Peter Williams talks business at The Hive

Peter Williams, CEO of Deloitte Digital, spoke at The Hive last week. This is the first episode of the new Hive Podcast – subscribe to us in iTunes to get updates each month as we run the events.

peter-williams

Here are my notes from the night:

Ideas. Have lots of them. Be passionate, but be prepared to step back and question them.

Timing. We were 2 years early with anti money laundering service.

Scale. If you want to get rich, you need to have scale. How can I turn this into a 10 million dollar business? 100 million? It’s the thought process that matters.

Partners. Who can I hurt and who can I help? If you can scare the people you can hurt, they can turn into your best strategic allies.

Think. Do. Think. Do. Don’t walk by. It’s about taking the next step.

Share. Talk to people around you. Make body contact and see what you can make happen.

Get diverse feedback. You guys have a couple of red wines and you are going to take over the world. Get people who think different to you.

Intrapreneurship. Get lots of ideas. Filter. All the infrastructure is already in place. What is the logical next step?

pete-williams-hive

Prototype (pulls card out of pocket). This is the Emue prototype. The first card didn’t even work, but you could hold it in your hands and imagine it working and say “what do you reckon?” I could put it in your hand. It’s hard for people to know what you are talking about, especially if it is unique or it has never been done before.

Test it. Does it work? Get to revenue fast. Do it cheap.

Investment. People don’t like funding ideas, they like funding businesses. You need momentum. You need to try to get the dominoes to wobble so that one of them falls.

Mentors. Learn from other people as role models, but be yourself. You can learn from dumb people. Look at everything other people do and then decide who you want to be.

Business Models. I don’t think out of the box, I create new boxes. Try, test. I get scared when businesses come to me with a detailed pricing model when they haven’t even launched yet. Think of a model, try it out with a few pilot customers, if it works do it, if it doesn’t work change it.

What are you best at? I want to go, sell, think, do.

Be honest. Don’t get too fucking smart. Never do a business deal you are not proud of. It’s a waste of your money.

Passion. Commitment. You can’t be half an entrepreneur. If you want work life balance go get a job.

It was a really fun event – thanks to everyone who was there! See you again next month :) and don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast!

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I'm Ross Hill (profile / contact), I apply minimalism to live an emergent life.

I am the founder of Coverhunt and co-founder of The Hive, amongst other things.

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