Narda Shirley

A young female delegate at the Economist Energy Summit on 4^th and 5^th November was overheard to remark that the audience in the room was unusually diverse. Energy is one of the industries that still struggles with diversity. Anecdotally it seems, if you haven’t done your time on an oil rig (or other heavy engineering equivalent), it will impact your ability to climb the career ladder. This can be an issue for women, which is in turn an issue for the industry which is desperate to build new engineering talent pipelines.

In our business as comms advisors, it is very often the case that what we learn working for one client, gets applied in other contexts. So it was with the Lloyd’s insurance market Dive In Festival of diversity & inclusion still very much in mind, that I set off for the Honorable Artillery Company to help tweet from day one of the conference on Wednesday.

For my money, the two stand out speakers on the agenda on day one were women. Dorothy Thompson, CEO of Drax Power spoke to the Economist’s Energy Editor, Edward Lucas about the wood pellet-based renewable energy side of the business, Drax Biomass. She made a compelling case for biofuels, explaining where the wood for the pellets comes from, the advanced technology in the supply chain that compresses and transports the pellets and the parity of the fuel with coal in terms of performance.

The final slot before drinks went to Dr. Michal Meidan of China Matters, an energy consultancy. She gave a masterclass in the use of data points that consistently supported her comments and observations, keeping the session bubbling along as she discussed China’s energy mix in consumption terms and the future for gas, with her own engaging energy and style.

Of course it’s not only gender, but cultural diversity and age that can bring new perspectives to foster innovation. Two entrepreneurs stood out in particular on both counts. Mytrah’s CEO Ravi Kailas gave a compelling interview about how his wind power business is creating new capacity for the national grid across 6 states in India. And young entrepreneur and Bio Bean founder Arthur Kay (who was studying architecture when he had the idea) explained how waste from coffee is being used to generate power in his innovative UK based business.

Over drinks, conference sponsor BP offered delegates the ultimate ‘millennial’ young gamer innovation experience, the chance to try on Oculus Rift virtual reality headsets for an immersive experience of their exploration and R&D. As you can see from the photo, it was an offer I just couldn’t resist.

The Economist Energy Summit 2015 certainly helped the industry present a more than usually diverse face to the audience. It will be interesting to see which stories and spokespeople get picked up in the final round-up of the reporting to see if the media also found merit in the diversity of voices and views on offer.

Managing a mixed-use real estate development on the scale of Garden City – 200 homes, 25,000 sqm of office space, a hotel, a 3 acre park and the largest retail mall to date in East Africa – means dealing with a complex community of suppliers. So, when it came to PR and marketing support, the Garden City team were looking for a simple and complete solution.

Gong’s ability to field a combined team of PR specialists and design from Gong Creative, based in both London and Nairobi, enabled us to partner with Garden City on all its mar-comms requirements.

We refreshed the Garden City logo and created a striking new slogan and visuals to capture the sheer variety on offer. A new website and social media channels mean Nairobi residents have been able to watch the buildings rise from the ground as well as find out about letting and sales opportunities.

At the end of May 2015, the long-awaited shopping mall finally opened, to great acclaim. On-the-ground, Gong secured front-page trailed Financial Times coverage as well as extensive local media news for the event. The FTreported that Garden City provided the perfect location and was the “right partner” for shopping giant Walmart to finally enter the Kenyan market – previously “a prize beyond its reach.”

Renny Popoola

2015 has seen lots of noise around the emergence of new challenger banks in the UK with much being said about the potential for emerging firms to take on the big players and provide a credible alternative for consumers. The outlook for the sector looks promising. Whilst Metro bank was the first business to obtain a full banking licence in 150 years, 6 new banks have been authorised since 2013 and dozens more on the pipeline.

Clearly, the industry is aching for a game-changer. A company, firm or idea that reinvents the way the public engages with firms and delivers banking and financial services to customers that is relevant and accessible.

We have seen such game changers disrupt the leisure industry (AirBnb, Housetrip), transport (ZipVan, Uber), communications (WhatsApp, Skype), entertainment, (Netflix) and to some extent health (Myfitnesspal, Fitbit). Most have become leaders in their own sphere paving the way for a new wave of brands to offer a traditional service with a modern twist.

With systemic changes occurring in many other industries, it does raise the question- what will be the financial industry’s uBer?

The digital age has completely revamped most spheres of our life in an enormous way. But, the impact on how we bank, invest, insure and save has been relatively minor. Whilst the concept of financial advice has undergone some change with comparison sites and online forums, many other facets of financial services have yet to experience their digital awakening.

This is surprising considering that we’re repeatedly reminded about customer dissatisfaction with financial services.  The fact remains, barriers to entry are significantly high despite the regulators’ efforts to encourage innovation and competition. Obtaining authorisation is more often than not a long and expensive process.

Historically, disruptive financial brands have tended to be spin offs or marketing exercises from the larger players. For example, whilst Sheila’s Wheels innovated how insurance could be marketed, it was part of the HBOS group. Even firstdirect, regularly heralded as a game changer in the UK banking sector due to its reputation for customer service, is owned by HSBC.

It’s not a surprise that innovation within the financial industry comes mainly from established players, but it does highlight the difficulty for outsiders to reinvent the market. To some extent, the increased regulatory and capital requirements placed on financial services providers for consumer protection is the biggest hurdle to true innovation in the sector.

What we are beginning to see are individuals, once part of the establishment, looking to shake up the industry.  We’ve seen Nutmeg founded by former stockbrocker Nick Hungerford,  offering an accessible alternative for wealth management, and Stockopedia started by a former investment manager, allowing DIY investors to beat the banks.  With the recent shake up of the pensions industry, such alternative investment services are likely to experience increased demand.

In banking, new players like Atom Bank, Starling and Fidor aim to capture market share through offering digital services. Again, what unites these brands are founders with significant experience with the big players exploring gaps in the market to innovate.

Financial services are still some way off from experiencing its version of Amazon, completely turning the industry on its head. There is a possibility, because of the risk involved within the sector, that it will never experience such upheaval. What is increasingly evident is that if such digital innovation is to happen, it most likely will from within- be it an experienced individual who wants to change the status quo or even a traditional firm with new ideas on offering financial services.

Narda Shirley

One of the defining characteristics of challenger brand start-ups in the food industry is that they are unencumbered by legacy. They can source from where they like and the entrepreneurs behind the brands can lay down any number of guiding principles that give their brand a feel good factor that helps it stand out. Whether it’s good for the environment, good for producers, good for you, or a combination of all three.

‘Doing the right thing’ and ‘making a difference’ are often cited by entrepreneurs as their driving motivation for the hard graft of getting a new business off the ground. So it’s vital that they weave that ethos into the brand communication, making their values part of their business DNA.

But what happens to these small companies when they grow? How hard is it to maintain an ethical stance that is pragmatic and profitable at scale? Is the cycle of growth and sale to a larger, deeper pocketed company in part about being able to afford to stay true to your founding values? Or is there always a compromise once the entrepreneur cedes control to a bigger corporation?

We took a cursory peek at 3 British brands that have sold out – in each case ending up in the hands of US corporations.

Husband and wife team Craig Sams and Jo Fairley launched Green & Black’s in 1991, the first Fairtrade chocolate in the UK, sourcing directly from farmers in Togo and Belize who were rewarded with higher prices for using environmentally sustainable practices. Green & Black’s worked with William Kendall’s then private equity firm, Nemadi which engineered a sale to Cadbury in 2005 (which in turn was acquired by Kraft in 2010). An interview with Fairley in 2013 revealed that Green & Black’s Head of Sustainability went on to do the same much larger job at parent brand Mondelez. Fairley also cites Green & Black’s influence as the reason Cadbury first went Fairtrade with Dairy Milk setting off a domino effect that also saw KitKat and others follow suit. So it would seem in this case, that an early adopter challenger brand became a Trojan Horse change agent inside the major brand that acquired it.

Pret a Manger hit on a successful formula based on principles of product freshness, avoiding additives. Pret also started its own foundation to help feed the homeless. In 2001 McDonald’s bought a third of the business, which was later sold to private equity firm, Bridgepoint. In the meantime, McDonalds has successfully turned its own brand credentials around in terms of building a reputation among consumers of having an ethical supply chain. But back then, the perceived differences in values perhaps helped prompt this quote from Pret that “McDonald’s has never had any day-to-day role in Pret, nor has it had any say over what we do, nor how we do it.” (NB. Julian Metcalfe, one of Pret’s original founders went on to open Itsu. Proof perhaps that there’s a certain type of entrepreneur for whom once is not enough).
Paul Lindley founded Ella’s Kitchen, the UK’s bestselling baby food company, without a shred of retail or food industry experience. He did however have a background in media and children’s brands from Nickelodeon. He is quoted as saying “What has always driven me is the idea that business has a responsibility to be good for society.” Founded in 2006, Mr Lindley sold to US food company Hain Celestial for $103.5m last year. Hain’s main website offers up a slightly dated CSR Report from 2012, but it is front and centre on the home page which at least demonstrates the emphasis the company puts on its sustainability credentials.

In each of these situations, the challenger brand has led with its values and sustainability message. As an entrepreneur growing your own business, you get to decide what you stand for, and how you communicate it, without having to justify it to analysts or shareholders. It’s heartening to think that brand values that were once perhaps viewed by the city as a potentially costly indulgence by entrepreneurs are now increasingly priced in at a premium when it comes to a sale.

Beverly Amira

This last week has been consumed in a flurry of activity for Maarifa in Nairobi – a company set up by a serial entrepreneur who believes in the power of education to lift and propel a nation. Maarifa’s CEO Scott Royster is a man on a mission. He is already successful, having floated a media company in the US, so he has nothing to prove, so what is it that now drives him? Like many other entrepreneurs working in Africa today, I believe Scott is driven by profit with purpose. He won’t deny he wants to make money – in fact it is essential to his private equity investor, ECP, that he can show a return on capital. And it’s essential to the universities that Maarifa invests in that Scott and his co-founders know how to make money. World class tertiary education is not sustainable on a shoestring.

Being able to challenge the status quo, make a difference and turn a profit is a tall order. But entrepreneurs – successful ones, at any rate, are extraordinary people who can do just that. Which brings me to another entrepreneur, Njeri Rionge. Gong has been working with Njeri for a while now, helping put the power of her personal brand to work. Oscars night was made all the more special for having a Njeri on the red carpet. She hasn’t added film producing to her impressive skillset, but she has appeared as the ‘talent’ in a new ad for Cadillac. ‘Dare Greatly’ is a new multi-channel campaign that features a diverse mix of talented people from Silicon Valley entrepreneur Steve Wozniak to Boyhood film director, Richard Linklater. Njeri is there for her great daring as a former hairdresser who propelled herself to the point where she brought internet connectivity to ordinary Kenyans in the form of Wananchi – the company she founded. It’s extremely gratifying to see Kenya represented in that line-up, let alone a black woman. We’ll watch the fortunes of Cadillac with interest on the back of this new campaign – who knows, it may just qualify as a ‘challenger brand’ with all this edgy new attitude!

Staying with cars, I want to highlight the work of a very different marque – Mobius Motors, a Kenyan company that makes affordable off-road vehicles. They came to our attention through our work for Garden City. Behind the brand is social entrepreneur, Joel Jackson who discovered the big challenge facing rural Kenyan communities is immobility. His vision is to build more affordable cars designed for degraded road environments.

To keep costs down Mobius strips the vehicle of non-essentials, such as power steering, air conditioning and even glass windows (!), and instead invests in suspension and handling. As such, Mobius has dramatically reduced the cost of its cars putting them within reach of small business owners. Like all successful entrepreneurs, Joel has a bold vision; to build Africa’s first mass-market car brand to aid economic growth and create a positive social impact. That’s what I call a driving ambition.

Narda Shirley

I heard the story that Jo Malone used to be a beauty therapist working for private clients in London before her fragrance empire took off. Listening to Desert Island Discs, I was intrigued to discover that she had learned about cosmetics as a child going to work with her mother and later taught herself from books. In this case, an entrepreneur’s inspiration was forged from early life experiences rather than the yearnings of an executive at a big fragrance house to go it alone.

So I started thinking about the ways that entrepreneurs are inspired and whether there’s a particular profile of person who manages to launch the definitive challenger brand of their time. Let me define that a little bit better – I count Soho House, Green & Black’s, Sipsmith, Daylesford Organic, Firmdale Hotels, Moneysupermarket.com, Lastminute.com and Workspace among great challenger brands in that category.

When I think of all the entrepreneurs I have worked with, they do seem to fall into two camps: People who are industry or sector experts who start their own business to improve on an existing product or service (these are the SYC entrepreneurs – keep reading, all will become clear). And then there are the people who seem to just appear from nowhere with something so fresh and new that it redefines a category. I call these the NSYC people because you – never saw them coming. Of course technology, and more specifically the internet has massively increased the ranks of the NSYCs. The tech stuff is well documented. From Ariana Huffington to Jeff Bezos, I’m not going to give a second’s more thought in this blog to ‘digital disruptors’. As a group, the SYCs are generally much less feted by the media, but I’m willing to hazard that their overall success rate is much higher in aggregate.

Another way of thinking about this is whether people sit down and try very hard to invent a challenger brand, or whether the idea is etched into them by their daily experience of working in a company that just can’t or won’t step up. I think that there are many professional services businesses that fall into this latter category. From what we’ve seen of lawyers, management consultants, search firms and innovation teams, it’s very hard to truly innovate in the service sector without sacrificing margins, mainly because it’s people who deliver your brand experience. And if you want the best people in a competitive sector, you need to develop them, or be able to afford to pay market rates.

From a communications perspective, the NSYCs are a dream to PR because they satisfy our constant hunger for the next ‘new’. But let’s be honest, we Brits like a challenger brand, full stop. There’s something deeply attractive about the idea that an earnest entrepreneur is out there somewhere burning the midnight oil trying to create a much better customer experience. Perhaps it’s being cared about as customers rather than the incremental service gains that we really fall for.

Sarah Nicholas

Last week saw the Economist Events’ inaugural World Water Summit, convening leading authorities on water management, governance and policy, sanitation, international development and innovation. Staffing the press desk for the Summit, we had a busy day securing no fewer than 34 interviews between speakers and media, and listening with interest to the discussions bouncing between keynotes, panellists and an expert audience.

An interesting theme raised by several speakers was the need to end the ‘stand-off’ on communicating the issues around the water crisis, whether this is companies talking to their investors, shareholders asking pertinent questions, or governments and NGOs campaigning to change toilet habits around the developing world. With the first UN World Toilet Day being celebrated next week, the stalemate is thawing around the ‘loo taboo’, with speakers from agribusinesses such as Syngenta, environment ministers from around the world and non-profit organisations such as WaterAid and the Gates Foundation pursuing ‘faecal sludge management’ systems as innovative solutions to expensive sewerage infrastructure. News that only about 35% of government-built toilets in India are used shows that infrastructure and innovation must be combined with a sustained communications campaign to change aspirations and behaviours.

In the financial community too, people are beginning to speak up about water and why it matters for investors. The Prince’s Accounting for Sustainability Project is tasking investors, accountants and businesses to ‘measure what matters’ and consider natural capital as well as the more visible bottom line. Meanwhile, Ecolab is helping businesses to translate the risks and rewards of water management into hard figures and actionable information through the Water Risk Monetizer, launched at the Summit. Never has the time been more ripe to start talking about the real impact of water and sanitation.

Read more in this selection of coverage from the Summit:

The Telegraph – Geoffrey Lean column

BBC World Service – Business Daily ‘Worldwide Water Crisis?’ podcast

Huffington Post – welcome address by HRH The Prince of Wales

Thomson Reuters Foundation – interview with Barbara Frost, CE of WaterAid

Farming First – Key themes for Agriculture

Search #WaterSummit and @EconomistEvents for more lively debate