FastForward FastForward

Crisis spawns Necessity. Necessity fuels Innovation. McKinsey & Co have reported that the pandemic response is that Companies are deprioritizing innovation to concentrate on four things: shoring up their core business, pursuing known opportunity spaces, conserving cash and minimizing risk, 

However in past crises, companies that invested in innovation delivered superior growth and performance postcrisis. 




JFK once observed that the word “crisis” in Chinese is made up of two characters—danger, and opportunity. He may not have been entirely correct on the linguistics, but the sentiment is true enough. 

How do companies find creative ways to continue fund their innovative projects? 




Dr Vivien Badout, CEO of DRIAD innovation consultancy for deep-tech start-ups and SMEs.  and expert in innovation grant funding joins us to help answer that question 
 

Website  https://www.driad.co/ 

Youtube  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCceXHh0iIjRgPWkZ_Clschg 

Ian Livingstone CBE is calling for schools to embrace games-based learning and digital creativity to help address  the question of the growing skills gap facing employers.

Ian has had a hugely successful career built on his passion for games and gamebooks.  

 

He has partnered with the Aspirations Academies Trust. They have teamed up to launch The Livingstone Academy Bournemouth which will be rooted in science, technology, engineering, arts and maths (STEAM)  

 

Ian share's with us what happens when a game-obsessed entrepreneur meets education thought leaders and how they are preparing to up-skill the next generation.

  

https://www.livingstone-aspirations.org/

2020 was one of the most challenging many of us will face in our lifetime. Whilst a little different, Christmas typically allows time to reflect and restore our energy levels with family .

 

Batteries re-charged, how do we look forward to 2021 with positivity?  

 

New Lockdown measures announced last night (5th Jan 2020) means we need to dig deep.

 

Even as lockdown eases, work patterns  are set to remain blended  with home and socially distanced office working.  

 

What tools and self-care can we deploy to maintain those energy levels for both ourselves and our employees? 

 

Emma-Louise Fusari founder of In-House Health provides employers with anonymised health data of their workforce to design targeted health initiatives and employee wellbeing. 

 

She’s taken her wealth of experience in chronic disease management and delivering public health programmes, to get on the front foot of mental and physical wellbeing 

 

She joins us today to share insights today on how to face the challenge of lockdown and eventually  a healthier happier 2021 

 

Show Notes : 

BusinessCloud Well-Being Story 

https://www.businesscloud.co.uk/opinion/five-gadgets-to-improve-your-wellbeing-in-2021/

 Check out In-House Health and Digital Nurse  In-House Health


 

Is burn out the real virus blog : https://inhousehealth.co.uk/is-burnout-the-real-virus-impacting-tech/ 

 

LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/thedigitalnurse/




Check out the radio show Check Up Tuesday





https://www.fabradiointernational.com/fab-radio-schedule/tuesday/inhouse-health-radio-show 

Modern digital marketing is truly a maze. How do we navigate this?

If there’s one positive to come of this year it’s that there’s been an eCommerce explosion with 61% of Brits admitting to shopping more online during lockdown. (*Retail Times) 




But currently up to 40 per cent of clothing bought online is returned, compared with 5 to 10 per cent of in-store purchases.




Fashion prediction platform Dressipi is working to change that. It’s working with retailers like John Lewis, River Island and Topshop to help them predict what customers will buy and not return. 




Co-founders Donna North and Sarah McVittie join me on this episode to talk about how technology is shaping the future of fashion.

Host: Patricia Keating
Guests: Donna North and Sarah McVittie co-founders Dressippi  https://dressipi.com/




For more information on personalisation and data in fashion: 




https://dressipi.com/how-river-island-used-personalisation-to-deliver-revenue-increase/


https://dressipi.com/closer-look-at-our-data-insight-hub/

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ABOUT FAST FORWARD:

Hosted by Tech Manchester’s director Patricia Keating, FastForward shares the stories and expertise of business experts and founders at all stages of their business journey. It’s crammed full of practical advice on how to take your startup to the next level. 

In 2012 Jolyon Bennett risked his home to launch his vision: a sustainable mobile phone accessories business. Some nail-biting moments followed but Jolyon's was handed a big break by John Lewis, just weeks before his money ran out. 

John Lewis sold 2,000 units in the first week and Juice became the fastest selling brand they had ever launched.

Juice is now on a mission to not only ensure his company is manufacturing in a more sustainable way, but he is also rolling out an incentive to help others to do the same - including supermarket giant Tesco. 

This year Juice became the first mobile phone accessories manufacturer to completely remove single-use plastic from its packaging. The company also launched completely compostable phone cases and is now working towards bringing their plant-based plugs to market. 

Jolyon has been on an incredible journey from leaving school with a backlog of three months detention to leading the call for more sustainable business models. In this episode he shares what he's learned along the way and explains why more CEOs need to make the change to build a better world for all of us. 

Host: Patricia Keating
Guests: Joylon Bennett founder Juice https://www.juice.co.uk/




Follow Tech Manchester:
Twitter: @tecmcr
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/techmanchester/
Facebook: Tech Manchester