Solar – Coming of Age...

Things are really hotting up in solar which poses some interesting challenges for incumbent businesses already operating in the space – manufacturers, distributors, installers ...

Some businesses are going to wake up in the morning and find out that someone ate all the pie ... well product then!

Word on the street is that the smaller installers are suddenly inundated with larger commercial project enquiries – they are struggling with the size, the commerciality and the delivery capability not to mention the cash flow issues that £6m worth of kit will give them – cue sleepless nights for some of these MDs. (shhhh... guys might be time to rethink being a ma & pa shop).

The property, pension fund and shed markets have finally woken up to the fact that there is money to be made in ‘them there’ rooftops and now they want a piece of the action and fast…like yesterday?!! Hmmm doesn’t quite work like that does it?

Now what’s also interesting is that some of them are treating it like just another construction project - “let’s get the boys who did that warehouse roof to do it” ... uh? ... well hello big red flashing lights – it’s just not that simple? Meanwhile roofing guys are gleefully throwing in a bunch of ill thought out quotes in double quick time and will be caught with their pants down .... The naivety of some is mindboggling. They don’t understand payback models let alone the products, O&M issues, positioning, FITs bla bla. Someone will lose a shed load of money – excuse the pun.

Conversely – little installers – WAKE UP – the time to buddy up and JV is now – choose your partner wisely or offer yourselves to the lion fast. When the product supply chain squeeze hits – it’ll be those businesses with the biggest wallets open that will land it.
Meanwhile the sleeping giants of construction look like they have their wallets out on a mini shopping spree, so they’ll be Hoovering up the casualties, or perhaps smugly picking over the remains!

As far as manufacturing is concerned, some are struggling to even quote because they just can’t figure the manufacturing pipeline ... the supply chain issue is again rearing its ugly head. Anyone read anything on rare earths – if not try the Thunder Report. http://www.neuralnetwriter.cylo42.com/node/3106

We are already seeing clients defect from those companies who just can’t supply – quality is all very well but if you can’t get it, get it somewhere else – anywhere else and compromise.
And to cap it all, reports are now coming in that some distributors and manufacturers could have already sold or have reserved all of next year’s product inventory, doesn’t this smack of the same thing that happened in big wind? ... mass-demand in a short space of time ... oooh there’ll be a lot of unhappy salesmen out there (give me a ring when you are ready).

Oh, and I haven’t even touched the utilities with this article – what ARE they doing??? Do they seriously think the double glazing sales approach is going to work? That’s a subject for another day!

Green and Renewable Energy Events – September & October 2010

Here’s the latest Events list in the European Renewable Energy space – taking you up to the end of October 2010. We hope you find it useful. If we’ve missed an event, please let us know and we’ll make sure it’s added to the list.

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Featured Event:

4th & 5th October 2010
Business Design Centre, London

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September 2010:

The Energy Event
8th & 9th September 2010
Birmingham, UK
Twitter: @energyevent

Wind Power Monthly - Cost-effective, best-practice O&M strategies
9th & 10th September 2010
Hamburg, Germany
Twitter: @WPMevents

Women in Cleantech: Exploring Cleantech Policy – From ecoConnect
22nd September 2010
London, UK
Twitter: @ecoConnectCIC

Cleantech Bootcamp - From ecoConnect
27th September 2010
London, UK
Twitter: @ecoConnectCIC

UK Green Buildings Council Regional Event
27th September 2010
Manchester, UK
Twitter: @UKGBC

Biogaz Europe
29th September 2010
Lyon, France

Green in the City: Cleantech meets Biotech - From ecoConnect
30th September 2010
London, UK
Twitter: @ecoConnectCIC

October 2010:

Green Mondays – London
4th October 2010
London, UK
Twitter: @greenmondaynews

Green Mondays – Scotland
4th October 2010
London, UK
Twitter: @greenmondaynews

The Carbon Show
4th & 5th October 2010
London, UK
Twitter: @thecarbonshow

2nd Global Wind Turbine Supply Chain Conference
5th & 6th October 2010
Hamburg, Germany

Energy Solutions Expo
6th & 7th October 2010
London, UK
Twitter: @energysol_expo

All-Energy Australia
6th & 7th October
Melbourne, Australia
Twitter: @AllEnergy

European Biofuels Expo & Conference
6th & 7th October 2010
Warwickshire, UK

2nd Annual Offshore Wind Construction and Commissioning Conference
20th & 21st October 2010
London, UK

Renewable Energy in the Public Sector: Leading the way to zero carbon
26th October 2010
London, UK

EU Biomas Forum 2010
27th – 29th October 2010
London, UK

Green In the City: The Future of UK Onshore Wind - From ecoConnect
28th October 2010
London, UK
Twitter: @ecoConnectCIC

Stay tuned for another events update at the beginning of next month.

Is Your Business Really “Sales” Ready?

So – you have your product, your founder has tested the sales temperature, you’ve landed funding so it's all hands on deck to hire that crack sales team.... or is it?

One of the things I have noticed in early stage land of late is that some businesses are suddenly finding their sales pipeline is not what they thought it was and ill thought out strategies are being tested to breaking point in the current climate.

Evidence perhaps that too many people have rushed into employing a sales team before completely understanding their sales strategy. And also evidence that the sales strategy has not kept current in a rapidly changing business climate.

Common mistakes I see:

Unclear sales strategy – usually borne from a founder being too close to the product and failing to look up and around the market during launch phase.

They misread the early sales made by passionate, driven founders as “evidence of real market demand”.

They fail to take account of objective external views and miss key longer term niches while focussing on the big, low hanging fruit deals.

They fail to articulate what they are actually selling - confused customers do not buy! I see many brilliant ‘techies’ with sound products that actually fail to reach market maturity because they simply can’t sit the other side of the ball and see it from a “customer” perspective and sell it on that basis.

They can’t effectively present product or service features and benefits – what you think is your product's strengths actually isn’t necessarily what your customers think.

They over complicate entering the market – there’s more than one way to crack a nut...

What they are selling actually might not be fully complete or their pricing model is not fit for purpose and does not match the clients’ needs as a business.

They fail to plan long and short term sales pipelines – how to balance keeping the investors happy whilst building long-term value in the business is an art form!

And ... worst of all they rush their hiring and end up with the wrong people ... and that’s where we come in.

Average cost of a failed hire = 3 x salary at the last count ... makes my fees look better value than ever!

By Debby Lloyd,
Managing Director, EcoSearch

Hire, Hire, Hire – Managing Rapid Growth

EcoSearch build the management and technical teams for businesses in renewable energy, Cleantech & Carbon Management – we do that for smallco and corporates. I love this part of my job – I love the role I play in building those successful companies (not that we recruiters are recognized sometimes for the value we bring in the long term – ours can be a very transactional role but where we are able to work in a true partnership capacity it can make for a very powerful result).

We’ve all had that training haven’t we about “man management”, but how often do we stop to think about the application of all that knowledge we soak up over the years and its long term application impact in our respective businesses?

I’ve learned, seen and personally experienced that it is far more difficult to successfully grow your team rapidly in a smallco than in a corporate organisation. Managing to blend, mould and nurture a new team is a bit like making fine wine, only sometimes you are forced to rush it and sometimes the grapes you use aren’t quite what you thought they were (If I were a wine buff now I’d use a suitable comparison here).

Investors these days are very good at pressing the HIRE HIRE HIRE button but don’t always listen to the CEO who knows his business inside out and knows where his existing team is challenged. Mind you, some CEOs are very guilty of going on talent acquisition spending sprees with disastrous consequences, overspent budgets, imploding teams, dysfunctional divisions, poor hires, lowering quality of output.

The good CEO takes the time to monitor the “temperature” and watch the development of his people as he goes about adding. This is a bit of a dark art that many people fail at. Sometimes you have to take your foot off the gas and allow things to settle. I always thought “forming, norming, storming” theories were a bit of a management cliché but they are in fact critical milestones on which to manage. Recognising them is key. It is easy to fall into the trap of putting it down to culture and personality when actually the root cause is usually communication, and clear roles, responsibilities and accountabilities. These all get horribly blurred when a team expands rapidly. A good CEO recognises this and helps his team understand this and work through it.

And how rewarding is it when you see that team gel into a finely tuned machine that delivers uplift in production and sales?

Hmm - now here’s a thought: What if your recruiter's fee was calculated on business milestones achieved...? I wonder what impact that would have on your hiring quality.

By Debby Lloyd
Managing Director, EcoSearch

Green & Renewable Energy Events List – August & September 2010

The events list is back!

If we have missed anything, please let us know. You can leave a comment on this post or even send us a tweet.

August 2010

Green Drinks – Reading
3rd August 2010
RISC Global Cafe, Reading, UK

Sustainability Now
On demand until 10th August 2010
Virtual
Follow @sustainnow on Twitter

Green Drinks – London
10th August 2010
The Glasshouse Stores, Soho, London

September 2010

Green Mondays - North West
6th September 2010
Manchester, UK
Follow @greenmondaynews on Twitter

Green Mondays – Midlands
6th September 2010
Nottingham, UK
Follow @greenmondaynews on Twitter

Green Mondays – London
6th September 2010
London, UK
Follow @greenmondaynews on Twitter

The Energy Event
8th & 9th September 2010
Birmingham, UK
Follow @energyevent on Twitter

Wind Power Monthly - Cost-effective, best-practice O&M strategies
9th & 10th September 2010
Hamburg, Germany
Follow @WPMevents on Twitter

World Green Roof Congress
15th & 16th September 2010
London, UK

Low Carbon South West: Sustainable Cities - Building The Future
17th September 2010
Bath, UK

Bioten
21st – 23rd September 2010
Bath, UK

HUSUM Wind Energy
21st – 25th September 2010
Husum, Germany

Women in Cleantech: Exploring Cleantech Policy
22nd September 2010
London, UK

If you are organising an event coming up soon and would like it included in future lists - don't hesitate to let us know about it.

The EcoSearch Team

State Of The Nation Update – The New Norms Bite?

My gut is telling me something different is happening. Keep it lean folks, we are heading into choppy water again.

Take the redundancies I’ve seen in the last couple of weeks in FM, environmental and sustainable consulting, outsourced technology, mainstream engineering, internal carbon teams. I’ve seen “walk-aways” by corporates on non-core green related activity, sluggishness in buying “green” and renewable energy progress hampered by team downsizing. There is still a lack of investment and we are now seeing the first signs that the Government cuts are going to bite hard!

Green Bank?

Show me something different and I’ll believe it! Isn’t this the blueprint the Carbon trust but a few more heavyweight names with a sprinkling of Private Equity folks? It’s not going to solve the problem, is it? What happens to the innovation spawning grounds in the latest melee? Same model of return, different underwriter?

Cleantech Investment - What are the new norms?

Yields of less than 7%, ROIs – think more like 5 years now folks!
Venture funding – it’s all about collaboration and circumnavigating Venture land as we know it now.
VCs – for early stage they really mean well past “post revenue” stage – and lots of it!
Fund raising – if you haven’t done it in 6 months, forget it you better do something different.
Equity – start at 60% and if you are lucky negotiate your way back as you hit the milestones.
Typical deal flow scenario - 400 deals reviewed – 4 investments made – those were the figures quoted – but am I wrong in thinking that maybe the view on returns needs to change which might make the ratio different? Maybe the investment community simply haven’t woken up to the new norms yet?

Commercial Property & the CRC

The exodus from inefficient but lovely looking glass and steel buildings is already starting to happen. My prediction is that swathes of office blocks will soon become empty especially where they cannot provide the smart control aspect of carbon management programme roll out.
FTSE or AIM listed company in your property portfolio? What are you doing to help their league table position? Perhaps just taking the rent is now no longer enough – the new norm might be business collaboration?

CRC progress – estimates that 20% of businesses cannot even make registration.
Expecting help from the Environment Agency – hmmmm seems to be a problem when you can’t find the forms on the website even...

Facilities Management Companies – it’s not just about an EPC and some CHP feasibility & engineering consultancy – get your acts together - you are offering a fragmented, disparate service offering – clients want pro-active initiative, joined up thinking and deep traction across third party relationships to resolve the issues they face. I’m hearing reports that FM Companies are not playing ball with energy efficiency partners of clients ... BIG mistake!

For further insight you might like to have a look at my previous post 'Sustainability and The Apollo Effect'.

Skills & Recruitment

Graduate entrants – forget going in to £30K of debt and trekking to Uni unless you aim to come out with a 2:1! 69 graduate applicants for a single job ...employers are being choosy. Boy do we have a problem in the UK with our Course Content – someone’s forgetting the basics & practicals – it’s all theory!

And – this bit is for recruiters only as I know you all read my blog (the intelligent ones will get to this bit – the others will have zoned out by now)! Judging by the amount of recruiters checking out my profile at the mo – everyone in recruitment is piling into this space... wise piece of advice ... if you see a bandwagon, you’ve already missed it. Those of us who have been around for a while, stick together, the flight to quality will be on soon enough.

Prediction – remember the dot.com days? Now imagine that again with only one quarter of the jobs .... I dispute all the figures quoted about green jobs – I think they are overestimated and lots of jobs will mainstream in from related industry or be internal appointments – because of the climate we are in (maybe with the exception of big wind or maybe retraining plumbers!).

You reap what you sow, no matter what business you are in, so expect payback relative to your customer facing investment – and I don’t mean just in cash terms! Everyone is feeling the pressure but I’ve asked myself many times this month - is there a way to be nice and still do business anymore? – or have things got so bad it’s just every man for himself and screw the consequences in the future?

Sustainable business behaviour ... hmmm perhaps a subject for a future blog.

Photo by gluemoon on flickr

Women & Careers In Cleantech (EcoConnect)

I had an inspiring evening at the inaugural Women In Cleantech (WIC) meeting held at Smith & Williams offices in London and brilliantly hosted by the folks at EcoConnect.

A select gathering of around 60 women (and 2 token male minders!) of immense talents sharing experiences, ambitions and aspirations around working in Cleantech. A real warmth of connections on the night, sense of togetherness and shared outlooks. I’m always really humbled at these events – I look at the learning curve and investment in EcoSearch and its nothing compared to the blood, sweat and tears investment I’ve seen these women invest in companies they will never get to own. But that’s the thing about working in this sector – once you are bitten going back to the corporate day job just feels completely pointless. Corporate disengagement is rife out there at the moment – and I’m often on my soapbox about those organisations who choose to ignore the sustainability agenda who will in the long term die out having suffered attrition and competitive advantage losses as a result.

But some interesting and amazing observations emerged ...

The absence of any real visible, recognisable and instantly recall-able women role models from the sector. Why? Is it too soon? Is the market still below radar with immature businesses that have yet to be scaled up and find fame? Do women not court and massage the limelight like the Richard Bransons of the world perhaps? Hopefully this will change in the future.
Science and Engineering – probably half the audience were Science or Engineer based women – doing amazing work – and at all levels! But getting women into science/engineering is difficult – mixed sex classes, misperceptions, confidence, fear of failure – all possible reasons as to why we see less and less females in science and engineering.
Female run VC backed businesses – a real minority – but statistically no different in risk or return fronts for investors – why are there not more?
Level Playing field – general acceptance that yes we do have a level playing field – acceptance that yes babies do pull us back down the salary levels – but actually we have to choose to play hard – and we fail to have the guts to play that hard sometime. But having lower salaries are a advantages for women in this space – men find it difficult to drop the shackles of the big paycheques. For women it’s less of a drop and we don’t always have “breadwinner” nooses to bear.
Corporate downshifters – there’s a real opportunity for emerging businesses to harness brilliantly experienced corporate downshifters at a price they can afford IF they can open their minds.

So many other thoughts to share - but for me the moment of the night was seeing my highly talented male VC colleague blush - I finally got to turn the tables on a VC chap – a priceless moment ladies – one I will savour and worth waiting 8 years for! His comment at the end of the night “I had no idea it was so complex for women!” I think he felt like Mel Gibson in the film What Women Want!

By Debby Lloyd

Managing Director, EcoSearch