New technologically innovative transport company Uber have turned the taxi industry upside down. Tech expert Robert Scoble explains what happened.

Uber disrupt an industry

They have to be scared that they are going to be put out of business. You better be paranoid. Things like Uber came out four years ago and now it's everywhere. You need to understand the innovators that are changing your business. Uber knows where you are standing, that's why it serves you better than a taxi company, they have your credit card details and we can talk to each other. He doesn't have my real phone number but he can message and call me through and app. Our briefing Uber Disruption – The reality of innovative technology   has more information on Uber and more expert discussion on industry disruption.

Strategy development for investment was what Envestors was created to teach. Founding Director Oliver Woolley discusses the importance of preparing for investment in this TV show.

Investment strategy development

One of the reasons we set up Envestors is that we thought there was a bit of education needed on both the investor and entrepreneur side. So we provide training for investors. We produce a guide to how to invest as a business angel and we do a seminars for investors. So our idea is to educate both the investor and the entrepreneur and try and get them close enough so that we can get good deals done. So we find that a lot of companies aren't particularly well prepared so we run an investment readiness briefing on a Tuesday morning every two weeks, which is free. It is essentially a two hour seminar about the practicalities and realities and the obligations of raising external equity finance. We find that at the end of that, that the company has though a lot about their business plan but they haven't though enough about it from an investment perspective. So we will then work with a company to make sure that there is a full and detailed investment proposal.

If you are interested in strategy development for investment then take a look at the full briefing Cashed Up - How to attract business funding.

Good governance in a company will appeal to investors, who want to know their investment will be secure, as Oliver Woolley discusses in this TV show.

Investors and good governance

One of the main criteria for finding a successful investment is normally down to the quality of their management team, and you’ll get a lot of investors that will say the three most important things are management, management and management.  And certainly we’ve had some very successful businesses, which are still yet to exit, but it’s usually because they’ve got a very, very good strong dynamic experienced CEO, as well as a complete Board and a Board that’s adding value and can help steer the business through to exit.

Keep browsing shows on Inside Finance TV for more expert discussion on business investment and good governance.

Artificial intelligence and cognitive computing is the latest in a series of technological developments that have affected the value of human ability. Graeme Codrington discusses the development in this video.

Computers have the advantage

About 100 years ago if you wanted to be quite successful in the world it would have been very clever for you to be quite physically fit. Because in the industrial age, as before that in the agrarian age, in the age of farming the people who either owned the land or owned the factories or worked on the land or worked in the factories, they were the people who were in charge. Those were your assets, physical ability. What we’ve done over the last 100 years is replaced peoples’ physical, the physical needs in terms of what we need from them physically with machines, you know, the combined harvester and the container and the robots in factories. And then for the last 50 years we have ploughed our resources, as human beings we’ve become clever by being clever. We have moved into the information age where your mental ability is what sets you apart from other people. Now, somebody who was gifted at birth, not by my choice, but was gifted with a reasonable intelligence and a nice IQ and a middle class family that could get me through university, that’s been brilliant. Because I’ve been able to use my brain to make money, but unfortunately right now computers are about to do to me what robots and machines did to my farm working, factory working uncles and grandparents. They’re about to make me redundant because they can think faster than I can. They can think more than I can. They don’t need to take a break to eat or sleep or all the other things I like to do. Inside Finance TV has more fantastic video by Graeme Codrington and other experts on the future of business.

Business strategy models have to adaptable to future disruptions and developments. In this TV show Keith Coats of TomorrowToday discusses strategic thinking for leaders.

Business strategy models in an unpredictable world

Leaders have to be future-focused. Levi right now have a great slogan, which says ‘the future has left, so go forth’. Jim Data is a retired futurist and he articulated that past thinking amongst futurists was something like this … I might have some of the percentages slightly wrong but the rough ratios is 80% of our tomorrows would be built on what futurists call continuations, so if you want to understand tomorrow, look at the DNA of today, 80%. 15% would be cycles – economic, political social cycles – and 5% would be novelties. Now, in the futurist language a novelty is the curve ball, the unexpected, the 9/11, the thing that very few people could foresee. I’ll preface that with past thinking. Current thinking amongst futurists has inverted that table, turned it on its head. They are telling us that up to 80% of our tomorrow is what they call novelty, we simply do not know. Now, even if they’re half correct I wouldn’t go to war over those percentages, it’s the trend here we’re looking at, that the bulk of our tomorrows is going to be a surprise, going to be the unexpected, the unpredictable. The question then becomes how do you build continuity in that? What does the organisation that learns how to build planes in the air, as it were, look like in that context? For one thing it renders redundant strategic planning, you cannot plan your way into that kind of uncertainty. We need companies today who understand the emphasis needs to be on strategic thinking and at all levels of the organisation, this is a leadership agenda.

Inside Finance is very interested in business strategy models and the future business world. Browse our video player for related content.

Good governance means having great people at the top looking out for the company. But how much should a company pay for a good director? In this TV show Caroline Newsholme discusses pay vs performance.

Good governance comes at a price

You should certainly pay for talent.  And good directors come at a price.  But there’s a feeling that directors remuneration is slightly out of kilter with the real world.  It’s certainly being increasing, notwithstanding the fact that we are in a recession, there’s been a quite substantial upwards trend

And obviously a lot of companies have struggled and may not have performed as well.  So there there’s an inconsistency between actually the wellbeing of the company and what the directors are being paid.

But I think certainly directors are alive to the concerns that have been voiced by investors and the business world generally.  I don’t think they are blasé about the position, they recognise that there has to be a proper link between pay and performance and we can’t continue to see excess packages which are not really justified.  Whether we’ll get change at the rate we need change is another question.

But there’s a lot of impetus in the corporate world to increase transparency and to change what’s gone before.

If you are interested in discussions around good governance take a look at our briefings on director's remuneration and board effectiveness.

 

Corporate governance issues arising from boardroom structure includes how much each member should be paid for what they are expected to do, as Rob Wirszycz discusses in this TV show.

Corporate governance issues - Defining roles

Remuneration is a really sticky area in a sense.  Actually, if I’m a Non-Executive Director I don’t expect to own any shares.  My belief is that a Non-Executive Director is there to be completely objective.  And I’ve been in many Board meetings where effectively the Board meeting is a meeting of the shareholders.  Self-interest always wins in those meetings.  So if I’m a Non-Executive Director in a meeting and I’m there, my job, I’ll accept a retain, a relatively small retainer, depending on what they want me to do.  If they do anything away, outside of the brief, my belief is that that should be paid for separately.  But so just to be a Non-Executive Director, I would like to be paid for the very clear, clearly-defined, but I don’t want, expect any shares. As a Chairman it’s different.  Now the Chairman, I’m acting on behalf of the shareholders, so I actually have to have alignment with them, so what I always ask for when I’m Chairman is again a retainer, which is a small amount of money, relatively small amount of money, but I want to be able to earn shares based on the achievement of the plan.  So if we achieve the plan, which I’m owning, then I believe that I should be aligned with the shareholders’ interests and I should be able to earn in shares into the business.

If you are interested corporate governance issues take a look at our briefings on director's remuneration and board effectiveness.

 

Entrepreneurial spirit cannot be taught. There comes a point when you need to stop moaning and start doing things your way. In this video Simon La Fosse explains why he became an entrepreneur.

Entrepreneurial spirit finds a better way to do business

I was getting a bit bored actually.  I think partly boredom, partly you I kind of felt I’d reached a certain part, a time in my life when I was, I had enough evidence about working in a certain way being a really effective way to work and a pleasurable way to work and I’d seen too many organisations that I’d worked for just, I’m not saying it, it sounds a little bit arrogant but not quite seeming to get that.  And so there comes a point where you’ve got to stop whinging and you’ve got to put your money where your mouth is and say “Actually, I think there’s a better way to do business and that’s what we’re going to stand for as a firm” and that was, I took a gulp,  remortgaged the house, as far as the bank was concerned to build an extension, which is yet to be built, and took the dive.

Inside Finance will continue to bring you inspirational success stories from those with entrepreneurial spirit.

Business communication between company leaders, shareholders and the workforce explaining the reasoning of a director's pay could help satisfy everyone. Caroline Newsholme explains further in this TV show.

Business communication is vital

A lot of shareholders probably feel dissatisfied and feel that director’s remuneration is more and more out of kilter, in some instances, with reality. When you look at what some directors are being paid it does feel a very long way from the average wage of a shareholder or a member of the workforce of that particular organisation, so there is bound to be increasing focus on what directors are being paid and how they are being rewarded. I think people just want to understand that they’re worth it and that it is justified.  

For more about business communication and related issues, browse all Inside Finance videos.

Corporate governance issues include the relationship between management and staff. In this TV show Rob Wirszycz discusses managing expectations between directors & employees.

Corporate governance issues - Directors vs employees

I think there’s something to be said  for the European Works Council idea, even the Mittelstand in Germany has a Works Council, you know, which is almost like this sort of body that sits below, or even above some, in some cases a Board of Directors.  I think there’s a real case for that.  The UK’s doing okay.  It’s quite public, you know, the data you have to disclose on Companies House and all that kind of stuff and, as I say, with public social media and other stuff, there’s much more disclosure now than there ever was.  So I it’s not a bad place to do business but I think I think there’s still a an us and them between Directors and, if you like, staff, and I think, you know, we should, Directors should explain their role in the business a lot better. I try and for example, tomorrow one of my businesses has got to kick off and what I’m going to be doing is explaining what I do as Chairman.  You know, it will be about two minutes, but I’m just going to explain what I do and how they can use me, or abuse me, I suppose, but I mean  it’s quite important that I make sure that it’s very clear, the role that I’ve got and my expectations of everybody else as well.

Inside Finance TV will continue to follow ideas around corporate governance issues. Follow @InsideFinanceTV for more discussion. Watch the full briefing From the top – Ensuring board effectiveness as a director