By Vicki Owen

BP announced today that Dame Ann Dowling will join its board as a non-executive director. The head of the Department of Engineering at the University of Cambridge, where she is Professor of Mechanical Engineering, is taking up her new role this week. 

BP chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg says: ‘I welcome Ann Dowling to the board. Ann has a strong academic and engineering background and I look forward to her contribution to our discussions.’

Dowling has held visiting posts at MIT and Caltech and has had strong links with industry throughout her career, BP says.

Facts about Dame Ann Dowling:

- Her research is primarily in the fields of combustion, fluid mechanics, vibration and noise, and is aimed mainly at the transport and energy sectors.

- She is one of the founders of the Energy Efficient Cities initiative in Cambridge. 

- She is chairman to the University Gas Turbine Partnership (UGTP) with Rolls-Royce in which a range of technologies are researched for the next generations of aero and industrial gas turbines.

- She was UK lead of the Silent Aircraft Initiative, a collaboration between researchers at Cambridge and MIT, which led to the development of a conceptual design for a novel, ultra-low noise, fuel-efficient aircraft that has helped set the scene for NASA’s long-term vision.

- She is a Chartered Engineer, Fellow of the Royal Society, Royal Academy of Engineering, Foreign Member of the US National Academy of Engineering, and of the French Academy of Sciences.

- She has an Honorary ScD degree from Trinity College Dublin and an Honorary Fellowship from the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.

- She has served on a number of industry and government advisory bodies.

- She chaired the Royal Society/Royal Academy of Engineering study on Nanotechnology and is chairing the Physical Sciences, Engineering and Mathematics Panel in the Research Excellence Framework – the UK government’s review of research in universities.

- She was appointed CBE by the Queen for services to Mechanical Engineering in 2002, and DBE for services to Science in 2007.

An enterprise calendar, detailing more than 600 events this year being held for entrepreneurs, was launched last week.

The move is part of the Start-Up Britain campaign, which was launched last March by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs. It aims to ‘celebrate, inspire and accelerate enterprise in the UK’.

The calendar, available at startupbritain.org, is intended to become a valuable resource for business owners, who can access details of bootcamps, workshops, conferences and networking events, among others, taking place across the country, many of them free.

>> Take a look at the calendar here

David Howell is a freelance journalist, writer and publisher specialising in business and technology. He is also the author of The Small Business Guide to Apps.

There’s an app for that

Less than six months ago Apple announced that they had sold over 15 billion apps. ‘In just three years, the revolutionary App Store has grown to become the most exciting and successful software marketplace the world has ever seen,’ said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing.

What the app market has done is offer any business an opportunity to connect with their existing customers and reach potential new clients via a completely new marketing channel.

Already businesses in the UK are reaping the rewards that apps have delivered. Mobile or M-commerce looks set to become an even bigger market than E-commerce has become over the last decade.

And if you thought that the app market was just about games, think again. Businesses in every sector that have built their own apps are gaining real commercial rewards from this market.

An excellent recent example is Addison Lee, London’s largest minicab company.

In one month alone after releasing their own app to allow customers to book minicabs from their iPhones the company took 75,000 bookings that equated to in excess of £1.4 million. This means the company should gross over £20 million from its iPhone app alone in 2011.

Gartner predicts that there will be over 390 million smartphones in the market place by 2013, an increase of over 20% on today’s numbers. With this level of growth it isn’t surprising that businesses are looking closely at how this massive installed user base of potential customers can be monetised.

Clearly as with all business decisions you must carefully assess your desire to move into app development. This must not simply be a knee jerk reaction to a new market that perhaps your competitors are entering. Ask yourself whether there is a real business case within your enterprise to develop an app.

Once you have made your decision to build an app for your business, the most critical decision you must make is what kind of app you should create. For retailers in the bricks and clicks sector, the development of an app for their businesses was an obvious decision. Extending their commercial reach to existing and new customers via an app offers these companies an additional retail channel that will massively expand over the next few years.

Initially spending some time researching your new app is vital to gain an insight into how the current App market links to your business sector. Look for the market leaders that have apps that rank highly on the Apps Store and the other apps stores for each of the operating systems your business wants to support.

Many of the best apps have come out of a need that a business has identified. Ask your customers what they would like to see in an app if you developed one.

And don’t forget your business’ commercial partners.

You may be able to develop an app together that could be mutually beneficial especially if your business operates in the B2B sector that is just beginning to see how apps can be used to forge close commercial partnerships and reach new customers.

Another highly effective way to use the apps market is to use your company’s existing products that could interface with a smartphone with a specialist app to drive the hardware. Good examples in this area include universal remote control devices and accessories for the cameras that all smartphones have built in as standard.

Hiring an app designer may have been your initial thought, but it is possible today to go down the DIY route. The learning curve for app development can be quite steep especially if you have no background in software development. If you’ve never even coded a web page with HTML, then learning X Code for Apple App development could seem like an impossible task.

The good news is that the complex nature of learning the coding language for app development has created an entire industry whose aim is to give you simple tools that often completely hide the underlying code that your app uses with a simple point and click interface that you use to create your app from ready-made components.

Think of this DIY approach to app development as being a bit like using Lego. You choose the coding blocks you want to create your new app and simply snap them together. The market has of course expanded rapidly over the last few years. Some of the services your business could evaluate include:

The App Studio [http://us.www.theappstudio.com/]
AppsBar [http://www.appsbar.com/]
LiveCode [http://www.runrev.com/]
Shoutem [http://www.shoutem.com/]
MyAppBuilder [http://myappbuilder.com/]

The vast majority of the DIY app creation services only take existing content on your blog or website and turn this into an app. If your company has greater ambitions with the app it wants to create, outsourcing the design of your app would be a much more efficient solution.

What is clear is that M-commerce is going to be a major force in your business over the coming years. Developing apps for your company may be a short-term focus due to the high demand from consumers at the moment, but over the longer term, M-commerce in general with apps being a component of your business strategy will become increasingly vital to your business longevity.

<< David Howell is a freelance journalist, writer and publisher specialising in business and technology. He is also the author of The Small Business Guide to Apps recently published through Brightword Publishing (Click here for more)  To find out more about David, take a look at his website.

THE First Women Awards, which recognise pioneering women who have achieved ‘firsts’ within their business sector, are now open for nominations.

The awards, which are in their eighth year, were set up by business magazine Real Business and the Confederation of British Industry and are sponsored by Lloyds Banking Group.

The judges, which include Dame Mary Perkins of Specsavers, will be looking for women that have ‘broken new ground or the glass ceiling’ in their chosen industry, removing barriers or opening up opportunities for others as a result.

There are several categories of awards, covering sectors such as manufacturing and engineering, retail & consumer, science & technology and finance.

There is also a lifetime achievement award, given to an individual who has made the greatest contribution to women in business in Britain.

The First Women In Business of the Year award will be given to an organisation or company that is ‘outstanding in promoting women in the workplace’.

Former award winners include Thea Green, the founder of Nails Inc and Liz Nelson OBE, founder of market research company Taylor Nelson Sofres.

The deadline for award entries is Friday April 13, while an awards ceremony to announce the winners will be held at the Grand Connaught Rooms in London, on June 28.

To enter visit fwa.realbusiness.co.uk or contact alexis.carlson@caspianmedia.com for a nomination form

CRITIERIA FOR NOMINEES CITATION

The citation must address the following key judges’ criteria:

• Outline specific career/life achievements that are ‘firsts’ or breakthroughs
• Describe the way in which the candidate has broken new ground or ‘glass ceiling’ or has achieved their success by doing things differently from the established norms of their organisation or industry sector
• Outline ways in which the candidate’s achievements have helped to remove barriers, or open up opportunities for others, or set out new pathways for the future
• Describe the candidate’s vision for the future and how they intend, in practical terms, to build on their existing achievements
• The citation should conclude with an answer to the following question: What opportunity would the candidate like to go after if she had the necessary funding/resources available?

The interactive speed mentoring event hosted by Wings of Hope will see more than 40 successful young professionals from high-profile companies such as Unilever, BP, Goldman Sachs, British Airways, Burberry, the Royal Institute of British Architects, the Bank of England and the BBC pass on their experiences of the world of work.

Many of the professionals at the event have recently been through the university and graduate recruitment system and will be able to offer advice on university and degree choices as well as talking about their jobs. There will also be young entrepreneurs who are pioneering the next generation in business and technology.

Those in attendance will also have the opportunity to exchange details with a “mentor” so they can continue dialogue throughout their careers.

A wide range of industries will be represented at the event at the Royal College of Surgeons in London on Saturday February 11 including medicine, journalism, banking and finance, consulting, accountancy, dentistry, pharmacy, music and theatre, technology, business, human resources, charity/non-profit, sustainability, fashion, teaching, economics and events.

The two-hour event, which starts at 2pm with registration at 1.30pm, is open to current participants of the Wings of Hope Achievement Award (WOHAA), which is a free social enterprise scheme for students in years nine to 13, as well as their friends and WOHAA alumni.

 There are limited places for teachers and parents available upon request. No entry will be permitted without pre-registration online.

Companies nationwide are jostling to be selected by you as the people’s champions.

We will invite the best of them to come forward over the next six months and our panel of expert judges will compile a shortlist for you to vote on.

Our competition will showcase firms that are showing the way in manufacturing, many holding their own in global markets.

Three featured in Financial Mail on Sunday’s small business section, The Enterprise Zone, at the weekend.

We will be looking for companies not only with a track record but with the potential to secure new business, create jobs and help to rebuild the economy.

We are also launching a new column to complement our highly regarded Midas Investment advice pages.

Aimed at investors seeking an inside track on up-and-coming companies, our One To Watch series can be found on the Enterprise pages of The Mail on Sunday.

This monthly column will feature rapidly growing firms with the potential to become successful investments by issuing shares on the stock market, retail bonds or other offers for private investors.

enterprise@financialmail.co.uk

>> Or take a look at our Under 18s finances section.

By Vicki Owen

The ifs School of Finance Student Investor Challenge, sponsored by Financial Mail, has been giving young investors the chance to pit their wits against the stock market.

Until next month, teams of students aged from 14 to 19 are competing to see how much money they can make from a virtual £100,000.

More than 10,000 teams have entered since October, with nearly 40,000 students taking part in the free competition.

Shares must be picked from the FTSE 100 and from 50 smaller companies selected by ifs.

A winning team is chosen each month.

After the competition closes, regional finals will be held before a national final in April.

The ultimate winners receive a week-long, all-expenses-paid educational trip to New York for themselves and their teacher.

They also win £2,000 for their school and £200 for each team member.

The current leaders are George Webb, Edward Tidball, Ejaaz Ahamadeen and Peter Chambers of team ‘Stochastic’ from Trinity School in Croydon, south London.

George, 16, was in the most successful team in the first phase of last year’s challenge and his teacher, Jan Farnfield, says she would trust him with her life savings.

By Simon Watkins

Health Secretary Andrew Lansley sparked a row last month when he said NHS medical data could be made available for companies’ research. Critics feared a risk to patient confidentiality, or an unwelcome intrusion of private interests into the NHS.

But researchers welcomed the idea, as did IDBS, a software group that specialises in the kind of programs that could help analyse that data and turn it into life-saving cures.

Founded in 1989 by Neil Kipling, now chief executive, the group, based in Guildford, Surrey, has grown steadily and is beginning to develop a good reputation worldwide. Its products are in a field known as enterprise data management.

Its software packages help research and development teams take raw data and turn it into meaningful information that can be ised to spot trends or patterns.

Clients include leaders in the pharmaceutical field such as Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline as well as academic institutes.

IDBS has just finished its latest financial year and figures will be filed later this year, but accounts for 2010 demonstrate its growth and solidity.

Sales hit £30 million (up 30 per cent) while pre-tax profits were £5.26 million (up 39 per cent).

Kipling, 48, expects results for 2011 to show another year of ‘significant progress’.

As well as being robustly profitable, IDBS has grown without building up any debt.

In the case of sharing NHS data, he says fears of private information being sold are misplaced while the benefits are potentially huge.

‘The success of advanced medical research will depend on large amounts of patient data being made available so that meaningful conclusions are possible,’ he says.

IDBS last year won a Queen’s Award for International Trade. It is owned entirely by Kipling and with millions in the bank there is little sign it will need to riase money from the markets.

But if it chose to carry out a major takeover that could change.

And despite being privately held, IDBS has already caught the attention of some City analysts.

George O’Connor of broker Panmure Gordon has drawn comparisons between IDBS and Autonomy, the British software success story that was a darling of the stock market until its takeover last year by US computer giant Hewlett Packard for almost £8 billion.

IDBS is a long way from being that successful, but is certainly one to watch.

>> And why not take a look at our new MADE IN BRITAIN feature?

We are looking to hear from firms with a turnover of no more than £250 million, who believe they stand out from their competitors.

To qualify businesses must carry out at least 50 per cent of their manufacturing in the UK. The deadline for putting your business forward is June 30, 2012.

To suggest your company email enterprise@financialmail.co.uk with details of your manufacturing business.

>> Click here for more from our MADE IN BRITAIN section

All over Britain, millions of smaller companies are battling through the tough economic climate – and winning.

Financial Mail has led the way in reporting on these enterprises, which is why we launched Made in Britain, a great new competition to celebrate the incredible diversity of small and medium businesses.

Over the next six months we will focus on many of the best up-and-coming smaller manufacturers on The Enterprise Zone pages of The Mail on Sunday.

Readers will then be able to vote for their favourite, which will be named the People’s Choice winner of the Financial Mail Made in Britain awards 2012.

If you haven’t already entered then make sure you do.

Sir Christopher Kelly, the chairman of the Committee on Standards in Public Life, called for reform of the rules on party funding to avoid damaging confidence in politics.

His comments, to The Daily Telegraph, came after four millionaire Tory donors received awards in the New Year honours list.

They included knighthoods for hedge fund tycoon Paul Ruddock and package holiday entrepreneur Doug Ellis, and CBEs for investment banker James Lupton and construction magnate James Wates.

Together they have given almost £1 million to the Conservative Party.

Two major Labour donors, Capita boss Rod Aldridge and the founder of online gambling firm bet365, Denise Coates, were also honoured at the weekend.

Sir Christopher said: “For as long as you can make political donations, when there is a coincidence between honours and donors you get this sort of story.

“It implies corruption even when there isn’t any. It is unsatisfactory. It is bad all round. They risk bringing it (the honours system) into disrepute.”

He added that the present arrangements were “very bad for confidence in the political system and unfair to donors who give for altruistic notions”.

“This is why we need to reform the system because donating to political parties should neither bring an honour nor be a bar to receiving an honour,” he said.

Labour MP Michael Dugher, a shadow Cabinet Office minister, said the honours list reflected the Tories’ priorities in office.

“David Cameron promised to clean up politics, but in office he has shown he is utterly out of touch with decent British people,” he said.

“He is giving a knighthood to Paul Ruddock, who made millions from the collapse of Northern Rock and has given over £500,000 to the Tories.

“This tells you everything you need to know about the Tories’ priorities. When millions of families are struggling to get by, it’s the Tories’ friends in the City who get the rewards.”