LAMWYK JOURNAL JULY 2020 JOURNAL July 2020 INTRODUCTION CONTENTS From crisis comes innovation: 4 Father soldiers on to complete 700 mile barefoot trek across Britain 6 Welcome to our July Lamwyk Journal, which Harry and I hope you will find informative, educational and very importantly engaging. Why Trade Marks Matter 8 There is a recurring observation that those in the twilight of their lives reflect on TikTok, the Social Media Panopticon? 10 their past successes and failures and often ask “did I make a difference?”. No What do we know about Coronaviruses and how do they affect us? 12 longer due to COVID will we be chastising ourselves for spending too long in the office, although we may amend that to an updated version of spending Micro mobility will be an essential part of social distancing 15 too long on work. So, the reason for this thread of comments is that today one man is making a herculean effort in a demonstration of love for a child and Navigating the changing landscape of resource efficiency investing 18 determination against seemingly insurmountable odds. Did you know there are only 3 types of value? 20 Chris Bannigan is in the midst of walking from Land’s End to Edinburgh carrying Wolverhampton on Screen 23 a rucksack weighing 25 lbs and just to make it really, really hard, as if that wasn’t hard enough, he is doing it barefoot. This is not a misprint he is barefoot. Marketing Emerging from Technology 24 This epic walk has already passed 10 Downing Street, where he dropped off a petition to focus attention on funding incurable childhood diseases. Chris’s barefoot journey is to raise the necessary funding for a research project to find a cure for CdLS, which is currently incurable, and which his daughter Hasti is having to cope with. Please do read his article inside, please consider donating and we wish him good luck too. The Just Giving page is under the name “barefootacrossbritain” We hope you enjoy the Lamwyk Journal. Edward Goodchild Publisher & Co-Founder [email protected] 07917 823 333 Cover image kindly presented by Young Masters Art Prize: Andy Burgess, Tropical House, 2019 2 www.lamwyk.com Reach and Range 3 JOURNAL July 2020 From crisis comes innovation: New ways of financing Remote working is here to stay, and thanks to the Why the pandemic could lead technology startups that have helped improve Financing a business in the wake of a crisis and broadband/wi-fi, virtual meeting applications, to an explosion in technology facing a looming global recession can become cheaper laptops, and smartphone capabilities, startups and investment a daunting subject as conserving cash and employees can continue to work efficiently in opportunities minimizing risk becomes the priority. For the a crisis. The innovation in this sector is already majority of businesses, the government’s CBILS was exploding, and I for one am fascinated to see www.fieldhouseassociates.com Cordelia Meacher a no-brainer and an effective way to extend their which companies emerge in the long term to 07961 311 080 Founder and Managing Director runway in the immediate term. However, a crisis support the new remote working norm. FieldHouse Associates reminds us all just how important cash management is for a business, and financial technology has risen Health and medtech to offer support during the pandemic. Healthtech, like the technology that supports Understanding your cash is key, and platforms remote working, has boomed during lockdown. As the global crisis continues, it would be easy to When Covid-19 hit, it felt like we had just about such as Funding Options, which offers small Companies such as Babylon, the online doctor panic. We’re heading towards a global recession, stitched the final wounds from the 2008 financial businesses the ability to compare more traditional appointment app, has seen a huge uptick and, the EU this week agreed on a 750bn package of crash. What we have also seen in the years since loans in order to scale from a bedroom startup to like remote working, telehealth has seen a rapid loans and grants - the largest joint borrowing in then is the blossoming of innovation that started successful scaleup, are at the forefront of increased change in societal attitudes toward it. Companies the bloc’s history - and many in the UK can’t seem in the depths of that recession, in the shape of demand. The landscape for financing can be such as SkyCell are revolutionising the way we to accept that facemasks will be part of our ‘new companies like Groupon and Airbnb who were overwhelming, and Funding Options is just one transport drugs with smart cold storage containers, normal’. While each headline you read might able to pivot quickly and meet new customer example of how technology can help simplify it. and Harwell Campus in Oxfordshire is working to push us a step closer to panic, we can be sure that demands. help produce treatments and vaccines. Being able one thing remains a constant even through a crisis: Fluidly, a cashflow forecasting technology to disrupt the way a sector has operated for years innovation. Pivoting company, revealed in a recent survey that nine is what startups do, fundamentally changing that out of ten accountants now see cashflow services sector for the better. All industries have been impacted by the current We human beings are a resilient bunch, and this as a priority and will consider adding it to their pandemic, and with business continuity being is reflected in the businesses we build. The word business offering. The technology startups are Crisis breeds innovation. If history has taught us the number one priority, all executives must ‘pivot’ has been a standout word throughout the identifying the shift in customer demands and anything, it is that change is often born out of weigh cutting costs, driving productivity, and pandemic, and understandably so - as a crisis supporting this change. necessity, and that without upheaval or seismic implementing safety measures against supporting brings new demands, we must adapt to survive. shifts, industry and individuals resist change. The innovation-led growth. However, in times of crisis, Working from home Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown have proven technology startups are better positioned to adapt There are numerous examples of companies that there are many things that need to change as their core business to meet shifting customer that have pivoted quickly to accommodate the Recent figures from the Office for National we enter the ‘new normal’. Technology startups needs, find new financial support, and generally initial impact from the pandemic, one being Statistics (ONS) showed that homeworking has will be leading the charge in providing solutions innovate quickly in order to meet the new Transcend Packaging, a manufacturer of become a way of life for almost half of British to meet new demands and overcoming new customer demands in the ‘new normal’. sustainable packaging products and producers workers, and it has been the technology startups - challenges, and investors will need to keep a keen of McDonald’s paper straws. The company like Zoom - that have made the transition possible. eye on early-stage startups that are changing the The UK government has reacted brilliantly to announced that it would produce a million face Zoom doesn’t disclose user numbers, but Bernstein way we work, live, and play. ensure that the support for startups has been there shields a week for the NHS in Wales to help meet estimated that its mobile app had 173 million throughout the pandemic. While we might debate demand. Technology startups are best placed to monthly active users as of May 27, up from 14 Cordelia Meacher is Founder and Managing about some of the intricacies of the numerous pivot quickly in order to meet changing demand, million on March 4. For us at FieldHouse, as Director at FieldHouse Associates, the leading schemes, the top line is that furlough, the Future and in the case of Transcend Packaging, it has with the technology startups we work with, the communications agency for high growth Fund, and the Bounce Back Loan Scheme (BBLS) done so in a mutually beneficial way. transition proved fairly seamless, as our ability to businesses, their investors, and the tech ecosystem. will ensure that the innovation taking place now be flexible and pivot quickly allowed us to adapt will not be for nothing. to this sudden change. 4 www.lamwyk.com Reach and Range 5 JOURNAL July 2020 Father soldiers on to complete 700 mile barefoot trek across Britain Chris Brannigan To donate, please visit: www.justgiving.com/fundraising/BarefootAcrossBritain In Hasti’s case, her parents were aware there was They are also urging people to sign a petition, something wrong as soon as she was born, but which so far has accrued 12,000 signatures she didn’t receive a diagnosis until 2018. in just three days, asking the government to review its National Framework for Rare Disease, They still have no idea how the condition will encouraging them to invest in research, earlier fully impact her until she gets older, and without diagnosis and cutting edge treatments to give a treatment, they now live in fear worrying about people who are affected hope. Chris Brannigan is partaking in the gruelling to Edinburgh barefoot, to raise the money needed how the potentially life-limiting condition will challenge to give his daughter the future she to fund pioneering research into her condition. impact their happy-go-lucky daughter’s future. With the future for Hasti is uncertain unless a deserves Dedicated dad Chris, who has previously toured Hengameh, Hasti’s mum, says: “It was so hard treatment is found, Chris knows it’s a race against Afghanistan, is currently one third of the way knowing something was wrong, but not receiving time to acquire the funding they need, adding: Like any little girl, eight-year-old Hasti dreams through the gruelling trek, surpassing 250 miles of a diagnosis for so long - when we found out there “The support we’ve received so far has been about what she wants to be when she grows up his journey and raising a staggering £130,000 of was no treatment our hearts broke.