To put it simply, The Social Network is one of the best films out this year. As entrepreneurs, witnessing the conception of one of the fastest growing businesses of the 21^st century is absolutely fascinating. Facebook is a social media giant that has indisputably changed the world, affecting everything from how people share their lives, to how people market, promote and sell businesses, products and even their own talents. Facebook is now valued at over $25 billion and has over 500 million users. That is one person for every 14 people on Earth!

So as the tagline goes, “you don’t get to 500 million friends without making a few enemies,” the story follows the rise of Mark Zuckerberg. Played brilliantly by Jesse Eisenberg, Mark is a stereotypically awkward character, a lonely geek that is not very popular or suave with the ladies.

In an attempt to attract girls and gain a place in a prestigious ‘Final Club’ – an exclusive group for the most popular and talented students, Mark agrees to assist the Winklevoss brothers and their business partner, Divya Narendra in creating HarvardConnection – a social network for Harvard students.

This idea planted a seed in Mark’s head and as a character that is more comfortable in front a computer than a person, he soon realises the potential of replicating the entire social experience of college and putting it all online.  With very little regard for the fact that he had stolen the idea, he creates TheFacebook.com with his new business partner and fellow geek, Eduardo Saverin.

They had no idea that The Facebook, as it was known in its earliest days, would blossom to become a global phenomenon. Despite the questionable ethics behind the idea, Zuckerberg demonstrated considerable entrepreneurial flair. He employed talented students using imaginative hiring methods and negotiated sweat equity deals with them. As entrepreneurs, we can certainly learn much from the young entrepreneur.

Without spoiling the story too much, the momentum of the business from there on out is staggering. The company goes from strength to strength, expanding to more colleges throughout the USA. Being apart of a company exploding in growth and popularity must have been exhilarating but along this road of success, comes temptation, distractions and arguments. Friends become enemies and the happy days of working together in the dorm rooms are at a stark contrast to the arguments in cold board rooms as lawyers battle it out on both sides.

It is a story we have all seen before in one form or another. Legal battles play their part in the rites of passage to fame and fortune in America.  Yet despite the numerous stereotypes, the story is very well implemented.  Masterfully written by Aaron Sorkin, The Social Network has almost no physical action and so the conversations between characters are the key story telling element. From Mark’s witty quips to Eduardo’s polite and professional nature or to the Winklevoss brothers commanding yet comedic presence in the film, the dialogue-centric script works well in this film as makes the experience engaging and amusing.

It is almost tragically ironic how Mark is totally clueless when it comes to human interaction but ends up creating a website dedicated to socialising when he has very few ‘real friends’ to call his own. He loses his best friend throughout the course of the story, his girlfriend leaves him and the lonely geek stereotype prevails, regardless of his success. This story echoes the growing sentiment that if you cannot socialise in real life than social networking on the internet isn’t going to be much help.

With that said, The Social Network is a greatly insightful film. Whilst the details may not be entirely accurate, the film is certainly believable. The film chronicles the fascinating journey of friends, business and money during the early days of one of the greatest innovations on the web. Even if Zuckerberg lost his friends, no one can take away the fact that he has changed the world and as the youngest billionaire on the planet, I don’t think he is complaining.

The Social Network… I “Like” This.

(Note: This blog post was first featured on the NACUE blog here: http://nacue.wordpress.com/2010/10/21/nacue-teams-watches-social-network/)

Rounding off the first day of the conference was a break down of the ‘Perfect Pitch’ by Simone Brummelhuis (Founder of The Next Women) and a very entertaining talk on ‘innovation and creativity’ by comedian and brand consultant, Ayd Instone.

Click on to read more…

In business, the ability to present and pitch an idea is key. Simone Brummelhuis is a serial entrepreneur and most notably, the founder of the internet publication The Next Women. Over her time as an entrepreneur, she has given countless pitches with success so it is only natural that she leads the talk on the very same topic. I have listed some notable points from her talk below…

• Non-verbal communication is just as important, if not more important than the verbal communication.
• On the same point, there are two sides to a pitch – content and delivery, both of which need equal consideration.
• Emphasis positive points and achievements. Stay positive, everyone has doubts but keep them out of the pitch.
• Always adhere to the 10-20-30 rule. Presentations should be about 10 slides, 20 minutes and have a font size of 30 pt.

Ironically, whilst this breakout session had some useful tips, it was probably the least interesting.

Left Brain vs. Right Brain

Moving on, the last session of the day was taken by Ayd Instone, a comedian and brand consultant. This talk was very refreshing and different. Rather than focusing on business issues, it was an entertaining session about psychology and the human brain. For example, Ayd Instone started the session with a discussion on our stance and how we stand. Taking a better stance makes us feel stronger and therefore strengthens our mind  by improving our confidence. It’s quite simple really. How we walk and stand can affect our mindset and vice versa.

Ayd went on and talked about of alot of interesting things and by no means the least was his discussion on the human brain. As shown by this diagram and explained by Ayd, our brains have a left and right side which are responsible for processing different things.

The left brain is responsible for critical thinking such as dealing with truth, logic, features, facts and verbal communication etc. On the other side, the right brain is responsible for possibility thinking such as holistic thought, significance, meaning, emotions and visuals. If we relate this left brain and right brain concepts to web design, small text on websites require reading therefore using the left brain. However large text and images involves using the right brain, which is more appealing. It makes sense as we often enjoy flicking through newspapers and books looking at big titles and images to see what catches our interests before delving into the actual text.

Let’s apply this theory to two different companies: Apple and Microsoft. These companies are often compared for their obvious differences and these differences are also apparent in their websites.

Microsoft's current website

So here we have the Microsoft website which, apart from the banner at the top, mostly uses small text. Small text requires reading and therefore uses the left brain.

Apple's current website

In comparison, the Apple wesbite uses large images and text to display content. This requires the right brain and is therefore more appealing.

For a more in-depth critique and comparison of Apple vs. Microsoft web design, have a look at http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2009/05/apple-vs-microsoft-a-website-usability-study/

Also interestingly, the right brain has no concept of time, which explains why time seems to fly when we are having fun.

So, this concludes the first day of NSEC 2010. Look out for part 3 reviewing the second day of the conference with talks on the rise of social enterprise, an insight into the lives of established young entrepreneurs, the importance of social media marketing and a truly inspirational final speech from Penny Power, founder of ecademy.com.

This past weekend, I attended the National Student Enterprise Conference (NSEC) 2010 organised by the National Consortium of University Entrepreneurs (NACUE) (I know… it’s quite a mouthful!). The event was hosted by UCL and their respective Entrepreneurs Society in their very swanky Roberts Engineering Building. (Definitely looks a lot better than the QMUL engineering department, where I study!)

Looking back over the last few days, I cannot speak more highly about the event – it was thoroughly enjoyable, full of great insights and some absolutely inspiring young entrepreneurs.

Hit the jump to see what the event had in-store as well as some notes that I made throughout…

The event kicked off with a keynote speech from Julie Meyer (Ariadne Capital, First Tuesday, Entrepreneur Country and BBC Online Dragon). A few points from her speech are listed below…

• New businesses need a great mission, not money. A great mission helps to create a great team.
• Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs) account for 6% of all companies in the UK. This 6% contributes to 54% of the new jobs being created.
• “You don’t merely want to be the best. You want to be the only one doing what you do.”
• “Individual Capitalism is a force for the 21st century.” – This is her concept about technology and the Internet lowering barriers to entry and empowering individuals to start their own ventures.
  

Her inspiring speech set the tone for the event and the pace continued as the “most connected man in Britain” Oli Barrett took over to lead the speed networking session.

The Most Connected Man in Britain

An interesting point he touched on was the importance of keeping in touch with contacts made. Conversations through Facebook and Twitter is not enough – meet up in person! I think we all are guilty of taking a lazy, maybe even anti-social stance when it comes to keeping in contact, I know I am. It seems social media connects us in brilliant new ways but we must always remember the importance of face-to-face contact. It will always be more natural. (This point was later brought up in Penny Power’s speech).

After the networking session, I attended the first panel of the event – Internet, Software and Mobile Technology Panel.

A big theme throughout this panel was the importance of not living in “tech-media land”. Technology blogs such as TechCrunch chronicle the latest and greatest in technology (this particular blog has a focus on web innovations). Getting publicity in tech-media will mostly be limited to exposure in the tech industry, tech-lovers, geeks etc, but the focus should be on reaching mass-market media.

Another big theme, running along the lines of reaching the mass-market, mainstream audience was the concept of “crossing the chasm”. This concept, made famous by the book of the same name, is about technology existing in two places. Pre-chasm is the technology-enthusiasts world, where the tech is premature and only the early adopters actually test/use your product or service. Post-chasm is where the technology has matured and is at a stage to reach the mainstream. Alastair Mitchell suggested it would be very hard and inadvisable to launch a pre-chasm technology in any place other than Silicon Valley in the USA or in Israel (another tech hub). Stick to technologies that have matured and have a chance with the mainstream. “Would your mum use your product?”.

Leading on to the usability discussion, the panel was unanimous in suggesting that the user should always be the focus of your product or service. We were advised to remember that users know best, not us. You should aim to create an emotional attachment between the user and product in the same way that users love their iPods and iPhones. Apple has always been very good at doing this and we all need to emulate this when developing our products.

The panel provided some fascinating points and the next panel I visited – The Creative Industries Panel – continued the trend. I have listed some of the noticeable points from the talk below.

Photo taken by @fbrownwork

• A cooperative business is one that is wholly owned by a group of people and this structure is recommended for a creative services company. I can’t quite remember why and I didn’t write it down, but I imagine that working as a team in the creative industry naturally creates a democratic, collaborative environment compared to a top down, hierarchical structure that other businesses use. A negative point to this is that this structure apparently makes it harder to obtain venture capital.
• There was quite a debate on the so-called “fluffy design stereotype” – where it is thought that designers don’t understand business and just roam the streets being all airy, fairy, artsy, fartsy and drinking herbal teas. The panel suggested that good business knowledge can help to offset this stereotype.
• Lastly, I put forward the final question to the panel: “There are so many design agencies and freelancers as well as outsourcing and even crowd-sourcing, how can designers, today, differentiate themselves?” The response was that it’s very important that designers find their niche, a speciality and they need to do that well. The market for creative services is huge, so there is a much better chance in targeting a specific market segment. This answer was something that I felt I have known for a while but have not quite fully implemented it in my own business – V8 Design. I think that it was mostly because I did not want to limit myself to one area but I can understand now, the importance of specialising.

At this point, we broke for lunch… speaking of lunch, I’m quite hungry and I need to get back to revising for my economics test! I’ll update the blog with a post on the afternoon’s events including a networking session with the founder of Enternships.com – Raj Dey, a break down of the ‘Perfect Pitch’ by Simone Brummelhuis (Founder of The Next Women) and a very entertaining talk on ‘innovation and creativity’ by comedian and brand consultant, Ayd Instone.

Recently, IBM updated their recruitment website with new photos and videos. This means my face is plastered all over the site. Woo!

Screenshot of the IBM Recruitment Website

It’s pretty cool to be featured on the website so prominently, even if it is a little embarrassing.

You can check out the site for yourself here: http://www-05.ibm.com/employment/uk/futures/profiles.html

Back in November, I had the opportunity to take part in the XING Business Competition at my university. Our team did very well and we managed to make it to the final round of the competition.

In a nutshell, the idea was that all the participants were split into random teams and had some time to prepare a pitch/proposal to local business owners and entrepreneurs acting as potential investors. We had the XING business planning tool to help structure our proposals and business plans too.

I thought the XING business planning tool was more of a headache than help. In a timed pitch, speaking about business strategy in detail seems unnecessary and simply comes across as boring. I am sure everyone would much rather hear about the merits of the idea, profitability and a basic outline of the business going forwards. The XING tool would have us talking about employees that we might hire (like consultants and accountants) and how much marketing collateral  we would create. On a final note about XING, it meant it took a lot longer than it should have to put together the pitch because we had to discuss each and every point of the business – some of which were not important and not even mentioned in the pitch. This also caused a few arguments and time-wasting discussions over un-important details.

Anyway, moving on from my little rant, the experience was awesome and it was a very good opportunity to practise pitching and presenting. Our team made it through the first two rounds to the finals, where only 4 teams out of the 18 teams presented to all of the judges and participants. I found the first couple of rounds quite smooth, but the pressure was definitely on in the finals and I do feel like I caved in to nerves a little bit. I usually don’t get that nervous but I guess it happens. I’m sure that after going through this experience, I will be a lot better next time.

Group photo of all the Finalists and Judges

Woo! I went sky-diving back in September and it was MENTAL! Here’s a few photos that I took from the day.

Here’s a photo of the plane and everyone waiting around. The weather wasn’t optimal to begin with (wind-speeds were too high or something), so we had to wait for hours till around mid-day when they got us changed into the jump-suits and did the safety briefings. We still had to wait around for a long time though before we could actually jump though. Anticipation was growing and I was getting more and more anxious to do the jump.

Coming in to land.

Finally, after so much waiting around, I get onto the plane. It’s loud, the Sun was warming but there was a slight chill in the air. Everyone gets into positions in the plane and as this is a tandem sky-dive, I am sitting in front of some professional guy, who thinks he is funny making lame jokes about the parachute not working. Anyways, we reach 12,000 ft. and people start jumping out. This still hasn’t really hit me, that I am about to jump out of plane with a guy attached to me and some fabric attached to strings to stop me from falling to my death from 12,000 ft high. That wasn’t the case as soon as I was sitting on the edge of the open plane hatch looking out and seeing clear blue skies and the massive expanse of fields and roads and cars below me. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! I felt light-headed and was shocked to my core. WTF am I doing!!?

And just like that, the professional guy pushed off and we are both falling towards Earth. It’s like Detonator at Thorpe Park, but a hell of a lot higher and with no safety harness and seat keeping you safe and just generally a million times scarier. We were in free-fall for about 5-10 seconds at incredible speeds. (I can’t be bothered to work the speed out but Wikipedia says somewhere above 100 km/h). As I fell out of the plane, the view changes from blue skies to green fields. My stomach feels like it’s still in the plane. I feel like I’m screaming but it’s just that my mouth is wide open and air is rushing in, making my mouth very dry and making my eyes water. I can see everything; cars, trucks, lorries, tractors and fields for miles. This view is the best view in the world.

Whooooooooosh! Just as quickly as it started, it was over. The parachute is pulled, my stomach comes back to me and my heart leaves my mouth. We float back down to Earth, performing a few spins and turns on the way before landing in the field where it all started.

Those few seconds in free fall are the most exhilarating thing I have ever experienced. It’s not an easy thing to describe, it’s just one of those things you have to experience for yourself I guess.

In 2008, that was all my books and paper from studying for my A Level exams.

But this year I swapped books, notes and paper pads for…

A lil' collection of the bags and shoe-boxes I have amassed from this year.

I just heard some very sad news and wanted to share this with you, Ross Moodie, who was a student on a placement with us this hear working as an Event Manager tragically died on Friday in an accident on a mountain in Greece.

Newspaper article about the incident

Ross Moodie was not just a former colleague, but he was someone I worked with on a daily basis. Both Ross and myself shared the same job role. He helped to show me the ropes of that job role and help me settle in. I saw him all the time and he was the first port of call for any of my questions about my job. He was always helpful and whilst it may not have been obvious, he was a hard worker that took pride in his work.

He played hard and worked harder. That was the Ross I’ll remember.

R.I.P Ross Moodie.

A photo of Ross, Maulk and Myself at Onanon nightclub

Budapest – Vienna – Prague – Leipzig – Berlin – Brussels – Amsterdam

EURO-TRIP! RAWWWWWWR! AHHHHHHH! I’m leaving tommorow morning, flying out to Budapest and then inter-railing across Europe to get back to London on the 11th August.

7 cities across 6 countries within 16 days or 17 nights. Should be awesome, although I am feeling mixed emotions, totally excited but also a little scared because this is the first time I’ve ever done any real travelling (unless Duke of Edinburgh counts?).

PS: I’m not sure if it’s worth updating the blog while I’m out there, but I will definitely be tweeting the whole way though – catch me at http://twitter.com/sandeep29.

A lot can change in one year… perceptions, motivations and aspirations.

After my first year of A levels, my predicted grades were not looking good. I had fallen behind and I had a massively uphill struggle to get the grades I needed to get into the university I wanted to go to. So rather than be backed into a corner, overwhelmed with revision and catching up, I knew I had to find another way to get to where I wanted to be. It was about this time that I found out about the Futures Scheme offered by IBM.

I didn’t apply to any other schemes. That’s not to say that I didn’t have a look though. Some paid more, some had better benefits, but IBM as a company seemed to align with my passions and interests. A reputable company that was about two things. On one side, technology & innovation. On the other side, business, finance & consulting. It was the city career I wanted and I could see myself working here (especially after my interviews at the office in Southbank, London).

My workplace for most of the last year

I wasn’t wrong either. My year off has definitely paid off. On the face of things, I have met some great people, I have money going into university, I will have done some travelling (flying out on Sunday 26th!) and I have a years worth of experience at one of the world’s biggest companies – doesn’t look too bad on the C.V either! I definitely feel that I have a competitive edge over other students.

On a deeper level though, it’s been a journey of finding out more about myself. Back when I did my application to university, I didn’t really know what I was doing or what I wanted to achieve, but now I can say that I have renewed confidence in the choices I have made and have a clearer focus for the years ahead of me.

This is not to say that a gap year works for everyone though. It has not been an easy journey. Of course there is hard work to put in, but that’s not what I mean. What I am talking about is dealing with a real independence…

I knew this wasn’t going to be like school and I had been in many jobs before but this isn’t the same. There have been a mix of very busy and some completely quiet periods. When you have work, it comes hard and fast. You have to find out very quickly what you need to know, and do it right the first time. There’s pressure and a lack of time. It’s fast paced and stressful. When it’s quiet, it’s lonely and mind-numbingly boring.

The combination of these two extremes have really helped me to develop into the person I am now. In the busy periods, you learn quickly and you don’t forget. It is because of these fast periods that I now understand what to do in the slow periods. Prepare and keep on top of my work. Don’t waste a moment because when something does come your way, it is your fault and your fault only if you aren’t prepared. Life doesn’t always come at a constant rate – at any time, anything could be chucked your way, and I don’t claim to be able to handle anything, but I certainly learnt that time is limited and precious.

“If time be of all things the most precious, wasting time must be the greatest prodigality.” – Benjamin Franklin

I remember my maths tutor always used to harp on about how precious time is. He would wake up at 4 am every morning, go for a jog, shower up and then proceed to do all the chores around the house, leaving him plenty of time during the day to do his work and look after his family. I heard him but I wasn’t really listening. I think now I am starting to really appreciate what he had to say. Time wasted is life wasted. I want to derive value from every day and in every moment of my life from this point forwards – it won’t always happen I know but if I can start minimizing the waste, I can start making my life more efficient and go in the direction I want it to go in.

Anyway, moving on from this chapter of my future self-help book, with no exaggeration, my year has been a life-defining experience. I would recommend a gap year to anyone who really needs to find their focus. Just make sure you do something worthwhile and challenging.

For me, the next challenges are starting a business and university. No short order but I am loving the challenge. It’s hard but I do it because I love it. I am confident because I’m passionate.

Also just to throw this out there as my statement-of-intent, I am gunning for that lead business society position at university. Let’s see how it goes…

Disclaimer: “The postings on this site are my own and don’t necessarily represent IBM’s positions, strategies or opinions.”

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