What's the most common use for a mobile phone?

Not making calls, not texting, not accessing the internet or taking and sharing photos - can you believe the most common use for a mobile phone is TELLING THE TIME?

The mobile phone is 40 years old this month.  Martin Cooper made the first call on 3 April, 1973 in New York.   A fascinating article by Adrian Lee is full of facts and figures to make you stop and look back at your phone-using past.

How about being the most annoying person in the office today - test how much your friends & colleagues can remember.  Correct answers in our office were thin on the ground but produced plenty of hilarity.

1. What year did the first mobile phone go on sale in the US?
2. What year did the first mobile phone go on sale in the UK?
3. How much did a phone cost approx in UK when it first went on sale?
4. What year was voicemail first used?
5. What year was texting first used?   (Apparently you had to text via a PC in the early days)
6. What year was (clumsy) internet access first used?
7. What year was photo sharing first used? 

Read more for answers and a link to the full article.

 

Where do you look for business ideas?

At the start up stage of a business, innovation levels are flying high.  But once the business is established, it can be easy to get bogged down in day to day delivery and paperwork. 

How can you recapture the energy and creativity of your original idea generation to propel your business forward?   Where to even start? 

From Cakes to Computers via Universities....

From Cakes to Computers, lessons from the past on working with Universities

By Stephen Marshall, Knowledge Transfer Manager, Encompass

Catering company J Lyons and University of Cambridge 1949

Universities are a rich source of new ideas and expertise, and working with them can be highly beneficial for businesses.  The past few years have seen an increasing recognition of the importance of business-university collaboration, resulting in a number of publicly funded initiatives, such as Encompass, which is aimed at supporting small businesses in working with universities. 

However, collaboration between industry and academia is not a new phenomenon and there are many examples from history that we can draw upon for inspiration.

One industry sector that has benefitted enormously from university expertise is the computer industry.  A fascinating example of this is a project which dates back to the very start of the

Could your company set our postgrad research students a challenge?

Imagine a group of University of Glasgow postgraduate research students from all types of discipline working together over a few months on a project for your business.

The 2013 Insights to Industry programme is now looking for companies to take part.

Andy from Freescale (automotive) said of the 2012 'Cars of the Future' programme:  'Looking for radical innovation inside your own industry is difficult, as people are constrained by accepted norms and practices, so the different backgrounds and the fresh eyes of the PhD students brought some brand new & exciting ideas to the table"

Intellectual Property for small businesses - what's it all about?

Intellectual Property - do you know your way around it?  Do you know when you need it?  And when you don't need it? 

One of my university colleagues highlighted this app to me recently.   I think it's a pretty good guide to all things IP for the small and micro business.

Have a look. It's free to download on Itunes and is called:

IP for SB

By Goldborough Cottage Studio, published on behalf of The Intellectual Property Office (IPO), Swansea University and IP Wales.

More information at the IPO website link here.

Lynda NicolsonMarketing & Online Community Manager
Encompass, University of Glasgow

Have your say on how businesses learn to trade internationally

There's a research group meeting up in April who really want to make sure businesses have a say in the research that's talking place in University Business Schools. 

Their workshop will look at the learning that firms go through for growth with a particular focus on international.  

It will give the business community the opportunity to meet leading thinkers on how small to medium business owners and managers learn.

Opportunities in the Defence arena

Could there be an opportunity in the Defence arena for your products or technology?

·         Technology for security

·         Enablers: Sensors, signal processing, antenna or COTS technology

·         Smart materials and structures

If these terms are relevant to your business, have a look at upcoming calls from the Centre of Defence Enterprise.  Approximately 42 per cent of the £35 million funding supplied to date through CDE has gone to small and medium-sized companies