thoughts

Global Perspectives Local Opportunities

Thoughts

01-25
• Stop making
sense
• Japan loves
sampling
• Go retro
• Play without
fear

The three rules

of India’s frugal
innovator
 Thinking business
As the recovery starts to get underway,
businesses across the world are not only
looking to manage risk, but to make the
most of the many opportunities that
always arise at times like this.
HSBC is actively supporting these
‘thinking businesses’, providing help with
everything from financial planning to
funding for investment, working capital,
cashflow and more.
We are among the world’s best-funded
banks and this puts us in an ideal position
to help the right businesses, not only with
resources, but with global experience and
01
expertise that we can put to work for you,
locally.
100 oughts is a collection of some of the
best business thinking that we’ve come
across from around the world.
We that hope you’ll find it thought
provoking, even inspiring, and that you’ll
get in touch with us to discuss your own
business thinking and perhaps let us help
you put it into practice. Call us on 0880
783 1164.
*Lines are open 8am to 8pm Monday
to Friday (excluding public holidays).
Communications may be monitored
for security and service improvement
purposes.
“At first I was horrified when he
explained their situation.
It was one of the hardest stories I’d heard last
year in my travels meeting hundreds of busi-
nesses of all sectors and sizes. As the MD of
a company supplying plant to the heavy con-
struction industry, he told me their
domestic turnover had dropped by 90%.
But that left them with their export business.
So they adapted fast. ey immediately
doubled down their international efforts and
tackled new export markets. It was a huge
effort, but within 12 months, they’d offset
every single pound of that 90% domestic de-
cline through exporting.at’s inspirational.
I think we undersell the strength of UK
industry. I see customers who have a good
skills base, and good quality management
teams who see opportunities in recession.My
fear is that businesses stay too cautious for
too long. Across the banking sector, I would
suggest that only 40% of overdraft facilities
agreed for business have actually been used.
What encourages me is an increase in the
volume of international transactions over the
last 12 months.e upsides of going inter-
national are demonstrable; superior profit,
better stability, customer loyalty.
And yet I would say less than a quarter of
medium sized businesses are taking
advantage of international opportunities.
People have a perception it’s more difficult
than it actually is.
at’s why it’s our job to make the world very
small. For over 70% of world trade flows, we
have people on the ground. Yesterday I met
a customer who is buying a factory in
Bangladesh. So our relationship manager is
going out to meet his colleague in Bangladesh
to help make it happen.
So wherever our customers want to go, we
want to match them, step for step.”
Noel Quinn, General Manager Commercial
Banking UK, HSBC
 Sell experience,
not just things
In 1999, ice cream retailer Cold Stone Creamery had 74 stores. CEO Doug Ducey
had bigger plans. He wanted to expand to 1,000 stores in five years.

In his mind,the route to doing this
was through the ultimate ice cream
experience.e Cold Stone brand
Where next?
was already unique. Customers
mixed and matched their ideal
In what ways can you
differentiate your combinations, with staff mixing it
customer experience? all up on a granite slab. Ducey
wanted to go further by providing
Analyse what your
customers are actually entertainment along with the ice
buying from you.What’s cream. ey started hiring staff
their bigger need? based on their performance skills
Why not call us at HSBC to and personalities. Staff would then
fund your next steps. sing and dance while serving cus-
tomers and encourage customers to
take part in games. In six years,
Ducey hit his 1000th store.
Ducey says a huge part of their
success is having staff with the X
factor, “Franchisees with excep-
tional customer interaction do
better than those who are just
adequate.e fact is, you can have
a great product, a great location –
but if your crew members don't
leave an extraordinary impression
on your customers, you'll limit
your business.”

03 Democratic by design “Franchisees with

Clothing retailers have
to take a big risk when
buying up next season’s
stock – often relying on
little more than
their hunch.
Pittsburgh-based online cloth-
ing retailer Modcloth believe
there is another way.
Susan Gregg Koger and her team
put new samples up for a vote on
ModCloth's website for 14 days.
After counting up the votes, the
company decides whether it's
worth the investment. If an item
is picked, the customers who
voted for it receive an e-mail
when their chosen design
becomes available.
is ‘Be the Buyer’ programme
also helps build a strong rapport
with customers. “Our vision is to
run a fashion business in a
democratic style. Allowing cus-
exceptional customer
tomers to have their voice heard
is what keeps us fresh, and rele-
interaction do better than
vant” says Susan. As they’ve in-
creased their staff from 3 to 104
those who are just
in the last two years, it clearly
works for the bottom line too.
adequate.”
Where next?
Could you get customers to
pre-order before you
commit to purchasing?
Look for ways to involve
your customers in the
buying process.
Why not call us at HSBC to
fund your next steps.
Seek out opportunity
downstream
“It's vital to think more broadly about your business.
One client, a printer, always saw his business as
traditionally domestic.They source paper in the UK
and sell to a domestic audience.
4
Where next?
Do you have a product that
might have become over-
looked in a rush to
modernise?
Is there an element of your
service from the ‘good-old
days’ that customers might
miss?
Why not call us at HSBC to
fund your next steps.
It emerged that his competitors
were competing on price without
compromising quality, by sourcing
cheaper paper.My client was using
a UK distributor who sourced
from a mill in China. I suggested
talking directly to the mill.
Initially, he was sceptical, but we
discussed the services that UKTI
and the bank could offer - putting
him in touch with people on the
ground who could hold his hand,
providing him with contacts.It was
an epiphany moment, and his es-
timated savings were significant.
05 Go Retro
Looking for your next successful product?
It may be in your back catalogue.
Companies on a relentless search
for the new could consider bring-
ing back some of their greatest hits.
e Body Shop has reintroduced
a collection of the most requested
best sellers from the 1980’s. Old
favourites that have made it back
onto the shelves include Banana
Shampoo, Dewberry Shower Gel
and Cucumber Cleansing Milk,
available for a limited time.
Customers can also vote on their
personal favourites – those that
His initial hesitancy was fairly
typical. But today there’s an inter-
national opportunity for many
businesses, even if you see yourself
as just domestic. It might look
scary to source raw materials
directly, but there is extensive sup-
port available and the potential cost
savings make trying it worthwhile.”
Yvonne Bear, Regional Commercial
Director, South, HSBC
Play without
FEAR
are most popular may be
brought back permanently.
Lisa Gaynor, International
Innovation Director explains
“is range was inspired by
Anita Roddick’s favourite beauty
products. It was customers and
store staff who were asking ‘why
can’t you bring back Dewberry
and Banana Shampoo?’ With so
many people asking us we
thought we should really go
back and see what’s available”.
“The biggest inhibitor of
British businesses is that
so many of them are full
of fear.
I do a lot of work developing
leaders in large companies, and I
find people are constantly worried
about challenging decisions as
they fear it will inhibit their career.
Ironically, good progressive leaders
at the top of these organisations
want to encourage this challeng-
ing more than anything else.ey
know it’s the life-blood of business.
It’s partly a cultural thing. e
British often see challenging as the
same as confrontation, and they
feel uncomfortable about con-
frontation. But if you confront
constructively, you get great ideas.
I’m surprised by how few managers
go out and ask to be challenged.
Many make mistake of saying
Where next? ‘lets create a social networking
site’. But that’s of limited value
when the culture is such that they
When was the last time
someone challenged you at don’t feel they can challenge.
work?
Is your management team I admire the culture that Arsene
full of diverse thinking? Wenger has created amongst his
Does your business have a players at Arsenal - ‘Play without
mechanism for catching fear’. at’s the single most
challenging ideas? important lesson I could pass on.”
Why not call us at HSBC to
fund your next steps. Russell Amerasekera, e Rocket
Science Group
 “It’s fun,
convenient
and there’s no
more queuing
at the bar.”

Self service
grows legs
Self-service is growing in some industries.
What other sectors can it be applied to?

MiNiBAR, in the heart of Ams-
terdam, is a self service bar.When
you arrive,a concierge gives you the
key to your own fridge which is
Where next?
the hotel mini-bar to the high
street of course – but it’s new and
is bound to attract interest. Could you take on a
franchise in your city?

Photo courtesy of Menno Kok

stocked with beer, wine, spirits
and snacks. You and your friends
help yourselves over the course of
the evening, and settle up your
account before leaving. e mini
bars are stocked from the back,
making for easy restocking. It’s
simply extending the concept of
From the customer perspective, it’s
fun, convenient and there’s no
more queuing at the bar. From a
business perspective it also means
fewer staff members, and more
customers can be accommodated
because less space is taken up by
the bar.
What points of contact with
your customers could be
streamlined?
Could taking a self-service
approach give you
competitive stand-out?
Why not call us at HSBC to
fund your next steps.
8
Where next?
Is there a price point in your
industry that would be a
‘game-changer’?
Could your product/service
be streamlined to achieve
this?
Are your production team
up to the challenge?
Why not call us at HSBC to
fund your next steps.
The secret
of the £1,300
car
Rather than basing your price on costs, some truly
world-class breakthroughs have come from taking
a price as a start point and working backwards.
A great example is the Tata Nano
car. Ratan Tata’s inspiration came
from watching an entire family
having to balance on a scooter.
“e kid standing in the front, the
guy driving the scooter and the
wife sitting side-saddle holding a
little kid.When you’re driving a car,
you certainly say, ‘Oh my god, be
careful, they may slip!’”
So Ratan set Tata Motors the
seemingly impossible task of
making a ‘people’s car’ for just
100,000 rupees (around £1,375).
e first step was being clear
what they could not compromise
on.ey had started by looking at
making a plastic car, making it out
of scooter parts, or having curtains
instead of windows. But Ratan
realised ‘the market does not want
a half-car.e market wants a car.”
So Tata Motors’engineers were set
the challenge of paring down
costs through design improvisa-
tion. ey did this by making
things smaller and lighter. For
example, the engine is at the back
making the car 8% smaller on the
outside yet with 21% more interior
space than its nearest rival. ere
was no room in the engine for the
battery so it has gone under the
driver’s seat, or the spare tyre
under the hood.Tata Motors also
brought all the vendors to the car
together in a Vendors’ Park
adjacent to the plant to enable ‘just
in time’ sourcing.
Ratan also had to stick to his
vision in the face of industry
cynicism. “It would have been
very easy to say ‘let’s scrap the
100,000 rupees goal and make it
200,000 or something’. But we
stuck to the goal.e real challenge
is when you choose to throw out
the gauntlet that you can do X.
And it ought to be the kind of
challenge which somebody says
that can't be done because that
really becomes the engine of
innovation.”
Share the pain
As margins get tight, it’s tempting to put the squeeze
on customers, especially when they have less choice.
Chicago pizza business, Nick’s
Pizza and Pub takes another tack.
It’s not a sector most would look to
for business advice,but Nick’s is spe-
cial. Recently lauded on the cover
of US magazine Inc, the company
does more volume per outlet than
nearly all independent pizza restau-
rants, and profits run at twice the
industry average. Owner Nick
Sarillo has some simple lessons.
Unemployment in their region is
twice the average, so Nick’s run
discounts on quieter days; “Half
price Monday is here to stay until
the unemployment line goes away”
says a sign in the lobby.
Avoid the herd
“At the height of the credit crunch, a CEO told me
how his competitors were cutting costs.To make
savings, they had stopped their export sales force
from flying.
So they had a whole department
which had been growing export
sales for years and whose principal
job was to seek out new customers
– and they kept them at home. As
ridiculous as it sounds, it was a
reaction to the times.
It’s herd mentality. If you can do
the opposite to the herd, you give
yourself a business advantage.
at’s the moral of the story –
everyone else was cutting costs but
e restaurants go out of their way
to support their communities.ey
host fundraisers almost every week,
and three large benefits a year,
many for families facing high
medical bills.
Then there’s spontaneous gen-
erosity. One ursday night,
Sarillo picked up the bill for all his
customers. It cost him $20,000
but generated a tremendous buzz.
e philosophy is simple. Stick by
your customers when times are
hard, they’ll remember you in the
good.
this CEO was bucking the trend.
On its own, it sounds kind of
clever; in reality, he was just
carrying on doing his job.
It’s about putting a line in the sand
and saying – ‘everyone else is
doing that,but I’m doing this’.at
sounds entrepreneurial to me.”
Ian Tandy, Head of Trade and
Supply Chain UK, HSBC
10
Where next?
Localise your marketing
around pressing local
issues.
Have any suppliers put the
squeeze on you? Perhaps
it’s time to rethink those
relationships.
Do you have a policy to
help out your customers in
tough times?
Why not call us at HSBC to
fund your next steps.
‘Let’s ape Hollywood’
Companies in industries that have been around for centuries can get
ahead by looking to completely different industries for inspiration.
In 1990 Doug Woods, Peter
Nosler and Ron Davidowski de-
cided to leave safe jobs to build
their own company – DPR Con-
struction. ey didn’t want to be
“just another building company”
so took inspiration from the film
studios and tech companies in
their part of California.
“I asked myself ‘What makes Sil-
icon Valley companies so differ-
ent?’” says Davidowski. “I came to
realise it was empowerment.” So
DPR interviews potential staff up
to 10 times, to ensure they hire
people with the confidence to
make decisions on the spot.
12 Is your business ‘always on’?
In the ‘always-on’ economy, customers demand
instant connection with favourite brands.
Korean BBQ business Kogi have
tapped into this need. e firm’s
three roving BBQ trucks have
become a huge sensation in Los
Photo: Eric Shin
Aping Hollywood on some big
projects early on, they spent
money building a ‘set’ that the
client can walk through and check
their assumptions on the project.
Like the film studios today, they
now make extensive use of virtu-
al 3D models.
11
e company also ‘borrowed’ the
tech culture of knowledge sharing.
In their open, direct and entre-
preneurial corporate culture, all the
staff, including co-founders and
managers, sit together in the same
open-office environment. Titles
are not printed on business cards
to allow individuals to take on
Angeles, attracting queues of up to with our customers,” says Kogi
800 people each time they park.
Keeping the connection live and connection, and that leads to
spontaneous, Kogi have 54,000 repeat business.”
followers on Twitter and 3,150 on
Facebook. ey use the latter to
announce specials, discounts and
details of where the vans will be
parked each day. As the schedules
of the trucks can change in an
instant, they keep followers
updated on Twitter.
“It's a great way to interact one-
on-one and build a relationship
multiple roles and levels of
responsibility.
Where next?
What companies do you
admire? Can you borrow
their approach?
Keep a notebook and jot
down experiences you’ve
valued.
DPR brought in Stanford
professor Jim Collins back
in 1991. Perhaps it’s time to
re-read his seminal book
‘Built to Last’?
Why not call us at HSBC to
fund your next steps.
13
Power of
BBQ's creative director Alice
YES
Shin. “ey feel a personal
“Service excellence is what sets us
apart from other hotels; every single
one of the 850 staff working here
Where next?
know that they may never say ‘no’ to a
guest, but instead must offer an
How live is your connection
with customers? alternative.”
Social media can be a
General Manager Jonas A
strong way of allowing your
advocates to track your Schuermann, General Manager,
progress. Mandarin Oriental Hotel, Hong Kong
Why not call us at HSBC to
fund your next steps.

Rigorous research –
on the fly
“Bells and whistles wear off, but usefulness never does.
There’s real beauty and value in the basics’
Simplicity is Jason Fried’s mantra.
He co-founded 37Signals in 1999
as a Chicago-based ‘Software as a
Service’ provider. In the last 5
years, Fried and his team have
launched 5 successful applications
now used by over 1 million people
and won the backing of Amazon-
founder, Jeff Bezos. e company
has only 16 staff.
A challenge for such fast growth
companies is how to make well
researched decisions in rapid time.
Fried’s solution? “Instead of freak-
ing out about constraints,
embrace them. Let them guide you.
Constraints drive innovation and
force focus”.
A/B Testing is such an approach.
In it’s simplest form, you put two
versions into the market and see
which works. You then put the
winner up against another version
and repeat.
Fried’s most recent A/B test was
their website. He systematically
served up variations of the call to
action and found the winning
headline gave them a 30% better
conversion rate. But it’s a contin-
ual process; “it’ll be interesting to
14
see if an exclamation mark makes
a difference” he muses.
Where next?
You could adopt A/B testing
to speed up market
research
At it’s simplest you can test
your sales pitch in
controlled A/B tests.
Going further you can look
for test markets in which
you can rapidly A/B test
new product variations.
Why not call us at HSBC to
fund your next steps.
The power of connectedness
15
Exclusive
e-commerce
“We predicted we
would have 300,000
members by the end of
2009, but we now have
around a million.” Oscar
Hartmann, Director-
General of KupiVIP.
Where next?
You could set up a forum
for cost cutting initiatives on
your intranet site.
Give examples to stimulate
their creativity
Sharing the rewards
provides strong motivation.
Why not call us at HSBC to
fund your next steps.
“The idea of businesses as hermetically sealed
units is eroding at an incredible rate of knots.
We live in a world where stuff
needs to happen faster. What
used to take a month now needs
to happen in a week. What
impresses me is how much faster
you can move your thinking
forward by reaching out to
people with a shared interest.
is means being more entrepre-
neurial. You can’t wait for business
to come to you. You have to be in
amongst it and approach conver-
sations with an open mind, not
sure what’s going to happen.
E-commerce is typically about
reaching as many potential
customers as possible. It seems
counterintuitive to use the web to
restrict access, but for one online
retailer, it’s a profitable choice.
KupiVIP is an online private shop-
ping club in Russia. Members
sign up to join the club, and then
get notified of sale ‘events’ with
leading fashion products on offer
at discounted prices. Members
then have a few days to decide if
they'd like to buy the item.
is club, and similar start-ups in
France and Germany are profitable
because they use two highly ef-
fective psychological influence
Opportunities emerge as a
consequence, and never more so
than in a time of change.
Scotland is realising we’ve got to
be better at selling stuff to the rest
of the world. at’s when the fact
that a banker like myself knows
a bunch of folk around the world
and can make things happen
faster – that’s potentially hugely
valuable for those we assist. And
we’ll grow too.”
John Rendall, CEO Scotland, HSBC
16
tricks – exclusivity and scarcity.
Customers feel privileged to be part
of the club, and that these must be
deals that aren't available to others,
and also feel they have to make a
quick decision or lose the
opportunity. Plus the clubs know
exactly who the members are, so
their marketing is more efficient.
An added bonus is that friends love
to tell other friends about these
‘exclusive’ clubs, so word of mouth
referrals are high. At the other end
of the business, fashion suppliers
love being able to unload unsold
items without them appearing at
a discount in High Street stores, so
there’s a good supply of merchan-
dise with good room for margin.
Trade
with Indian
enterprise
“Indians are astute, street smart traders. They often
use close personal links to help build their business.
This brings tremendous advantage.
Trust and loyalty are integral to
the business; the solid relationships
with contacts in their business
network provide strong opportu-
nities for growth. Medium-sized
British companies looking at the
Indian market also need to build
their network to succeed. Find
someone in the industry who has
the contacts, who knows Indian
business inside out. You need in-
sight into the hierarchical structure
of Indian business. You need a
sound understanding of Indian
business culture.Without this,
you’ll be like a ship without a
rudder.
How do you find that trusted ad-
viser? at is where professional
firms like HSBC can help. If we
have a customer looking at India,
we use our extensive network to
find them the right person. It’s
about reaching out and taking
that extra step.
“Find someone in
the industry who
has the contacts,
You can also develop your network
through the thousands of young who knows
Indians who come to the UK
every year; ambitious, business- Indian business
minded young people with strong
links to Indian-owned enterprise. inside out.”
I would be thinking of how to en-
gage with these kids right now.”
Dalip Puri , Global Head –
Indian Business Strategy, HSBC
Where next?
Are there any personal links
you have to India that you
could trade on?
Setting up links with your
local university could give
you introductions to new
markets.
Make sure you have a
trusted contact on the
ground in each region.
Why not call us at HSBC to
fund your next steps.
18 Let your ideas
go free
In 1998, Dries Buytaert, a student at the university
of Antwerp in Belgium, built a website for a
community of friends. He couldn’t afford to buy a
commercial content management system, so
Let your
customers
join your
20
wrote his own.

Soon others began using the

software for their websites, and
Dries began to struggle to sup-
port the requests for new features.
He realised that thousands of
other web developers were also
working separately to build and
maintain their own systems.
Dries decided to ‘open source’ his
software – anyone could down-
load it, alter it, improve it and use
it – and the project as a whole
would benefit. His ‘Drupal’ soft-
ware has now been downloaded
over two million times, has thou-
sands of developers working on it.
It competes with the big-name
proprietary systems, and even
runs the White House’s website.
Dries has landed millions of dol-
lars in venture funding to set up
a company to support this com-
munity.
But it would be a mistake to think
this only works in software.
Open-sourcing has worked for
industries from mining to aero-
space.
Where next?
Liberate your Intellectual
Property. Open-sourcing
might deliver critical mass
on an innovation.
Do you face a tough issue
that you could open to a
wider audience?
Why not call us at HSBC to
fund your next steps.
team
Sometimes the best talent isn’t
just within your own walls. ‘Crowd-
sourcing’ allows you to engage
customers in new product design.
British drinks firm Firefly took
this idea to heart and last year
asked customers to design their
new drink, including the flavour,
label design and name. e result
is ‘Britannia’, a raspberry, black-
berry and Bramley apple drink,
which has just gone on sale.

“We had so many wonderful

entries, it was hard for us to

19
To save costs – choose, so we got customers to
vote for their favourite” says co-

embrace your staff founder Marcus Waley-Cohen.

“e winning design is just what
we were looking for – fun, creative,
In tough times companies need to make every and well rounded!”
penny a prisoner. Yet, as the saying goes, real
change comes from within. Where next?

Where next? When the Minnesota-based non-essential computers when

You could set up a forum
for cost cutting initiatives on
your intranet site.
Give examples to stimulate
your team’s creativity
Sharing the rewards
provides strong motivation.
Why not call us at HSBC to
fund your next steps.
Mayo Clinic found that its 2008
expenses were far exceeding
income it turned to its employees
for their ideas on where to cut
costs. e not-for-profit medical
group did this by setting up a web-
site where each member of staff
could suggest ways of reducing
expenditure.
One department saved nearly
$900,000 a year by turning-off
offices were closed. Another
suggested separating hazardous
waste which is more expensive to
get rid of, and another department
dropped printed employee direc-
tories in favour of an online ver-
sion saving more than $100,000.
As a result the Mayo Clinic came
up with savings of around $154
million. And the spin-off benefit
is the staff feel more engaged.
Rather than running focus
groups on your ideas, push
your customers further to
come up with actual ideas.
Identify your most loyal
‘fans’ and work on ways to
bring them inside the
organisation.
Set up a ‘creativity lab’ for
sourcing new ideas.
Why not call us at HSBC to
fund your next steps.
 Simple! Sample
Stop
making
sense 22
Ten years ago, a successful but little known American insurance company
introduced itself through a friendly but frustrated white duck. Since then, the
Aflac Duck has entered the iconosphere of advertising as a fun, fanciful and
ubiquitous corporate face. More importantly, Aflac has grown the business by
an additional $5bn since the duck came along.

Like many great innovations, it

happened by accident. Tasked to
come up with a TV commercial to
make Aflac’s name more memo-
rable, the Kaplan aler agency
had trouble remembering the
name. “Aflac, Aflac, Aflac – you
doesn’t even say “quack-quack”, it
says “ga-ga.” So it made even less
sense, and staff were sceptical. But
Amos persevered, offering his
marketing director there a $50,000
bonus if he could make the duck
work in Japan.
Where next?

Make sure your incentives

Handing out samples is a well-tried route for A new store in Japan has taken a
gaining advocacy and feedback on a new product. more rigorous approach. Sample
But getting your products into the hands of Lab! in Tokyo is dedicated to
influential customers can be tricky, much less sampling. Its customers, mainly
getting detailed feedback young women, pay a small annu-
al fee. ey can try out a wide range
Where next? of products like cosmetics, food and
alcoholic drinks.
Sampling could be a route
to get your products tested “e concept of going into a retail
in the Japanese market store and being able to shop ab-
Could a franchise work solutely free, exchanging no mon-
for you? ey whatsoever, is unique,” says
Can potential customers Anthony James, founder and
sample your products in Global General Manager. “Noth-
know – like a duck” an artworker
said. A seed was planted.
Despite advice from fellow CEOs,
Aflac chairman and CEO Dan
Amos decided to take a chance on
the Aflac Duck. Knowing “If it
went badly we were just going to
pull it.” But people just loved the
duck. “Our first day on the air we
had more visits to our website than
in the entire year before” he said.
Taking the idea to Japan was a
greater challenge. In Japan a duck
align to your marketing
Exporting to Japan? Don’t
ignore the power of ‘cute’
Is your marketing truly
memorable?
He did and it did. Aflac Japan’s
Why not call us at HSBC to
sales increased by 12% and they fund your next steps.
have overtaken Nippon Life as the
country’s leading insurer. All thanks
to a duck.
Amos’s rules for backing an
idea that doesn’t make sense:
• Trust the numbers.
• Don’t tell the board.
• Incentivise those who you
need to make it work

21
such a commitment free ing is behind glass. You can try,
way? touch, or taste anything in the
Why not call us at HSBC to store.” ey are planning to offer
fund your next steps. this around the world, and are
looking for franchisees.
Old heads
New ideas
“To remain competitive in a global economy,
companies must accelerate the pace of innovation”
“Looking externally and strategi-
cally for new ideas is necessary for
growth” says Brad Lawson, presi-
dent and CEO of YourEncore.
In the knowledge-economy, your
competitive edge comes from your
team’s brainpower. Yet the most
knowledgeable workers are often
pensioned off in their early sixties.
It is a huge loss of intellectual
power.
US pharmaceutical company Eli
Lilly and consumer-goods com-
pany Procter and Gamble tradi-
tionally relied on the talent inside
the company. But then they had
24 UPcycle
Recycling is not always associated with taking products up-market.
New Jersey reclycer TerraCycle has taken such a route.
Where next?
There are plenty of non-
recyclable waste streams
that might provide
opportunities
Terracycle now operate in
the UK.Your brand could
partner with them.
Can you turn green issues
into a business
opportunity?
Why not call us at HSBC to
fund your next steps.
the bright idea of harnessing the
power of retired experts.
In 2003, they set up YourEncore to
allow companies to connect with
this amazing knowledge-base.
Member companies contact
YourEncore with specific project
needs and YourEncore then
matches an experienced ‘Expert’.
To date they have completed over
1,400 engagements and have
thousands of experts enrolled.
e open nature has the advantage
that people see, and solve, problems
that seem to be outside their field.
Lawson gives an example: “A re-
TerraCycle partners with con-
sumer packaged-goods companies
to organise free programmes which
pay consumers to help collect non-
recyclable packaging such as biscuit
wrappers or drink pouches. ey
then ‘upcycle’ this into new prod-
ucts such as bags, pencil cases,
binders and more.
e key is that the logos of the
funding companies are made very
visible on the new products. Major
brands are keen to improve their
green image, but to be able to do it
23
tired chemical engineer who’d
spent 35 years at Kodak perfecting
colour stability in photography
was able to work with a consumer
products client to improve colour
stability in their hair-care products.”
Where next?
‘YourEncore’ is looking for
UK partners.
Set up a ‘alumni’ base for
your organisation or
partner with other
companies to pool
brainpower.
Why not call us at HSBC to
fund your next steps.
in a way that also secures advertis-
ing is a big win.
Involve to solve
“This idea was born using Edward De Bono’s ‘6
Thinking Hats’ system over a cup of coffee with a
napkin to map out a new way to finance an album”
South-African singer Verity
wanted to build on her success
on the Cape Town live music
scene by releasing an album – but
couldn’t get a recording contract.
“Basically my idea was to have
forward-thinking people buy my
first album before I recorded it”,
she says.
e incentive Verity designed
was to give these customers a
sense of involvement and owner-
ship in the creative process. ey
could vote on which tracks
would be recorded, what the
album would be called, which
cover art to use and so on. is
unique approach gained her press
and TV coverage, helping to
market the idea.
Over 2000 people from 25
countries bought the album in
advance, giving her the funds she
needed – and acting as part of
her marketing team to sell the
album for others, because they
felt it was partly theirs. Verity
now donates some of the profits
from her album to help other
singers to record demos.
Where next?
25
In new product
development, look to
engage your core
customers at an earlier
stage in design.
Think of routes to give your
wider customer base a
greater sense of ownership.
Don’t be precious about
your ‘creative process’
– share it wider.
Why not call us at HSBC to
fund your next steps.
 To be the first to receive the
next ‘100 thoughts’, sign-up at
www.hsbc.co.uk/100thoughts

Thought No.101
All that remains is for us to thank you for your interest and
make a suggestion for Thought No.101 – that maybe now is the
time to call us.
If you’re already a customer, it may be valuable for us to share
our business thinking. If you’re not a customer yet then it’s
probably worth talking to see how we might help you put your
thoughts into practice.
Either way, we think it would be great if our business could help
each other.
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