Michael Hayman

SEVEN HILLS - Britain’s Campaigning Company

Sun, 11 Mar 2012 12:01:13 +0000

SEVEN HILLS - Britain’s Campaigning Company

“The Victory of Giving A Damn” “The...

Fri, 28 Oct 2011 09:12:33 +0100

“The Victory of Giving A Damn”

“The Celebration Of Doing Something Great”

A wonderful tribute to Steve Jobs from (Brit) Jonathan Ive

New show reel for Michael Hayman

Fri, 21 Oct 2011 11:42:45 +0100

New show reel for Michael Hayman

Optimism Can Help Spark Recovery

Mon, 03 Oct 2011 09:23:00 +0100

By Michael Hayman
Published by Yorkshire Post on Tuesday 30 August 2011 09:11

Yorkshire must sell its credentials as a can-do county if it is serious about economic recovery.

Hope is no easy task when confronted with a bleak economic outlook, with business confidence as fragile as bone china, riots in Britain’s city streets and the prevailing media mood music of daily doom and gloom.

Downturns aren’t defeated by doubt. Pessimism does not lead a region to recovery, a business to boom, or a person to profit.

Negativity is a parasite that robs us all of creativity, energy and action.

Optimism is the name of the game and if we are serious about economic recovery then we must all have more heart in speaking its name.

The government has pinned its hope for the economic fightback on this strategy and in doing so looks to one group more than any other to deliver it: entrepreneurs.

They are a good bet. While most entrepreneurs might accept that the prevailing macro picture remains testing, more likely than not they will have the courageous self-belief that they themselves have bucked the trend and weathered the risks of recession.

Entrepreneurs tend to thrive in the face of adversity. When Sir Richard Branson says, “screw it, let’s do it” he captures the essence of enterprise and the disruptive quality of the entrepreneurial mindset.

Make no mistake, that growing sense of micro or personal confidence is the beginning of the green shoots of economic recovery. The only question for our policy makers is how to nurture it.

There is a positive role for the state in Yorkshire, not only as a deliverer of services or an employer of people. It is uniquely placed as a potential catalyst for confidence because of its cities.

Cities are hotbeds of creativity, clusters for people to group together, and places where it is easier to pull together the sorts of coalitions of the willing that make change possible.

My home city is Sheffield and it has got to grips with this downturn in a very different way to the last time it faced the spectre of recession.

Rail sheds have been replaced by new and thriving sectors like digital. Regenerated and rebuilt, diversified and different, it has an appetite to be a can-do city.

Eighteen months ago a number of us, led by the city’s regeneration agency Creativesheffield, discussed the possibility of establishing a national festival for entrepreneurship, an event that inspired and celebrated the spirit of business, a strategy placing Sheffield firmly on the map as a champion for enterprise.

When I discussed the prospect with some business and media leaders in London, it is fair to say that the response was initially somewhat more cynical.

The great news is that hope overcame doubt. After a superbly successful first year, MADE: The Entrepreneur Festival, returns this September firmly established as a beacon for business.

In turn, initiatives like the Advanced Manufacturing Park in South Yorkshire are a big part of the regional recovery agenda.

This is a part of the world that makes a lot of things and that capability and heritage is a major catalyst to inspire investment and to nurture grass roots entrepreneurship.

This recovery is a local recovery and you will find it delivered on the streets of our cities, not the corridors of Whitehall.

It is a fightback delivered by the Apple generation, one that believes small is beautiful and individual enterprise the goal.

In this recovery, the start-up is the ‘big bang’ moment from which all things become possible and it involves change, lots of it.

In previous downturns, the UK has been rescued by the cavalry of large-scale inward investment. But the thundering hooves of the big beasts are not the predominant feature this time.

In this environment, the arrival of the Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) should be good news as they get the state closer to local entrepreneurs, decision making nearer to real businesses.

But rather than smaller versions of previous regional policy they need to think differently and act as the chief cheerleaders for optimism. If they do one thing well it should be to focus efforts on the transformational potential of positivity.

“Dress cute wherever you go, life is too short to blend in.” Not the words of Sir Mervyn King, but instead those of that little known business sage, Paris Hilton.

She is right and our new LEPs might want to think about that as they develop the new strategies to deliver the economic fightback.

There is a recovery under way but it is fragile and has every chance of faltering, especially if we talk it down or give it up.

It’s a recovery that will be delivered by a county like Yorkshire and a city like Sheffield.

It’s a recovery embodied by the optimism of MADE: The Entrepreneur Festival. Hope to see you there.

n Michael Hayman is co-founder of Seven Hills (www.wearesevenhills.com) and of StartUp Britain (www.startupbritain.org ). He is Chairman of Entrepreneurs at Coutts & Co and for MADE: The Entrepreneur Festival (www.madefestival.com). You can follow Michael on Twitter at @michaelhayman

One Young World: The world has to be enough

Sat, 03 Sep 2011 20:57:37 +0100

“I don’t want you to talk, Mr. Bond, I want you to die!” So says Goldfinger to Bond on a Swiss mountaintop facility, and so begins my most gratuitously self-indulgent opener to a column yet.

By Michael Hayman

2 September 2011 @ 09:26.

I have just arrived in Zurich to attend One Young World, a vibrant Davos for the young and surely a great title for a future 007 epic.

As many have come to expect, I pulled up in the Aston, sartorially splendid in a Savile Row three-piecer and surrounded by a bevy of beauties.“I’m Plenty” says one. “Why of course you are,” says I.

OK, stop it. None of that happened. It was an economy flight to Zurich but nonetheless I’m here, at what is a blockbuster by any account.

A formidable gathering of names from Sir Bob Geldof to Jamie Oliver, from Unilever CEO Paul Polman to singer Joss Stone make this very a special place to be.

If the big names and epic stage sets provide the impact, it’s the young delegates themselves that provide the real wow factor. These people are not only the high achievers of tomorrow, they’re doing it today.

One Young World founder and Havas CEO David Jones spoke of the forum as one at which you should not talk, but do, and encouraged delegates to use One Young World as a “platform to effect positive change”.

One thing that strikes me is that the traditional “elders know best” school of wisdom is one that looks pretty stale in an environment like this. We live in a world where social media can destroy dictatorships and it’s the young that understand its potent power the most.

There were a number of interesting delegate votes that got me to sit up and think. On most influential existing social media channels, Facebook took 61 per cent to 34 per cent by Twitter.

On the dominant online service of the future vote, Google trumped all with 68 per cent. In terms of favoured news sources, only 13 per cent went for print, 37 per cent for social media, while 58 per cent picked digital news sources.

A key aspect of the Arab Spring has been the harnessing of every day assets like Twitter and Facebook, and its effect has been to liberate nations. From our comfortable vantage point you can overlook the fact that in regimes around the world, much of their powerbase is based on the control of communication.

In under a decade, the democratisation of communication has swept away privileged infrastructures previously reserved for the powerful and the wealthy. It may be revolutions on the street that catch your eye today but it’s the digital revolution that is the real game changer. In a world where talk gets cheaper by the day the era of real citizen power becomes ever more realisable.

Regime change is not just reserved for the world of politics and media, the business landscape has similarly been turned on its head. The downturn has decimated traditional expectations of guaranteed jobs from university and it has left young people exposed to the most uncertain prospects faced by any generation in living memory.

In turn, the internet means that a factor like your social capital – that is to say the value of your influence and networks – should become a key part of the valuation of tomorrow’s businesses and yourself.

Taking the big entrepreneur slot at One Young World was Dragons’ Den founder Doug Richard, who delivered a cinematic extravaganza of his own. Small Giants is his new TV initiative. He told me, “There are two types of people here: those that could change the world and those that will.”

Young people have a thirst for enterprise and people are inspired by the idea of working for themselves rather than someone else.

It’s a big change. Within a single lifetime we’ve seen the choices of the talented leapfrog from public service and the military, to big business careers, to today becoming entrepreneurs. That is major political change, social change and business change.

In Zurich today are 1600 people from 170 countries, the biggest global gathering of its type and a beacon for positivity. It’s a reminder to those whose enthusiasm for the future has been dimmed that there are some very bright and enthusiastic people on the planet.

The James Bond family motto is, of course, “the world is not enough” but the 21st century 007 may want to change that to “the world has to be enough.”

The fragility of our environment and economies means that we have to make the most of what we’ve got. Against that background there is a very welcome place for initiatives that seek to unite rather than divide the planet. One Young World has a licence to thrill.

Random Acts Of Kindness

Sun, 28 Aug 2011 22:06:45 +0100

I’ve come to realise that the best things happen when you least expect them. These random acts of kindness really do matter – and Britain’s startups are the first to recognise this.

By Michael Hayman

26 August 2011 @ 14:36.

What a washout. When it rains like this I certainly suffer from seasonal affective disorder – it makes me SAD indeed!

Nothing seems to go right when it rains, from catching a train to losing your brolly. We really should have been a Mediterranean nation.

But just when you think that things are going to go from bad to worse, sometimes something wonderful can occur. That was what happened to me today and it happened on the face of it in a highly unlikely setting; on a bus on a wet, windswept street in Nottingham.

This was no ordinary bus, but the super charged StartUp Britain bus that has been tearing the length and breadth of Britain over the last week. And here I found myself among a most extraordinary group of optimistic doers, the startups of Nottingham.

What a great gang they were. Outside, sheet rain, inside, blue sky thinking all the way. The energy on the bus was something else. Incredible passion, great belief, great personal risk – the ingredients of young businesses all over the UK.

Since co-founding StartUp Britain in March, I have met early-stage entrepreneurs from all over the country, and I’m beginning to see them as a tribe of very special, very kind people.

The traditional image of the rapacious entrepreneur, that they’re “in it to win it” in a solitary search for glory bears little resemblance to this generation of people leaving employment to make jobs rather than take them.

Passion is such an attractive quality in people and I can tell you that in Nottingham this morning, there was an abundance of people with superb stories and a great deal of hope. If you want to see the counter opposite to the despair of the riots this month, then get on the bus.

These are the people that will lift Britain out of recession, contribute to their communities and are doing things that are brilliant. They just need the confidence to know that they can do it and in many cases are already doing it by building brands that have the promise to grow.

From a brilliant young drinks brand called Percy’s to a superb new sort of Facebook for recruitment, myjobsplace.co.uk, these are the living embodiment of what the Prime Minister called the “doers and the grafters” at the CBI last year.

I spent a lot of time talking to Penny Alexander, a mum who is about to set up her own firm, Alexander Residence, as a writer and a blogger providing content and reviews for parenting products. For me, she was emblematic of the people we met today. Full of beans and ideas – I think she finished up mentoring me before I had a chance to give her any advice.

I mentioned a rough idea for this column and before I knew it, she’d taken the photograph that you see in the piece. Now that’s what I call get up and go.

And then it came time to catch the train and a long walk back to the reality of a wet August train trip home. Twenty minutes later and I was hopelessly lost. SAD syndrome beckoned.

But like a ray of sunshine, who should walk by but Penny. She gave me a lift to the station and it saved me a pair of shoes and a lot of indignant complaining.

So, the motto of this column is that random acts of kindness really do matter and I’m glad to report that Britain’s young startups should have a very bright future if the phrase “what goes around comes around” holds out to be true.

Back Britain at the MADE Festival

Tue, 23 Aug 2011 16:08:01 +0100

If you want to see everything that’s brilliant about British business then head to the MADE Festival in Sheffield this September.

By Michael Hayman

16 August 2011 @ 10:02.

If you want take a break to help you gear up for growth, you would do better to toss away the bucket and spade and head to the steel city. It will offer an oasis of opportunity from the very best in enterprise thinking to opportunities to meet other entrepreneurs and to network.

This summer’s riots have been a shock to the collective system. It has laid open all that divides Britain. Fitting then for a festival that reminds us about what unites and is best about the UK, its entrepreneurs.

It has been small businesses that have borne the brunt of hate but it has also been small businesses that have shown amazing resilience to get trading again.

It’s a far quieter revolution when you’re building things up rather than burning them down. But it is a revolution nonetheless and it is one that is based on the positive role of enterprise. What strikes me as interesting about recent days is not the unrest but the positive community action to put things right and get going again.

MADE picks up that positive sense of community by bringing together 2,000 entrepreneurs from all over the country. Business people who want to be inspired and companies that want to accelerate.

These businesses are the backbone of Britain. They are the companies that set the nation’s course through the compass points of constant endeavour and graft. It’s sometimes easy to forget the contribution to society that companies can make. Employing people, improving lives, offering services. These are the stories of real people who make a real difference.

One thing is crystal clear about the riots; they were an assault on the doers and grafters, those at the grass roots who have the capability to get Britain growing again.

Much time has been spent on the analysis of the criminals who perpetrated crime, not enough spent on the character of those who are left to pick up the pieces and rebuild.

It’s important to provide that focus because Britain’s entrepreneurial culture has never been as vitally important to the nation’s future as it is now. That culture is one that revels in a can-do culture and one that champions hard work.

It is a culture that will be celebrated at the MADE Festival over three days of events with some of Britain’s brightest talents and most famous business names. Speakers include business secretary Vince Cable and enterprise minister Mark Prisk.

MADE also welcomes some of the UK’s leading entrepreneurs including Peter Jones CBE; Dragons’ Den star and founder of Ariadne Capital Julie Meyer; Luke Johnson, FT columnist and founder of Risk Capital Partners; Doug Richard, founder of School for Startups and a host of others.

But if MADE is an opportunity to meet the great and the good it is perhaps even more importantly a unique chance for entrepreneurs to come together to use their voice to make their point about the sort of society they want live in.

I am chairing the Festival for the second time. A year ago we had a concept, a month later we had the UK’s most significant gathering of entrepreneurs.

This year we have a national platform to discuss and debate the ideas that will make businesses better and entrepreneurs more successful. It’s a wonderful destination for enterprise and if you have the time you won’t regret taking it.

Mike Southon made a great point in the weekend Financial Times when he said that “the primary purpose of entrepreneurship…is to make a better life for yourself and your family.” This is the spirit of MADE and I hope we make a great statement this Autumn about UK entrepreneurs and their potential to accelerate the nation on its road to recovery.

If you’re bothered about Britain be bothered about MADE.

Michael Hayman is co-founder of the public relations consultancy Seven Hills. He is 2011 Chairman of MADE: The Entrepreneur Festival. You can also follow Michael on Twitter.

Michael Hayman Show Reel: Events, speeches and interviews

Thu, 18 Aug 2011 09:30:00 +0100

Michael Hayman Show Reel: Events, speeches and interviews

OUTRUNNING THE CORPORATE COMPETITION

Mon, 15 Aug 2011 18:01:20 +0100

Monday 15th August 2011, 2:47am ENTREPRENEUR MICHAEL HAYMAN

IT’S HOT and the big beasts of the corporate jungle are getting desperate for easy prey. Gathering around the entrepreneurial watering holes, they are hungrily eyeing up one species in particular, the gazelles.

In business parlance being a gazelle is about as good as it gets. Often found on the open plains around London’s Silicon Roundabout, these are fast-growth young businesses with the fitness to leap over the competition and live the entrepreneurial dream.

But not so fast. According to research by SAP UK & Ireland and Delta Economics, these young bucks should beware the perils of growth. Many of them are set to be culled because of the speed of their success.

Business failure is a very real risk, but this set piece of summer season silliness misses the point. Apparently 33 per cent of businesses that disappear do so because they are acquired. What a disaster, except, hold on, I thought that selling your business was the point for many entrepreneurs. Tell Iain Dodsworth, who sold his business Tweetdeck for £25m, that selling after three years was the worst mistake he made.

This sort of message says a lot about the mindset of many large corporates struggling to find a theme that works with the small business market. That when in doubt, the best way to win is to scare the market half to death.

But that’s not my overwhelming objection. It is more that the negative message to small, fast growth companies is such a siren call of folly. Most companies don’t have a realistic choice about controlling their pace of growth, and while a reputation for being dull but dependable might sound good in a corporate ivory tower, on the street it’s an ingredient to be ignored and a recipe for failure.

The pursuit of growth is great. Two years ago, the business I co-founded was an idea on the kitchen table. A big part of our thinking was that if people believed we could grow then we would grow. The strategy was all about momentum and so far the good news is that the strategy works.

Our business is known as a fast-growth business because we have the aspiration, ambition and optimism to excite our clients. Maybe we will fall off the curve at some point but we also might get right back on it because of these very same character assets.

Growth most certainly has its challenges but we wouldn’t change the direction for a second. It provides the lifeblood that drives the business, develops the people, and delivers better results for clients.

For the vast majority of businesses it’s not too much growth that is the problem; it’s that they don’t have enough of it. So rather than read extinct research, my advice to aspiring gazelles is to get hold of the Jungle Book, and heed the lyrics of King Louie’s song, I wanna be like you: “I’ve reached the top and had to stop and that’s what botherin’ me.” And that really is the problem of growth.

Go for growth and put the brakes on plodding research

Mon, 08 Aug 2011 21:40:40 +0100

A new survey from SAP and Delta Economics tells us that fast growth companies should beware of growth. What nonsense. Put your foot on the accelerator and enjoy the ride.

By Michael Hayman

1 August 2011 @ 16:45.

The latest analysis by SAP UK & Ireland and Delta Economics is a wonderful read if you were, say, as enquiring as the Mad Hatter. Because if you delve a bit further into the stats it appears that within the tea party of failure some 33 per cent of those businesses that disappeared were acquired.

Outrageous, I blame the government. Scrap that, I blame global warming. Except, wait a minute; what is wrong with being acquired? Isn’t that the point for many entrepreneurs? To build brands and then sell them?

This sort of research is meaningless because it lacks a usable lesson. What does it say? Maybe, “turn down that next multi-million dollar contract Mr or Ms Minnow. You can’t handle it.” I am sure it’s not meant to come across as condescending but the problem is that it does.

Yes, recruitment companies haven’t done well in down turns; yes, companies come and go; yes, companies need to manage the challenges of growth. Blah, blah, yes, but so what? It’s not only small companies, it’s large ones that don’t stand the test of time either – perhaps something for their next piece of research.

Try this fact. Out of the 500 companies in the Fortune 500 in 1957, only 74 remained over four decades later. What does that say? Perhaps that uncertainty is the only certainty we have and that the sooner we embrace that truth the sooner we can get on with it rather than overanalyse it.

So, rewind. How about a few facts that entrepreneurs can do something with:

Growth is good. It is the driver that spurs on business and builds successful capitalist economies. Forgive me, but last time I looked the planned economies of the Soviet Union were as redundant as this survey. Entrepreneurs aren’t King Canute. They need to meet the challenges of growth not turn them away.
Businesses have ups and downs. Key is, how able are you to make hay while the sun shines, and to survive the winter when it doesn’t. That means building better businesses while you grow. As General Patton said: “A good plan executed violently now is better than a perfect plan executed next week.”
Risk is all around you. It’s not just fast growth companies that face risks, it is all startups. That is why they are such precious resources that need to be given every level of encouragement they can to survive.

It will be entrepreneurs themselves that decide how much success they can handle. So, my advice, for those that might want it, is go for growth and enjoy the ride.

Drive it with the furious determination of a Formula One driver and make the most of the time you have to build the business you deserve. In the end we all face a bit of time in the pit so enjoy it while it lasts.

Michael Hayman is co-founder of the public relations consultancy Seven Hills. You can also follow Michael on Twitter.

Dragons’ Den: New Series - Seven Hills Working With Peter...

Sun, 31 Jul 2011 14:03:10 +0100

Dragons’ Den: New Series - Seven Hills Working With Peter Jones CBE

Peter Jones CBE, a Seven Hills client, returns to BBC Two’s Dragons’ Den. This video profiles some of our work together.

Doug Richard’s School for Creative Startups launched by Seven...

Sun, 31 Jul 2011 14:00:38 +0100

Doug Richard’s School for Creative Startups launched by Seven Hills with an all-star panel debate at the Hospital Club

This week saw the launch of Doug Richard’s School for Creative Startups spearheaded by Seven Hills, which saw a high profile panel debate take place at the stylish Hospital Club in Covent Garden.

The event featured a discussion focusing on the creative sector with Ed Vaizey MP, Minister of State for Culture, Communications and the Creative Industries; Kanya King MBE, founder of the MOBO awards; Libby Sellers, director of Gallery Libby Sellers; and Caroline Burstein, creative director at fashion house Browns.

Seven Hills co-founder Michael Hayman compered the evening, and according to Smarta “was on fine form, punctuating proceedings with regular sarcastic epithets (“And your question is? …Hurry up!”), keeping the pace of debate practically supersonic.”

Interview: Apprentice star shines with enterprise message Melody...

Sun, 31 Jul 2011 13:57:58 +0100

Interview: Apprentice star shines with enterprise message

Melody Hossaini, one of the big stars of The Apprentice 2011 joins Seven Hills co-founder, Michael Hayman at the Peter Jones Enterprise Academy Graduation to discuss her time on the show, young people and the future of enterprise.

You can watch the video here:

Melody Hossaini at the Peter Jones Enterprise Academy Graduation 2011

interview: dragon fires up new generation of enterprise...

Sun, 31 Jul 2011 13:55:38 +0100

interview: dragon fires up new generation of enterprise talent

145 young entrepreneurs graduated from the Peter Jones Enterprise Academy (PJEA). Dragons’ Den star, Peter Jones CBE and the PJEA Entrepreneur of the Year, Grant Ridley are interviewed by Seven Hills co-founder, Michael Hayman, on a big day for enterprise.

Fairy Tales That Your Business Needs To Read

Wed, 20 Jul 2011 11:54:58 +0100

Reputation is the Cinderella asset: you never quite know what you’ve got until you’ve lost it, as Rupert Murdoch is discovering.

By Michael Hayman

Rupert Murdoch is no Prince Charming, but I daresay he will respect the sentiment when facing the Select Committee for Culture, Media and Sport.

Now, I’m no stranger in my columns to the use of superlatives and clichés, but for once, I’m at a loss to capture the enormity of the fall from grace that has beset News International.

I feel the hand of history upon my shoulder. Ok, that one was from Tony Blair, but it captures the sentiment of a corporate unraveling unlike anything in modern times.

It also captures the point that whoever you are and whatever you do, you are not immune to the fact that you are as others see you – that your reputation is the single most important asset that you can have.

Oh, irony of ironies. Here is an organisation that has built an empire by holding the mighty to account and reducing the reputation of prince and paupers alike to rubble. Here is a family whose reputation for power is said to have altered everything from the course of elections to the performance of markets.

This is a drama equal to the fables of Greek mythology. Rupert Murdoch as Oh Mighty Zeus, disgruntled and impatient; James Murdoch as Icarus, the boy who flew too close to the sun; and Rebekah Brooks, a raven haired Medussa, the once fair maiden now left only with a glare to turn an inquisitor into stone.

But this is not a tale only for those with empires to control the great and the good, it is also one that affects anyone in business today.

Reputation, simply put, is the impression that others have of you. In this world, reputation is everything and the single most important objective must be to create a favorable impression in the mind of your targets.

Today, good work and great products are no longer enough, you need stories to help sell them. Words count. Don’t believe me?

“Never Knowingly Undersold”, “Every Little Helps”. Each just three little words. Three little words that provide the foundations of two of Britain’s most successful ever businesses, John Lewis and Tesco.

Words build your reputation. Warren Buffett, the Sage of Omaha, put it brilliantly when he said: “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.”

Of course, Rupert Murdoch has proven that in today’s age of citizen journalism and social media, you can be undone in five seconds rather than five minutes. The firestorm of Twitter can engulf the unsuspecting with a speed that few are prepared for and even fewer successfully tackle.

It also affirms the wisdom of another famous tale, this time David and Goliath.

Technology is the sling – and words the shot – to fell the most powerful of corporate giants. Ask Tony Hayward, the former BP CEO, what he thinks about Leroy Sticks, the anonymous Twitter crusader who humbled the multi-national by turning tragedy into ridicule.

Or take Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former head of the IMF. With our judges it may be innocent until proven otherwise, but it’s fair to say that the court of public opinion has already passed a verdict of guilt.

As more businesses work harder to establish and build reputations, so the risks to their profiles also grow. More of us will have to lead businesses through crises, more of us will find ourselves the focus of scrutiny, and more of us will come to see that the public interest and what is interesting to the public have become one and the same.

If your business is faced with a crisis, then your response is all-important.

When British Midland suffered the tragedy of the East Midlands air crash, its chief executive, Sir Michael Bishop, got it absolutely right. He understood that as the leader he needed to get out there quickly, be visibly seen to care, and to offer a message of action.

Most business leaders want you to understand their perspective on events. That was Murdoch’s big mistake with the Wall Street Journal piece last week that revealed for all to see the real thinking of News International.

They believed that they had handled it well. Wrong, badly wrong. It could have been very different if they had run the weekend apology ads first.

It’s called CAP because your messaging needs to express Concern first (empathy), then Action (what are you going to do), then Perspective (actually we are a lot better than you think we are).

Your business story is a fable for your times and if you want to live happily ever after, you need to pay attention to it and get serious about your reputation.

Michael Hayman is co-founder of the public relations consultancy Seven Hills. You can also follow Michael on Twitter.

Hayman Says Murdochs Must Show Concern Over Allegations July 19...

Wed, 20 Jul 2011 11:44:00 +0100

Hayman Says Murdochs Must Show Concern Over Allegations

July 19 (Bloomberg) — Michael Hayman, co-founder of Seven Hills, talks about the outlook for Rupert and James Murdoch’s appearance today before a U.K. parli…

Was Reagan The Entrepreneurs' President?

Mon, 18 Jul 2011 19:05:36 +0100

How great a president was Ronald Reagan? Granted not a question that I ask myself that often, but I’ve found myself asking it today.

Because today – Independence Day – I was a guest at the US Embassy for the unveiling of a new statue in Grosvenor Square that commemorates the contribution to global freedom made by the former US president.

It was a superb occasion, and speeches by Foreign Secretary William Hague and former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice were frankly brilliant. Sitting in the heat of the mid-morning sun I was carried away by the rhetoric of admirers to a man who made quite a contribution to the life of our planet.

Then I read the BBC’s report of the same event and I wonder if somehow they had attended something else. Perhaps the Ilie Ceausescu memorial or a Colonel Gaddafi fundraiser?

Mean-spirited and sour, the article on the BBC website paints a picture of a warmonger and economy wrecker.

I guess the truth lies somewhere in between the eulogies of the morning and the words of the liberal left who have always had it in for the two pinups of the right, President Reagan and Baroness Thatcher.

The traditional analysis of the life of Reagan majors on his contribution to world peace, with specific reference to the collapse of the iron curtain. Rightly so, but it may be that it was his role as an entrepreneurial president that is the more interesting.

Now I was a child of the 1980s; yes, I confess the guilty but sublime pleasures of Johnny Hates Jazz, Top Gun, Teen Wolf and black polo necks. Ok, perhaps too much information, but I was there.

I remember an America that seemed to have many of the same challenges that it has today. Strangled by debt, weakened by bureaucracy and wallowing in low self-esteem.

Then came along a person with the unshakeable belief that America’s best days lay ahead and not behind it. In many ways, the battles he fought mirrored those we face today between the forces of optimism and pessimism.

A lot of people used a lot of brainpower to write him off, but he did something extraordinary that defied their defeatism – he gave the States back its self-respect.

He faced a mountain – perhaps even higher than the one the world has to climb today – but he climbed it.

It was entrepreneurs that flocked to him as the new shock troops ready to tear down the status quo, to adopt the spirit of the pioneer, and to revel in the possibilities of massive disruption.

Reaganomics can be summed up in the belief that a rising tide catches all boats. That the success of business will find its way to everyone.

It remains one of the most divisive and contentious elements of his presidency. Not least because it didn’t work out the way he had hoped. The cost of the success of a new generation of entrepreneurs was the social deprivation of many stratas of American society.

But while the liberal elite scoffs at this, no-one really has an answer for what the alternative might have been.

The 1980s were a period of phenomenal economic renewal for the States, and while I’m making the point, for this country also. It created new wealth, new opportunity and a new lease of life. Rather than be ashamed of that we would do better to celebrate it for we need that same spirit now.

Reagan was the great communicator; a man who could speak with princes and paupers alike – and the world loved him for it. Sitting there today you realise how easy it is to forget the huge debt of gratitude that people across Europe, within business, and in many areas of life still feel for him.

Today also made me realise that Reagan embodied the special relationship between the US and the UK. As Churchill allegedly once said, the only thing worse than fighting with your allies is fighting without them. We may have our differences but the bonds between the nations are special indeed.

But it is to the cause of freedom that President Reagan will find his true place in posterity. Away from the dramas of the collapse of the Berlin Wall, he preached a message that you really should be able to get on with what you want to do, live the life you want to lead, be free of the chains of government. Little surprise then that this is a man who spoke the language of entrepreneurs.

But for me I will always remember a quote attribute to him. Speaking of his wife Nancy, he said she was the only woman he had ever met who could make him lonely by just leaving the room.

It is not his presidency as much as his humanity that makes Ronald Reagan great and I hope I can be a fraction of the human being and husband that he turned out to be.

Michael Hayman is co-founder of the public relations consultancy Seven Hills. You can also follow Michael on Twitter.

Searching For Innovation

Mon, 18 Jul 2011 18:49:00 +0100

To become an entrepreneur is to become a searcher: a searcher for ideas, a searcher for people, a searcher for capital.

Nice words, wish they were mine. But they belong to Carl Schramm, the eloquent head of the Kauffman Foundation. Schramm is a fitting ambassador for enterprise, and entrepreneurs have a thinking champion in him.

Schramm’s point is that we have to let go. That attempts to plan economies always fail and that innovation is the key to thriving in environments where disruption and constant change are the only certainties upon which you can rely.

Yet a deep-rooted discomfort with innovation means that fortunes are wasted by corporations and governments alike in futile attempts to prop up the failing status quo and to bring order to chaos.

His is a Darwinian universe, where the all-important act of creation is by those who go for it and use their survival skills to start up their own businesses.

For Schramm, the start up is the “big bang” moment from which all things become possible. Here, entrepreneurs are the ultimate creatures of innovative evolution and corporations its dinosaurs.

Innovation is the process of improving things by doing things differently, and it involves change, lots of it. It suits organisations where the balance between risk and reward is visibly altered by changing and, in this regard, small really is beautiful. This is why entrepreneurs get it and big companies want it.

It has emerged as the must-have buzzword, especially for large businesses who are attracted to the positive language and possibilities of appearing entrepreneurial. It is the new message accessory for any global CEO; from the conference circuit, to the boardroom, innovation is in fashion.

But how deep does this commitment to change really run? Speaking at the London Business School Global Leadership Summit, I was struck by how many big business leaders used the concept of innovation as a sort of ideas emulsion to paint over the cracks of the failings of the global economy and their own corporations.

In this analysis, innovation has always been a part of their business. You could be forgiven for emerging from the Summit under the misapprehension that there had been no global economic meltdown, no catastrophic failure of economic or business performance. Life is good, certainty is restored.

Except that is completely wrong. Just because you say you are innovative, it doesn’t mean you are and just because you adopt the language it doesn’t mean you are committed to the sort of disruptive actions required to be successful.

The psyche of many corporations is far more timid, and in their hearts many are terrified by change and exhausted by the inherent risks involved. The trouble is that the old maxim of “when in doubt do nothing” no longer really holds true, so plan B is to at least sound innovative and committed to change even if you really aren’t.

At the Summit, the head of 3M, George Buckley, asked a good question: What do organisations fear most, disruption or destruction? His answer was disruption, and that does not bode well.

The evidence shows that company destruction remains a massive risk both for organisations and people alike.

In turn, disruption is often the most powerful antidote for the avoidance of failure. Yet, even though we know it, not enough of us do anything about it because it involves changing what we are comfortable with.

One definition of insanity is to do the same thing over and over again and hope for a different outcome. Certainly, on the current evidence, insanity has its place in business and reinforcing failure to avoid change remains a worryingly reassuring option for too many business leaders.

But of course, even if you don’t like change you cannot be seen to believe that, especially in this climate. This is where a powerful concept like innovation comes in.

But the big company ideal of innovation is a very different one to that which any entrepreneur would recognise. It seems to be the preserve of the R&D team, a flaccid process to affect product design rather than to drive company transformation.

The real home for innovation is at the top, in the hunt for market opportunities, and this is why entrepreneurs get it.

An innovator would have driven a photography business like Kodak to dominate digital in the last decade; or taken Brother from typewriters to PCs in the 1990s; or Amtrak from trains to air travel in the 1960s.

When Carl Schramm makes the point that to be an entrepreneur is to be a searcher, I believe that to be a search for innovation.

To be an entrepreneur then is to also be an innovator; an innovator of ideas, an innovator of people and an innovator of capital. It’s a search that more big businesses need to join in through disruptive deeds not words.

Michael Hayman is co-founder of the public relations consultancy Seven Hills. You can also follow Michael on Twitter.

stand in their way. Real entrepreneurs are so much fun to work with.

MICHAEL HAYMAN CO-FOUNDER of SEVEN HILLS This video profiles...

Thu, 30 Jun 2011 21:12:10 +0100

MICHAEL HAYMAN

CO-FOUNDER of SEVEN HILLS

This video profiles the work of Michael Hayman. You can find out more about Seven Hills at www.wearesevenhills.com and on twitter at @sevenhillsviews. You can follow Michael on twitter at @michaelhayman

LONDON BUSINESS SCHOOL GLOBAL LEADERSHIP SUMMIT 2011 How do you...

Sat, 25 Jun 2011 21:57:24 +0100

LONDON BUSINESS SCHOOL

GLOBAL LEADERSHIP SUMMIT 2011

How do you set the scene for innovation? Michael Hayman (Founder, Seven Hills), Richard Tyler (Enterprise Editor, Daily Telegraph) Antonio Horta-Osorio (CEO, Lloyds), Philip Rutnam (MD, Kodadk), , Philip Cullimore (Department Business, Innovation and Skills) and Phanish Puranam (London Business School) discuss their thoughts on this question at the Global Leadership Summit 2011