The hope for this site is that it will build and build to become a first-class resource for anyone wishing to start a business,which you never do on your own, by yourself, and also individuals who want to make improvements to their own lives by doing good for others, within or outside of a workplace, in a community or neighbourhood. If the site can be said to embody a philosophy it is that being enterprising is a natural tendency, which is manifest in wanting to do good for others, and collaborating. It is also that being creative is normal and desirable because it improves one’s feeling of wellbeing. At the heart of the ‘philosophy’ is the idea that everyone manages, not just those people with ‘manager’ in their job title.

The site will be a resource for individuals who want to do good through setting up a conventional business, a social or community enterprise, or by mobilising or organising people and other resources to make improvements within a workplace.

E=MC3 (cubed, that is) came to mind soon after reading Eric Ries’s book about starting a new technology business. He saw the starting-up process as solving someone’s problem through a series of experiments. He seems to have gotten this notion of starting-up from his mentor, Steve Blank. Both agree that a successful business is based on solving a problem for someone who eventually becomes a customer, or who is representative of potential future customers. Customers here, in this blog, include people within organisations, within neighbourhoods, who might benefit from the acts of an enterprising person. In all cases, the most effective way of solving someones problem is  to talk to them about it, don’t second guess.  The best way is to solve the problem with them. That’s the first conversation. To solve the problem you might have to call on other people, your buddies, others with greater technical knowledge, more specialised, people with money to invest, people with components you need. Getting them involved is the second set of conversations. The third set of conversations begins when you begin to acquire real customers and you want to get feedback from them, and otherwise create strong relationships. If you solve the problem, build a network of supporters in doing so, and then create a sustainable customer base, then you could be said to have managed to set up a business. That’s why there’s an M in MC3(cubed., that is). But MANAGING in MC3 is not any old notion of managing, it’s a learning process, it’s a problem solving process in its own right, it’s a process of building things to test, to validate. It’s a whole lot more than what your average text book tells you it is. You manage to solve a problem by harnessing resources, people with a feeling they have a problem, other people with knowledge, with material. A solution is achieved through conversations with a purpose. Most results are achieved by talking to others, by holding together an organisation through conversations. BUT, and its a big ‘but’, the outcome of conversing is unpredictable. This is why inventing and innovating, which is what you are doing when you are solving problems, is difficult to manage, and why inventions and innovations often take us by surprise. All this will become clearer to you, as the blog builds.