Remote working, Web3 and AI could be changing the management game - LettsGroup is paving the way for venture capital innovation.
Management is changing, and LettsGroup is at the forefront. Remote working, Web3 and artificial intelligence (AI) will fundamentally alter the way organisations operate, meaning a call for change from organisers who are having to keep up with a world led by digital natives and cooperative work styles. Also for LettsGroup, these changes are marked by each ventures’ technological advances to establish platforms that are up-to-date, smoothly run and accessible.
The definition of management is in a state of change. Once defined as ‘the act of getting people together’, a generation makeover has dubbed a new definition to ‘gather people remotely’. Management is becoming first and foremost about organising and managing systems, with the people having to come second - likely requiring a new breed of managers to make it work.
Most standard definitions about management pontificate about organising people, resources and budgets to meet specific targets. Required skills include planning, strategy, budgeting and people management. This all made sense in the twentieth century. However, it could make increasingly less sense as the 21st century unfolds, as we switch from a people-centred view of management to a system-centric approach. Businesses that are successful are digital.
Tomorrow's organisation will likely be 100% remote, 100% digital, fully automated. Lean, innovative and fast. An approach LettsGroup intends to emulate across its venture portfolio.
The traditional manager is often considered a barrier to younger employees’ progress and growth. Where digital knowledge is lacking amongst an older management team, strategy and company growth wanes. Thus, management today needs experienced technology experts and a drive to adopt new technologies. LettsGroup CEO, Philip Letts, offers a host of experience within the tech venture world, running prosperous start-ups such as Beenz and Tradaq, which made waves in the world of digital - pioneering cryptocurrency and defi. Therefore, the team at LettsGroup contains many established, high-profile technology developers who are hungry to apply new digital innovations to their work.
As is reflected in LettsGroup’s company culture, the future style of management is shaped by the switch to remote working. Managing remote resources requires a fundamentally different approach as technology takes the lead and ‘organising’ experiences a reboot. Also, the latest systems for communication, planning, project and process tracking are rolling out. For LettsGroup, Zoom is just the first step.
If there was any doubt about the switch to remote, Findstack offers some sobering statistics:
Remote working operates most effectively when each team member assumes full responsibility for themselves and the team communicates effortlessly with each other. An almost self managing entity. The principles that we have adopted by working with customers remotely over the last few decades also need to be applied internally. For LettsGroup, transparency is everything. Transparency through systems. And tight, highly productive teams full of 'leaders on the pitch'.
If managing remote employees might be better suited to the newer, more flexible and digital generation, then just wait for the transition to Web3 and AI. The former is challenging the very heart of organisational structure while the latter will automate practically any task worth doing.
Today, LettsGroup is indulging in the future. By adopting a 100% remote working policy, developing Web3 innovations and embracing digital steps forward in NFT-enablements, the venture builder has only scratched the surface of its ambitions for advancements.
This article was first published in the Letts Journal.
LettsGroup is a branded incubator group, which is active through @LettsGroup on twitter.
If innovation is the new global currency, how do we do it right?
In 1995 Bill Gates famously announced the ‘internet tidal wave’ and officially threw Microsoft’s future at the web. Steve Jobs went one step further, after he returned to Apple, adding ‘i’ (for internet) in front of its product names. A decade later the iPhone was launched. The ‘i’ may as well have stood for ‘innovation’, because that is what they were searching for.
Leaders are betting on innovation to stay ahead of 21st Century threats. Biden has re-framed the relationship with China as a battle between two arch competitors - and may the most innovative win. Johnson sold Brexit as a tool to unlock the power of British ideas, in particular ‘Peppa Pig’. And everyone is praying for new technology to save us from the climate crisis - while emissions just keep climbing.
Like cancer, it seems that there is no cure for poor innovation, a disease which destroys the majority of companies. It is becoming a business epidemic while product variants are increasing and product life cycles are becoming shorter and shorter.
Corporations thought they had found a solution when they latched onto corporate incubators over a decade ago. A number of management consultants and academics touted it as the answer to hatching unicorn scale ideas in a factory. Today, corporate incubators are largely bust.
Larger companies are desperately seeking new approaches. John Lewis, the UK department store owner, is launching a £1m innovation fund that will channel cash into projects with the potential to end the high street’s “throwaway” culture. The fund is aimed at identifying “innovators” that are challenging the industry’s outdated “make… use… throw away” model.
In order to power their transformational strategy, and generate new ideas for tobacco-free products, PMI harnessed the power of crowdsourcing - engaging more than 65,000 employees worldwide. This gave employees from multiple departments and backgrounds a means to contribute suggestions, as well as assessing and developing them.
Businesses have also tried to develop ‘future thinking’ techniques and techno hackathons. They have attempted to outsource innovation and partnered with innovation consultancies like IDEO and Hubbub. They have even tried collaborating with venture investors and entrepreneurs.
And yet none of this seems to be working too well. Big companies used to have a lifespan of 61 years, it is now down to 18.
McKinsey believes that, in 2027, three quarters of the companies that were quoted until recently on the S&P 500 will have disappeared. They will be bought-out, merged, or bankrupt. General Electric, Exxon Mobile, Procter & Gamble and DuPont are among the oldest companies on the New York Stock Exchange. Nevertheless, those with the largest market capitalizations today have new names: Apple, Alphabet, Meta or Amazon.
General Electric recently announced that it will break up into three separate businesses. DuPont has merged with Dow Chemical and Exxon Mobile is struggling with investigations and lawsuits.
In 1973, the English economist Ernst Friedrich Schumacher asked why large companies keep disappearing at such a rate when he published his influential book ‘Small is Beautiful’. He exposed the inefficiency of large enterprises and anticipated the current trend towards sustainable development. He maintained, “What characterises modern industry is its enormous consumption to produce so little… It is inefficient to a degree that goes beyond imagination!”
The loss of energy is called entropy. It’s what kills large companies.
Large companies need a continuous input of more and more management energy simply to continue to exist. The larger the company, the more energy it needs - just to survive. Apparently large companies spend more time managing themselves than they do serving their customers.
As the life expectancy of companies drops, that of its workers is increasing. That’s changing the makeup of business - as their employees demand more labour market flexibility and greater mobility. In the US, almost a third of all employees have an independent or contingent activity and are not linked to a company by a full-time working contract.
It seems we are all becoming entrepreneurs. And yet no one has cracked repetitive innovation.
Or have they?
One of the world’s oldest corporate incubators is attempting it. And they believe the secret lies with their customers.
John Letts invented a world’s first corporate incubator in 1796. He started out with a simple philosophy, that the customer was the secret to innovation. He just had to figure out how to get them to invent things with Letts. Later, he developed the infrastructure to take these products to market and scale them.
He built an incubator studio that nurtured and developed new business ideas and inventions coupled with a vibrant store in the heart of the city of London where they could mingle with customers. These interactions led to prototypes and prototypes were tested back with the customers. Successful prototypes quickly became live, paid-for concepts. Concepts became products.
The studio was attached to the store. Today the store is virtual.
In the early 1800’s John Letts’s incubator developed a series of successful innovations including the first commercial diary. He launched interest tables, specialist clerical and medical diaries, calendars, parliamentary registers, ledgers, and logbooks.
The latest generation of the eponymous diary family is betting the new shop on cracking sustainable, repetitive innovation. They have developed a methodology called Innov@te™ which modernises and extends the initial incubator approach developed by John Letts. It tackles the process for innovation, like Ford cracked the process for mass producing cars.
Innov@te™ comes to life in virtual incubator studios that bring together inventions, their inventors, designers and customers in live, iterative, customer concept phases.
Combined, it offers a modern factory for ideas that are engineered into new projects.
LettsGroup also created the Size Zero philosophy, which sets out the necessary structure for turning projects into businesses. They call it the ‘organisation’ for innovation. It supports and enhances the theory that getting too big can kill innovation.
According to them, the secret to innovation lies with customers, from the outset, adopting tight-loop systems that curate innovation out of a series of physical and virtual interactions. All while conventional thinking assumed that the answer lay with entrepreneurs and inventors. The power of ‘one’.
LettsGroup has challenged itself to develop a brand new venture every two and a half years. Time will tell whether their approach will get us any closer to cracking one of the 21st century’s greatest dilemmas. After all, we will need all the innovation we can muster to face society’s newest set of challenges.
This article was first published in the Letts Journal.
LettsGroup is a branded incubator group, which is active through @LettsGroup on twitter.
Letts Journal, created to deliver business media with a soul, is celebrating its first anniversary.
LettsGroup is excited to announce the anniversary of its business media venture, Letts Journal. A year ago today, Letts Journal was launched as a new style weekly publication that talks straight about business, climate, and life for progressive thinkers and innovative leaders. It is proud of its commitment to free media that is ad-free, clickbait free, and free to read.
Letts Journal has grown exponentially in the past twelve months, having developed a strong, supportive foundation of readers who have provided the venture with invaluable feedback and data. Some of the most well-loved features of Letts Journal include weekly updates straight to readers’ inboxes, along with the refreshing, insightful and humorous take on business news that makes the subject all-the-more engaging and accessible.
The media site’s three extra channels cover future trends, political satire, and photo-cartoons - putting the soul back into digital news. A year on, with the launch of its new website layout, the Letts Journal has stayed fresh and exciting. The new layout makes available handy digital tools - a hallmark of each LettsGroup venture.
True to the Letts Journal belief that information media should be accessible and attainable to all, the team have decided to keep all content free at all times - curbing the common monetary issues of paid digital subscription requirements that have been a well-cited downfall of multiple digital news and media sites. It's become especially relevant in the face of today's cost of living crisis.(Dare we say 'recession' …. Er, banana)
At Letts Journal, any paid subscriptions are voluntary to fulfill the LettsGroup values of access and sustainability. Voluntary subscriptions allow devoted readers to support Letts Journal’s expansion, but access to content remains untouched regardless of a paid or unpaid subscription. That is the Letts Journal promise.
This July, Letts Journal implemented other subscription options. Their standard free subscription is now supplemented with a voluntary monthly or annual subscription at just £3.50/pcm or £35 annually - completely at the subscriber’s discretion. Alternatively, one can gift or donate a subscription. But the standard is set and will remain that all content is free and accessible to paying and non-paying subscribers.
The Letts Journal further offers a Platinum membership for people or businesses that want more from the platform. Those supporters can get featured as a sponsor, and receive invitations to exclusive LettsGroup events.
Growth at Letts Journal is completely determined by its growth in subscribers - whether they are paying or non-paying, meaning that reading and sharing Letts Journal commentaries is encouraged and indeed vital to this independent platform and its writers’ evolution.
Subscribe to Letts Journal to experience the platform’s news commentary today, along with weekly updates straight to your inbox. Letts Journal is a publication of the branded incubator group, LettsGroup, which is active through @LettsGroup on twitter.
It is 18 months since we introduced the world to the new Letts Group and its branded incubator approach, which we have been developing behind the scenes for quite a while. We are passionate about the intersection between technology, media and creativity. Our incubator, and the group in general, is currently focused on Web3, Media-as-a-Service, NFT, payment systems, cryptocurrency, art commerce, AI and climate tech.
We believe that we have truly redefined the concept of corporate incubator, which our founder John Letts discovered in 1796, prior to inventing the commercial diary. And in 2021 we made progress on a number of different fronts.
In June we launched a digital greentech venture called Letts Safari in private beta. The beta proved successful and was 300% over-subscribed. We are now fully live and scaling our approach to online crowd rewilding.
We also established the Letts Journal, a first step in our news media strategy. Behind the scenes we are developing a fully automated, AI driven news network and Media-as-a-Service (MaaS).
We are about to launch an art commerce platform called LettsArt in private beta, making it the first secure NFT enabled artist website platform. LettsArt is a Web3 venture which is building a future where creators can flourish by selling their art directly to collectors, disrupting the inefficient existing art market – for artists, photographers, filmmakers and designers. The latest Letts venture is timely given the creator economy and has a very scalable model.
LettsArt has developed a proprietary technology platform that enables creators to set up an online gallery in minutes and sell their art directly to their supporters with an automated payment system that takes cash and cryptocurrency, plus NFT minting. At the same time, collectors will gain direct access to artist sales and a transparent, data-driven art marketplace. LettsArt goes into private beta with invite-only creators in March.
Letts Group has an experienced team in place, with a number of new additions, and will be looking to scale our current ventures, continue to incubate new ideas and approaches, and start the journey to establishing a partner programme – to begin to welcome external innovators with their exciting ideas and concepts.
We are passionate about working to create a brighter future and developing our unique branded incubator approach. If you would like to find out more about us go to Letts.group.
This year is the 225th anniversary of Letts. We are celebrating this extraordinary milestone with a series of articles (and events) – from the early years right up to today. The fourth article looks at the transition to the fifth and sixth generation of the family business – run by Leslie and Anthony Letts.
It was not until the 20th century that a certain dynamism becomes apparent in the diary products, reflecting underlying changes in demand which took the diary from a conventional but restricted market of a few hundred thousand to the mass consumer product of today. This rapid growth in demand, no doubt partly stimulated by Letts, was matched by a growth in the business which developed from a small family partnership at the run of the 1900’s to the worlds leading diary publishing business later in the century employing nearly 700 people and producing around 20 million diaries a year. The only aspect that had not changed was the family link, with the fifth and sixth generation in control.
The main spur of growth came as a result of the development of the pocket diary, which, being an article of personal attire rather than a desk-bound product, responded more quickly to changes in taste. The first development could be seen in the 1890’s, when thumb-size diaries were produced, no doubt in response to the late Victorian love of miniatures. These diaries were novelties rather than serious products. Then, in the early part of the twentieth century, the specialist diary, catering for specific interests, indicated a move to increase the market by segmentation. This was shortly followed by the first diaries designed as corporate gifts, and it was this sector of the market that grew to dominate demand in most developed countries later in the 1900’s.
These new uses for the diary stimulated a greater responsiveness to the changing requirements of the consumer. Internal layouts became more formalised, underlying the future-planning aspects of modern diary-keeping, while the binding and general design of the diaries reflected current tastes. Patriotism during the World Wars, the delicate fashion of the 1920’s and the very distinctive tastes fashioned during the eruption of youth in the 1960’s and 1970’s are all very apparent in the diary designs of those periods.
The 1970’s introduced a more international approach to the market, for Letts dairies were no longer confined mainly to the United Kingdom. Traditionally sold within the Commonwealth, other markets were now penetrated so that Letts diaries were sold to most of the main markets in the world. The most significant development having been made in North America, where sales grew from 100,000 dollars in the late-1970’s to 10 million dollars and where Letts was the leading brand-name for quality diaries by the 1990’s.
The need to appeal to a more sophisticated and international demand helped to raise the profile of the diary as a consumer product and this was very apparent in the ranges published in the 1980’s and 1990’s. The influence of fashion and the need to compete for space in retail outlets which themselves became increasingly conscious of design, became modern social trends which manifested themselves quite clearly in late century design of diaries. Just as an individual diary when written up in the traditional way provides a window on one small element in society at the time, so a range of diaries for a given year reflected some of the tastes and habits of contemporary society.
Letts invented the loose leaf diary, only to watch Filofax dominate the market. In the end Letts Diaries acquired Filofax – a nod to the growing importance of this new category.
What of the future? Will digital diaries take over diary-keeping entirely? Over time, they will to a certain extent, even though paper based diary products sell in very large volumes. And though electronic devices are made to plan time and store information, they struggle to replace fully the real purpose of a diary. After all, the diary is a personal friend, to whom one entrusts details of ones appointments and aspirations, and in whom one confides ones most intimate thoughts.
You could argue that it was this thinking that led the Letts family to sell the majority of the diary business in the late 1990’s, when arguably the paper based diary market was at its peak. And through the turn of the century the family divested most of their paper based products. Following the millennium change the Letts family’s focus on the diary gradually drew to a close as they started to turn their attention to future Letts family ventures and investments, focused around the digital revolution.
And so began the generational handover from Anthony Letts, the 6th generation of the eponymous diary family, to Philip Letts, the 7th generation of Letts and the current leader of the family’s commercial activities.
In the last anniversary article about the history of the eponymous Letts diary family, we will look at the transition to the new, twenty first century Letts Group, led by Philip Letts, who alongside Anthony, is nurturing the 8th generation of this historic publishing family.
We are excited to launch the Letts Journal – a free, weekly publication that talks straight about business, climate and life. The Letts Journal is the latest Letts Group venture, from the family that invented the commercial diary over 200 years ago. It is the first step in our news media strategy.
Along with its main section, the Letts Journal has channels which include ‘Surviving’, ‘Liberty Shrugged’ and ‘Photo Synthesis’, providing future trends, political satire and photo cartoons. We’ll add more as the publication develop.
The Letts ushered in diary keeping, journaling and personal media. For a long time the Letts family have been innovating with new media products and dreaming of a time when news reporting would become more democratic and independent.
This year is the 225th anniversary of Letts. We believe it is the right time to launch a news publication with a difference.
News gathering is getting increasingly commoditised. User generated news is the future. We think there is a need for a new kind of digital publication that focuses on news commentary and insights. One that keeps busy readers informed AND entertained.
We take a view and we keep it short. Who’s got time for more?
News publications have become increasingly dry and jargonistic. We want to make reading the news easy and fun again.
The Letts Journal is about commentary, conversation and a more open and inclusive approach.
Straight from the hip… with a sprinkling of tongue in cheek.
This year is the 225th anniversary of Letts. We are celebrating this extraordinary milestone with a series of articles (and events) – from the early years right up to today. The third article looks at the transition to the third and fourth generation of the family business – run by Charles Letts.
In the 1870’s Thomas Letts, who had now been joined in the publishing business by his son Charles, took advantage of recent changes in company law to convert the business to a limited liability company. At the same time new capital was introduced to help finance the expanding business, and non-family directors became involved.
This, and the more academic nature of Charles, led to tensions between the family and non-family directors which culminated in Charles leaving the company in 1881 to set up on his own and thus create the business which developed into the 21st century diary publishing business bearing his name.
Thus two competing brands of Letts diaries were published until 1945, when Charles Letts & Co Ltd re-acquired the copyright of the original business founded by John Letts.
To set up on his own was a brave step for a man of forty-two with a growing family, and the first years of developing his own business were an uphill struggle. Charles was a scholarly man, author of an excellent essay on Celebrated Diarists, and the business only developed slowly under his control. It was not until his two sons, Harry and Norman, joined him that real signs of growth and prosperity were apparent. Harry, in particular, displayed many of the characteristics of his grandfather, Thomas, and he was mainly responsible for developing the business from one publishing a few hundred thousand diaries per annum at the turn of the century to a circulation of 2.7 million at the time of his retirement in 1932.
The fluctuations in the fortunes of the business were not reflected in the product. If you compare a diary produced in the early part of the century with a similar model at its end, what is apparent is the slow pace of change, no doubt reflecting the gradual maturing of the product and a more stable and conservative society. Designs and formats developed almost imperceptibly, while the information alone became more detailed and comprehensive. Even prices remained stable, with the 1856 and 1894 editions of the same model retailing at an unchanged shilling.
One innovation which occurred in the 1860’s was the introduction of advertising in the diaries which, no doubt, allowed for a better value to be provided at the same price. It was not until the twentieth century that a certain dynamism becomes apparent in the product, reflecting underlying changes in demand which took the diary from a conventional but restricted market of a few hundred thousand to the mass consumer product of today.
In the last of our anniversary articles about the past history of the eponymous Letts diary family, we will look at the development of the Letts Diary business in the twentieth century and the gradual transition, by the Letts family, to the new, twenty first century Letts Group.
The family that invented the commercial diary 200 years ago have launched an ambitious new greentech venture called Letts Safari. Letts Safari was created to expedite the move to ‘renewable nature’, obtained through nature regeneration and surface-based carbon capture.
Letts Safari harnesses the energy of the environmental movement and gives those involved actions to take beyond protest. It enables all people to do something about climate change. Members subscribe to a digital platform at LettsSafari.com that builds next generation safari parks – one tree, one animal, one new park at a time. Every 10 subscribers they plant a tree a year, every 100 subscribers they release a wild animal, and every 10,000 subscribers they will create a new, real-world safari park a year. Their first safari park is up and running in southwest England.
The Letts remind us of the threat of climate change. They explain that our soil and waterways are so damaged that they’re no longer able to absorb the carbon we produce. As a result emissions are trapped in the atmosphere creating pollution, violent storms, droughts, flooding and wildfire. We’re losing wildlife and plants faster than ever before.
Letts Safari offers a simple solution. They build rewilding safari parks that do something about climate change. The parks rapidly repair soil and waterways so they can absorb carbon dioxide, and ensure that trees and plants thrive naturally, providing habitats for wildlife.
When you subscribe to Letts Safari they plant trees, release wildlife and build new habitats. Each tree they plant removes 1 tonne of carbon dioxide during its life. They also remove carbon with scrub, wild grasses, wetland and bog.
Once they get enough subscribers they will create more eco safari parks – with their members – to make a bigger difference. Hopefully along the way members will get inspired to build a mini wildlife haven in their backyard, at work, school and in their community. They’ll share the secret source.
Land holders with 50+ acre parks can apply to join the Letts Safari network of parks. Approved parks will receive support and guidance from Letts Safari and its members.
Subscribers to Letts Safari get a front row seat at the safari parks. With video footage, hidden cameras, wildlife photography and stories that transport them to the wild – online.
The Letts accidentally discovered rewilding in 2006 when they decided to create a small, wild space outside New York. They built an ecosystem of wild grasses, wildflower, shrub, scrub and trees on just a few acres. Before they knew it the wildlife started arriving. First insects, bugs and snakes. Then birds and mammals. A wasteland turned into a wildlife haven in just a couple of years.
They decided to do it again in a larger space. In 2014 they bought an old, run down 100 acre park and garden on the outskirts of Exeter, in the southwest of England. It was a mess. Today it’s a leading rewilding wildlife park. They created Letts Safari so they can share this fascinating new approach to ‘renewable nature’ and build many more safari parks. What they accidentally discovered back in 2006 is today called smaller-scale rewilding. If enough of us do enough of it, we can help fix the climate problem.
It looks like a fascinating new greentech offering – providing a mass market approach to rewilding with a digital, subscription economy wrapper. It could prove a timely new way for us to offset carbon and restore nature, while reducing emissions and rebuilding biodiversity. It’s well worth taking a look at.
Rewilding could be one the most holistic and natural solutions to the climate crisis. Large national parks started the practice nearly thirty years ago in places like Yellowstone Park in America. Large scale projects are focused on wildlife conservation and reintroduction through natural, wild habitat regeneration.
Rewilding solves three key problems at once. It restores our soil so that it can become an effective carbon sink, it develops habitats which support wildlife and it helps regenerate natural plant growth. Each are critical ingredients to saving the planet from the effects of global warming. If we get it right, our soil alone should be able to absorb the majority of carbon emissions that we produce each year.
Rewilding is about creating the right balance of three essential habitats: woodland, open scrub and wild grassland. Smaller-scale rewilding also involves the creation of a fourth, which is waterways. Larger-scale rewilding assumes that there will be natural waterways flowing through the land. With smaller-scale rewilding this often has to be created.
Up until recently rewilding has been the sole preserve of national parks and a few large farms. They have proven the model and provided some of the approaches for how to make conservation-based rewilding work. But it needed something else to deliver climate-fixing rewilding at scale.
“A few years ago a Letts Group project started playing with an idea which could end up cracking the code for scalable, mass market solutions to the climate crisis. It is called smaller-scale rewilding.”
We accidentally discovered rewilding in 2005 when we decided to create a small, wild space outside New York for a specific project. We built an ecosystem of wild grasses, wildflower, shrub, scrub and trees on just a few acres. Before we knew it the wildlife started arriving. First insects, bugs and snakes. Then birds and mammals. A wasteland turned into a wildlife haven in just a couple of years.
We decided to do it again in a larger space. In 2014 we bought an old, run down 100 acre park and garden, called Mamhead Park South, on the outskirts of Exeter in the southwest of England. It was a mess. It has become a leading smaller-scale rewilding park.
Smaller-scale rewilding has become an accepted practice and it is classified as a rewilding project smaller than 250 acres. Over the last few years Letts Group have taken it a step further and defined a number of practical and distinct models from garden-scale rewilding through to 250 acre projects.
Smaller-scale rewilding is more involved, more technical and much more scalable. It is also focused on solving the climate crisis and not just limited to certain objectives around conservation. Smaller-scale rewilders make green spaces that are effective carbon sinks and oases of low carbon energy and natural food production. Their spaces also accelerate natural plant growth in a more controlled environment while nurturing habitats for wildlife.
Letts have for years been practising what it is now called ‘Wildlife Gardening’ – a trendy new gardening method for rewilding your garden. But we have also developed practical models for rewilding verges, allotments, commons, parks, smallholdings and corners of farms and estates.
If you tour the towns and countryside in southwest England you can already see a number of the approaches developed and showcased at Mamhead Park South appearing in the region. Clearly something is catching on. Indeed, Letts Group regularly host and educate government and business leaders, environmental experts, landscapers, conservationists and land holders committed to a more regenerative form of farming. We have also established a private sculpture park, called Devon Sculpture Park, which is solely focused on environmental art to extend the climate message.
If smaller-scale rewilding can become a wider movement for change then perhaps there is a glimmer of hope in the battle against climate change. After all, we estimate that there are over a billion gardens worldwide, more than 250 million smallholdings, and millions of smaller farms and parks. Imagine if they were at least part-rewilded.
Wildlife gardening is rewriting the book on how to garden, turning gardens into mini carbon sinks that support insects, birds and small mammals while advancing regenerative plant growth. Wildlife gardening practices zero watering techniques, zero chemical or pesticide approaches and zero use of petrol guzzling tools, making the new crop of electric tools truly du jour. All plants are left to seed and pruning techniques could not be more different. Wildlife gardens use outdoor lights that are solar powered.
Garden rewilding recreates small woodland with just a few trees, shrubs are carefully selected as proxies for scrub and wild grasses abound. Plants are generally chosen for their year round ability to support pollinators. And each plant is left to seed. We have established a three-tier waterway system which effortlessly links a pond to a bog garden and on to surface water over grasses which creates wetland. The insects and birds love it.
Letts Group has effectively miniaturised large-scale rewilding and repurposed it for mass market adoption – making it effective and understandable for everyone. We can all become a rewilding expert, no matter whether you have a small terrace garden, a roof garden, cottage garden or more. We will soon be launching a new Letts branded venture focused on delivering mass market adoption.
The Letts constantly remind us that in your garden you are the herbivore and herbivores are vital to managing projects that are larger than a garden or smallholding. When you walk across the Wildlands at Mamhead Park South you understand why. The extraordinary selection of conservation grazers that are unique to smaller-scale rewilding help maintain and shape the habitats keeping scrub as scrub, woodlands as healthy woodlands (where you can practice silvopasture techniques) and open grassland free of invasive species, scrub or tree shoots.
You can’t exactly reintroduce the bison, the wolf or a red deer into smaller-scale rewilding so at Mamhead Park you get to see what does work. The grazers are smaller and lighter with a reduced footprint, but no less wild and effective than their larger proxies. We even help to mathematically understand how many of these conservation grazers can be hosted per acre.
Smaller-scale rewilding is an eye opener and you are left with a profound sense of hope. We no longer need to wonder what we can do about the climate crisis. We don’t need to wait for the government or super-rich to act. Any of us can become a rewilding expert and planet saver. Greta Thunberg might soon be telling us about how she has rewilded her school yard!
Corporate incubators have been all the rage. Around 10 years ago, a number of corporates started to set up some kind of corporate incubator or accelerator to nurture new business lines and innovative products. They had a limited vision of ‘incubator’ – generally designed to host new startups within their facilities. They offered them resources, support and, as they matured, market access.
10 years later many of these corporates have scaled down their efforts or largely abandoned them. Corporate incubator 1.0 did not realise its somewhat loose ambition. A number of the more innovative corporates and a few management consultants are working on the next generation of corporate incubator.
Letts Group has taken a different approach. Our incubator is an internal function that is central to the organisation. It is our growth engine – period.
“We see our incubator as a strategic, internal, centralised function. We have repositioned the group as a ‘branded incubator group’ to underscore this. We don’t just make small bets on our incubator or outsource it’s core capability. We’ve bet the entire shop on our incubator. It is our core capability.”
The concept of incubator has been with us for 225 years. In 1996, our original founder, John Letts opened a stationery shop and publishing incubator in the city of London. The front rooms the shop and the back rooms the incubator studio. From this setup he launched the world’s first commercial diary in 1812. It was market tested exclusively in the store and designed and made in the back rooms.
Letts Group’s Chairman, Philip Letts, started to develop the latest generation incubator in 1998. It was a separate entity, called Prophete, that nurtured external, non-branded innovations. It developed concepts such as Beenz, the Web currency, and Surfkitchen, a mobile operating system and media platform. It was an important parallel initiative as we started the process of divesting some of our book publishing interests.
In 2007 we further developed Letts Group’s latest generation incubator, after initial successes. We built a proprietary incubation methodology, which is called Innov@te™, and we designed our first incubator studio with a clutch of then, very new, cloud systems and processes. From this base we launched b-uncut, a social network for artists and blur Group, an online marketplace for creative services. Both were successfully spun out and became independent businesses.
It took much of the last 10 years to perfect the methodology, systems and processes to get to the point where we felt comfortable that our incubator was ready to develop multiple Letts branded businesses and products from scratch – and in parallel.
At the end of 2020 we gave the go ahead for 3 new Letts branded ventures to go to ‘live concept phase’. The tech industry would call it ‘beta launch’. The first hits the market in June. We have engineered the group, and developed the incubator, to the point where we feel comfortable that we will be launching a new Letts venture per year, starting this year.
It’s taken us 20 years to get to this point but we believe that we might have a line on corporate incubator 2.0. The proof will be in the pudding – starting next month!
