If your home town is levelled by a terrible series of earthquakes, tearing buildings apart and taking countless lives, what would you do to help? What if you had some kind of knowledge, insight or skill that could help bring order to chaos, would you sit by idly or would you jump at the chance to do some good?  This was exactly the situation faced by André Lovatt, todays guest on Creative Agency.  In 2011, after more than a decade leading parts of the world's most highly renowned civil engineering firm, Arup, he decided that he could not simply sit watching on the sidelines when his hometown of Christchurch was suffering.  He packed his bags, said farewell to his team, and went home.

Andre fits the bill perfectly for an engineer-slash-CEO. He's someone who has the skills to create feats of human craft and ingenuity, yet also has the vision to decide which feats are worth striving for.  He's the perfect leader for the Christchurch Arts Centre, a place that sits at the crossroads of the city's past and future.  And Andre's the first to admit that there's a long way to go. 


Andre Lovatt on going beyond the motivational poster

Steve Lennon will tell you he’s had more starts than Phar Lap. A self-described learning junkie, Steve’s called himself a banker, a general manager, a founder and a management consultant. He’s the kind of guy who isn’t interested in a neat, obvious predetermined journey – instead he’s going to carve his own path and enjoy his own success, warts and all. I met Steve several years ago and had the chance to work closely with him on a new startup project in a large organisation. It was Steve who first gave me a copy of Business Model Generation, who introduced me to the concept of business design. In many ways, you could say that Steve is part of the story that led me to create TKLR, so to invite Steve on Creative Agency is a real buzz.

But Steve’s not just an old friend, or an interesting storyteller – he’s someone who knows what it’s like to survive the schizophrenic world of entrepreneurship. He’s seen the business world go through booms, crashes and recessions, and he’s only too happy to share how and why he’s been able to survive these events, unscathed.

In this interview, you’ll learn;
- how being committed and detached are equally necessary in business
- how important it is to look at your business objectively
- how losers and winners can switch sides, so quickly, and
- that you should never forget your options

Do big change fast, Steve Lennon talks business

In this episode, you'll learn:
- why ventures in large corporations typically fail
- how to use focus to your advantage, and
- why failing isn't the end of the story for startups

Two years ago <a href="https://twitter.com/philmorle">Phil Morle</a> would have told you that investing in startups is like moneyball, a numbers game. That you need to overcome a high rate of failure by taking more rolls of the dice. That failure is something to be endured, a natural part of the startup world. 
But that's not what he'd tell you today. Phil's thinking around what makes an enterprise work has evolved and he's in it to win. For him, that now means taking on fewer business ideas, doggedly pursuing that elusive 'unfair advantage' over competitors and doing everything he can to set up the right environment for success.

You could say that it's working.

Phil's known as the leading practitioner of lean principles here in Australia. Six years ago he began building Pollenizer with Mick Liubinskas, a business that builds businesses, and hasn't looked back since. Pollenizer isn't your typical incubator, taking a share of your business whilst helping you get off the ground. Pollenizer creates businesses, from the initial idea and finding the right team (including founders), to taking on investment and taking money off the table. From start to finish, Pollenizer is a co-founder, through thick and thin. It should be no surprise then, that Phil's seen both the good and the bad side of entrepreneurship and began to look for a better way. 

Entrepreneurship is a tough game, swathed in uncertainty and almost always under-resourced. Yet these are qualities critical to success, says Phil. When you forget that entrepreneurship is all about <em>pursuit of opportunity, beyond resources controlled</em>, you fail. And don't, for a second, think that this applies only to bootstrapped startups - forgetting the startup mantra can be disastrous to large organisatinos also.  When over-resourced teams lose their vision, they also lose the hunger for opportunity.  Cumbersome, ungainly, slow moving teams that struggle to make decisions are almost guaranteed to fail. 

But there is a better way. Click play to learn how Phil approaches new opportunities, how he's building the next wave of entrepreneurship and how he's connecting the dots between corporate problems and startup solutions.

You can find Phil on <a href="https://twitter.com/philmorle">twitter</a>. He also writes prolifically on the <a href="http://pollenizer.com/author/phil-morle">Pollenizer blog</a>, where he's contributed many thoughtful, well considered articles on startups and entrepreneurship. 

TKLR_studio

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