If your Sussex-based business is seeking some additional support for project/s or looking to recruit, it could benefit from the 20-30 day placements open to recent graduates from across the UK.

For more information regarding eligibility to host an intern, please contact graduate.internships@sussex.ac.uk or visit www.sussexinternships.co.uk .

Applications to participate by March 12th 2010 please.

Bubblephone Ltd, a communications software company, has been chosen from more than 1,000 applicants to be the first company to be awarded second round funding from the UK Ministry of Defence’s (MoD) Centre for Defence Enterprise (CDE). The Sussex Innovation Centre and Brighton-based company has received a contract valued at £43,000 to deliver a beta–version of its intelligent C-THRU network optimisation software. The technology has the potential to transform the reliability and quality of the MoD’s tactical communications network, while helping save lives and money. “This award underlines the value of CDE as a cost-effective way to access leading-edge technology and get it into the field quickly,” said Sean Curtis-Ward, Bubblephone’s CEO. “Also, it represents a strong endorsement for our adaptive software which we believe has huge commercial potential outside of the defence sector.”

Since its inception 18 months ago, the CDE has received more that 1,000 proposals from companies – mainly small to medium-sized businesses. The initiative, which has been likened to TV’s Dragon’s Den, is designed to enable the MoD to exploit new and emerging technologies that are already being researched or developed and get them into the field rapidly.

The MoD is interested in the use of C-THRU in its BOWMAN tactical military communications network – a mission critical system that contains different network types (such as VHF, UHF and satellite) and where transmission quality and reliability are paramount. The new contract will involve Bubblephone delivering a beta-version of C-THRU with a view to its test, development and integration into BOWMAN. It will collaborate closely with General Dynamics UK, which will provide additional equipment and expertise. In January 2009, Bubblephone received a feasibility contract from the CDE valued at £49,000. Work under the contract culminated in a demonstration in October 2009 of C-THRU on a special test network. Just three weeks later, C-THRU was further demonstrated to MoD staff on battlefield-ready kit over a subset of the BOWMAN tactical communications network. This was undertaken at the EDGE™ UK demonstration suite at General Dynamics UK’s facility in South Wales.

The question about how one might cultivate intuition might be considered through the way in which airlines teach their staff to ‘Notice. Understand. Think ahead.’ This process was introduced to actively teach their staff to think about the impact of what they observed in flight. For example, whilst it is fairly inconspicuous to see someone with a lighter, this is extremely dangerous on an aeroplane mid flight. Many people would notice such an activity and stop there, perhaps thinking (intuitively) “something’s not right there” but doing nothing about it. Cabin crew are trained to understand what they see – that is, stop when they get a ‘feeling inside’ and seek to understand the impact it might have. Finally, they are taught to think ahead. The process follows; a) notice a person with a lighter, b) understand that this could start a fire c) think ahead about the dangers this presents and the danger that person may be willing to cause. Then, set about a course of action to mitigate the risks.

Western Union described Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone as an electrical toy and had no use for it. History is peppered with lost opportunities like this one. So, if you are looking to start a business, analyse your idea first by noticing things, understanding the impact if you could change them and think ahead about the greater impact it could have. Follow this idea and you just might be onto a winner!

Me ?  I’m a recycled Bank manager , 26 years worth in a past life.  I loved the good bits, people, training, knowledge building, team building, customer service, service to the community, the seductive remuneration package but around the end of the last century I wanted to see if I could find what my customers kept calling the real world.

This isn’t the place to expand upon the very real world ‘early’ experiences but sufficed to say I’m not without a wide selection of development stories in my career work portfolio.. Kama of a sort, I expect.

Government grants were eventually my saviour, and Gamekeeper turned Poacher probably the best behavioural change descriptor….. to cut a long story short, I now work for the Sussex Innovation Centre where we help people to make businesses out of their amazing ideas. Big businesses. Just for good measure, I’m also a SFEDI accredited Business Advisor for our work with Business Link.

Grants, Risk Capital and standard Banking debt all feature in the day to day but thankfully there’s more to my current role and Strategy, Marketing, Sales, Operations, Planning all come into play…potentially far more interesting than finance…but not workable without it…you wont eat without it, to state the obvious. 

So the exiting Blog 1 message is this..‘Bankers are just Suppliers’ Build the right Professional Team. Choose carefully

One of my roles for the Innovation Centre is to match personalities – Bankers and Clients – so I’m always on the look out for Bankers who will work for their money and actually add value to their client’s objectives…even want to do a deal. Yes, they do still exist even when it’s a ‘High Growth Innovative Research and Development.’ Don’t deal with this every day. What no security!

Those we know, do it well and they talk and deliver big numbers. However we do ask them to do things they can do, which can be half the battle.

This isn’t new: searching for the right personality to support your goals. Building the right ‘professional’ team and recognising that the team will change as your business needs change. Historically the right team has always been a must have and sets aside business that works on achieving outcome that is ambitious, growing and  as consistent / predictable as possible.

The core team has always been; Banker, Accountant, Lawyer, though probably now you would want to add external expertise from Marketing, PR, Media/ Design and SEO as must have drivers for success. Sometimes I don’t think business spends enough time selecting the right people in the early stages and it can be the same with Banks and Bank managers.

Paul Jordan, Innovation Support Advisor

ChatBadge.com is a highly flexible live chat tool developed NPN member, Binary Portfolio. Easily integrated into your current website ChatBadge enables your website users to ask questions, raise issues or concerns in a live chat environment. Andrew Gill, Director said “Live chat with your website visitors allows you to better understand their needs, increase empathy, attract new customers and cross-sell products.  The bottom line is increased sales. Customers love chatting to a ‘real’ person. ChatBadge is simple to add to your website and takes less than 5 minutes to set up.” If you’d like to find out more then please visit ChatBadge.com or email andrew@andrewgill.com

But could this hardship also reveal an opportunity for some people to start their own business? During the last recession in the early 1990’s, redundancy and lay-offs lead thousands of people, otherwise seemingly content in their day to day lives, to strike out on their own. Many famous entrepreneurs including James Caan, of Dragon’s Den fame, found their first business successes when the chips were down.

In a recent article in The Times, Sir Richard Branson made clear his belief that the next generation of self-made billionaires will emerge from the corporate wreckage of this recession. In his words “Fortunes are made out of recessions. A lot of entrepreneurs get going in the economic depths because the barriers to entry are lower.”

So, if you’re caught up in the present turmoil and find yourself out of work or with extra time on your hands, should you consider revisiting that great business idea that’s been lurking in the back of your mind?

The team at the The New Product Network can help you answer this question. We’ll help you test the strength of your idea, give you impartial feedback as well as help you take the first steps into business. As part of one of the UK’s most successful business incubators we’ve got a wealth of experience to share .

Call us on 01273 704400 or email npn@sinc.co.uk

There have been many efforts to collaborate and understand innovation and the globalisation of business and it just feels like this year, ‘suddenly’ it is everywhere we look. We are involved in CLIQ, (Creating Local Innovation through a Quadruple Helix), an EU project to optimise the benefits of globalisation and innovation to SMEs and entrepreneurs in medium sized towns.

There are many similar initiatives we are involved with simultaneously ‘suddenly’ and all of these things combine between 15 and 20 countries working together on getting innovations to work across regions. The premise “together we’re stronger” has never been truer and maybe a global recession – or even the idea of one for those sceptics out there – is the tipping point we needed to push many organisations from Government, corporates and SMEs alike into being more collaborative, innovative and receptive to new ideas. In a sense, we are all forced to innovate to survive. With this backdrop, it is easy to see why, in times of crisis, new ideas have a strong track record of flourishing. In fact, a company in Bristol recently suggested that it’s lower risk right now to start a business than get a ‘proper job’.

In any case, we welcome the surge in collaboration and the focus on innovation funding from the Government and corporates alike. Long may it continue for the sake of our growing number of brave entrepreneurs.

In this podcast, we speak to Dr David Lewis, Director of Neuroscience at The Mind Lab, about how he and his colleagues research and analyse peoples’ emotional responses to a range of real-life issues, products and situations; and to Dr Graham McAllister, the founder of Vertical Slice, who discusses with us his cutting edge work in the computer games industry.