Liam Black, founder of Wavelength
Revolutionary human resources, amazing technology, contract successes, scientific musings on the evolution of the sector - all part of a month's work for Liam Black
Been on the road a lot. Luckily, much inspiration to over come the jetlag.
A visit to Zappos Las Vegas. The billion-dollar online retail company is famous for its work culture. They have all sorts of brilliant wheezes to make sure the place has only passionate people including no questions asked cash incentives to leave after your induction. Bet you wished you had done that and not now be stuck with that gormless eejit in finance, eh?
In San Francisco to hear Lucky Gunasekara speaking about Frontline SMS and their work in the most remote parts of Africa. They've developed a mobile phone that enables nurses to smear blood on the camera, text it to a doctor and receive a diagnosis by text. Now that is social innovation.
Where's your breakthrough innovation with that kind of mass application? Back home celebrating the success of social enterprise Employers for Childcare in Belfast. What a great bunch of people. And, in Marie Marin, a glorious CEO. Tenacity, balls, vision and sheer honest humanity. Bloody marvellous.
MC'ing a Wavelength gig, I am intrigued by Gareth Thomas, retail supremo at John Lewis. Love their 'sufficient profit' concept. Living proof too that a fading and failing brand can be thoroughly renewed and go on to market beating success. Are you listening, SEC?
A call from Liverpool. Bulky Bob's lives! My beloved FRC retained the bulky household waste contract beating off intense competition from large companies mimicking the business innovation created by the banks of the Mersey nearly ten years ago. Well done Shaun and his scouse posse!
To Paddington to brief Mike Barry at Marks and Spencer. Mike is driving their Plan A (Because There Is No Plan B) strategy. His vision about what large retail businesses will have to be like in 20 to 30 years' time in a changed world is more radical than the plans of nine out of ten social entrepreneurs I meet.
If I'm honest the biggest thrill of recent weeks was meeting Professor Richard Dawkins. My hero. I wonder how his cold scientific eye would see the future of the 'social enterprise sector's' evolution. Would he view it as getting to the top of the business gene pool or stuck monkeying about in the third sector?
Liam Black is co-founder of Wavelength. Visit www.thesamewavelength.com
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