Entrepreneurs : Born or made ?

Are you answering a question about whether entrepreneurs can learn any skills at Business School, or whether these are inherent ?

This is a common AMP topic...

Maybe think about which of the following you might learn at the University of Bedfordshire ?

Risk management Creativity and innovation


Determination

Teamwork

Motivation

Can-do attitude

Communication skills

Organisation

Leadership

Initiative

Costa Social Responsibility

Fairtrade products form 17.2 % of the ground coffee subsector *.

That's alot of caffeine,


If you are looking for case studies on fairtrade or CSR then it would be advisable to see what the websites of Costa, Starbucks, or Cafe Nero say on this topic...


* Keynote Report (2009) Hot Beverages Market Assessment [online] via http://library.beds.ac.uk. Accessed on May 18th 2010

Sandwiching in CSR

This week's Mary Portas article* looks at the Pret A Manger and EAT chains. These might make useful UK case studies if you are looking at either CSR ( Corporate Social Responsibilty) or e-business / Web 2.0.

Pret is now 24 years old, and has 202 UK outlets ( none in Bedford or Luton ?) Pret's website is full of material on their commitment to charity projects and sustainability. All tuna is pole-and-line caught...

http://www.pret.com/sustainability/

EAT is a smaller company ( 100 UK outlets ) which has a whizzy iPhone application...the charity page is 'coming soon'.

Both chains might be also suitable for comparison with Starbucks and Costa in their business practices....

*Portas, M (2010) Shop! Daily Telegraph Magazine, 15th May p.11

Fashion Babylon

I've just finished this book - a brilliantly readable expose of the fashion industry which is very relevant if you are looking at luxury brands, celebrity endorsements or the fashion industry in general.

Kate Moss had so many objections that 18 pages were cut out. Some of the stories about her which are still in it are fairly racy too...

Only the lack of an index stops this one from being a fantastic source. Copies on order for the LRC and also the companion book 'Air Babylon'