Building the future:
In a former industrial yard, reached via a gated alleyway in Leith, the future is being forged by a small group of millennials with big ideas on how the economy should be shaped.
FX Group is putting itself at the forefront of leadership programmes and is drawing on an already impressive track record of working with some of the world’s biggest companies such as Virgin and EY.
Co-founded by WeAreTheFuture founder Bruce Walker and the Power of Youth founder Adam Purvis and director Zoi Kantounatou, it aims to “disrupt the way entrepreneurial ecosystems are built”.
This means dispensing with many aspects of the old style of conference and trade mission and driving growth by combining talents and networks around problem-solving.
Purvis, a 33-year-old former Napier student, says his generation has rejected many of the old forms.
“What unifies millennials is that you have to consider the social impact and the human values behind business development.
“It means treating people fairly, giving them opportunities and looking at the values, including human values, that drive a business, not just its ability to make something. Millennials get this. They are criticised for being lazy and naive but that naivety is also a strength as they develop new ideas and ways of doing things.”
FX’s approach is attracting attention, not just from blue chip companies, but governments, including the Holyrood administration which worked with the team in developing new ways to develop overseas trade.
“The trade mission doesn’t work. It has to get beyond just taking a bunch of guys somewhere, handing out business cards and then coming home to hope for the best.”
He says the new way is to build an “eco-system” of experts around a problem or challenge and to bring these people together who will discuss the issue, build trust and, by staying in touch, find solutions. It was tried with a water issue in India and was deemed a success with Indian money finding its way into Scottish companies.
Purvis and Walker have known of each others work for some time and began talking about formalising their partnership last year.
Bruce Walker, 22, whose We Are the Future organises events for start-ups, says: “We were working on similar ideas and towards the same goal so it made sense for us to come together.”
They are now building an eight-strong team which includes a young White House speech writer and creating a few waves among the movers and shakers.
Walker says a good example of how the current system is broken was revealed in the resignation of the Uber chief executive.
“You had a hard-nosed, get to the top structure and Travis Kalanick [CEO] has been forced to resign. Will it affect the company’s ability to raise more money?”
FX Group will have three strands – We Are the Future for start-ups, the Metta Network for individual leadership, and the FutureX consultancy focusing on the ecosystems.
Purvis says the approach to trade has to be “purpose-driven” with a deliberate mission that goes deeper than the traditional pattern of building international business.
“We are not offering crazy methodologies, we are just putting human values at the forefront and promoting creative thinking.”
He says that where this approach has been introduced it has been a bigger driver of business performance by enhancing motivation and drawing on collective talent in the team. By embracing community and human development values it also helps companies achieve their corporate social responsibility targets.
“The age of the rock star entrepreneur has gone,” he says. “They are no longer the only ones who are important in an organisation.”
FX Group will now bring its various projects under one roof and is already working with The DataLab’s DataFest, a Silicon Valley acceleration programme and the Institute of Water’s Circular Economy Leaders Summit.
The team is planning an Impact Summit, a Startup Summit reboot and the continuation of the Scottish Government-funded pilot Hydronations.
In July, and in partnership with Entrepreneurial Scotland, FutureX will take CEOs at scale-up stage to Berlin, to explore some of the the pre-trends of the emerging, impact-led economy. Among the delegates are EiE17 winner and Amiqus CEO Callum Murray, MadeBrave Founder Andrew Dobbie and Float founder Colin Hewitt.
Kantounatou, 28, who hails from Greece, was introduced to Purvis via the Ted-X ideas forum.
“In Greece I have seen what happens when money is the main driver without any other consideration,” she says. “Young people are asking what the future holds for them. We are looking at the bigger picture.”
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