Posts Tagged by investor
Renewable Energy in Europe
| December 22, 2011 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Business |
I’ll be in Europe from April 26th through May 10th, 2012, attending conferences, meeting colleagues known to me now only through Skype, and conducting interviews for my third book, “Renewable Energy – Following the Money.” In fact, including a robust European presence in the book is vital to telling the story. Where investors may be sitting on the sidelines in the U.S., this is most certainly not the case elsewhere in the world. Europe is proving to be a critically important part of the world in this regard — both for implementing existing clean energy technologies, and as a breeding ground for innovation as well.
Let me take this opportunity to ask you for suggestions. I’ll have plenty of time between conferences and strolls up the Champs Elysees. If you have any connections to people who are in the process of making a difference in the deployment of renewables in Europe, please let me know, and I’ll try to arrange to meet them.
I plan to start in Paris, then head east and south, winding up in Rome. Having said that, detours are always possible. I’d like to speak with entrepreneurs, investors, leaders in government, executives in the energy and automotive industries, top consultants and industry analysts, as well as those directly related to finance and the economy. Tres bien.
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2GreenEnergy – Fulfilling its Promise to Investors and Entrepreneurs
| August 29, 2009 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Business |
I’m flying to New York City tomorrow to meet with a new associate – a friend of a friend – who will be helping 2GreenEnergy fulfill its promise to investors and entrepreneurs. He runs a small but effective investment banking firm, and seems like a terrific human being. I’ve always loved The City, and I’m really looking forward to all aspects of this trip.
What I see developing at 2GreenEnergy is a community of many thousands of people who take the business of renewables seriously. I’ve spoken with numerous professional investors and scads of inventors with truly exciting business plans. In very short order, we hope to be bringing these two groups together, enabling the formation of dozens of new business ventures. Speaking for all of us here, I’m thrilled to be able to play such a role.
In my “past life” as a marketing consultant for IT, my company delivered services to scores of venture-capitalized start-ups, and I well remember the drill that my clients with new companies went through. Investors want clear paths to liquidity, and that comes from good ideas, but mainly from proven management teams, hungry for success. I’ll never forget what one my client’s investors told me 30 years ago, “If the CEO doesn’t have fire in his belly, I don’t want any part of it.” Here, I’m happy to say that I see a great deal of that “fire,” and this re-enforces my belief that we’re headed in the right direction.
If I have one thing to add to this, it’s the importance of a good marketing plan. When you think about it, a business plan IS a marketing plan. It’s an assertion of the existence of an unmet need, and a quantification of how the company proposes to fill that need.
I urge those with great ideas to follow their thinking through to the exact business model that will be implemented. For instance, I’m speaking with a gentleman with a radical idea for an alternative drive train, and I’m encouraging him to flesh out the business plan to include at least the broad strokes of marketing: Does he contemplate becoming an OEM in a particular niche that seems to be available? Cutting a deal with an auto OEM? With one or more motor/drivetrain suppliers? Entering the supply chain in some innovative new way? Offering a conversion kit? Developing an affiliation with a university known for its transportation engineering?
When I return from The City, I hope to be able to post a series of helpful tips about this entire process of preparing an effective business/marketing plan.
