so
mch or posterit, bt as an act o
collaboration and inspiration. We’d like
to thank all or contribtors and rge
that, shold o nd it sel, o share
it b linking to this page, tweeting abot
it or emailing the link to or contacts
in the same spirit as the contribtors.
Where do o see the
biggest opportnities or
entrepreners in 2010?
How will the sccessl
companies o the net 10
ears dier rom those othe previos decade?
what’sthis?
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smartest brains in business
trend analysisSo what did the smartest brains in bsiness
have to sa? Well we’ll let o discover
that or orsel, bt the ollowing Wordle
provides a snapshot.
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Imran HakimCEO, Hakim Group
Lcian TarnowskiFounder and CEO,
BraveNewTalent.com
Thomas PowerFounder, Ecademy
Amanda RoseCreative Strategist,
and Founder of Twestival
Barr VitoPartner, Winston & Strawn;
co-founder, Bootlaw
Matt ThomasEditor, Smarta
Click on a brain to view each sbmission.
Once viewed, click smarta logo to retrn to this page
Dog Richard
Entrepreneur and investor,founder of SchoolforStartups
Sarah Been
Founder, MySingleFriend.comand Tepilo
Craig Newmark
Founder, Craigslist
Phil Jones
Executive Director, Brother UK
Zee Kane
Editor, TheNextWeb
Jlie Meer
Chief Executive, AriadneCapital and online Dragon
Ryan CarsonFounder, Carsonied
Michael SmithFounder, Firebox.com
and Mind Candy
Stewart TownsendManager, Sun Startup
Essentials EMEA
Ben KeeneFounder, Tribewanted
Ale BellingerFounder, SmallBizPod
Dave McQeenFounder, Magnicent Minds
Conrad WindhamEntrepreneur and CEO
of U308 Goldings plc
Basheera KhanTechnology writer and user
experience consultant
Caprice Model and Founder,
By Caprice
Penn PowerFounder and Community
Builder, Ecademy
Sháá WasmndEntrepreneur, founder
and CEO of Smarta
And McloghlinCo-founder, Huddle
Simon D Co-founder, Bulldog
Ben Wa Founder, The Rainmakers
Brad BrtonMotivational speaker, managing
director of 4Networking and
author of Get Off Your Arse
Richard AlvinDirector - Capital
Business Media
Pal Carr Author, ‘Bringing Nothing
to the Party: True Confessions
of a New Media Whore’
Oli BarrettFounder, Make Your Mark
with a Tenner & initiator of
Speednetworking in the UK
smartest brains in business
contents
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ENTREPRENEuR AND INVESTOR,fOuNDER Of SCHOOLfORSTARTuPS
www.schoolorstartps.co.k
www.twitter.com/doglasrichar d
www.twitter.com/s4startps
Dougichard
Te number one opporuniy or new
enrepreneurs in 2010 is o ake advanage
o he sea-change o diminishing coss o
echnology. Everyhing you need o do, any creaive endeavour, is becoming ‘nearly’ ree.
smartest brains in business
Whether you’re a musician, artist, author, want to dovideo, travel, or you have a passion for making violins,
it’s going to become ‘nearly’ free to express thatpassion in a protable form – you’ll no longer have to be
passionate about what you do, you can solely ‘do’ what
you’re passionate about; and that is a reversal of history.
We’re entering a land-grab of expertise. Each individualhas the opportunity to be the brand or nexus around
something. Whether it’s depreciation of ancient violins,1962 MGs or some sort of deviant sexual practice
- it makes no difference. The heart of it is that thedistribution of media and the conversation we’re
mediating through social media is going to requirearbiters and editors of taste. Twitter is the tip of the
iceberg and the true opportunity of 2010 will be to takethe passion you have and build a working world around it.
Business as an activity is going to be measured on othermetrics beyond short-term protability. The notion of
protability is going to refer back to what it once meant,because we have a system now where the prot of a
company is not knowable in the time period when it isearning. That’s the failure of the banks – they thoughtthey were making a prot, and they were not.
Whether you like it or not, if you’re running a businessyou’re going to be held accountable. No one ever asks
you ‘what portion of the world’s natural resources youused in pursuit of this outcome?’ If we burdened every
single thing in this world with its true cost, and weasserted that the earth itself is a bank of irretrievable
resources that you have to contribute to as much toas you give up, then there’d be a marked argument to
measure things differently.
As we’re going to be held accountable as businesses
on measures we’re not held accountable for now, asentrepreneurs we’re going to need bigger shoulders
than ever.
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PHIL JONES
ExECuTIVE DIRECTOR, BROTHER uK www.thecorporatebbble.blogspot.com
www.twitter.com/philjones40
www.twitter.com/brother_k
Social media networks have opened up
global markets and customers are now
only a keystroke away. Listening to the
buzz in the networks can create unique
opportunities to meet the fast changing
appetites of today’s customers.
Time, attention and trust continue to be
the big barriers for market penetration.
Time-poor people with low levels of
attention and trust for what you have to
say or do. Opportunities exist for goods
or services which assist in managing the
work/life balance. More people are roam
(not home) working. They will need more
cloud and mobile-based applications
which allow them to run their virtual
businesses and lives.
New decade businesses will harness
the power of the crowd. The key mantra:
‘collaborate, elaborate and adapt’.
Those companies which listen will
redene the way businesses are run:
rening, reviewing and personalising
products or experiences quickly.
Hyper-speed is the new essence of
doing business. Blink and you’ll miss
out as fads explode and fade. New
communication platforms like Google
Wave will provide the platforms for
global collaboration at a personal and
enterprise level – business will be morecollaborative, less centralised, more
de-sensitised.
Businesses will come and go more
quickly, by design. Businesses will be
a cocktail of different ideas, delivery
mechanisms and origins.
Massive change lies ahead, the
successful companies of the next
decade will launch products highly
tuned to their market, needing lower
levels of market development funding.
The crowd will take them to market,
be their marketing machine and their
product development engines.
here’s never been a beter
worse ime o sar a business.
An oxymoron is undeniable i
you consider how diferenhe landscape acing
enrepreneurs looks now,
compared o previous
recessions.
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smartest brains in business
Zee KaneEDITOR, THENExTWEB
www.thenetweb.com
www.ee.me
www.twitter.com/ee
The perception of the mobile has
changed drastically since the release
of the iPhone and it has opened
people’s eyes as to how easy it now
is to be mobile yet ‘connected’.
Therefore, I predict people will thirst
for ideas that won’t require them to
be stuck behind a computer but rather
out there, developing their ofine
community but still connected to the
world via their mobile.
Seed funding took off during the latter
part of the last decade and I see that
continuing to develop, producing and
funding increasingly innovative ideas.
We’ll see businesses and individuals
explore unusual, innovative but
potentially lucrative business ideas.
An increasing belief that experience
(rather than extensive education) is
more benecial to success will see
an entirely new era of successful
companies and business leaders,
with age and cultural origins very
different from the CEOs and founders
of the past.
Small businesses and ‘personalities’
will thrive – and it may only take a few
people, or even just one, to create
a successful and highly-inuential
company.
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JULIE
MEYERCHIEf ExECuTIVE, ARIADNE CAPITAL
AND ONLINE DRAGON
www.ariadnecapital.com
www.twitter.com/jliemariemee r
www.bbc.co.k/dragonsden/dragons/jliemeer.shtml
There is a profound network-orientation to business
in 2010, and that goes further than just the fact
that social networks have become pervasive.
The winners of this next phase of business are
those companies who understand their role in the
ecosystem in which they operate and are able
to align the business model for the ecosystem.
So the biggest opportunities are those wherethe entrepreneurs are able to leverage what I call
‘ecosystem economics’.
The best companies ‘think big, start small, move
fast’. The successful companies of the next 10
years may be start-ups or established players,
but they will ‘think big, start small, move fast’ in
their innovation and growth. There is a new elite
being established globally who are fast-growing
companies.
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Sarah Beeny fOuNDER MySINGLEfRIEND.COM AND TEPILO
www.msingleriend.com
www.tepilo.com
www.twitter.com/sarahbeen y
www.twitter.com/tepilo
The greatest opportunities will be towards social media-related
services and mobile applications. With the advent of social media
and apps, new services can be launched very quickly and can
also be readily monetised. Investors are looking for early returns
as the whole process of starting a business/service has shortened
– meaning only services with a solid revenue model can provide
adequate prots. As time to market shortens there is even more
pressure to get established quickly, which ultimately requires
revenue to put back in.
Mobile services are set to expand further and may be able to
cash in on the digital switchover, leaving more airspace for other
services. I think the mobile internet will expand signicantly in the
next few years.
We came a long way over the last decade and I think it’s been
proved that large sites with huge registrations don’t necessarily
lead to huge prots – although they can generate signicant
investment.
It’s becoming harder to come up with new ideas – so the most
successful companies this decade will still look to solve a genuine
need in an innovative way – rather than just do something better
than the rest.
There’s been a huge shift towards online services and I still think
this is where the greatest successes will be seen – we may also
see a ‘green shift’ to companies who take environmental issues
seriously.
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MichaelSmithfOuNDER, fIREBOx.COM AND MIND CANDy
www.mindcand.com
www.twitter.com/acton
Social Gaming exploded in 2009. Over 60 million
people play Farmville every month, and a sizable
proportion of them are prepared to pay cash for virtual
items. Zygna is barely two-years-old but is already
generating revenues of $200m+ and rumoured to be
eyeing up an IPO.
More than 10 million people subscribe to World of
Warcraft but the bigger opportunity lies with developers
who can create fun, multi-player games that appeal tothe hundreds of millions of people who prefer lighter
touch, more casual gaming.
In 1998 when I left my job to launch Firebox.com my
boss told me I was crazy and the only people who’d
ever make money from the internet were porn moguls.
Historically, society overestimates the short-term
effects of disruptive technology, but underestimates its
long-term effects. This overestimation led to the dot.
com bubble of the late nineties and the subsequent
nancial meltdown. A decade on, we’re now starting
to understand the extraordinary opportunities the
internet has to offer. The most successful companies
of the next decade will be those that appreciate we’re
still in the early days of the internet revolution. There’s
still a huge amount of opportunity for bold, ambitious
and innovative companies.
As Bachman-Turner Overdrive pointed out in the
seventies: ‘You ain’t seen nothing yet’.
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BEN KEENE
fOuNDER, TRIBEWANTED
www.tribewanted.com
www.twitter.com/benkeene
I see the immediate opportunities
as being green tech, 360 media and
crowd-funded start-ups.
However, the last great marketing
differentiator is business ethics. Thebusinesses that show clearly how
they are giving you value for money,
creating positive social impact and
minimising environmental damage will
be the global brands in 2020.
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smartest brains in business
ALEX fOuNDER, SMALLBIzPOD
www.smallbipod.com
www.twitter.com/alebellinge r
MONEY AND MOBILE HOLD
THE BIGGEST OPPORTUNITIES.
FINANCIAL SERVICES ARE
RIPE FOR A REVOLUTIONARY,
DISRUPTIVE IDEA AND A DYNAMIC
ENTREPRENEUR WHO THINKSBIG. OF COURSE THE BARRIERS
TO ENTRY ARE HIGH, BUT
THEN SO ARE THE POTENTIAL
REWARDS. COMPANIES SUCH
AS MONETISE AND ZOPA ARE
ALREADY IN THIS SPACE, BUT I’D
HOPE TO SEE OTHERS TAKING ONTHE CHALLENGE OF CREATING A
NEW FORM OF BANKING.
BELLINGER
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fOuNDER Of MAGNIfICENT MINDS
www.davidmcqeen.co.k
www.twitter.com/davidmcqeen
DAVE MCQUEEN
THE BIGGEST OPPORTUNITIES FOR
ENTREPRENEURS THIS YEAR WON’T
BE INDUSTRY-SPECIFIC. IT’S MORE
ABOUT TAKING ADVANTAGE OF
THE FEAR PEOPLE HAVE AROUND
BUILDING OR DEVELOPING BUSINESSES. WHILE MANY ARE
LAMENTING THE LACK OF FUNDING
FROM BANKS OR ANGELS, I
BELIEVE THE OPPORTUNITY LIES
IN BEING MORE CREATIVE WITH
OUR OFFERINGS. HOW DO WE
ADD VALUE TO EXISTING OR NEW
CLIENTS? HOW CAN WE DEVELOP
LONGER-TERM PARTNERSHIPS? HOW
CAN WE IMPROVE OUR CUSTOMER LOYALTY? THOSE ARE WHAT I SEE
MORE AS OPPORTUNITIES, RATHER
FOCUSING ON AN INDUSTRY.
I hate making predicitions about the future, but business is cyclical, isn’t it.
Evidently those who tend to stay around for a while really know how to manage
their talent. If you have a company, even if it’s a small concern getting those
who work with or for you enthused will help the company to be more resilient.
Of course, technology is making it so much easier to connect and improve
processes and these tools will be improved over the next decade, but more
importantly for me is getting companies to realise the value of their customers –
both internal and external.
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fOuNDER, CARSONIfIED
www.carsonied.com
www.twitter.com/rancarson
R Y A NC A R S O N
I THINK NANO TECHNOLOGY IS GOING TO BE
HUGE IN FIVE YEARS, SO PEOPLE WHO ARE
TACKLING BIG IDEAS IN THAT SPACE NOW
COULD HAVE ENORMOUS POTENTIAL IN
THE NEAR FUTURE. I’VE BEEN READING RAY
KURZWEIL’S ‘THE SINGULARITY IS NEAR’
OVER CHRISTMAS AND IT’S BEEN BLOWING
MY MIND.
smartest brains in business
The successful small companies of
the next 10 years will be smaller and
more agile. The power entrepreneurs
have gained through hosted services
will grow exponentially in the next 10
years - tools such as Google Docs
are only the tip of the iceberg.
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MANAGER, SuN STARTuP ESSENTIALS EMEA
www.k.sn.com/startpessentials
www.stewarttownsend.com
www.twitter.com/stewarttownsen d
StewartTownsend
The biggest opportunities in 2010 are
going to come to those who wait – to
the entrepreneur who doesn’t develop a
product or a market they think exists,
but or the ones who build a brand, deliver
that to market and thus solve a problem
better, more eectively or or a lower cost.
I they convey that message simply to
the marketplace by ully understanding
what business they are in, they can build
a revenue stream quickly because they
understand the value o the problem theysolve and the value o that to the customer.
Large corporate entities are shrinking. Look at the
number of large IT companies – we’re now down to
Oracle, HP, IBM, SAP, and Microsoft. 10 years ago
we had 50-100 large IT corporations – so what we’re
seeing is a movement back to smaller, more agile
organisations, with some larger powerhouses driving
the innovation, R&D and market, and buying up the
smaller companies as they solve problems the large
ones aren’t agile enough to solve themselves.
Companies need to be more agile and aggressive to
market, less focused on fast growth and acquisition
and more on solving problems, making our lives
simpler and creating new sectors. Who would have
thought 10 years ago a phone would be able to
play games, enable you to gamble and also send
messages?
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Once again this decade is about
being a bit more innovative and
eco-friendly. It’s also about
tightening up all the admin costs.
As entrepreneurs we cannot afford
to overlook cashows and
management of our companies.
Overall it’s back to basics but anexciting time because it’s not about
luck anymore - it’s about good old
fashioned hard work. And those that
do it will prevail.
I see huge opporuniy in eco-riendly producs
and advancemens. As ar as reail is concerned,
which is my specialy, here’s sill money o be made.
However, we have o be much more original, work
harder and ofer more compeiive prices. Tere isn’
a lo o money ou here so when he cusomer buys
hey make a much smarer and premediaed choice.
Tose who are aware o his, undersand his andadap o his will be successul.
smartest brains in business
fOuNDER, By CAPRICE
www.caprice-online.com
Caprice
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Sháá
WasmundENTREPRENEuR, fOuNDER
AND CEO Of SMARTA
www.smarta.com
www.shaawasmnd.com
www.twitter.com/shaawasmn d
Collaboration presents our
biggest opportunity in 2010. It’s
simple really, but then the best
things are. It’s not just technology
that allows people to collaborate
more freely, it’s people’s
attitudes. Social media has
gone a long way to encouraging
people to learn to ‘share’.
As John Donne said, ‘No man
is an island unto himself’. We
simply cannot achieve great
things by ourselves. Whatever
we as entrepreneurs can achieve
individually, we can achieve
tenfold collectively.
The internet will be at the heart
of everything we do this decade,
not just at the periphery. Therewill no longer be a handful of
large corporations (although
those will of course still exist)
who have a monopoly on an
industry. Instead there will be
many, smaller businesses that
are swift to respond to changing
market and opportunities.
Entire markets that we are yet
to know we need will suddenly
appear. Over the last 10 years,
Apple has without doubt been
the best at doing this: the iPod,
iTunes and the iPhone. For me,
what is most interesting is the
App Store. It epitomises the
opportunities for entrepreneurs
over the next decade. The App
Store provides applications for
products that 10 years ago we
hadn’t heard of let alone knew
we couldn’t live without. The next
10 years will be about being eet
of foot and collaborating.
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CO-fOuNDER, HuDDLE
www.hddle.net
www.twitter.com/bandrew
WHERE DO YOU SEE THE
BIGGEST OPPORTUNITIES
FOR ENTREPRENEURS
IN 2010? CHINA, INDIA,
BRAZIL. SECTOR-WISE,
I THINK 2010 COULD
FINALLY BE THE YEAR FORMOBILE – SMARTPHONES
ARE BECOMING MORE
PREVALENT – ALMOST
UBIQUITOUS IN SOME
DEMOGRAPHICS –
AND THE SCOPE FOR
BRILLIANT, LIFE-
CHANGING MOBILE
APPLICATIONS IS HUGE.
We’ve all learned a lot in the last
two years. Successful doesn’t
necessarily mean big. Great
companies will be smart, lean and
collaborative – specialising in their
core competencies and partnering
wherever appropriate.
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ENTREPRENEuR AND CEO, u308 GOLDINGS PLC,
www.3o8holdings.com
CONRD WINDHAM
To reduce carbon dioxide
emissions we need to develop a
better understanding of energy. As the
London School of Economics statedin 2009, ‘if countries really aspire to
cut emissions, we suggest the motor
of an effective mechanism is a direct
approach to the decarbonization of the
global energy system, rather than an
indirect approach via manipulation of
the economy’.
It is for this reason that I believe
there are a multitude of opportunities.
Entrepreneurs will lead the wayin providing solutions to reduce
carbon emissions through the
invention, improvement, marketing,
discovery, or otherwise, of products
and technologies that are more energy-
efcient and serve to decarbonise
societies.
Climate change is an emotive issue,
and there is a growing audience within
the UK and internationally that want to
do their bit to reduce their own carbonfootprint through introducing green
technology products into their lives.
Self-reliance on energy will continue to
grow through the continued installation
of solar panels, photovoltaics, and
wind turbines, over the next decade.
Without a doubt, 2010 will be a year
for entrepreneurs to tap into the green
technology sector, which has an innite
number of opportunities waiting to beexploited.
Te bigges opporuniies
or enrepreneurs in 2010
lie wihin he ‘green ech’
secor. Te coverage given o
he 2009 UN climae change
conerence in copenhagen was
evidence in isel o he ever-
growing global imporance o
combaing climae change.
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Basheera KHAN
TECHNOLOGy WRITER AND uSER ExPERIENCE
CONSuLTANT
www.basheerakhan.com
www.twitter.com/bash
smartest brains in business
Great opportunities lie in the convergence
of mobile devices, e-commerce and social
enterprise, and in creating participatory
roles for consumers. Entrepreneurs
need to make it easy for consumers to
contribute to social good, either through
charity (by say, adding a small charitable
donation to a purchase they were
going to make anyway) or by bringing
social microfnance lending schemes,
such as Kiva.org, into the mainstream
consciousness.
I don't think we can overstate the impact of
people's awareness of climate change in shaping
the successful businesses of the next decade.
I predict that we will see a growing consumer
demand for companies to full obligations in
transparent and ethical corporate governance.
The winners and leaders will be the ones that nd
a way to capitalise on thrift and sustainability at
every point of the supply chain.
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PENNYfOuNDER AND COMMuNITy BuILDER, ECADEMy
www.ecadem.com
www.ecadem.com/accont.php?id=1001
www.twitter.com/pennpowe r
Listening online is a skill that
requires an open, random and
supportive attitude, a non-
blinkered view that says to
the world, ‘come to me and
share your thoughts whatever
they are’. I have seen so many
Ecademy members adapt their
products and services to suit
the words, phrases and needsof the new economy. They
know how to do this because
they listen with the right intent,
they know what they want
and they know to listen to the
needs of others. There is still
signicant money to be found,
but not if entrepreneurs use the
old way of hunting them out.
By the end of the 2010s we will
see two sides of the business
world: Those that became
‘networked businesses’ and
those who did not.
Those who utilise networks will
have several highly benecial
features: They’ll operate a low
xed-cost business, low ofceand employee costs. They’ll
have fast access to many skills
and resources. They’ll supply
their services into a European
and global market. They’ll
adapt fast to market conditions.
They’ll be highly sensitive to
customer needs. Their ability to
support others will make them
highly attractive for others to
advocate and refer business to,reducing marketing expenses.
smartest brains in business
POWERThe biggest opportunities or entrepreneurs liewithin the networks o online conversations,
providing they learn to listen!
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BURTONBRAD
MOTIVATIONAL SPEAKER, MANAGING
DIRECTOR Of 4NETWORKING AND
AuTHOR Of GET Off yOuR ARSE
www.4networking.biwww.bradbrton.bi
www.getoorarse.bi
www.twitter.com/bradbrton
IT’S ALL ABOUT THE INTERNET, BABY: GET APPROACHABLE.
SITTING IN IVORY TOWERS WAITING FOR PEOPLE TO COME
TO YOU? FORGET IT. MODERN-DAY ENTREPRENEURSHIP IS
ABOUT GETTING OFF YOUR ARSE AND BEING ACCESSIBLE –
BE IT FACE-TO-FACE, DIRECT PHONE NUMBER, TWITTER,AND, DARE I SAY IT, TAKING CALLS!
smartest brains in business
The entrepreneurs who will succeed in 2010 and
beyond are the ones who form the crowd, and the
only thing they sell to that crowd is themselves.
In the next 10 years we’ll see more of what I’ve
been talking about for ages: ‘creating the conditionswhere people buy, instead of you selling’. When
was the last time you went into Dixons and asked
the bloke behind the counter for the benets and
features of an iPhone? Never – because it doesn’t
happen. Think about it: the sale has been made well
before you go to buy it.
It’s the time for the eet of foot. Big ivory towers
suck and conventional routes to market will
continue to be circumvented by social media. It’s all
about people, all about the internet, and all about
relationships. Get those right and the business
follows – providing you have a product or service
people want.
Trust in business is massive, never more so than in
this next decade – would you support someone you
don’t like, someone you don’t know, someone you
don’t trust? The answer is probably no, in which
case the key to brand advocates, i.e. creating the
conditions where people buy your products, rather
than you selling, is trust.
The successful companies of the next decade will
be driven by leaders who embrace and truly live by
the trust and approachability ethos: selling products
because they believe in them, not because they
make you margin.
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If you’re not pushing out time-sensitive
offers on Twitter, or awarding discounts
to the Foursquare mayor of your bar/
restaurant or shop then you’re already
behind the curve. And if you have no
idea what either of those two servicesare, it’s time to hire someone who does.
Also, no one is going to go broke with
local, mobile dating.
The successful companies of this
decade will have personality. Our
obsession with social networks, blogs
and tweets means we expect to be
able to talk directly to companies and
have them talk back. The successful
companies will be the ones who seek out
our friendship rather than just our cash.
It’s hideous and cheesy, but it’s true.
In 10 years, Ryanair is toast.
The most interesting areas for me are local and mobile. Thanks
to the explosion of smartphones such as the iPhone, we’re
seeing services such as Twitter and Foursquare heavily affecting
how people socialise and shop. Smart entrepreneurs - be they
technology innovators or shopkeepers - should be embracing that.
Paul Carr AuTHOR, ‘BRINGING NOTHING
TO THE PARTy: TRuE
CONfESSIONS Of A NEW
MEDIA WHORE’
www.palcarr.com
www.twitter.com/palcarr
smartest brains in business
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Simon CO-fOuNDER, BuLLDOG
www.meettheblldog.com
www.twitter.com/blldognatra l
All indicators point to a long and protracted period o recovery or the UK.
However, there are still plenty o opportunities or businesses to exploit.
At Bulldog we will be taking advantage o avourable exchange rates
to empower export driven growth in growth in 2010, or instance.
The next ten years will see an explosion
of different ways for people to
communicate with, shop for, and learn
about goods and services. This will be
primarily driven by the transformative
power of technological change. At the
moment we are only scratching thesurface of the potential of the internet to
change the way we work and live.
This transformation creates challenges
and opportunities for companies in
equal measure. Large companies will
have to deal with increasingly savvy and
demanding people who have a much
deeper level of understanding about
what is going on behind the scenes.
Large companies will have to adapt to
consumers with many more options tobuy smaller brands outside of the regular
options at conventional retailers where
big brands traditionally dominate.
The key for succeeding in this changing
environment will be to empower people
with information about your products
and services, and making ethics central
to everything you do rather than limiting
this to the preserve of the CSR or PR
departments.
Duy
smartest brains in business
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BEN WAYfOuNDER, THE RAINMAKERS
www.makingrain.com
www.twitter.com/benwa y
The fundamentals
of business won’t
change – good
businesses are the
ones that adopt new
technology, innovate
and invest in their
people; I can’t see that
changing in the next10 years.
I would like to say
that hopefully people
will have learned the
mistakes of the last
few years, but from
my experience most
people forget after ve
years and then delude
themselves that yet
again the gravy train
is endless until it
suddenly falls off a cliff!
2010 presents a number o opportunities or smaller players where bigger
competitors have ailed - and anybody with capital at the moment can make
a killing buying insolvent companies at a bargain price. Technology is also
moving ast so a lot o action will be seen in the mobile /tablet market this year.
smartest brains in business
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The biggest opportunity or entrepreneurs
in 2010 is to be ound embracing ‘apps’ and
technology. Computer applications, cloud
computing and new and innovative sotware
and systems allow entrepreneurs to start and
run businesses like never beore. Embracing
these systems and engineering them into
their workow allows smaller businesses to
punch ar above the weight and operate at a
ar lower headcount and fxed cost.
Success over the next 10 years will be measured by change and
evolution. Businesses are required to evolve and react to changeand adapt their business models now more than ever before.
The world is far more immediate than the one which started the
last millennium. Social media was primarily the telephone, news
was broadcast essentially in xed time slots and you had to battle
VCRs to record television. Failure to embrace will see businesses
embracing failure.
DIRECTOR, CAPITAL BuSINESS MEDIA
www.bmmagaine.co.k
www.twitter.com/ralvin
Success over the next 10 years
will be measured by change
and evolution.
smartest brains in business
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OliBarrefOuNDER, MAKE yOuR MARK WITH A TENNER
& INITIATOR Of SPEEDNETWORKING IN THE uK.
www.dailnetworker.co.kwww.twitter.com/olibarret t
1. Join scientists and politicians
to save the planet.
2. Become the most trusted people
in the world as trust in everyone
else fades.
3. Talk to more people who are
completely different from you,
from different countries, places,
ages and backgrounds.
4. Spend more time away from
screens of any kind.
5. Relax, sleep and laugh a lot more.
6. Reclaim the power of email
by communicating like normal
people and not in dreadful
corporate jargon.
7. Reclaim the power of print
by creating something worth
receiving.8. Save people money.
9. Help people lter information.
10. Give time doing what you do best
for a good cause.
11. Lend someone a tenner.
he op en Bigges Opporuniies
or Enrepreneurs in 2010:
smartest brains in business
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smartest brains in business
Historically, entrepreneurs havebeen seen as risky and rebellious,
like Delboy from Only Fools
and Horses or characterised as
everyone’s favourite villain like
Michael Douglas in Wall Street.
CEO, HAKIM GROuPhakim-grop.com
www.twitter.com/imranhaki m
Hakim I m ra n
However, the rst real recession of the
digital age has truly reformed opinion
with the masses now waking up to the
realisation that entrepreneurship gives
rise to innovation, employment, tax
revenues and, ultimately, wealth – and
that anybody can participate. You simply
need the desire, commitment and state
of mind to make great things happen.
Entrepreneurs in my experience tend to
be optimists and as we kick off 2010 the
entrepreneurial landscape is littered with
opportunity. History again demonstrates
that recessionary times heighten the
demand for change and challenge
existing business models.
The focus on climate change has meant
that governments around the world have
a renewed focus on controlling domesticand commercial carbon footprints which
presents unprecedented opportunities
for innovators and entrepreneurs. The
convergence of technology and greater
awareness of cloud computing is also
giving rise to a multitude of opportunities.
And every industry is now truly global.
The success stories over the next 10
years will embrace this globalisation
ensuring that their proposition is resilientin this new world order. When everyone
around them is risk averse, they will see
the obvious for being obvious before it
becomes obvious – and take action.
2010 ill b i i d d t ti
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Lucian TarnowskifOuNDER AND CEO, BRAVENEWTALENT.COM
www.bravenewtalent.com
www.twitter.com/lciant
2010 will be a winning decade
for the young entrepreneur – for
the rst time in history, young
people are an authority on
something that really matters in
the economy: the internet. My
advice to any entrepreneur rst
starting out is to think about
what you know and think about
what you’re passionate about.
Think about what you want to
change.
The other hot sector is green
business. There will be many
new businesses created this
year around this sector and
I strongly believe innovation
lies on the edge – because
they’re so agile, startups have
a unique opportunity to react totoday’s challenges. Many global
issues are likely to be solved
by individuals with innovative
business models, rather than
governments or corporations.
Businesses this decade will
be small, faster and more
effective. As we saw from the
last decade, we are living in
times of exponential change.
This decade will be the decade
of the global entrepreneur.
The individual that now has
the global marketplace at
their ngertips.
Brand is becoming more and
more important. People no
longer want to read corporate
jargon, but want to touch and
feel the brands they use.
The personal brand of the
team behind businesses has
also never been so important.
The people in the team shouldlive and breathe the business
values.
smartest brains in business
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AMANDA
ROSECREATIVE STRATEGIST, AND fOuNDER Of TWESTIVAL
www.amandarose.com
www.twitter.com/amanda
The biggest opportunities for
entrepreneurs lie in essential services
such as healthcare. As technology
advances and more people have
online access, it is likely that we will
see more innovative ways to manage
and access these important parts of
our lives. Mobile is denitely another
huge area and we’ve only seen the tipof the iceberg when it comes to how
location-based social networks or
mobile payments will have an impact.
Customer service and communication
will be key over the next decade.
Companies will need to stop
hiding behind a phone matrix that
prevents them from dealing directly
with consumers. Real-time, light
communication tools such as Twitter
have given people an expectation
for companies to engage with them
rather than waiting for the phone to
ring. The individual word-of-mouth
will have a lot more power when it
comes to promoting, questioning
and inevitably complaining. How a
brand handles this could make all
the difference.smartest brains in business
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smartest brains in business
fOuNDER, ECADEMy
www.ecadem.com
www.ecadem.com/accont.php?id=8
www.twitter.com/thomaspowe r
Networks are the new corporations.
Corporates as we know them today
will not exist. Their cost base is
way too high and their overhead
of buildings, pensions, health
care, PAYE and NI will become
unaffordable. Every employee will
become a supplier. There won’t be
employees by 2030. Jobs will be a
forgotten concept.
POWER
THOMAS
THE BIGGEST OPPORTUNITYIS TO BUILD GLOBAL
NETWORKED BUSINESSES.
BAY
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PARTNER, WINSTON & STRAWN;
CO-fOuNDER, BOOTLAW
www.winston.com
www.bootlaw.com
www.twitter.com/bavBAY VIOU
The recession is a huge source of opportunity. The
costs of doing business have been driven down
across the board making life difcult for incumbents.
Technology has massively reduced the costs for any
entrepreneur starting up a new business and offers
the chance to communicate with customers and
potential customers on a massive scale.
2010 may also see a change of the UK government.
If so, new policies and changes in regulation
will likely create new business opportunities.
Entrepreneurs should keep their eyes peeled for new
government initiatives which themselves may create
business opportunities. Web and communications
technology is making our world smaller every
day. Over the next 10 years the really successful
companies will be those who have the aspiration
and ambition to engage with customers globally
and who do so. smartest brains in business
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smartest brains in businessHOMAS Mat
EDITOR Of SMARTA.COM
www.smarta.com
www.twitter.com/smartamat t
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smartest brains in business
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