IRIS Blogs

The recent announcement that Cisco is investing £310m in the East London Tech City to build two networked Innovation Centres deserves considerably more plaudits than it has received so far. Here’s why.

What can you do to not make a bad situation even worse? Don’t take advice from BAA. Plus, my new year resolutions for business. http://realbusiness.co.uk/martin_leuw/2011_adapt_plan_communicate

Last week, I was at the House of Commons talking about how to promote mutual understanding between parliament and the world of commerce. Here are the three main lessons from the event – and why Luke Johnson flew off the handle. http://realbusiness.co.uk/martin_leuw/how_mps_can_boost_business_growth

Skilled migrants are not a burden on Britain. They don’t commit more crime, and they don’t take the jobs of British workers. Why are we capping them?

The results of the latest Young Presidents’ Organisation (YPO) Global Pulse Confidence Index were released earlier this week. The results give a fascinating “pulse check” of business trends.

Lord Young’s appointment as enterprise czar is a vital step in ensuring that SMEs’ views are heard within Whitehall, and more importantly, that something is done quickly to address the many burdens that businesses are carrying, which act as obstacles to growth.

This morning I listened to Steve Ballmer talking over breakfast. Admittedly I was one of a few hundred people in the LSE lecture theatre but privileged nonetheless to hear the thoughts of Microsoft’s CEO on cloud computing.

This week I was very privileged to attend the first day of Seedcamp week as mentor to a batch of highly talented tech entrepreneurs at UCL in London. The brainchild of Saul Klein of Index Ventures, Skype, Glasses Direct and LoveFilm (among others), Seedcamp could be described as the X Factor competition for tech startups. [...]

American writer Nicholas Carr’s claim that the internet is not only shaping our lives but physically altering our brains has sparked a lively and ongoing debate. Join the debate at  http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2010/aug/15/internet-brain-neuroscience-debate

There was an excellent article in the Financial Times last week called “Things my mentor taught me” which featured a range of successful entrepreneurs talking about those individuals, whether they be family, friends or colleagues who had inspired, supported and taught them things which helped them on the road to success.