Act Clean - Employee Value Proposition

A little piece on some work we did for Act Clean

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache%3Acy4yS4I0-q4J%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.act-clean.com%2Fimages%2Fstories%2Fnewsletters%2Fseptember.pdf&aid=nMqhc1gl0600wT

Start up culture

A great programme from Radio where Judith Clegg argues "the only out of chaos is to innovate" and shares the unique culture that exists within start ups:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0196rpr

Reading List - Part One

Lots of our clients have been asking us for book recommendations.

If you want to start off by reading about innovative organisations, here are our favourites:

Weird Ideas That Work, how to build a creative company, Robert I Sutton

Stoking your Innovation Bonfire, Braden Kelley

Nuts – South West Airlines’ Crazy Recipe for Business and Personal Success, Kevin and Jackie Freiberg

Built from Scratch, Home Depot,Bernard Marcus

Rising Tide, Lessons from P&G, Davis Dyer

Delivering Happiness, Zappos, Tony Hsieh

The Accidental CEO, YUM, David Novak

Mavericks at Work, Polly LaBarre

The Book of Yo! Simon Woodfroffe

I Wish I Worked There, Kursty Groves

Game Changer, (P&G), A G Lafley

Built to Last, Jim Collins

Consumer immersion

The key to successful innovation is to really get under the skin of your clients. We are taking this to the extreme this week. One of us is doing a shift as a kitchen porter and the other spending the day in housekeeping. To tell an organisation's story, you need to understand what the employees do.

Shift work, here we come!

Busy Bees

We are busy bees at the moment - just signed a big new energy client. Helping them to come up with a clear innovation definition vision for their business. Exciting!

Cadbury - a year on from Kraft

It was one of the biggest corporate takeovers in UK history, and it began with an epic PR disaster for Kraft. Having promised to save Somerdale (an historic west country chocolate factory) the American food conglomerate promptly changed their minds. According to YouGov last March, 94% of consumers were aware that Cadbury had been swallowed by Kraft. So what has happened to the workers of Somerdale - and Bournville - in the twelve months since ?
Last year Miles Warde presented Cadbury Is Our Longbridge, a series about the takeover on Radio 4. This two part follow up catches up with those most affected and asks what has been learnt.
"I've watched the whole lot being disassembled, yeah ... they still expected you to clean the machinery as they were taking it out. And I've taken photos of the last bar of Crunchie coming off, and they've written, The End."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/b00zddhl/Cadbury_Kraft_A_Year_On_Episode_1

Innocent Drinks

if you have a few minutes, have a listen to an interview with the founder of our favourite company, Innocent Drinks

http://www.innocentdrinks.co.uk/careers/business/hardtalk/