When Napoleon accused England of being a “nation of shopkeepers”, he didn’t, presumably, intend it as a compliment. Nevertheless, the entrepreneurial spirit has a long and colorful history in this delightful country.
Back in the seventies, Dr. E.F.Schumacher challenged the trend toward big business growth in his book Small is Beautiful. Schumacher pointed out eloquently the advantages of keeping business small and human-scaled.
Largely ignored by the corporate culture in the US, Schumacher’s ideas influenced a wide range of new entrepreneurs. One of those who took smallness seriously was a young upstart named Richard Branson.
For many years, he ran his Virgin empire from his little houseboat, although his employees were housed in more ordinary buildings. Even as Virgin began to grow into numerous enterprises, he insisted on keeping divisions and departments small enough so all coworkers knew each other in their part of the business.
Early on, Branson discovered the power of free publicity. He said that they realized that newspapers and television needed interesting photos so Virgin took every opportunity they could to dream up newsworthy events which would attract the media.
That sort of resourcefulness in action has continued even as Virgin grew into a globally recognized brand.
Almost as flamboyant was the late Dame Anita Roddick. When she opened her first tiny Body Shop in Brighton, she couldn’t afford High Street rents so took a retail space on a side street with far less traffic.
Roddick got the idea to regularly spray a trail of scent from the main thoroughfare back to her shop, an unusual approach that noticeably increased traffic to her fledgling business.
A passionate environmentalist, Roddick made reduce, reuse, recycle the operating philosophy at Body Shop.
Like Branson, she constantly received media attention for her activism, personal philosophy and entrepreneurial success.
I don’t know if the legacy of Branson and Roddick has filtered down, but I don’t recall ever enjoying the exploits of a business more than the smoothie maker Innocent Drinks.
The story of the beginning of Innocent really was a preview of coming attractions. Founded by three Cambridge graduates, friend Richard Reed, Adam Balon and Jon Wright were working in consulting and advertising when the idea for their business was born.
In 1998, after spending six months working on smoothie recipes and £500 on fruit, the trio sold their drinks from a stall at a music festival in London. People were asked to put their empty bottles in a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ bin depending on whether they thought the three should quit their jobs to make smoothies.
At the end of the festival the ‘YES’ bin was full, with only three cups in the ‘NO’ bin, so they went to their work the next day and resigned.
The company’s headquarters, Fruit Towers, is based in Shepherds Bush where they welcome visitors with open arms. Everything about the company suggests that playfulness has a high priority. So does resourcefulness.
Last year when Innocent was sponsoring a festival, they created a poster for the event and invited their loyal fans to print it out on their own computers and post it around their neighborhoods. Thousands of posters began to appear all over the area compliments of happy Innocent customers.
Another favorite Innocent project happened last summer when one of their employees went on a long bicycle tour to Cornwall and videotaped interviews with artists scattered around southwestern UK.
Currently, Innocent Drinks is running a project called Buy One Get One Bee to raise funds to bring millions of bees into the UK.
You can get a glimpse of the Innocent approach to growing a business by looking at their weekly newsletter.
Equally wonderful is founder Richard Reed’s short talk at the British Library last year.
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