Speakers include:
Andrew Coull- Vice President Retail at Everything Everywhere,
Anthony Thomson- Chairman & Co-founder of Metro Bank,
Lee Cooper- Creative Director at White Stuff,
Justine Roberts- Co-founder & CEO of Mumsnet,
Linda Summers- Director of Marketing & Operations at Skype,
Tim Pethick, Group Chief Marketing Officer at Acromas Holdings (Saga & The AA)
and
Luke Johnson-, Ex-Chairman of Channel 4 Television Corporation(2004 to 2010) ex-owner of Pizza Express, Columnist at the FT, Business Author and one of the UK’s leading business people is speaking on the day.Luke has one of the most impressive and diverse CVs in British Business,

Be the Brand is an event which celebrates the competitive edge you can create for your business, through engaging people with your brand and its cause: be they customers, employees or wider stakeholders. Essentially it’s about trying to BE Different and performing when Everyone Else Is Doing the Same!

There’s always the chance that you’ll get nothing you believe to be valuable, however, to give you a flavour of the calibre, one of the speakers successfully set up Australia’s answer to Innocent(Nudie Drinks), another has been a leader at a company rated amongst The Times Best Companies to work, another runs a movement that lead the newspaper The Mirror to label her part of the two ” most powerful women in Britain” during last year’s general election campaigns, and that’s less than half the list of speakers.

Real leaders aren’t afraid to leave their comfort zones. They are keen to listen, meet new people, learn, experience, and ultimately try different things. We’d love to see you at Be the Brand.

To buy event tickets http://bethebrand.eventbrite.com/
Price: £65 each
Everyone who attends the event will receive a free copy of Luke’s yet to be released book .

The pace at which society is changing and adapting to our surroundings is outstripping the faculties of our governments, institutions and business. Want proof of that? Just check out the movement being created by film maker Peter Byck through his independent film Carbon Nation. Despite the nay saying and doom mongering of climate change campaigners and its necessary onward pressure onto government at a global level, where do people fit into the Kyoto and Copenhagen machinations?

On one level – nowhere. Climate Change and its associated solutions are things that happen to people and from a great height. Does that mean that people are powerless to bring about substantial change and engagement with the real issues at ground and community level? Far from it – and we’re not just talking about sorting the recycling out into the proper containers either (as important as that clearly is!)

Carbon Nation charters the extraordinary story of how many seemingly unconnected people and communities from fur flung towns and rural environments are getting together in the spirit of enterprise and community to take charge of their situation. This is not just activism – not just a reaction of the helpless in the face of overwhelming adversity. This is the development of highly creative, highly engaged and resourceful people from all walks of life who are taking control of a situation that rationally ought to be well out of their sphere of control. Carbon Nation – the Movie, plots several stories from across the US where individuals and communities got together to transform their communities and futures by tackling head on the sustainability and energy issues in the US by DOING SOMETHING CONSTRUCTIVE. Some are making money, some are saving money, some are inventing new technologies, some are influencing decision makers, some are getting unemployed communities back to work. Some are on a personal mission. Why is this happening?

On one level the answer is simple: give the human condition a set of adversities and the room to figure them out and they’ll bring out the best of the situation.

Film maker Peter Byck hopes to cultivate this outbreak of the spirit of social enterprise by promoting its existence to government at local, regional and national level; to big business and to other like-minded optimists. Carbon Nation comes to the UK in the Autumn with a projected theatrical release at independent cinema level. The message Peter is sending is clear: People don’t necessarily need government handouts, tax breaks, subsidies and permission. They are quite capable of making their own futures happen – but just don’t stand in their way and make it even harder. Encourage optimism, innovation, enterprise and community engagement – the rest will take care of itself. Such is the power of tribes.

For big business it makes sense and can save or make you money.

About Carbon Nation-The Movie:

An “optimistic, solutions-based non-partisan (and witty) documentary”, that shows tackling climate change boosts economies, increases national and energy security, and promotes health and a clean environment!
www.carbonnationmovie.com

New Brand Tribalism, The Alternative (www.thealternative.co.uk) and The International Visual Communications Association-The IVCA (Www.ivca.org) hosted an exclusive first UK screening of this film at The Roxy (http://www.roxybarandscreen.com/) in London on July 6, 2011. For more information about future screenings opportunities or how to spread the word. Contact us here at New Brand Tribalism http://www.newbrandtribalism.com/contact-us/.

Facebook , The iPhone, Skype, Twitter, illustrates just how quickly things have changed but have the major corporates in Britain kept up? Do they really understand the climate they now operate in? The future isn’t what we’re used to and it ain’t what it used to be!

Why are the following companies growing at rates most of UK PLC could only dream of? Netflix (31% y/y),Amazon (39%y/y), Ebay( 26% y/y), Alibaba.com (40%y/y), Baidu(76% Y/Y) , Tencent(55% Y/Y), Priceline.com (37%). (Source: Mary Meeker- Morgan Stanley)

Here’s a clue at what might be holding things back a bit: Check out this 5 minute video by the Chair of the MBA program at Havard Business School, Dr Youngme Moon. Dr Moon gives an interesting insight into the problems that stifle things like innovation and differentiation. Warning the video is only likely to be interesting to some who see the destructive forces at play, many will think it’s BS or that they’re exempt from it. http://bit.ly/mDULPq

The high performing companies of the 21st Century are not just doing things differently, but questioning whether we should be doing many of the things we currently believe in, at all. They are writing new rules about the growth potential of companies who embrace the new opportunities this marketplace presents.

“The fundamental problem with most businesses is that they are governed by mediocre ideas.
Maximizing the return of invested capital is an example of a mediocre idea. Mediocre ideas don’t uplift people. They don’t give them something they can tell their children about. They don’t create much meaning. “ Bill O’Brien (CEO Hanover Insurance)

A couple of thoughts here in the post. What do you think is holding most of UK PLC back?

What do you think?

If nothing else changes in the business to make it “more suitable” is this just a case of polishing a turd?

Another thought that comes to mind is this- do consumers worry about the Carphone Warehouse name, has that hampered its growth and evolution? If you wonder what i’m on about, when was the last time you saw a carphone? Carphone warehouse has managed to evolve and diversify even with a somewhat misleading name.