On the 14^th of November, the King’s E-Lab welcomed brand guru Rita Clifton for a fireside chat with EMBA 2023 student Jennifer Swimley to discuss the UK's most successful employee-owned company, John Lewis, founded in 1864 and entrusted to employees in 1929. Read from Nadejda Petrova about the event’s main insights and Ms. Clifton’s expert tips on how to build a personal brand including how she learnt to work with her imposter self rather than hide from it in order to succeed in her career.

This month the E-Lab hosted its Social Ventures Residential for the second year, bringing together 41 scholars from across the University of Cambridge to engage on the meaning and the purpose of social innovation and entrepreneurship. In collaboration with the Mastercard Foundation Scholars Programme and the Cambridge Centre for Social Innovation, the residential is an intensive three-day programme designed to equip students with a solid grounding and an array of tools with which to pursue their interest in social ventures. One of the scholars, Maureen Abel, reflects on her experience in this week’s blog.

In October 2024, the E-Lab hosted a power panel of social entrepreneurs facilitated by Maggie Robb (PwC) and Tofik Saad (School for Social Entrepreneurs (SSE)). The event demonstrated the benefit of collaborations between social enterprises, public organisations and private sector stakeholders. This week, Maggie Robb recounts the social programmes of PwC and their various benefits. These initiatives present important lessons for how to integrate a spirit of community engagement and social impact into private sector activities.

MPhil student Shufaa Hame’s start-up, ‘Kuwiswe’, aims to bring ethically created African-made products to global customers and to tackle the exploitation of the continent as only a source of raw materials. Kuwiswe acts as an online platform that connects African-owned businesses with a global market and, also, as a call to rethink people’s mindsets when it comes to the purchases they make. Its goal is two-fold: to celebrate the quality and artistic value of Tanzania and the continent, and to actively foster conscious consumers. Read more about Shufaa’s inspiration for her social venture Kuwiswe here.

In 2024, the E-Lab ran the second edition of our Entrepreneurship Essay Competition. The purpose of the competition is to encourage UK-based school students to pursue entrepreneurial aspirations and understand better how to launch an enterprise. The students choose between three essay questions which reflects the importance of entrepreneurism and the challenges that businesses face. This week, we share the essay of runner up, Keon Robert from Queen Elizabeth's School, Barnet, who explains how Grameen Bank in Bangladesh embodies the essence of sustainable and successful social enterprise.

Social enterprises face unique challenges when it comes to measuring impact. Distinct from traditional business models, these organisations are driven by the aim to create meaningful and sustainable difference in the lives of their beneficiaries. These kinds of impact can be far more intangible than that which constitutes usual business metrics. As a consequence, innovative approaches to measure and understand impact are often required. Noise Solution, a music mentoring programme for at-risk youth, provides just such an example of this. Simon Glenister, the founder of Noise Solution and panellist from the our Catalysts for Change event, shares his insights of their approach.

In 2024, we hosted an incredible 92 events, including fireside chats, workshops, expos, residential teaching weeks, and other impactful gatherings. We welcomed inspiring innovators, leaders and trailblazers: from President Dalia Grybauskaitė to Nobel Prize Laureate Greg Winter.

Alongside Oscar, Emmy, and BAFTA winners, Governors, MPs, ambassadors, policymakers and business leaders, we created inclusive spaces for over 7,000 students, university members and guests to engage with our speakers.

Read more about a year of innovation and impact at the E-Lab, including our highlights, activities, celebrations and much more in this piece.

On the 23rd of November, we celebrated the second year of our E-Lab Entrepreneurship Essay Competition and announced the 2024 Winners at an Awards Ceremony in King’s College. The essay competition serves to foster entrepreneurial mindsets in young students and to encourage them to engage with innovative thinking. This year we welcomed over 200 entries from across 130 schools and asked the students to grapple with important questions facing those interested in entrepreneurship today. In this post, our Senior Associate Rhys Williams explains the value of the competition, the themes of this year’s essay questions, and the strategies employed by our three winners.

In September 2024, the King’s E-Lab welcomed its fourth cohort for its yearly residential programme. The residential week, which included participation from 7 Cambridge Colleges, brought together undergraduates and graduates from a range of disciplines who are eager to explore the potential of entrepreneurship for their endeavours. Jin Chen, 3^rd year art historian from Murray Edwards College unpacks her experience of the week, from interdisciplinary insights to creative collaborations.

Economics is an important part of the academic community at King’s College. The College has a yearly intake of around 35-40 economics students, both undergraduate and graduate, and the largest Fellowship in Cambridge in terms of economics. Recently, King’s MBA student Elliot Fournet attended a day with Lord Mervyn King alongside other King’s economics students, past and present, to reflect on the place, potential and future of economic knowledge in academia and beyond. Read more about the day from him here.

On the 17^th October 2024, the King’s E-Lab hosted David Roux, co-founder and co-managing partner of BayPine Capital, in conversation with King’s College Provost, Gillian Tett. Read Jigar Patel’s reflection on a night of insight, anecdotes and wise words for aspiring entrepreneurs.

Timothy P. A. Cooper’s book Moral Atmospheres: Islam and Media in a Pakistani Marketplace is an account of over a year of embedded research in the largest electronics market in Pakistan. Once the centre of film and media piracy in South Asia, it now specialises in smartphones and accessories. For Hall Road’s traders, conflicts between the economic promises and the moral dangers of film loom large. At once a vivid ethnography of a market street and a generative theorization of atmosphere, this book offers fresh perspectives on moral experience and the relationship between religion, media, and economic life.

Where law meets innovation—Hamza Aslam delves into the future of law as AI takes centre stage, exploring the transformative power of generative AI in legal practice.

In September 2024, the King’s E-Lab welcomed its fourth cohort of residential students for the 2024/5 academic year. The cohort included a mix of graduates and undergraduates from a wide range of academic fields. Eva Lemmy, an English undergraduate, reflects on her experience during the residential week and the potential of programmes like it to bridge important gaps between the arts and business.