smartest brains in business

Welcome to Smarta’s first eBook. To mark the entering of not just a new year but a new decade we thought we’d ask 30 of the smartest brains in business how they thought the entrepreneurial landscape would evolve over the next 10 years.

Entrepreneurs, marketers, investors, authors, publishers, models-turned-retailers, Dragons, and Twitter royalty alike, we asked them two simple questions:

This eBook captures their views not so much for posterity, but as an act of collaboration and inspiration. We’d like to thank all our contributors and urge that, should you find it useful, you share it by linking to this page, tweeting about it or emailing the link to your contacts in the same spirit as the contributors.

Where do you see the biggest opportunities for entrepreneurs in 2010?

How will the successful companies of the next 10 years differ from those of the previous decade?

what’s this?

smartest brains in business

Technology journalist Herb Brody once concluded: “Telling the future by looking at the past assumes that conditions remain constant. This is like driving a car by looking in the rear-view mirror.”

Just one of the 30 contributors referred to the past and anticipated little or no change – and even then they were referring to the human propensity for habit, not the technological or entrepreneurial capacity for advancement. As you’d expect from a pack of innovators, early-adopters and thought leaders, the rest are baying for change and see another decade glistening with fresh opportunity.

If it’s not the cloud, it’s the crowd that excites them. In most instances, it’s both. It’s in these evolutions of the late noughties that our contributors have identified the most untapped potential. As they see it, cloud computing, social media and the web as a whole, are about to really start changing our lives and environments – and will shape the way companies are structured, how they grow, the services they offer, how they behave and how they interact with their customers.

The successful companies of the future will be smaller, more agile, ultra-responsive to consumer trends and their own eco-systems, ethical, socially responsible,

environmentally-conscious and sustainable; feeding off transparency and trust, they’ll be pioneers of 24/7/365 customer service. They’ll be started and run by anyone, anywhere, of any age and rely on micro seed funding rather than the hard-to-access cash of large institutions.

They’ll find opportunities in the emergence of a burgeoning green tech industry and make headway by embracing the convergence of mobile, ecommerce and enterprise as the mobile phone finally comes of age for a generation whose existence is, as one contributor puts it, more ‘roam than home’.

If you thought everyone was getting excited about ‘apps’ because it’s cool to check the Tube on your iPhone, think again – apps are on everyone’s lips and those lips are moist with anticipation of a decade ready-made for entrepreneurs.

With the barriers to entry practically blown right away, a recession rich with opportunity and where entrepreneurship is decidedly en vogue (those greedy bankers are the new fatcat villains, after all), 2010 and the coming decade appear stacked in the favour of the small man who can think big and move quickly.

None of the above, however, sums up the sentiment better than a reference by contributor and entrepreneur Michael Smith. In the words of Michael’s favourite band, Bachman-Turner Overdrive, ‘You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet!’

highlights

smartest brains in business

trend analysisSo what did the smartest brains in business have to say? Well we’ll let you discover that for yourself, but the following Wordle provides a snapshot.

Imran HakimCEO, Hakim Group

Lucian TarnowskiFounder and CEO,

BraveNewTalent.com

Thomas PowerFounder, Ecademy

Amanda RoseCreative Strategist,

and Founder of Twestival

Barry VitouPartner, Winston & Strawn;

co-founder, Bootlaw

Matt ThomasEditor, Smarta

Click on a brain to view each submission.Once viewed, click smarta logo to return to this page

Doug RichardEntrepreneur and investor,

founder of SchoolforStartups

Sarah BeenyFounder, MySingleFriend.com

and Tepilo

Craig Newmark Founder, Craigslist

Phil Jones Executive Director, Brother UK

Zee KaneEditor, TheNextWeb

Julie MeyerChief Executive, Ariadne

Capital and online Dragon

Ryan CarsonFounder, Carsonified

Michael SmithFounder, Firebox.com

and Mind Candy

Stewart TownsendManager, Sun Startup

Essentials EMEA

Ben KeeneFounder, Tribewanted

Alex BellingerFounder, SmallBizPod

Dave McQueenFounder, Magnificent Minds

Conrad WindhamEntrepreneur and CEO of U308 Goldings plc

Basheera Khan Technology writer and user

experience consultant

Caprice Model and Founder,

By Caprice

Penny PowerFounder and Community

Builder, Ecademy

Sháá WasmundEntrepreneur, founderand CEO of Smarta

Andy McloughlinCo-founder, Huddle

Simon Duffy Co-founder, Bulldog

Ben WayFounder, The Rainmakers

Brad BurtonMotivational speaker, managing

director of 4Networking and author of Get Off Your Arse

Richard AlvinDirector - Capital Business Media

Paul CarrAuthor, ‘Bringing Nothing

to the Party: True Confessions of a New Media Whore’

Oli BarrettFounder, Make Your Mark with a Tenner & initiator of

Speednetworking in the UK

smartest brains in business

contents

ENTREPRENEuR AND INVESTOR, fOuNDER Of SCHOOLfORSTARTuPSwww.schoolforstartups.co.ukwww.twitter.com/douglasrichardwww.twitter.com/s4startups

Doug Richard

The number one opportunity for new entrepreneurs in 2010 is to take advantage of the sea-change of diminishing costs of technology. Everything you need to do, any creative endeavour, is becoming ‘nearly’ free.

smartest brains in business

Whether you’re a musician, artist, author, want to do video, travel, or you have a passion for making violins, it’s going to become ‘nearly’ free to express that passion in a profitable form – you’ll no longer have to be passionate about what you do, you can solely ‘do’ what you’re passionate about; and that is a reversal of history.

We’re entering a land-grab of expertise. Each individual has the opportunity to be the brand or nexus around something. Whether it’s depreciation of ancient violins, 1962 MGs or some sort of deviant sexual practice - it makes no difference. The heart of it is that the distribution of media and the conversation we’re mediating through social media is going to require arbiters and editors of taste. Twitter is the tip of the iceberg and the true opportunity of 2010 will be to take the passion you have and build a working world around it.

Business as an activity is going to be measured on other metrics beyond short-term profitability. The notion of profitability is going to refer back to what it once meant, because we have a system now where the profit of a company is not knowable in the time period when it is earning. That’s the failure of the banks – they thought they were making a profit, and they were not.

Whether you like it or not, if you’re running a business you’re going to be held accountable. No one ever asks you ‘what portion of the world’s natural resources you used in pursuit of this outcome?’ If we burdened every single thing in this world with its true cost, and we asserted that the earth itself is a bank of irretrievable resources that you have to contribute to as much to as you give up, then there’d be a marked argument to measure things differently.

As we’re going to be held accountable as businesses on measures we’re not held accountable for now, as entrepreneurs we’re going to need bigger shoulders than ever.

CraigNewmarkfOuNDER, CRAIGSLISTwww.craigslist.org

Customer service, done in good faith and not lip service, will provide a competitive advantage for any company .

The rank and file workers in any company know how to fix a lot of business processes, and need only support from management to make lots of improvements. smartest brains in business

PHILJONES

ExECuTIVE DIRECTOR, BROTHER uKwww.thecorporatebubble.blogspot.comwww.twitter.com/philjones40www.twitter.com/brother_uk

Social media networks have opened up global markets and customers are now only a keystroke away. Listening to the buzz in the networks can create unique opportunities to meet the fast changing appetites of today’s customers.

Time, attention and trust continue to be the big barriers for market penetration. Time-poor people with low levels of attention and trust for what you have to say or do. Opportunities exist for goods or services which assist in managing the work/life balance. More people are roam (not home) working. They will need more cloud and mobile-based applications which allow them to run their virtual businesses and lives.

New decade businesses will harness the power of the crowd. The key mantra: ‘collaborate, elaborate and adapt’. Those companies which listen will redefine the way businesses are run: refining, reviewing and personalising products or experiences quickly.

Hyper-speed is the new essence of doing business. Blink and you’ll miss out as fads explode and fade. New communication platforms like Google Wave will provide the platforms for global collaboration at a personal and enterprise level – business will be more collaborative, less centralised, more de-sensitised.

Businesses will come and go more quickly, by design. Businesses will be a cocktail of different ideas, delivery mechanisms and origins.

Massive change lies ahead, the successful companies of the next decade will launch products highly tuned to their market, needing lower levels of market development funding. The crowd will take them to market, be their marketing machine and their product development engines.

There’s never been a better worse time to start a business. An oxymoron is undeniable if you consider how different the landscape facing entrepreneurs looks now, compared to previous recessions.

smartest brains in business

smartest brains in business

Zee KaneEDITOR, THENExTWEBwww.thenextweb.comwww.zee.mewww.twitter.com/zee

The perception of the mobile has changed drastically since the release of the iPhone and it has opened people’s eyes as to how easy it now is to be mobile yet ‘connected’. Therefore, I predict people will thirst for ideas that won’t require them to be stuck behind a computer but rather out there, developing their offline community but still connected to the world via their mobile.

Seed funding took off during the latter part of the last decade and I see that continuing to develop, producing and funding increasingly innovative ideas. We’ll see businesses and individuals explore unusual, innovative but potentially lucrative business ideas.

An increasing belief that experience (rather than extensive education) is more beneficial to success will see an entirely new era of successful companies and business leaders, with age and cultural origins very different from the CEOs and founders of the past.

Small businesses and ‘personalities’ will thrive – and it may only take a few people, or even just one, to create a successful and highly-influential company.

smartest brains in business

JULIE MEYERCHIEf ExECuTIVE, ARIADNE CAPITAL AND ONLINE DRAGONwww.ariadnecapital.comwww.twitter.com/juliemariemeyerwww.bbc.co.uk/dragonsden/dragons/juliemeyer.shtml

There is a profound network-orientation to business in 2010, and that goes further than just the fact that social networks have become pervasive. The winners of this next phase of business are those companies who understand their role in the ecosystem in which they operate and are able to align the business model for the ecosystem. So the biggest opportunities are those where the entrepreneurs are able to leverage what I call ‘ecosystem economics’.

The best companies ‘think big, start small, move fast’. The successful companies of the next 10 years may be start-ups or established players, but they will ‘think big, start small, move fast’ in their innovation and growth. There is a new elite being established globally who are fast-growing companies.

smartest brains in business

Sarah BeenyfOuNDER MySINGLEfRIEND.COM AND TEPILOwww.mysinglefriend.com www.tepilo.comwww.twitter.com/sarahbeeny www.twitter.com/tepilo

The greatest opportunities will be towards social media-related services and mobile applications. With the advent of social media and apps, new services can be launched very quickly and can also be readily monetised. Investors are looking for early returns as the whole process of starting a business/service has shortened – meaning only services with a solid revenue model can provide adequate profits. As time to market shortens there is even more pressure to get established quickly, which ultimately requires revenue to put back in.

Mobile services are set to expand further and may be able to cash in on the digital switchover, leaving more airspace for other services. I think the mobile internet will expand significantly in the next few years.

We came a long way over the last decade and I think it’s been proved that large sites with huge registrations don’t necessarily lead to huge profits – although they can generate significant investment.

It’s becoming harder to come up with new ideas – so the most successful companies this decade will still look to solve a genuine need in an innovative way – rather than just do something better than the rest.

There’s been a huge shift towards online services and I still think this is where the greatest successes will be seen – we may also see a ‘green shift’ to companies who take environmental issues seriously.

smartest brains in business

Michael SmithfOuNDER, fIREBOx.COM AND MIND CANDywww.mindcandy.comwww.twitter.com/acton

Social Gaming exploded in 2009. Over 60 million people play Farmville every month, and a sizable proportion of them are prepared to pay cash for virtual items. Zygna is barely two-years-old but is already generating revenues of $200m+ and rumoured to be eyeing up an IPO.

More than 10 million people subscribe to World of Warcraft but the bigger opportunity lies with developers who can create fun, multi-player games that appeal to the hundreds of millions of people who prefer lighter touch, more casual gaming.

In 1998 when I left my job to launch Firebox.com my boss told me I was crazy and the only people who’d ever make money from the internet were porn moguls. Historically, society overestimates the short-term

effects of disruptive technology, but underestimates its long-term effects. This overestimation led to the dot.com bubble of the late nineties and the subsequent financial meltdown. A decade on, we’re now starting to understand the extraordinary opportunities the internet has to offer. The most successful companies of the next decade will be those that appreciate we’re still in the early days of the internet revolution. There’s still a huge amount of opportunity for bold, ambitious and innovative companies.

As Bachman-Turner Overdrive pointed out in the seventies: ‘You ain’t seen nothing yet’.

smartest brains in business

BEN KEENE

fOuNDER, TRIBEWANTEDwww.tribewanted.com www.twitter.com/benkeene

I see the immediate opportunities as being green tech, 360 media and crowd-funded start-ups.

However, the last great marketing differentiator is business ethics. The businesses that show clearly how they are giving you value for money, creating positive social impact and minimising environmental damage will be the global brands in 2020.

smartest brains in business

smartest brains in business

ALEX fOuNDER, SMALLBIzPODwww.smallbizpod.com www.twitter.com/alexbellinger

In mobile last year it was very much the year of the app and the App Store. In 2010 I think we’ll see opportunities for entrepreneurs to sweep up quality developers and build real businesses delivering cross-platform mobile applications that make a real difference to people’s lives and businesses.

The most successful companies of the next decade will be fast. Some say speed kills, but the best businesses of the new decade will be large, agile and swift to respond not only to their customers, but to a world and circumstances that I predict will be more turbulent than it was in the 2000s.

MONEY AND MOBILE HOLD THE BIGGEST OPPORTUNITIES. FINANCIAL SERVICES ARE RIPE FOR A REVOLUTIONARY, DISRUPTIVE IDEA AND A DYNAMIC ENTREPRENEUR WHO THINKS BIG. OF COURSE THE BARRIERS TO ENTRY ARE HIGH, BUT THEN SO ARE THE POTENTIAL REWARDS. COMPANIES SUCH AS MONETISE AND ZOPA ARE ALREADY IN THIS SPACE, BUT I’D HOPE TO SEE OTHERS TAKING ON THE CHALLENGE OF CREATING A NEW FORM OF BANKING.

BELLINGER

smartest brains in business

fOuNDER Of MAGNIfICENT MINDSwww.davidmcqueen.co.ukwww.twitter.com/davidmcqueen

DAVEMCQUEEN

THE BIGGEST OPPORTUNITIES FOR ENTREPRENEURS THIS YEAR WON’T BE INDUSTRY-SPECIFIC. IT’S MORE ABOUT TAKING ADVANTAGE OF THE FEAR PEOPLE HAVE AROUND BUILDING OR DEVELOPING BUSINESSES. WHILE MANY ARE LAMENTING THE LACK OF FUNDING FROM BANKS OR ANGELS, I BELIEVE THE OPPORTUNITY LIES IN BEING MORE CREATIVE WITH OUR OFFERINGS. HOW DO WE ADD VALUE TO EXISTING OR NEW CLIENTS? HOW CAN WE DEVELOP LONGER-TERM PARTNERSHIPS? HOW CAN WE IMPROVE OUR CUSTOMER LOYALTY? THOSE ARE WHAT I SEE MORE AS OPPORTUNITIES, RATHER FOCUSING ON AN INDUSTRY.

I hate making predicitions about the future, but business is cyclical, isn’t it. Evidently those who tend to stay around for a while really know how to manage their talent. If you have a company, even if it’s a small concern getting those who work with or for you enthused will help the company to be more resilient. Of course, technology is making it so much easier to connect and improve processes and these tools will be improved over the next decade, but more importantly for me is getting companies to realise the value of their customers – both internal and external.

smartest brains in business

fOuNDER, CARSONIfIEDwww.carsonified.comwww.twitter.com/ryancarson

R Y A NC A R S ONI THINK NANO TECHNOLOGY IS GOING TO BE HUGE IN FIVE YEARS, SO PEOPLE WHO ARE TACKLING BIG IDEAS IN THAT SPACE NOW COULD HAVE ENORMOUS POTENTIAL IN THE NEAR FUTURE. I’VE BEEN READING RAY KURZWEIL’S ‘THE SINGULARITY IS NEAR’ OVER CHRISTMAS AND IT’S BEEN BLOWING MY MIND.

smartest brains in business

The successful small companies of the next 10 years will be smaller and more agile. The power entrepreneurs have gained through hosted services will grow exponentially in the next 10 years - tools such as Google Docs are only the tip of the iceberg.

MANAGER, SuN STARTuP ESSENTIALS EMEAwww.uk.sun.com/startupessentialswww.stewarttownsend.comwww.twitter.com/stewarttownsend

Stewart Townsend

The biggest opportunities in 2010 are going to come to those who wait – to the entrepreneur who doesn’t develop a product for a market they think exists, but for the ones who build a brand, deliver that to market and thus solve a problem better, more effectively or for a lower cost. If they convey that message simply to the marketplace by fully understanding what business they are in, they can build a revenue stream quickly because they understand the value of the problem they solve and the value of that to the customer.

Large corporate entities are shrinking. Look at the number of large IT companies – we’re now down to Oracle, HP, IBM, SAP, and Microsoft. 10 years ago we had 50-100 large IT corporations – so what we’re seeing is a movement back to smaller, more agile organisations, with some larger powerhouses driving the innovation, R&D and market, and buying up the smaller companies as they solve problems the large ones aren’t agile enough to solve themselves.

Companies need to be more agile and aggressive to market, less focused on fast growth and acquisition and more on solving problems, making our lives simpler and creating new sectors. Who would have thought 10 years ago a phone would be able to play games, enable you to gamble and also send messages?

smartest brains in business

Once again this decade is about being a bit more innovative and eco-friendly. It’s also about tightening up all the admin costs. As entrepreneurs we cannot afford to overlook cashflows and management of our companies. Overall it’s back to basics but an exciting time because it’s not about luck anymore - it’s about good old fashioned hard work. And those that do it will prevail.

I see huge opportunity in eco-friendly products and advancements. As far as retail is concerned, which is my specialty, there’s still money to be made. However, we have to be much more original, work harder and offer more competitive prices. There isn’t a lot of money out there so when the customer buys they make a much smarter and premeditated choice. Those who are aware of this, understand this and adapt to this will be successful.

smartest brains in business

fOuNDER, By CAPRICEwww.caprice-online.com

Caprice

Sháá Wasmund

ENTREPRENEuR, fOuNDER AND CEO Of SMARTAwww.smarta.comwww.shaawasmund.com www.twitter.com/shaawasmund

Collaboration presents our biggest opportunity in 2010. It’s simple really, but then the best things are. It’s not just technology that allows people to collaborate more freely, it’s people’s attitudes. Social media has gone a long way to encouraging people to learn to ‘share’.

As John Donne said, ‘No man is an island unto himself’. We simply cannot achieve great things by ourselves. Whatever we as entrepreneurs can achieve individually, we can achieve tenfold collectively.

The internet will be at the heart of everything we do this decade, not just at the periphery. There will no longer be a handful of large corporations (although those will of course still exist) who have a monopoly on an industry. Instead there will be many, smaller businesses that are swift to respond to changing market and opportunities.

Entire markets that we are yet to know we need will suddenly appear. Over the last 10 years, Apple has without doubt been the best at doing this: the iPod, iTunes and the iPhone. For me, what is most interesting is the App Store. It epitomises the opportunities for entrepreneurs over the next decade. The App Store provides applications for products that 10 years ago we hadn’t heard of let alone knew we couldn’t live without. The next 10 years will be about being fleet of foot and collaborating.

smartest brains in business

CO-fOuNDER, HuDDLE www.huddle.netwww.twitter.com/bandrew

WHERE DO YOU SEE THE BIGGEST OPPORTUNITIES FOR ENTREPRENEURS IN 2010? CHINA, INDIA, BRAZIL. SECTOR-WISE, I THINK 2010 COULD FINALLY BE THE YEAR FOR MOBILE – SMARTPHONES ARE BECOMING MORE PREVALENT – ALMOST UBIQUITOUS IN SOME DEMOGRAPHICS – AND THE SCOPE FOR BRILLIANT, LIFE-CHANGING MOBILE APPLICATIONS IS HUGE.

We’ve all learned a lot in the last two years. Successful doesn’t necessarily mean big. Great companies will be smart, lean and collaborative – specialising in their core competencies and partnering wherever appropriate.

smartest brains in business

ENTREPRENEuR AND CEO, u308 GOLDINGS PLC, www.u3o8holdings.com

CONRAD WINDHAM

To reduce carbon dioxide emissions we need to develop a better understanding of energy. As the London School of Economics stated in 2009, ‘if countries really aspire to cut emissions, we suggest the motor of an effective mechanism is a direct approach to the decarbonization of the global energy system, rather than an indirect approach via manipulation of the economy’.

It is for this reason that I believe there are a multitude of opportunities. Entrepreneurs will lead the way in providing solutions to reduce carbon emissions through the invention, improvement, marketing, discovery, or otherwise, of products and technologies that are more energy-efficient and serve to decarbonise societies.

Climate change is an emotive issue, and there is a growing audience within the UK and internationally that want to do their bit to reduce their own carbon footprint through introducing green technology products into their lives.

Self-reliance on energy will continue to grow through the continued installation of solar panels, photovoltaics, and wind turbines, over the next decade. Without a doubt, 2010 will be a year for entrepreneurs to tap into the green technology sector, which has an infinite number of opportunities waiting to be exploited.

The biggest opportunities for entrepreneurs in 2010

lie within the ‘green tech’ sector. The coverage given to the 2009 UN climate change

conference in copenhagen was evidence in itself of the ever-

growing global importance of combating climate change.

smartest brains in business

BasheeraKHAN

TECHNOLOGy WRITER AND uSER ExPERIENCE CONSuLTANTwww.basheerakhan.comwww.twitter.com/bash

smartest brains in business

Great opportunities lie in the convergence of mobile devices, e-commerce and social enterprise, and in creating participatory roles for consumers. Entrepreneurs need to make it easy for consumers to contribute to social good, either through charity (by say, adding a small charitable donation to a purchase they were going to make anyway) or by bringing social microfinance lending schemes, such as Kiva.org, into the mainstream consciousness.

I don't think we can overstate the impact of people's awareness of climate change in shaping the successful businesses of the next decade. I predict that we will see a growing consumer demand for companies to fulfil obligations in transparent and ethical corporate governance. The winners and leaders will be the ones that find a way to capitalise on thrift and sustainability at every point of the supply chain.

PENNY fOuNDER AND COMMuNITy BuILDER, ECADEMywww.ecademy.comwww.ecademy.com/account.php?id=1001www.twitter.com/pennypower

Listening online is a skill that requires an open, random and supportive attitude, a non-blinkered view that says to the world, ‘come to me and share your thoughts whatever they are’. I have seen so many Ecademy members adapt their products and services to suit the words, phrases and needs of the new economy. They know how to do this because they listen with the right intent, they know what they want and they know to listen to the needs of others. There is still significant money to be found, but not if entrepreneurs use the old way of hunting them out.

By the end of the 2010s we will see two sides of the business world: Those that became ‘networked businesses’ and those who did not.

Those who utilise networks will have several highly beneficial features: They’ll operate a low fixed-cost business, low office and employee costs. They’ll have fast access to many skills and resources. They’ll supply their services into a European and global market. They’ll adapt fast to market conditions. They’ll be highly sensitive to customer needs. Their ability to support others will make them highly attractive for others to advocate and refer business to, reducing marketing expenses.

smartest brains in business

POWER The biggest opportunities for entrepreneurs lie within the networks of online conversations, providing they learn to listen!

BURTONBRAD

MOTIVATIONAL SPEAKER, MANAGING DIRECTOR Of 4NETWORKING AND AuTHOR Of GET Off yOuR ARSE

www.4networking.bizwww.bradburton.biz

www.getoffyourarse.bizwww.twitter.com/bradburton

IT’S ALL ABOUT THE INTERNET, BABY: GET APPROACHABLE. SITTING IN IVORY TOWERS WAITING FOR PEOPLE TO COME

TO YOU? FORGET IT. MODERN-DAY ENTREPRENEURSHIP IS ABOUT GETTING OFF YOUR ARSE AND BEING ACCESSIBLE –

BE IT FACE-TO-FACE, DIRECT PHONE NUMBER, TWITTER, AND, DARE I SAY IT, TAKING CALLS!

smartest brains in business

The entrepreneurs who will succeed in 2010 and beyond are the ones who form the crowd, and the only thing they sell to that crowd is themselves.

In the next 10 years we’ll see more of what I’ve been talking about for ages: ‘creating the conditions where people buy, instead of you selling’. When was the last time you went into Dixons and asked the bloke behind the counter for the benefits and features of an iPhone? Never – because it doesn’t happen. Think about it: the sale has been made well before you go to buy it.

It’s the time for the fleet of foot. Big ivory towers suck and conventional routes to market will continue to be circumvented by social media. It’s all about people, all about the internet, and all about relationships. Get those right and the business follows – providing you have a product or service people want.

Trust in business is massive, never more so than in this next decade – would you support someone you don’t like, someone you don’t know, someone you don’t trust? The answer is probably no, in which case the key to brand advocates, i.e. creating the conditions where people buy your products, rather than you selling, is trust.

The successful companies of the next decade will be driven by leaders who embrace and truly live by the trust and approachability ethos: selling products because they believe in them, not because they make you margin.

If you’re not pushing out time-sensitive offers on Twitter, or awarding discounts to the Foursquare mayor of your bar/restaurant or shop then you’re already behind the curve. And if you have no idea what either of those two services are, it’s time to hire someone who does. Also, no one is going to go broke with local, mobile dating.

The successful companies of this decade will have personality. Our obsession with social networks, blogs and tweets means we expect to be able to talk directly to companies and have them talk back. The successful companies will be the ones who seek out our friendship rather than just our cash. It’s hideous and cheesy, but it’s true. In 10 years, Ryanair is toast.

The most interesting areas for me are local and mobile. Thanks to the explosion of smartphones such as the iPhone, we’re seeing services such as Twitter and Foursquare heavily affecting how people socialise and shop. Smart entrepreneurs - be they technology innovators or shopkeepers - should be embracing that.

Paul CarrAuTHOR, ‘BRINGING NOTHING TO THE PARTy: TRuE CONfESSIONS Of A NEW MEDIA WHORE’www.paulcarr.comwww.twitter.com/paulcarr

smartest brains in business

Simon CO-fOuNDER, BuLLDOGwww.meetthebulldog.comwww.twitter.com/bulldognatural

All indicators point to a long and protracted period of recovery for the UK. However, there are still plenty of opportunities for businesses to exploit. At Bulldog we will be taking advantage of favourable exchange rates to empower export driven growth in growth in 2010, for instance.

The next ten years will see an explosion of different ways for people to communicate with, shop for, and learn about goods and services. This will be primarily driven by the transformative power of technological change. At the moment we are only scratching the surface of the potential of the internet to change the way we work and live.

This transformation creates challenges and opportunities for companies in equal measure. Large companies will have to deal with increasingly savvy and demanding people who have a much deeper level of understanding about what is going on behind the scenes. Large companies will have to adapt to consumers with many more options to buy smaller brands outside of the regular options at conventional retailers where big brands traditionally dominate.

The key for succeeding in this changing environment will be to empower people with information about your products and services, and making ethics central to everything you do rather than limiting this to the preserve of the CSR or PR departments.Duffy

smartest brains in business

BEN WAY fOuNDER, THE RAINMAKERSwww.makingrain.comwww.twitter.com/benway

The fundamentals of business won’t change – good businesses are the ones that adopt new technology, innovate and invest in their people; I can’t see that changing in the next 10 years.

I would like to say that hopefully people will have learned the mistakes of the last few years, but from my experience most people forget after five years and then delude themselves that yet again the gravy train is endless until it suddenly falls off a cliff!

2010 presents a number of opportunities for smaller players where bigger competitors have failed - and anybody with capital at the moment can make a killing buying insolvent companies at a bargain price. Technology is also moving fast so a lot of action will be seen in the mobile / tablet market this year.

smartest brains in business

The biggest opportunity for entrepreneurs in 2010 is to be found embracing ‘apps’ and technology. Computer applications, cloud computing and new and innovative software and systems allow entrepreneurs to start and run businesses like never before. Embracing these systems and engineering them into their workflow allows smaller businesses to punch far above the weight and operate at a

far lower headcount and fixed cost.

Success over the next 10 years will be measured by change and evolution. Businesses are required to evolve and react to change and adapt their business models now more than ever before. The world is far more immediate than the one which started the last millennium. Social media was primarily the telephone, news was broadcast essentially in fixed time slots and you had to battle VCRs to record television. Failure to embrace will see businesses embracing failure.

DIRECTOR, CAPITAL BuSINESS MEDIAwww.bmmagazine.co.ukwww.twitter.com/ralvin

Success over the next 10 years will be measured by change and evolution.

smartest brains in business

Oli BarrettfOuNDER, MAKE yOuR MARK WITH A TENNER & INITIATOR Of SPEEDNETWORKING IN THE uK.www.dailynetworker.co.ukwww.twitter.com/olibarrett

1. Join scientists and politicians to save the planet.

2. Become the most trusted people in the world as trust in everyone else fades.

3. Talk to more people who are completely different from you, from different countries, places, ages and backgrounds.

4. Spend more time away from screens of any kind.

5. Relax, sleep and laugh a lot more.

6. Reclaim the power of email by communicating like normal people and not in dreadful corporate jargon.

7. Reclaim the power of print by creating something worth receiving.

8. Save people money.

9. Help people filter information.

10. Give time doing what you do best for a good cause.

11. Lend someone a tenner.

The Top Ten Biggest Opportunities for Entrepreneurs in 2010:

smartest brains in business

smartest brains in business

Historically, entrepreneurs have been seen as risky and rebellious, like Delboy from Only Fools and Horses or characterised as everyone’s favourite villain like Michael Douglas in Wall Street.

CEO, HAKIM GROuPhakim-group.comwww.twitter.com/imranhakim

HakimImran

However, the first real recession of the digital age has truly reformed opinion with the masses now waking up to the realisation that entrepreneurship gives rise to innovation, employment, tax revenues and, ultimately, wealth – and that anybody can participate. You simply need the desire, commitment and state of mind to make great things happen.

Entrepreneurs in my experience tend to be optimists and as we kick off 2010 the entrepreneurial landscape is littered with opportunity. History again demonstrates that recessionary times heighten the demand for change and challenge existing business models.

The focus on climate change has meant that governments around the world have a renewed focus on controlling domestic and commercial carbon footprints which presents unprecedented opportunities for innovators and entrepreneurs. The convergence of technology and greater awareness of cloud computing is also giving rise to a multitude of opportunities. And every industry is now truly global.

The success stories over the next 10 years will embrace this globalisation ensuring that their proposition is resilient in this new world order. When everyone around them is risk averse, they will see the obvious for being obvious before it becomes obvious – and take action.

Lucian TarnowskifOuNDER AND CEO, BRAVENEWTALENT.COMwww.bravenewtalent.comwww.twitter.com/luciant

2010 will be a winning decade for the young entrepreneur – for the first time in history, young people are an authority on something that really matters in the economy: the internet. My advice to any entrepreneur first starting out is to think about what you know and think about what you’re passionate about. Think about what you want to change.

The other hot sector is green business. There will be many new businesses created this year around this sector and I strongly believe innovation lies on the edge – because they’re so agile, startups have a unique opportunity to react to today’s challenges. Many global issues are likely to be solved by individuals with innovative business models, rather than

governments or corporations.Businesses this decade will be small, faster and more effective. As we saw from the last decade, we are living in times of exponential change. This decade will be the decade of the global entrepreneur. The individual that now has the global marketplace at their fingertips.

Brand is becoming more and more important. People no longer want to read corporate jargon, but want to touch and feel the brands they use. The personal brand of the team behind businesses has also never been so important. The people in the team should live and breathe the business values.

smartest brains in business

AMANDA ROSE

CREATIVE STRATEGIST, AND fOuNDER Of TWESTIVALwww.amandarose.com

www.twitter.com/amanda

The biggest opportunities for entrepreneurs lie in essential services such as healthcare. As technology advances and more people have online access, it is likely that we will see more innovative ways to manage and access these important parts of our lives. Mobile is definitely another huge area and we’ve only seen the tip of the iceberg when it comes to how location-based social networks or mobile payments will have an impact.

Customer service and communication will be key over the next decade. Companies will need to stop hiding behind a phone matrix that prevents them from dealing directly with consumers. Real-time, light communication tools such as Twitter have given people an expectation for companies to engage with them rather than waiting for the phone to ring. The individual word-of-mouth will have a lot more power when it comes to promoting, questioning and inevitably complaining. How a brand handles this could make all the difference. smartest brains in business

smartest brains in business

fOuNDER, ECADEMywww.ecademy.comwww.ecademy.com/account.php?id=8www.twitter.com/thomaspower

Networks are the new corporations. Corporates as we know them today will not exist. Their cost base is way too high and their overhead of buildings, pensions, health care, PAYE and NI will become unaffordable. Every employee will become a supplier. There won’t be employees by 2030. Jobs will be a forgotten concept.

POWERTHOMAS

THE BIGGEST OPPORTUNITY IS TO BUILD GLOBAL NETWORKED BUSINESSES.

PARTNER, WINSTON & STRAWN; CO-fOuNDER, BOOTLAWwww.winston.comwww.bootlaw.comwww.twitter.com/bazvBARRY

VITOUThe recession is a huge source of opportunity. The costs of doing business have been driven down across the board making life difficult for incumbents. Technology has massively reduced the costs for any entrepreneur starting up a new business and offers the chance to communicate with customers and potential customers on a massive scale.

2010 may also see a change of the UK government. If so, new policies and changes in regulation will likely create new business opportunities. Entrepreneurs should keep their eyes peeled for new government initiatives which themselves may create business opportunities. Web and communications technology is making our world smaller every day. Over the next 10 years the really successful companies will be those who have the aspiration and ambition to engage with customers globally and who do so. smartest brains in business

smartest brains in business THOMAS Matt EDITOR Of SMARTA.COM

www.smarta.comwww.twitter.com/smartamatt

The biggest opportunities for 2010 and beyond embody the true essence of entrepreneurship by presenting themselves to those who listen, observe and invent valuable and disruptive solutions.

Convergence of technologies and the power of the crowd will continue to democratise knowledge and empower the individual, the start-up and the small business – yet, conversely, the gap between small and big companies will widen.

There will be fewer big companies but those which survive will thrive as Jack-of-all-trades and masters of none other than price and branded choice – and therein lays the opportunity for everyone else.

Those companies which anticipate and embrace consumer expectation for immediate, personalised, accountable product and service will conquer the generic, pedestrian and faceless big brands. Value will usurp price and free for those that work smart enough to prove they provide it.

All forms of collaboration – from networking to corporate partnerships – will fuel the growth of the decade’s most successful companies.

smartest brains in business

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