A digital economy demands new ways of doing business, and consultants to steer existing business practices into the online sphere.  A recent study by blur Group found that “digital natives” are spearheading the ‘knowledge-as-a-service’ movement, developing new businesses and helping ‘older’ models adapt. Entrepreneurs are rapidly adopting sourcing as a method to jump-start their projects, according to [...]

It’s no secret that social media is an effective marketing strategy for businesses to build brand awareness.  You set up a Twitter account, send out some messages and that should be enough, right? Unfortunately, no.  Successfully leveraging social media is a challenge, but if done right, it can be the linchpin for any business. Tom [...]

A recent survey by CoolBrands revealed that Apple’s iPhone is now more desirable than an Aston Martin! A closer look at the list tells the bigger story about Apple’s brand, they took 3 spots out of the top 5! Apples dominance is unsurprising – consumers are way too happy to queue for the latest gadget. [...]

The definition of Fairtrade is clear: “Fairtrade is a strategy for poverty alleviation and sustainable development. Its purpose is to create opportunities for producers and workers who have been economically disadvantaged or marginalized by the conventional trading system. If fair access to markets under better trade conditions would help them to overcome barriers to development, [...]

Crowdsourcing has become an increasingly accepted term with examples bandied about such as Google using the analysis of Web links to crowdsource their search engine, Wikipedia crowdsourcing the planet to build the largest encyclopedia and Threadless crowdsourcing approaching a million people to design t-shirts. But what is the future of crowdsourcing? Well, we think it’s [...]

As blur Group gets more of a following we increasingly get asked why what we are doing is important. It is both a fundamental and complex question to answer. I have spent the last ten years building large communities and marketplaces on the Web – consumer facing, business facing and some that mash both up. [...]