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7/28/2019 jaoidjfoa jdofaj dfoiajp

1/13

RichardTaits

$70m cup ofcoffee

Redefine normal

Empowersuppliers

Buy competitors Encourage

loyalty

thoughtsGlobal Perspectives Local Opportunities

Thoughts

26-50


2/13

26Thinking businessWelcome to the second issue of 100oughts, our collection of some of the best

business thinking weve come across fromaround the world.

e path to recovery always presents manyopportunities to businesses that are alive tothe possibilities that arise at times like this.

HSBC is actively supporting thesethinking businesses, providing help witheverything f rom financial planning tofunding for investment, working capital,cashflow and more.

We are among the worlds best-fundedbanks and this puts us in an ideal positionto help the right businesses,not only withresources, but with global experience andexpertise that we can put to work for you,locally.

We hope you find this guide thoughtprovoking and that youll get in touch withus to discuss your own business thinkingand perhaps let us help you put it intopractice.

Call uson0800783 1164.*

*Lines are open 8am to 8pm Mondayto Friday (excluding public holidays).Communications may be monitoredfor security and service improvementpurposes.

To Herman Chinery-Hesse, theBill Gates of Ghana, these aremerely hurdles to greater oppor-tunities.

Chinery-Hesses first company,SOFTtribe embraced Ghanaschallengesin writingpayroll soft-

ware. eir system used DOS,it wrote to disk constantly sothere was no loss of informationduring power blackouts, and itcould handle the six zeros that

most pay cheques requiredthanks to hyperinflation. eycornered the market.

Hisnew company BSLhas itseyeon a biggerprize. Given thatonly10% of Ghanaians have bankaccounts,theresa huge marketinpayment processing. Vodafonehascreateda systemin Kenyathatallows customers to exchangemoney in phone minutes.

Chinery-Hesses solution is touse prepaid phone style scratchcards. Each card has a code acustomer can text to anyone inGhana, either direct to theirbank account or for them to ex-change at a Post Office branch.

To support this, BSL hascombed Ghana and signed-up hundreds of poor rural

African merchants thus bringingthem and their wares onto the

global market for the first timethrough a dedicated webmall,Shopafrica53.com

It means a craftswoman in aremote village can export 20sweaters a week at $10 each,says Chinery-Hesse. ats$200 per week in a country

where the average income is$646!

Are you over-engineeringyour products?

A simpler offering couldbring you a bigger market.

Should your business betargeting Africas growthmarkets?

Why notcall usat HSBCto fundyour next steps?

Wherenext?

Cut your clothto suit the marketThink ofAfrica, and many think of aid.They cant seepast the hurdles to see a GDP per person is $200higher than India and rising fast in many areas.


3/13

Do you source viaa middle-man?

Could you increasetransparency and marginby going direct?

The investment costsin technology can bequickly recouped.

Why notcall usat HSBCto fundyour nextsteps?

Wherenext?

eChoupal ploughsback a larger share of

consumer price tothe farmer

To sell products, farmers can waitup to three days to get into acrowded market. Only at thatpoint does price discovery takeplace,and theyhave little alterna-tive but to sell.

ITCLtd,oneof thelargestbuyersof soyabeans,was concerned thatnotonly didthey losecontrol,butfarmers were losing up to 60% ofthe value of their crop.

ey invested in an internet kioskin each village, called aneChoupal. It gives farmers access

to information like weatherforecasts and advice on farmingtechniques. It also shows themthepricethat ITCwill pay,givingthem the choice to sell direct.

As a result farmers profits wentup by more than a third, the cul-tivation of soyabeans increasedby19% in areas with kiosks and, bybuying some produce direct,ITC

reduced its costs, which paid forthe kiosks.

eChoupal ploughs back a largershare of consumer price to thefarmer, says Chairman YCDeveshwar. We have demon-strated that it is possible,nay,mostcrucial to combine the need forcreating shareholder value withthe superordinategoal of creatingnational value.

Empoweryour suppliersIndias agricultural sector employs 60% of the

nations workforce, yet the supply chain is besetby inefficiencies and clogged by middlemenwho reduce margins on both sides.

Consumers interestedin a partic-ular item gather together on aninternet hub such as www.team

buy.com.cn.

ey then agree a time, a dateand a shop on which they will allsimultaneously descend to usetheir collective bargaining powerto secure a discount.

It doesnt always work, and fillssomestores withdread.

However, others are more open,seeing that the extra sales volume

willmake upfor lostmargin.Some

go as far as closing the store toother customers, and laying onhospitality for the team-buyers.

e concept hasnt yet spreadmuch beyond China. However,UK companies could considergrouping together to buy certainproducts in bulk, getting volumediscounts.

28 Team buyTeam-buying

(or tuangou inChinese) is a new

social trend comingout of central China.


4/13

Ever since the age of four, Ivebeencreatingbusinesses in my

head. e greatest gift my

parents gave me was thefreedom to dream.

Richard Tait had leftMicrosoft in Seattleafterlaunching13 busi-nesses for them.Along

with his partner WhitAlexander, he devel-oped a newboard gamecalled Cranium. eyknew they had a win-ning product, yetdespitehuge efforts theycouldnt get the maintoydistributorsto takeiton.ey had placed anorder for 27,000 copies

with a manufacturer butwe had nowhere to sell it,

Richard recalls.

Commiserating with Whitin a local Starbucks after fail-

ing to get their product intothe AmericanInternationalToy

Fair, they looked around at thecustomers in the store.

We thought,letstake ourgamesto where customers are, ratherthanwheregames aretraditionallysold, says Richard. It was theperfect audience of young, hip

professionals.Usinghis business connectionshepersuaded Starbucks to stock the

game the first time theyd soldsuch an item. As it took off,Richards became the first gamesold on Amazon.com, the firstsold in Barnes & Noble and thefirst with a host of other retailers.

Growth from this point wasprodigious before Richard and

Whit soldout to Hasbro for$77.5million.

We built the third largest gamescompany in the world because

we love to change the rules,concludes Richard.Id urgeotherentrepreneursnot to be fearful.Bychallenging rules, you open-up

your business to bigger thinking.And besides,its tons of fun!

31

OrvilleWright

did not have apilot's licenceis RichardTaitsmantra in hislifetime ofentrepreneurship.

For example, Ltte-Leihen inGermanyoffers a rental service forbaby clothes. For a fixed monthly

fee,parentsselectthe size andtypeof clothes they want, and theyredelivered bypost.When their babybegins togrowout ofthem(whichhappens all too quickly) they canbeexchangedfor thenext sizeup.

e convenience also makessensefor customers whose time is at apremium.

Radical rentalThesuccessof DVD rental servicessuch as Netflix orLovefilm is well known, butaround theworld there areexamplesof therental businessmodel being used togreateffect in a wide range of industries.

Couldthe rental marketworkfor yourbusiness?

Can you streamline youroffer for busy customers?


Wherenext?

Poor social skills and difficulty inresponding to change mean thatpeople with ASD (Autism Spec-

trum Disorder)have problems in-teracting with others and find itvery difficult to hold down jobs.

But watching the seven year-oldmaking a copy from memory ofacomplex diagram, Sonne had abrainwave. From his backgroundin telecoms IT Sonneknew manybugs get missed in softwaretestingas peoplefind it so boring.Yet people with ASD tend topossess extremelygood memories,

showgreat attention to detail andwould therefore be brilliant at it.

Sonne set-up Specialisterne inCopenhagen six years ago. ecompany now employs 60people, of whom 45 have ASD.He refuses to run the companylike a charity and so competeshead-to-head with others,aimingto make a good profit.

I think normalityis whatever themajority decides it will be, saysSonne. In our company, people

with autism are the norm.

30Test your assumptionsWhen his son Lars was diagnosed with autism,Thorkil Sonnes life was turned upside down.

RULES

Could your businessbenefit from a doseof fun?

Thinklaterally aboutyour distribution.

Changethe rulesinyour industry.


Wherenext?

Think laterallyand change the


5/13

Could you offer liveorder-tracking foryourcustomers throughTwitter?

How mightyou capitaliseon thewidermarketingbenefits?


Wherenext?

e challenge for major companies is to embed itas a useful tool for their mainstream customer base.

German airline Lufthansa is just such an example.eir recently launched MySkyStatus service

updates registered users Facebook and Twitteraccounts with their live flight position and actualarrival time,even if they are flying on other airlines.

It smacks of Big Brother until you consider a flightdelay making you late for a meeting,yet you cannotuse your phone to alert the other attendees. Oryoure wondering whether to brave rush-hourtraffic to meet someone at the airport. Again, theanswer is a c lick away.

For Lufthansa, at heart its an important way toenhance their customer experience.e free socialmedia advertising is simply a spin-off benefit.

Turn a

TwitterprofitMany MDs have become jaded aboutthe hype for social media.They viewit as the sole preserve of the digitalcognoscenti.


6/13

Could youturn yourmarketinginto a newproduct?

Perhaps a partner couldgive youaccessto awider market.


Wherenext?I was really impressed with theapproach taken by the sons f romtwo long-established neighbour-ing dairy farms. One was reallystrongon marketing,the other onthe craft of cheese-making. Sotheydecided to usetheircomple-mentary skills to set up a joint

venture tackling the premiumcheese market. It increasedcapacity, gave the company the

ability to compete nationallywhilst retaining the ancientmethod of cave-hanging theessence of the brand.

e joint-venture worked, andthe confidence encouraged themto look at the US where theres abig demand for high-end trad-itional British products. eirturnovergrewfrom7m to18m.

e only shame was that theirprevious bankers were too nerv-ous of the phenomenal exportgrowth to continue supportingthem!

Michael Papadatos,Regional Commercial DirectorSouth West, HSBC

Joint adventureDairy farming is one of those traditional UK industries

that has had to diversify to expand and prosper.Theyvefaced tightening prices, lower subsidies and majorenvironmental shocks.

Tasked with creating a new cam-paign for Kit Kat in Japan, the

agency JWT noticed that studentshad connected Kit Kat with theJapanese phrase Kitto-Katsu,meaning surely win.It linked withthe tradition of sending good-luck

wishes to students facing toughexams.

In order to amplify this word ofmouth, JWT approached JapanPost with something bigger.

Together they created the KITKAT Kit Mail, a chocolate post-card in a cardboard sleeve on

which you can write a mes sageand send to someone facing

exams.

Japan Post loved the opportunityto build closer bonds withcustomers. Overnight it took KitKat into an additional 20,000locations free of competition.

ey sold 250,000 Kit Kat Mails,and it has proved so popular theyhave made it a permanentfeature.

It shows the beauty of turningyour marketing into a product,and the power of partnering.

Think beyond marketingJapan Post, the Japanese postal service, is a central pillar of Japanese

life. So when former PM Junichiro Koizumi announced plans toliberalise it, advertising agency JWT saw the potential of pitching

new ideas to a previously traditional organisation.

35

To ensure that movies reach theircinemas as intended and preventthembeingillegallycopied,Indianinnovator, UFO Moviez,hit upona technological solution - digitisefilms and send them bysatellite.

But this only brought them to abigger hurdle. Why should cinemaownersinvestin thenewequipment?

As Strategic Advisor CharuhasSatam recounts,e owner wouldthrow us out, sayingmy

grandfatherleftmethiscin-

ema, whydo I needto go forhightech-nology?

UFOs answer was to pay for thetechnology themselves.e owneronly payswhentheyuseit.Butthereal cream,as Satam putsit, comesfrom advertising.UFO gets a ten-minute slot at the start of the film,in theintermission,and concessionspace in the foyer.

Small cinema owners wouldnt

attract national advertisers, andadvertisers get accurate statistics.Were not a Bollywood company.

Were an infrastructure company,says Satam. Were laying down adigital highway and saying if you

wantto useit, thenpay for it.

UFO Moviez now accounts for aquarter of cinema receipts across

India and is launching across Asia.As Satam observes,Weveprovedit inthe craziestcountrylikeIndia,so other countries should be acakewalk.

Pay customers to take your productWhile Bollywood is the worlds largest movie hub,its income is a fraction of its Hollywood cousins.

If customersarestruggling to afford your

equipment, can you findan alternative fundingmodel?

If youinvested in aninfrastructureplatformfor yourindustry, mightotherspay to useit?


Wherenext?

34


7/13

36

Ask your customerswhatmakesthem nervous inthe buying process.

Istherea lack oftransparency at anystage?

Canyou createopportunity byaddressing theseworries?


Wherenext?

Looking at the logo designed forthe London 2012 Olympics, theAustralian founders of Design-Crowd.com were frustrated. Ithad been produced by a majoragency for a large budget, butthey believedtheyknewdozensofpeople who could do better, but

were nevergiven the opportunity.

It was a familiar refrain from thedesign community.eres a worldof creativity out there, and yetlarge companies restrict them-selves to a preferred supplierslistof the largest design agencies.

Spurredby thisthought, Design-Crowdcreateda website to enablelarge companies and small busi-nesses to get ideas and designsfrom thousands of freelancedesigners or smaller agenciesaround the world. e clientspecifiestheir requirements for thedesign,and the amount they willpay for the winning design.eythen receive dozens or evenhundreds of submissions fromdifferent designers, and can picktheir favourite.

Creativitycomes in small packages

You could trythem withyournext graphicdesignproject?

Set-up a crowd networkof creatives to addresschallenges in yourindustry.

Check whetheryourorganisation hasa policyof engaging and nurturingsmaller suppliers.


Wherenext?

is gapis compounded in indus-tries like floristry where, despitetempting brochure shots, floristsoften cant guarantee exactly whatthey are sending because of varia-tions in availability.

e resulting transparency gapcreates nervousness in customers.

is in turn presents opportunity.

New Zealand-basedflorists Rosesare Red have addressed this bysending customers a digitalphotograph of the exact bouquetthey have sent. And if customersarent completely happy with it,they can have a full replacement.

A problem online retailers face, as opposed to theirbricks and mortar counterparts, is that customerscant touch and feel exactly what they are buying.Be transparent

ForTony Hsieh, ZapposCEO, the loyalty of his

staff is critical. So heensures they are there

for the right reasons bypaying them if they

want to leave.

38 Ensure loyaltye onlineretailerhas grownintoa billion dollar retailer through itssuperlative customer service, butthis depends ona totallycommitted

workforce.

Every new recruit has to gothrough a training programmeregardless of hisor herjob or title.

roughout this they have theoption to leave at any time, and if

they do, Zappos will pay them$2000 dollars for their time.

Its essential to know early on ifan employee doesnt buy into our

vision and culture. It just makeseconomic sense,says Hsieh.

It must betestamentto hisjudge-ment that over 97%turndowntheoffer.


8/13

Rajiv Mehrotras missionis to getthem connected.His challenge isthat mobile-phone masts use a

huge amount of electricity andmost of these areas are not con-nected to a power grid. Plus thekind of masts used in the UK arefar too expensive for deploymentin rural areas where people haveabout 1 a month to spend ontheir phone bill.

However, Mehrotra recognisedthat there is one resource inabundance.Sunshine.

After six years R&D, Mehrotrascompany, VNL, launched a basestation that uses thesameamount

of electricity as a light bulb so canbe run by solar power. It is alsovery easy to put up two villagerscan assemble it in six hours. It isalso cheap,a quarterof thecost oftraditional base stations. Wevescaled down the cost, the energy,and the equipment so that almostanybody can deploy it.

VNLsbase-stations are now beingused by 50 villages in rural India,andnetworksrolled out in Africa,

Asia and Latin America.

SpanishcompanyBusuu.comspot-ted the opportunity and started anonline language school with adifference there are no teachers.Everyuser is not only a student ofa foreign language but also a tutorof his own mother-tongue, saysco-founder Bernhard Niesner.

Busuu directly connects nativespeakers in different countries whowant to learn a language so aSpaniard seeking to learn Englishcan connect with an English-

speaker wishing to learn Spanish.Lessons take place in online

video chats, with guidance notesprovided for structure. Userscorrect each otherswritten work.

Its popular, and people stickwith it. Bernhard puts this downto the peer-to-peer model,Normally when you start a newlanguage you are quite insecure.But if you see others also makingmistakes and you can help them,it motivates you to continue.

The dating business model is highly profitable but companieshave been slow to spot its potential for other industries.

Set up a date

What might yourcustomershave incommon, andcould youhelp them to connect?

A communitylikethiscould be revenuegenerating, or you coulduseit to leverage othercommercialbenefits.


Wherenext? By rationalising yoursupplybaseyou couldforgecloser links withfewer corepartners.

Doyouhavea policyofsharing costsavings withsuppliers?

Haveyou calculated thepossible long-termbenefits of outsourcingmoreto your suppliers?


Wherenext?

Mehrotras thinking showsyou canprofitably servethoseat thebottom ofthepyramid.

Is there a potentially largermarket for yourbusinessif you can overcometechnical challenges?


Wherenext?

Instead, says Darrell Rigby ofBain and Co, smart companies

treat their suppliers as fellowcombatants trapped in the samefoxhole. He cites the example ofChrysler.Its strategy in the teethof the 1990recession was brilliant.Rather than forcing pain on theirsuppliers, they got closer to them.

ey outsourced more to them,thereby reducing inventory andimprovingcycle times. If supplierscameup with a cost saving ofmorethan 10% they would share thesavings with them.

Chrysler used the cash to investin new products and as a result,

was the only Big ree car makerto turna profit thefollowing year.

Dontsqueezeyoursuppliers

Half the worlds population three billion people live in areas not covered by a phone network.

41

Conventional wisdom dictatesthat in a downturn suppliers mustbe squeezed until the pips squeak.But this short-term fix can do moreharm than good in the long run.

39 Connectthe unconnected


9/13

e answer? ey created anetwork of Student BrandManagers outgoing membersof the student community whorepresent the brand and bring tolife the entire world of Red Bullon campus. ey get flexibilityaround when they work, owner-

ship of Red Bull projects andevents on campus and they gainexperience working at Red Bulleventsaround thecountry,as wellas a regular supply of the drink.

Red Bull now has 70 SBMs atuniversities across the UK.It saysOurSBMsare veryspecial to us,they arent promotional staff;they are part of the family.eyensure we have personal one-to-one contact with students in a

way that is relevant to them,even

though we are a global brand.

After graduating, around 30%of Red Bull Student BrandManagers go on to join Red Bullfull-time, either in the marketingteam or in other areas of thebusiness.

Recruit

BrandAmbassadorsWhat customercommunities could thebrand ambassadorstrategy work in foryou?

What incentivescouldyouoffertheambassadors in return?


Wherenext? WhenAustrian energy-drink company Red Bull launchedin the UK market, it knew students werea key targetaudience.The challenge was how to reach them.

Image:MarceloMa

ragni/RedBullPhotofiles


10/13

Do youmonitorreviewsof your companysproductsor services on

theweb and socialmedia?

Doesyour companyrespondto thisfeedbackquickly,to showcustomers youre listeningandthat youcare?


Wherenext?

Are your competitorsstruggling?

Is now the time to makean acquisition?

Consider the full rangeof approaches tofunding this.


Wherenext?

43RJFriedlander is theCEO ofRe-

viewPro,a start-up aiming to helpthe hotel industry aggregate,analyse, manage and respond to

customer feedback on the web.

e hotel sector is heavily influ-enced by online user reviews,andthe impact directly affects thebottom line of hotels.Accordingto various studies, up to 85% ofpeople consult reviews prior toreserving a hotel on the Internet

and87% arehighlyinfluenced bywhat they read.

e Barcelona-based company

finds praise or criticism postedon hundreds of websites world-wide, and displays the data in aneasy to use web-based analyticaltool.e hotelsmanagement canthen see the patterns, look atcomparisons with competitors,andmake decisions about how toimprove their service.

What are your customerssaying behind your back?It used to be that a good or bad customerexperience would be shared between severalfriends.The internet means it can now influencemillions of people.

Yet a survey by Bain and Co.found that only 20%of executives

would consider making anacquisition during a downturn.

at 20% clearly includes ArrowElectronicsformer CEO StephenKaufman.We made our greateststrategic moves during the periodof greatest financial weakness.

In 1985, the electronics compo-nent distributor was number twoin an industry dominated by amarket leader more than doubletheir size. e slump in techspending had pushed them closeto the edge.We had $30million

worth of interest due that year

and no operating income, saidKaufman.

But rather than battening down,

Arrow decided to fight their wayout. In 1987, they bought thenumber three player in the mar-ket, funding twothirds ofthe dealagainst the targets inventory andaccountsreceivable.It worked,and

Arrow turned a net profit in theyear after. In the 1991 downturn,they did it again, and through aseries of tactical acquisitionsbecame the industry number one,a position they still hold.

Kaufmans lesson is simple.We acquired in bad times.

Buy your competitorsThe time to buy is when there is blood on the streets,says Warren Buffett.

Taking a career break to pursue acharitable interest would signifi-cantly boost their job satisfaction.Butfor most,financial responsibil-ities mean this just isntan option.

Only, now it is.Vodafones World

of Difference programme givesindividuals the chance to be paidto work for their chosen charityfor one year. e VodafoneFoundation pays25,000 towardstheir salary and 20,000 towardsexpenses.

e scheme started in NewZealand and now operates in 15

countries, with winners workingfor charities around the world.

e UK 2009 programmereceived over 1000 applications.Eight lucky winners are nowbeing paid to work for charities

such as Health Unlimited,wherea UK midwife will tutormidwifery skills in Sierra Leone.

Andrew Dunnett,Director ofeVodafoneFoundation,sums it up:World of Difference offers anideal opportunity to help others

while gaining valuable life andwork experience.

Would long-servingstaff members benefitfrom a sabbatical?

Would you?

Do you link yourcustomer base withyour giving activities?


Wherenext?

Six million workers experience daily low points in theirjob, according to research by theVodafone Foundation.

Dont give to charity


11/13

Could you encouragecustomers to tryawider range of yourproductsby offeringsample-sizes?

Isthere a wholenewmarketyou couldreachby thinkingsample-size?


Wherenext?

Are thereany problemstoolargefor yourcompany to analyse?

Could any of theinformation or datawithin your company besetfreeto be developedby a wide communityunderyour stewardship?


Wherenext?

Think small

Sell more

e CEO at the time, RobMcEwen, took a highly unusualstep. Under the Goldcorp Chal-lenge banner, he released all theirdata to the wider community ofgeologists,and offered a large cashprize for the best information on

where to drill.

While open-sourcing is commonin high tech, it goes against theconventional thinking of an old-economy business like mining.

Mineral discovery is much liketechnological discovery, figuredMcEwan.

e response was amazing.Morethan1400 international geologistsdownloaded the companys data.

And when the results yielded arich seam of gold, their willing-ness to open up their business tonew thinking has helped turn a$100 million company into a $30billion success story.

Go global for goldWhen Goldcorp Inc. acquired a poor-performing gold mine in Ontarioit knew it was sitting on high-grade gold, as it was adjacent to high-performing mines. But with 55,000 acres of land to survey, it wouldtake a massive effort to interpret the data.

Persuading winedrinkers to be advent-urous and try morehigh-end wines hastraditionally been hard.Tentative consumerstend to stick to winesat the 5 mark and onlypay more for a limitednumber of the mostfamous brands.

A French start-up,WineSide hascomeup withan alternative.eyoffer a variety of 6cl sealed glasstubessold individually orin boxesthrough retailers and their web-site. ese packs encouragenovicewine enthusiasts to sampleGrand Cruwinesand gain confi-dence without breaking thebank.

WineSide also markets its tubesto restaurants in 10cl sizes.isallows restaurants to offer high-quality wine by the glass withouthaving to open a whole bottle.

Think small


12/13

ere is a quiet revolution byorganisations who can captureand use these data. For example,during the swine flu outbreak,governments tracked the spreadof the disease by looking at thewords people search for online.

Similarly, where others hadspentmillions, Google built one of the

worlds best spell-checkerssimplyby gathering and analysing thedigital dust of all the wrong

words people type and thencorrect.

e sheer abundance of data of-fers lucrative opportunities forthose with the power to put it toprofitable use.

49 Dig for dataWhat data does yourcompany alreadyhave, and what couldyou gather in thecourse of your work?

Could you sell accessto this information toothers?


Wherenext?

Are you customersinterestedin givingback?

Couldyou mirror yourproduct offer with sucha donation?


Wherenext?

Business guru Tom Peters hasbeen(literally)shoutingabout theopportunity of thefemalemarketfor the last ten years, and somecompanies are taking notice.

emakers ofKarmiwanted toin-crease their share of the highlycompetitive beer market. So theytooka counterintuitivesidestep and

decide to target a new marketwhere beer sales were low women.

ey researched the flavourswomen might like (sweeterflavourslike caramel,raspberry andcoffee),and alsofoundthatwomen

wantedthe beer lessstrong.Itsalsolow calorie,with the same calorie-count as natural yoghurt.

e strategy paid off. Womenhaveresponded wellto the product,sales are good, and they havedecided to expand the range.

Step into the

gender

gapThe feminine character of the bottle ishighlighted by the colours and its unusuallypleasant satin texture.Weve created Karmi beerthinking about women, says EwaTarnawska,the brand manager of the Polish beer.

Nicholas Negroponte, a serialentrepreneur from Massachusetts,set up One Laptop Per Child

with the vision of providingcomputers to children in thethird-world to improve theireducation. His team designed acheap, rugged laptop that couldsellfor $199,but thatssometimesstill toomuchfordeveloping coun-tries, making it difficult to per-suadegovernments to purchase inlarge numbers.

In an entrepreneurialtwist he putthe laptop on sale in the US witha requirement thateachcustomerhad tobuytwo;oneforthem,andonefor a third-worldschoolchild.

e first campaign sold 162,000laptops,raising$35m.It wassucha success that they repeated thecampaign again recently,becomingthe best-selling laptop on

Amazon during the campaign.Production capacity currentlycant keep up with demand.

One for you,one for themThe boundaries between business and charity arebecoming increasingly blurred. Companies are keento be seen as ethical while charities are discoveringthe power of commercial thinking.The latestcombination of the two is the 'Get one, give one'business model.

48

Could youcreate a specialversion of your products

for the opposite genderand openup a wholenew market?

Outside of gendermaybe youcould adaptthe product for differentageranges andsocialgroups.

Why notcall usat HSBCto fund yournextsteps?

Wherenext?

The amount of digital information created globallyincreases by a factor of 10 every five years.

50


13/13

To be the first to receive thenext 100 thoughts, sign-up atwww.hsbc.co.uk/100thoughts

All that remains is for us to thank you for your interest and

make a suggestion for Thought No.101 that maybe now isthe time to call us.

If youre already a customer, it may be valuable for us to shareour business thinking. If youre not a customer yet then itsprobably worth talking to see how we might help you put yourthoughts into practice.

Either way, we think it would be great if our businesses couldhelp each other.

Call us on 0800 783 1164*

Thought No.101

*Lines are open 8am to 8pmMonday to Friday (excluding public holidays).Communicationsmay bemonitored for security and service improvementpurposes.

The views and opinions expressed bycontributors are their own and notnecessarily those ofHSBCBank plc.

Issuedby HSBCBankplc.We are a principal member of the HSBCGroup, oneof theworlds largest banking and financial services organisations with around8,500 offices in 86 countriesand territories.AC17838.

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