Cash is the enemy of creativity!
The Founder and CEO of King of Shaves, Will King gave an engaging and dynamic presentation to a large audience of economics and business students at our Entrepreneurship Society last night. The UK sales figures for the new Azor razors are quite remarkable and are testimony to the impact that this challenger brand is having on a monopolistic/duopolistic market. In the past four weeks in the UK KoS has sold 107,000+ Azor system razor handles and 602,000+ Azor Endurium cartridges.
Conventional MBA theory would suggest that the barriers to entry are just too high for a new firm to dislocate and disrupt the cosy market power of Gillette and Wilkinson Sword. The razor remains of the most patent protected products in the world and the billions of blades sold each year (at profit margin of over 90 per cent) represent an enormous cash cow for the US shaving giants. But easy cash can often stifle genuine creativity. The momentum of passionate and persistent challenger brands who truly understand the web and who talk to customers in a different way can make a big difference. The big Mo is with King of Shaves and it is easy to see why!
Will reports on his visit here
Our next meeting (Thursday 12th November) focuses on global economics and is with Paul Donovan, Chief Economist of UBS.
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New Edition of Etonomics
The latest edition of our school economics magazine Etonomics has just been published. There are articles on digital economics, the national lottery and behavioural economics, game theory and climate change, the future for world aviation, microfinance and the inevitability (or otherwise) of economic recessions.
A download can be requested here:
Running an Entrepreneurship Society
Several colleagues have asked me to provide a brief overview of how our school Entrepreneurship Society is run. We don’t offer any formal examined courses in business and management at our school although we do have quite active Young Enterprise groups in Year 11. Around 40-45% of our year group opt for AS Economics in Year 12, 20% also take AS Politics.
Chris Coleridge at the Entrepreneurship Society
On Thursday 1st October, Chris Coleridge is speaking at the Eton College Entrepreneurship Society at 8-45pm in the Egerton Room. The business has a great story and, as always, the Q&A will be lively and unpredictable! Teaching colleagues are extended a warm welcome to this meeting which lasts one hour. Please if you are planning to come.
Simon Henry at the Keynes Society
Simon Henry the CFO of Shell plc is speaking at the Keynes Society this coming Wednesday evening at 8-45pm in Upper School, Eton College. He will be talking on the topic of ‘Managing a business in a time of change’. Teaching colleagues are most welcome to come along to this meeting and it may also interest A2 students applying to read Economics and Management or A2 Business Strategy papers. Please if you are planning to come along.
Keynes and Entrepreneurship Meetings
Our programme of speakers for the new term is nearly complete. As always a warm welcome is extended to any colleagues living in the vicinity who might want to come to a meeting and perhaps bring some students. As regular visitors will know, there is no formal ticketing but it is always helpful to know who plans to come so that we can organise car parking and get a feel for numbers.
Here is the programme
Keynes and Entrepreneurship Society Meetings
Eton Keynes and Entrepreneurship Society Meetings
Our current programme is detailed below. If teaching colleagues would like to come to one or more of the meetings with their students please get in touch and I will make arrangements.
October
Thursday 1st: Chris Coleridge (Founder and CEO of V-Water) - Ent Soc
Thursday 8th: Pierre Lagrange (Co-Founder of GLG Partners) - Ent.Soc
Thursday 15th: Charlie Gilkes (Founder of Kitts Nightclub, Barts Bar and JetSet Parties) Ent.Soc
November
Thursday 5th: Lord John Eatwell - Keynes
Thursday 5th: Will King, CEO of King of Shaves (Entrepreneurship) - Ent Soc
Thursday 12th: Paul Donovan (Chief Economist at UBS) - Keynes
Thursday 19th: Tim Harford (Financial Times and Undercover Economist) - Keynes
January 2010
Thursday 21st: Jon Moulton (CEO of Alchemy Partners) - Keynes
I will post details of additional meetings as they are arranged
A New Edition of Etonomics
A group of my Year 12 students have written, edited and produced a new edition of Etonomics, an informal magazine that encourages them to write about issues of economic interest. In the past we have found this a good way to stimulate ideas and writing that goes beyond the confines of the syllabus and it is also an idea for stretching students after the AS exams are over.
read more...»David Miles at the Keynes Society
David Miles became Managing Director and Chief UK Economist at Morgan Stanley in October 2004. He joined from Imperial College, University of London, where he retains the role of visiting Professor of Financial Economics. He specialises in research on financial markets. Miles worked for the Bank of England for several years after graduating from Oxford. After a spell in the economics Department at Birkbeck College, London he was Chief UK Economist for Merrill Lynch. He joined Imperial College in 1996. He has published widely on many aspects of finance and macroeconomics. His recent book “Macroeconomics: Understanding the Wealth of Nations”, jointly written with Andrew Scott of the LBS, has just appeared in second edition. An earlier book, “Housing, Financial Markets and the Wider Economy” (1994) analysed the changing pattern of housing and housing finance in the UK.
In the 2003 Budget Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown announced that he had asked Miles to undertake an independent review of the UK housing market focusing on the absence of much longer-term fixed rate lending. The Miles Report was published by HM Treasury in the Spring of 2004. Miles was appointed a non executive Director of the FSA in December 2003 and took up his post on the Board of the FSA in Spring 2004.
This should be a superb meeting for both AS and A2 students wanting to broaden and deepen their understanding of the current economic crisis.
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