This current moment in history as we emerge from the long tail of the pandemic, presents a once in a lifetime opportunity for business leaders to reset old assumptions, to set new directions and to seize a moment of permission to drive genuine, profound change. But the moment is brief, and the window will close soon.

OneLeap invited members of our London-based entrepreneur and friends community for an in-person “ideas salon” on 19 October to discuss the impacts of COVID-19 on business, to consider how the entrepreneurial approach is uniquely capable during periods of turmoil and uncertainty, and to think about the new opportunities that are emerging.

Below, we summarise the key points of the discussion as led by three amazing entrepreneurs, diverse in terms of sector - fashion, gaming and supply chain - but similar in their focus on data, analytics and sustainability.

THE ENTREPRENEURIAL MINDSET

At OneLeap, we believe the entrepreneurial approach - with its opportunity-seeking mindset, propensity to act amidst uncertainty, capacity for improvisation and iterative approach - is uniquely powerful at times of disruption and uncertainty. We also believe that it is not restricted to start-ups and founder-led businesses, but can be applied to drive meaningful value creation in large organisations too.

OUR SPEAKERS

We welcomed three guest speakers from our entrepreneur community: Jude Ower (MBE), Founder of Playmob, Adam Hearne, Co-Founder of CarbonChain, and Sarah McVittie, Co-Founder of Dressipi, to ask them what they, as entrepreneurs, learned during the pandemic and how they have seized unforeseen opportunities along the way.

Jude Ower (MBE), Founder of Playmob, shared insights on the gaming industry – a sector 4x bigger than the box office and 3x bigger than the music industry, yet for some its scale and reach has yet to be appreciated.

“It’s a $150 billion market, set to grow to $300 billion by 2026.” - Jude Ower, MBE

During the pandemic, people turned to gaming for a sense of community and mutual support, to experience things together which we would usually do beyond the four walls of our homes, such as watching sport or going to the cinema.

 Media advertising within mobile games typically receives engagement rates of less than 1%, but during the lockdown Playmob witnessed engagement rates as high as 67%.

Their team learned that people want to do good through gaming and actively engage with things that they care about. For gaming and non-gaming companies, it’s a massive opportunity to solve some of our biggest world challenges in a new and meaningful way.

Adam Hearne, Co-Founder of the Y-Combinator-backed start-up CarbonChain brought to light insights on how firms are rethinking supply chain and carbon accounting, and how the rules changed during the pandemic.

Y-Combinator graduate, Airbnb, was founded during the world’s last great disruption - the Global Financial Crisis.

What learnings can we take from start-ups founded during periods of great uncertainty, and apply them to big business?

The CarbonChain team discovered four opportunities had opened during COVID-19:

1. Where start-ups might have been expected to book in-person meetings with a CEO to get their foot in the door, CarbonChain were able to slot in quick 15-minute Zoom chats – just enough time to put their ideas across. This not only enabled them to ramp up penetration, but to also build empathy and trust through their shared experience.

2. During a time when most businesses were only capable of focussing on the here and now, CarbonChain were able to position themselves as problem solvers for the next global challenge faced by businesses – climate change, thus garnering new clients in the early-stages of their business. 

3. At a product level, real customers were added directly to CarbonChain company chat channels, enabling them to share screenshots of what they were doing and speak first-hand to the CarbonChain team. Their product pipeline grew more quickly and organically than if the same process was run through meetings in an office.

4. Finally, they took advantage of pandemic workforce fatigue to target some of the best technological talent in the market. Talent that may have previously seemed inaccessible were newly open to reviewing their work-life balance, how and where they worked, and what sort of company they wanted to work for.

Sarah McVittie, Founder of Dressipi, offered a compelling argument for the use of better data analysis in the fashion and retail industries.

During lockdown, fashion retailers severely struggled with a lack of sales and residual stock stuck in their warehouses and stores. Dressipi’s team were able to use data analysis to pinpoint where these businesses could most effectively spend (and save) their money - namely by more effectively managing their size ratio production.

“Fashion is the second least sustainable sector after oil and gas, and 60% of all clothes produced in the UK end up in landfill within a year.” - Sarah McVittie

Running this model for one retailer, Dressipi was able to increase revenue by 7%, grow gross margin by 3%, and reduce waste by 7%. At scale, that could effectively create 10% less waste across the whole of the fashion industry. 
A key learning from Dressipi’s work during lockdown was that the consumer experience is shaped by business supply chains, and these can be optimised to the benefit of corporations, consumers, and our planet.

Four take home ideas from OneLeap’s panel of entrepreneurs

1. Adopting an opportunity-seeking entrepreneurial mindset is key to both business resilience and unlocking new growth during times of great uncertainty.

2. This reset moment presents a once in a lifetime opportunity to adapt our ways of working, to consider which rules can stay broken, and to seek the unmined gold within the arenas where we already play.

3. The extent to which large organisations can grow and innovate during uncertainty, and fend off new entrant challenges, depends on the extent to which they can overcome a natural resistance to transformation and adopt more entrepreneurial mindsets—including the willingness to act.

4. Climate change is the next great challenge facing businesses, but also the next great opportunity for value creation. Managing this intergenerational conversation at the highest level, and addressing it as an opportunity as well as an obligation, is vital.

To find out more about how the entrepreneurial approach can be nurtured in large corporates and how to seize this brief window of opportunities, read more about our Reset Sprint or get in contact with the team.

Photographs by Benoit Grogan-Avignon

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