August 26, 2009

• Just announced - international IDEA award winners

Some really interesting ideas behind the winners of the International Design Excellence Awards. Strong showing in the eco design category. Indeed, it was in this area that judges awarded the Best in Show title, to the Trash Talk shoe from Nike (NKE). “The Trash Talk shoe is the hero of Nike’s hyper-progressive and innovative sustainability program,” said judge Valerie Casey, practice head of digital experiences and networked culture at design and innovation consultancy IDEO. “High concept, aesthetics and performance - in combination with a smart and comprehensive eco-manufacturing methodology - make this shoe the holy grail of conscious consumption.” View the winners of the IDEA awards on Businessweek’s website.

August 19, 2009

• Key Business Plan insights for innovators seeking investment

Was following the itaskforce twitter feed today and via a roundabout route came across the website for Venture360report, a tool for building an independently evaluated business plan to bring to potential investors.

It’s well worth looking at the sample report to see how they frame the criteria for evaluating the potential success of a business model. It’s also heartening to see branding and strategic marketing recognised as a core component of a successful business.

The website also has a link to an excellent WSJ article from June of this year into the five most common pitfalls of business plans. In his opening comment, the author (Dr. John W Mullins,  associate professor of management practice at London Business School and current holder of the David and Elaine Potter Foundation term chair in marketing and entrepreneurship) hits the nail on the head of why so many technology-based businesses fail the most basic communication challenge, “The plan begins not with the identification of a customer problem to resolve, but with a detailed explanation of how the technology works, why it is cutting-edge or state-of-the-art, and how it is better, faster and cheaper than current solutions.”

Venture360report puts it more bluntly, rating businesses on whether or not they “solve a significant consumer pain”. It’s an interesting way of framing your core benefit and a good discipline when working out your market position.

August 17, 2009

• Just 8% of Irish VC companies in 2009 are Green

The IVCA has just released the details of Irish companies who received VC in Q2 09. The report makes interesting reading.

The total value of VC investment to date is E110,705,000. Of this total, 15% went to companies whose names were not disclosed. That left 38 companies whose details were published. Astonishingly, just 3 companies, or 7.9% of the total, fell into the Environmental category. These 3 companies received 8% of the total value of venture capital invested in Irish businesses so far in 2009.

According to the Carbon Trust in the UK, who has just announced its 2009 Carbon Trust Innovation Awards, the total value of the low-carbon environmental goods and services sector was worth St3,046bn in 2007/2008. Asia accounted for 38% of this total, Europe 27% and the Americas 30%. In the UK the sector was valued at St106.5bn, making it the world’s 6th largest environmental and low carbon economy, and it’s on our doorstep.

Are the IVCA figures deceptive? Are we producing innovative environmental companies but they’re raising investment via another route? Or is the clue in a narrow national understanding of what the opportunity is. We’re still talking “cleantech” over here. By contrast, Gordon Brown is talking about transitioning to a low-carbon future, “The rapid diffusion of low-carbon technology is vital not only to tackling climate change but also to our economic recovery and future prosperity.” We need to broaden the definition of the opportunity here in Ireland and kickstart a generation of low-carbon innovators. I have yet to see any really interesting open debate here in Ireland about what a low-carbon future might look like. Get various sectors together to visualise and shape this future and we could see some visionary innovation.

Or is this low VC funding perhaps part of a bigger trend? Interesting to note the findings of a new Carbon Trust UK report on trends in venture capital investing in European and North American clean energy companies between 2003 and 2008. The results highlight that North America is at the forefront of clean energy investment, showing high growth rates and higher overall levels of funding. Investment in Europe, in contrast, has been sporadic and funding remains comparatively low.

And another cautionary note: according to the Carbon Trust UK, “Analysis shows that with 25% of the world’s wave technologies already being developed here in the UK, Britain could be the “natural owner” of the global wave power market, generating revenues worth St2bn per year by 2050 and up to 16,000 direct jobs.” So where does that leave Ireland?.....

Note: As an aside, here’s how many companies there were in each of the main categories in the IVCA report for the first half of 2009:

Software (telecoms, consumer, healthcare, business, gaming, service) - 12
Medical (software, devices, diagnostics, supplies) - 9
Environment - 3
Communications technologies - 3
Pharma / bio - 3
Industrial control - 2
Electronic components - 2
Engineering - 2
Enterprise service - 1
Financial Services - 1

Total 38 companies

Additional note: Since publishing this post it has been brought to our attention that Powervation (categorised by the IVCA under electronic components) could possibly be categorised under Environmental. However looking at their website they don’t appear to lead with a cleantech message although energy savings are part of their sales platform.

August 10, 2009

• 50% consider “green” but only 22% purchase. Why?

Topline results have just popped into my inbox from a Deloitte study on US consumer behaviour which suggests that there is an unrealised latent demand for sustainable products.

The study, which included 6,000 consumers,  burst the “greenie” stereotype by showing that consumers considering sustainable products are spread diversely across age, income, education etc. It also showed that while more than half of shoppers consider sustainability, only 22% walk out of the store with sustainable products. Why? Apparently one key factor is the poor quality of in-store communication.

Another key finding was that while sustainability is not the dominant purchasing driver for the majority of consumers, these attributes tend to be a tie-breaker when price and performance are in parity.

Read the full article here on Sustainable Brands Weekly.