In this blog I thought I’d provide a list (with brief reviews) of some of the books that have influenced my views on building businesses building on my last blog. To help you navigate there’s a Top 5 list and then some Honorable Mentions, I hope you enjoy this and if you do, why not leave me a comment with a recommendation to a book you love that fits the topic.

Top 5:

1. Business Model Generation: A Handbook for Visionaries, Game Changers, and Challengers
Alexander Osterwalder et al.

I’ve been raving about this book for over a year now… for that reason alone it had to be my number 1! It’s a brilliant read, simple to understand and contextualize to a range of situations; the content is fresh, practical and powerful with so much depth that even a cursory read can teach useful lessons. Once you grasp the key elements of the methodology and learn to apply it you have a powerful toolkit to help you create new businesses or transform your existing ones.

2. Tribes
Seth Godin

Seth has been a huge influence on my life… we all know that, right? As a result one of his books was always going to be high on my list; I could have chosen all of them (but it was a 5 book list not a love letter), I could have chosen a popular one, Instead I chose the first one I ever read. Tribes had a huge impact on me, it was one of the key triggers that shifted my view of leadership and community engagement helping me to understand how to connect with people and opportunities which is now central to my approach to business, that’s why it’s my number 2.

3. Gamestorming: A Playbook for Innovators, Rulebreakers, and Changemakers
Dave Gray et al.

David Rae first introduced me to Gamestorming a couple of years ago,  now it’s a constant companion of mine that provides a great set of starting point for anybody who needs to get some creative juices flowing. With Gamestorming I really do think that the authors have created a valuable collection of tools and techniques for organizational design; the games outlined in the book help you make ideas more tangible and meetings more productive and who doesn’t want that?

4. Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman
Yvon Chouinard

There aren’t many business books that I will read in one sitting, this is one of them! Let my people go surfing tells the story of Yvon Chouinard and his company Patagonia starting from it’s humble beginnings supplying climbing equipment from an old forge to it’s modern position as world leader in high quality outdoor products. However this isn’t a traditional treatise on business success, it’s a book about learning how to do things differently and stand for something that you believe in packed with insights into conducting a business that helps others and acts ethically.

5. The Lean Startup: How Constant Innovation Creates Radically Successful Businesses
Eric Ries

I hope a couple of my choices so far have surprised people, this one probably won’t, the lessons in this book are simple, and powerful…Instead of burying yourself in product development, hidden from the world test each assumption right from the start and with this knowledge you can decide whether to carry on or change direction, it all sounds very simple, but trust me it’s the best £10 you’ll spend on a business book!

Honourable Mentions:

Think Like an Entrepreneur: Your Psychological Toolkit for Success
Chris West and Robbie Steinhouse

I know there are lots of books on this topic, but this little gem is wonderfully different because it takes complex ideas and presents them in a simple, engaging manner which is eminently readable, peppered with anecdotes that almost anyone can relate to.

The Startup Owner’s Manual: The Step-By-Step Guide for Building a Great Company
Steve Blank & Bob Dorf

This is a great book and I thank Nigel Adams for convincing me to buy it… there’s a simple reason it’s here and not higher up my list; I haven’t read enough of it yet to really recommend it, but on the strength of what I have it gets a mention over two of my favorite books, I think that’s a good endorsement.

Maverick: The Success Story Behind the Worlds Most Unusual Workplace
Ricardo Semler

This book is probably to blame for the man I am today, it had a huge influence on 18 year old Matt who devoured this in the the back of the college library. Put simply it’s a brilliant story about how one man revolutionized a traditional company with modern management theory… but that doesn’t sell it does it? It’s a book about change, the highs and lows and how having a vision is nearly always the easy bit; written with exceptional style and humor it’s getting hard to grab a copy of this book so find one… now!

Purple Cow
Seth Godin

I couldn’t have just one on the list… so just… read this now and learn how to make and market remarkable stuff!

I hope you all found that list useful, please leave a comment and suggest a book you’d add.

Peace

Matt

Quite a few people have asked me to share this presentation especially after I’ve presented it as a Zone Lecture and at a recent business event in Conway, so here it is, please drop me a comment and let me know what you think:

Peace

Matt

Welcome to something new…very new…so new in fact that in sharing this I’m obeying my own rules (which will become clear later) on testing ideas. This post is a beta for a philosophical position to teaching new business design that I’ve been quietly developing over the last 3 months based on the work of a number of different authors combined with my own ideas.

Recently I’ve spent some time with some great people, shouts to: @bozward @felixclarke and @publicate who’ve convinced me that I’m not crazy so now feel that I am ready to share this.

In doing so I’m trying to articulate a methodology which I believe is the best way to teach students in FE/HE about how to engage in the creation of new businesses.

For some of you this won’t be revolutionary… great, let me know what elements you agree/disagree with and why. For the rest I hope you can understand why I’m passionate about it and why I think it’s an interesting way forwards, Oh and again please let me know what you think of this and what elements I can work on… so with that said here we go!

I Believe That:

1. Developing a traditional business plan isn’t a useful exercise (for many people) especially pre/early stage start-ups who need to understand how to shape and develop a range of ideas and directions.
2. Instead they should be given the skills and tools to approach the creation of business from a strategic design perspective.
3. This should focus on creating models of business ideas which are viable, sustainable and flexible.
4. Models should focus on specialisation, doing one or two things well rather than trying to be everything to everyone and this should be grounded in an understanding of the products/services and how the business will deliver their value to consumers.
5. These businesses should also focus on generating value for key stakeholders, that could include a wide range of individuals from the business people themselves to community groups and charities and a broad definition a value which includes profit.
6. From the outset these models are created with potential pivots already considered, what are the other directions the businesses could move in with their idea, how could it be re-purposed?
7. Bootstrapping is central to this philosophy; the models should be as streamlined as possible, with costs reduced to a minimum.
8. As soon as model seems feasible it’s tested with a Minimum Viable Product (MVP).
9. These tests should form an integral part of the design experience, where ideas are reflected on and adapted based on market responses.
10. If the responses are positive the development of the business moves forward, if negative pivots are reviewed and implemented and the idea is re-tested.

So there we are, 10 Rules that outline my position, what do you think?

Peace

Matt

As some of you may know I’ve been involved in Beta Testing and Bug Finding on Publicate a new start-up for developing and sharing your personal brand on-line, the site offers a solution that makes it easy for businesses and professionals to promote themselves through multimedia and provides a social platform that is perfect for promoting, discovering and engaging relevant content with relevant people. I’m really enjoying the process so when Chris asked me to help him find a new CTO / Partner I decided to help him by writing a blog to feature this opportunity:

This a welcome return for me to writing shorter blogs again, to quickly set the scene I intend that this will be the first of a few posts that are going to detail some plans I have for projects in 2012, I want to share these with you because I want to involve as many people as possible in this craziness!

The first thing I want to create is a new networking group based in my area (Wrexham / Cheshire), I want this group to be comprised of young people (under 30) who have an interest in starting or have already started a business.

The concept is pretty simple; the networking group will meet once a month in the evenings at an agreed location (in the local area) for a few hours to share our thoughts, feelings and experiences of starting and running our businesses. Each month will have a guiding topic for our discussion and this will start with a presentation from a specialist in the group or an invited guest.

My vision is that these networking meetings become an informal way for young people to support their peers, get motivation from each other and help those new to business to get a good start.

The question I’m sure you all want to know is why do I want to do this? Well I have 3 reasons:

• Current networking groups can be really intimidating for people who’ve never attended these types of events before.
• These networking groups tend to be focused on providing referrals and leads rather than peer advice and support.
• These networks don’t cater to young people who are either very new to business or who haven’t started up and just want to meet others in the same position

I know this is going to be tough, but I think there’s a real need for this I want to try and kick these events off in July when I’m back from New Zealand so there’s plenty of time to get involved!

What do I need? To meet people who want to get involved and then to find somewhere to hold the first event…that simple, it doesn’t need many people to get this going so drop me a comment and let me know what you think, if you want to be involved and how.

Peace

Matt ….Oh and please share this so people in the local area can find out about it!

It’s been a brilliant 3rd year for The Virtual Enterprise (#virtent12) Conference here at Glyndwr University, with over 180 people taking part in person and online over the two days! Before I talk about the event I’d like to take a second to say a huge thank you our guest speakers, our attendees, our sponsors (Floppy Net and the Welsh Government) and to the CfEL team who work so hard to help me pull the event together.

Day One

Our first speaker Chris Ramsden aka The TV King opened by telling us his story about starting a new tech business from nothing, providing links to TV content online. For his first presentation Chris wowed the audience with some great messages and an impromptu elevator pitch!

Following him Chris Bradley then took to the podium to talk about his new website Publicate. Focusing on the importance of  creating a lean start-up using MVP’s Chris then gave a live demo of his platform and it’s potential to house an individuals personal brand.

After lunch it was the turn of Jess Ratcliffe from Gaboom who at 21 wowed the audience with her drive to create a website to let people trade video games! Her single minded dedication was truly inspirational and her focus on the business and it’s development will take her a long way.

Next up Josh Liu of Minute Box shared the lessons he’s learn’t from creating a small, lean business including building customer relationships and funding. His natural style and humour made him a crowd favourite with everyone that attended.

Finally Simon Grice from Ideas.org talked about his long history of net businesses from being there at the birth of the web in CERN to creating his new platforms BeLocal and Sociable. Simons huge experience showed as he effortlessly summarised the points from other speakers in his wide ranging talk that was my personal favourite.

Follow these links to find the Video Stream and Live Blog from Day 1.

Day Two

Day two started with John Ulotti from UQ Web Design who shared some lessons he’s learn’t creating websites for companies across the N.W. of England.

Then Dr David Bozward Speaker and Tech Geek extraordinary wowed the audience with his knowledge of gaming online and on mobile platforms…giving advice you just couldn’t pay for if you’d been thinking of starting a games company.

After lunch John (Pathfiner) Lester took to the podium, although John couldn’t attend he sent us a brilliant video that showed a blended vision of the future with blurred lines between the real and the virtual which has huge implications for everyone on the web.

Finally Joel Gascoigne from Buffer and One Page gave us 10 great lessons that would hep any tech start-up thrive,

So what’s next… well (drum roll) Year 4! (27th and 28th of Feb 2013) But to make that happen I need to find people to support the event and help it grow; if you know someone who can help me do that, send them my way! for now I’m going to relax and get back to teaching.

To keep up to date, check out the website

Peace

Matt

I’ll be doing more blogging next week following Virtual Enterprise but for now I thought I’d collect together all my CPD Videos in one place. These discuss my approach to enterprise education and should be useful to staff in schools and universities.

Inspiring Enterprise – An Introduction from Inspiring Enterprise on Vimeo.

Enterprise vs. Entrepreneurship: A Definition from Inspiring Enterprise on Vimeo.

A Rationale for Enterprise Education from Inspiring Enterprise on Vimeo.

An Enterprising Approach to Teaching and Learning from Inspiring Enterprise on Vimeo.

Engaging Students in Education from Inspiring Enterprise on Vimeo.

Creating An Enterprise Module from Inspiring Enterprise on Vimeo.

I hope you enjoy them!

Thanks

Matt

Here’s my lesson part of the new EEW enterprise education PGCE module, this session covers entrepreneurial skills and how they’ve been defined from different authors perspectives. It also discusses the difference between enterprise and entrepreneurship, showcases CfEL’s model from Glyndwr and finally signposts to some specific resources.

I know it’s been a few months since I’ve blogged (personal and professional time commitments have been a bit consuming) but with this article I’m going to make a commitment to writing once a month across 2011 discussing enterprise education, teaching and learning, web businesses and new technology.

In this blog I’m going to try and give a brief review of the year discussing some of the key achievements and the affects they’ve had on me.

The year started with my good friend Kieran and I travelling around India as part of the 2011 winter Rickshaw Run, I’ve blogged a lot about this over at the Team Altitude site but it was an amazing experience and I will always remember the friends we made and the fun we had.

When I returned in January it was great to start our new cross curricula modules working with level four students to encourage the development of enterprise skills and capabilities, I loved working on these modules and I’m looking forward to developing further content for level five and six.

In February it was great to see my good friend Josh get married to Kate, a really amazing girl, before leaving the UK the following the month to pursue his dreams working in the USA; I really enjoyed the wedding and it was great to spend time with some oldest and dearest friends. This month also saw the second annual Virtual Enterprise Conference with great speakers celebrating the opportunities to create amazing projects and businesses on the internet, each year it’s a pretty scary experience but I love the event and am really looking forward to 2012.

March saw me finally meet Sir Ken Robinson (which was an amazing experience) before returning to North Wales to help manage the 2011 Upside Down Conference. This month also marked a key point in my career as it was the first time I was published as lead author in a peer reviewed journal discussing enterprise education so huge thanks to Kelly Smith and my co-author David Rae for helping me make this dream a reality.

In April I was invited to speak at the ICE House conference in Plymouth about teaching using simulations and virtual worlds, it was a lovely event and it was great to see some old friends at this conference including David Bozward, Kate Beresford, Andy Penaluna and Frances Brown.

I spent most of May travelling across with Jane Morgan delivering courses for Horticulture Wales focused on web design, social media and SEO for businesses working in these industries, these courses went brilliantly and I really enjoyed the experience of working with people from very different industries. May also saw my good friend Colin Jones darken my door all the way from Tasmania to share a beer and some great conversation, I always love seeing Col, he’s so cerebral and any time with him is just a joy.

June was a busy month; it started with me helping to facilitate the Inspiring Enterprise conference at Glyndwr with some brilliant speakers discussing a range of enterprise related issues and again a chance to meet many old friends including  Tom, Andy, Frances and Richard. After this I travelled to South Wales to facilitate part of the EEW qualification in enterprise education (which we hope will soon see more of a take-up across Wales) this was a great chance to meet some new friends and work with some brilliant enterprise educators from across Wales. Following this I had the amazing fortune to enjoy my birthday with my father by seeing one of my musical idols B.B. King play live in Manchester.

July saw me take some rare Holiday to spend with friends before enjoying the Sonisphere festival listening to some amazing music.
In August I recorded a series of CPD videos to help staff learn about enterprise education before launching EnterprisingYou the UK’s first suite of enterprise education e-learning materials.

September was a crazy month I saw Kelly from Huddersfield… and Colin nipped past for a drink before I gave my first ever virtual presentation at the IEEC conference and then inducted over 1000 new students at Glyndwr ready for the 2011-12 term.

October was a heady mix of teaching, managing enterprise at the university and eventually celebrating Halloween (one of my favourite festivals of the year!).

November saw us hold another High Impact Global Enterprise Week with help from some amazing business colleagues before taking on a project to deliver business context lessons to the level four business students using SimVenture. This month also saw me hit a second publication with David Rae and Katie Vause, special thanks to Harry Matlay for helping us to get this published.

Finally December brings me right to up to date, I’m currently sat at my parents really enjoying seeing friends and family and just relaxing before a hectic 2012 which I hope will see me finally get near finishing my PhD!

Thanks to everyone who has made 2011 an amazing year!

P.S. sorry If I missed you or you didn’t get a mention it doesn’t mean I don’t love you… just that I can’t fit everything in (or I have a terrible memory)

I hope you all have a brilliant Christmas and wonderful New Year!

Peace

Matthew

Want to know more about how I define enterprise and entrepreneurship, then check out my latest video:

Thanks

Matt