Biologize

Race for Life - Sister and Neice - Biologized…….

Phil Richardson — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 16:43:52 +0000

Joanne and Charlotte are running the Race for Life and are looking for sponsorship. For evey £1 you sponsor and let us know by emailing race@biologize.com or put Biologize in the comments and we will match it with another £1. As Joanne is my baby sister it will be worth it just for the photo’s….. here is the girls progress to date.

Otis the Guide Dog puppy in training

Phil Richardson — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 17:52:45 +0000

Otis Guide Dog puppy

I’m sponsoring Otis a black labrador puppy. He is progressing well with training!

Biomimetics, learning about change from the Giant Tortoise

Phil Richardson — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 06:25:26 +0000

Biomimetics model, the Giant TortoiseThe Giant Tortoise provides an excellent fully integrated biological system for studying change. By examining the structure, space, time, information, energy and substance of the Giant Tortoise it is possible to develop a fully integrated change plan or develop a high performance product.

Twitter & LinkedIn training in Bath

Phil Richardson — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 05:58:54 +0000

The University of Bath is running training on LinkedIn and Twitter. To find out more look here. To see an example of a LinkedIn profile look at Phil Richardson from Thoughtcrew

One in a million - an innovation that works for a children’s hospice

Phil Richardson — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 15:57:45 +0000

Francis House Children’s Hospice is 18 years old. “In January 1990 Sister Aloysius called a meeting of like minded people to discuss how to provide help to the many families around the Northwest who had children with life limiting conditions, the Rainbow Family Trust was born! Never one to let grass grow under her feet Sister drove the project on and it is a great tribute to her tenacity, faith and strength of purpose that on the 25th of November 1991 the late Princess Diana opened a fully operational Francis House and ever since the Francis House family has continued to grow.

Our service is founded on a belief in the sanctity of life and respect for the dignity of every person. Francis House values the understanding, visions and attitudes to life and death of all of the children and families who allow us the privilege of being alongside them through their times of stress, pain and confusion.” - www.francishouse.org.uk

One of the great innovations Sister Aloysius had was to create the “One in a Million” idea. Here for just £5 per year you could become a member of a unique community supporting the children at the Hospice. Now according to my stats on LinkedIn, Xing and Ecademy I am connected to enough people so this shouldn’t be a problem! Here’s the link to the page you need and if you want more info you can download the newsletter.

Phil Richardson

Feedback from HR directors highlights the importance of biomimetics as a technique in leadership and change management

Phil Richardson — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 11:13:54 +0000

HR Directors that attended the recent HR Forum in London to hear Phil Rchardson give his talk on leadership and change management and the use of biomimetics as a business tool provided some exciting feedback. If you are interested in finding out more visit Thoughtcrew or call Phil on +44 208 133 4728.

“Very passionate about biology. Emphasis on biology mostly lost the impact on change/change leadership culture. Pace could have been quicker through the theory to practical examples. Practical example right at end was quite good looking with journey to growth (crab example). Fascinating”

“Very interesting. Would have preferred more time to work through the business problems at the end”

“Great session”

“Really creative and interesting presentation. Food for thought. Very thought provoking”

“Most enjoyable session so far. Well presented and an articulate presenter”

“Very interesting and innovative”

“Excellent, very interesting content and great presentation”

“Very clever and entertaining and relevant”

“Thought provoking, different”

UK Innovation consulting firm leads the way in the application of nature to leadership and management at international conference held in Berlin

Phil Richardson — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 10:08:02 +0000

Phil Richardson, chief executive of innovation and management consultancy firm Thoughtcrew, took the lead in the organisation design and management development working group at the Biokon International conference in Berlin this week. Based on his research in biomimetics at the University of Bath, the working group will focus on specific industry challenges such as growth, supply chain optimisation, change management, developing new markets and products and building effective leadership teams. Biomimetics is the application of nature to innovation and Richardson’s work has shown that using new tools and techniques developed from the observation of biological systems can provide a unique insight into the development of solutions for businesses of all types. Richardson commented “nature has 3.8 billion years worth of problem solving experience, by coupling this with current management thinking it is possible to generate a significant number of new innovations that can drive profitable business growth”.
The uniqueness of this approach means that it is accessible to a wide range of organisations and functional disciplines. Thoughtcrew’s clients for this approach include Northern Rail, Mars, Coca Cola, Reckitt Benckiser, Ministry of Defence, Iron Mountain and Lloyds TSB. Dr Rainer Erb the executive director of Biokon International said “the business biomimetic approach is a welcomed addition to the field of biomimetics which addresses a wide range of problems from developing new sustainable products to greener energy and the creation of new high performance materials”. Current biomimetic applications include the development of unmanned underwater detection systems based on the manta ray, fire detection systems based on beetles and new detergents that will be able to work at 15C.
Richardson’s latest developments include a new approach for brainstorming growth ideas based on the moulting cycle of crabs, where the biochemistry is used as the basis for developing a change management plan to implement the ideas. “Think about your supply chain partners and ask whether the relationship has changed over time, lessons from the Mistletoe can help you determine the health of the current relationship and identify opportunities to improve it” he says. Thoughtcrew can be contacted via www.thoughtcrew.net

In selling consulting understanding wins more work than persuading

Phil Richardson — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 16:23:42 +0000

It’s time to listen and understand the explicit needs of clients. This means that turning up to a meeting with a prospective new client and presenting a slide show of your subject matter expertise is just plain missing the point. I think consulting is about the difference you make and not what you do. So presuming that you can present someone with what they need before you really understand their explicit needs suggests a level of complacency that will dent your success.
You may be familiar with the results of this approach. Usually your enthusiasm will result in the client asking for a proposal. You will put this into your pipeline and you will tell your boss the good news. Then at each pipeline review you will be explaining why the decision has moved back another month. This is because you haven’t managed to determine the explicit needs of the client as you were too busy telling them what you did. The proposal probably contains everything that you will do rather than what difference you will make. You will also be focusing on the day rate rather than the value and find that what was once easy access to key people has begun to disappear.
There are a number of approaches you could adopt and the one I would recommend is SPIN. It sits nicely alongside the consulting process and mirrors the steps of a professional project management approach so is accessible to those involved in deep delivery. It also works for the super sales types so can be a common language for the whole practice or business.
With this approach you are now ready to put together your value proposition tree which need to be market, client and sponsor specific. I’ll put together a short review if there is demand for it.

In the mean time remember, you get more consulting work if you see to understand rather than try to influence.

Consultancies that are only good at delivery will fail

Phil Richardson — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 18:01:22 +0000

In today’s economic climate being great at delivery is no longer enough. Having a team of seasoned professionals who measure their success by the success of the projects they have worked on is not a sustainable model for the future. Many consultancy and business services firms have build a business based on many one-off projects. Now is the time to grow relationships with past and existing businesses and create a new propositions for new markets.

Key measures will be the value of future projects. The topics for the consultancy leadership needs to be proposition development, value pricing, lead generation, coaching, consultative selling and pipeline management.

It’s time to change the changers!

The key measure going forward is validated pipeline so for senior consultants, directors, associates and partners the only real measure is the value of your next project

Symbiosis as a tool to understand business partnerships

Phil Richardson — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 22:55:31 +0000

At the HR Forum in London today Phil Richardson presented biomimetics and how that can be used in helping understand busines relationships and growth driven change management. A summary can be found in Personnal Today