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It could have been the brilliant final scene of The Usual Suspects where we realise Kevin Spacey’s Verbal has fabricated the wondrous illusion of Keyser Soze from papers lining the walls of the detective’s office (see below) or it could be the time Microsoft told me competitors once hired a neighbouring office to try and peak at a top secret presentation, but whenever I visit a company’s office I’m always fascinated by what’s on the wall.

Indeed, you can often learn more about a big company and its processes from the remnants of meetings,brainstorming sessions or signs for staff than an interview with its PR-savvy CEO who's rattled off the same polished story a million times before.

That wasn’t the case with the media company I visited recently whose boss is lovely, but the flipchart scribbling left in its meeting room made interesting enough reading for me to want to scribble it down.
It looks like it was a summary of a management or staff training/strategy session and was titled ‘team behaviours’:

Value the team
Flat management
Acceptance of each other as individuals
Open and honest but be respectful of each other
Play to each other’s strengths
Best idea not the loudest idea
Everyone encouraged to speak
All ideas are valued
Always consider new ideas and ways
Forget past lives, enjoy the future
Embrace constructive criticism

Really healthy stuff, I reckon and definitely reflected in the relaxed, democratic and motivated feel to the office. Far healthier than the instructions for work experience students I once found in one of the UK’s largest and esteemed organisations, which began, ‘1) Don’t ask questions’.

I’ll keep reporting my nosy parker findings, but let’s hear about yours as well!

So Heinz has banned its Deli Mayo TV advert featuring two men sharing a kiss and apologised to the 202 people who complained to the Advertising Standards Committee it was "offensive" , "inappropriate to see two men kissing" and "unsuitable to be seen by children".

Nigel Dickie, director of corporate affairs for Heinz UK, said: "It is our policy to listen to consumers. We recognise that some consumers raised concerns over the content of the ad and this prompted our decision to withdraw it.”

So now Heinz has appeased the 202 offended by the sight of single sex couples, what will it do to calm the 3.6 million-strong UK gay population it has disowned? Besides, how did Heinz know the 202 were more representative of its 'family' image?

Damage limitation or disastrous knee-jerk PR? See what you think:

That’s the claim made by serial web entrepreneur Paul Walsh in two video blogs* posted on his site over the last couple of days.

Paul reports that when he tried to open a HSBC business account for a new venture he was told by three members of the bank’s staff that they were “unable to open an account for any business that has anything to do with social networking or companies within the mobile industry”.

Now banks generally get a hard press and the motive behind individual attacks should usually be treated with a high degree of scepticism.

However, Paul’s motivation isn’t just to have a dig at a bank that’s turned him down. Let’s remember he was only trying to open an account, not secure a loan or any other form of finance: he didn’t get that far!

He’s also an experienced internet entrepreneur who as well as running his own company Segala, chairs the British Interactive Media Group and is co organiser of web 2.0 networking night Top Cats. He was an advisor for the recent Web Mission trip that saw 20 UK entrepreneurs visit Silicon Valley in a trip sponsored by, you guessed it, HSBC.

Paul’s not taking a free shot at an easy target, he’s asking, on behalf of the industry, why a bank that invests in supporting emerging web and mobile businesses seemingly doesn’t want them as customers.

He'd be interested to know why, and so would we.

*After Paul's first blog (below), he gave a fuller account here.

Death by powerpoint might be one of the few things that come to mind when you hear the word ‘conference’. We can add a lot more to the list but that’s not the point of this post. In fact, it’s just the opposite. Take all the things you hate about conferences, turn them around, mash them up, and apparently what you get is an ‘unconference’.

Trendy term or something that reflects a real change in the way events could be conducted? We decided to put the SHINE unconference to the test. SHINE was instigated by four dynamic organisations (Ashoka, UnLtd, School for Social Entrepreneurs, The Hub) and aimed to ‘connect, inform, and inspire people interested in social change’.

The usual suspects of the Social Enterprise world were there in full attendance, accompanied by hundreds of fresh faces with admirable passion for creating positive change in the world and hungry to get the support they need to make their ideas happen.

SHINE certainly passed the test and was successful in breaking down the old conventions. The sessions were varied, informative, and in most cases organised for its attendees to solve problems and create real opportunities. The space used (the Bargehouse on London’s Southbank) broke down barriers and offered an ideal setting to create partnerships and friendships.

Next year’s NESTA conference has a few things to learn from it. Attendees are an event’s most valuable resource and should be the engine that drives it. Less lavishness, higher interaction, and more substance is just what the people are shouting for.

We leave you with our usual video taster of the event...

We thought we’d save this for some Friday fun.

Internet animators Boleg Bros, who specialise in using LEGO, have brilliantly spoofed Sir Alan Sugar and The Apprentice.

Boleg’s ‘YOU’RE FIR4D’ vids are going down a storm on YouTube, again proving the power of viral marketing and social networks as business tools.

Boleg’s disclaimer is clear to distance the company from LEGO, the BBC, talkbackTHAMES and Sir Alan, but you get the feeling none of them will rush to bring this sort of free publicity to a halt. After all, they say being spoofed is a sign you've really made it.

And surely it’s only a matter of time before Boleg is inundated with big money offers from brands wanting their own Boleg creations?

With profits of £2.8bn Tesco clearly knows its onions – and judging by its latest TV ad, its mushrooms as well.

If you haven’t seen it yet, take a look below. Sure it’s simple, but in terms of capturing the sentiments of your target audience is there a better ad campaign out there at the moment?

Just as families are beginning to feel the pinch, Tesco bucks the current trend to present supermarket ingredients as perfect mouth-watering celeb chef-endorsed cordon bleu essentials and instead ropes in good old Bob Hoskins to say it like it is:

“Value mushrooms at £1.47 they’re as cheap as you like but as ugly as sin, but who cares they’re going into a steak & kidney pie not a beauty contest...”

Genius. How can you disagree and so why pay more?

We all know the evils of the supermarket trade: squeezing farmers to the point of extinction; selling us loss leader bargains to tempt us through the doors; eating up the high streets at the expense of small traders etc.

But there are business lessons to learn aplenty, and this is a great one in branding and marketing.

Adapt to the mood of your customer and show you understand their concerns; jump at the chance to differentiate yourself from competitors; reassert your brand values with a well-priced product meeting your customers’ expectations without sacrificing quality.

‘Tesco – every little helps’ resonates loud at the moment and this ad ticks all the right boxes. Our guess is it’ll shift a fair few mushrooms as well…

Hi, I'm Ben Keene, founder of Tribewanted.

The BBC documentary that followed my first year attempting to set up an online and pacific island community simultaneously was called Paradise or Bust.

The thinking behind the title, I assume, was that there was no middle ground with this grand experiment - Tribewanted would either work perfectly or go pear-shaped. The island dream would be realised or not. Simple.

Well, no not exactly. As the documentary showed the Tribewanted project is no game show, this is real life and for a few of us now, it is a way of life.

Two years since Tribewanted.com registered its first flurry of digital traffic, and 19 months after the 'first footers' landed on the beaches of Vorovoro island, and the experience has neither become a never-ending paradise nor gone bust.

What it is, is an idea that has survived its early challenges and is growing into a blossoming network of people (we call it a tribe because it shares a place and a purpose as well as a web space), ideas and shared cultures.

On Vorovoro is has begun to find its rhythm as it balances and fuses a traditional Fijian way life with the expectations and ideas of a 21st century tribe.

But it is far from perfect. Bugs bite, rain falls, storms brew (climatically and emotionally), communication flickers, and for me - now back in the UK - it is working out how to make the most of what we've got to get to where we want to try and go next. It's certainly not a question of sitting back and enjoying the desert island dream.

What I've come to realise then is this: that when you have an opportunity, and decide - wisely or not - to chase it, the stakes in your life will immediately be raised. And in this risk-taking comes the buzz caused by both the fear of failure and the anticipation of success.

But once you have got through that first stage, the first set of challenges, first year or two, then you will need to find time to pause; to reflect and then to look forward at what could come after. After all, if it had turned out to be paradise what would we do next?

Disruptive Social Innovation. What the bleep is it all about?

We headed to The Hub to find out. The Hub is a unique space created for social innovators to work, meet, learn, connect and realise progressive ideas. The energy and dynamism here is truly palpable. This is the place to make things happen, from growing ideas to launching projects to running businesses.

That’s where we met Nick and Menka, the founders of the Disruptive Social Innovators, or Disruptors for short. A team of avid rule breakers who are exploring ways to create and maintain systemic social change.

They’re doing this by organising a monthly open-to-all event in which a bunch of people get together and map out a social, environmental or consumer system, analyze it and invite people who have managed to find ‘disruption points’ within it to explain how they did it. Their aim is to collate, document and share these insights for everyone’s benefit: entrepreneurs, businesses, innovators, funders, policy makers...

The featured topics vary widely. The last two sessions focused on the childcare and packaging markets respectively. The third session (the one we’re bringing to you here) explored the film and distribution market and how a highly unlikely candidate (with zero marketing budget and no big names), managed to break into the mainstream market using radically different tools to become the third highest grossing documentary in US history.

These sessions are open to all and take place on the first Tuesday of every month. All you need to bring is an eager mind and a fiver for nibbles and wine. Pending a website, you’ll be able to join the disruptors on their facebook group.

We leave you with the video highlight of the session. See you at the next one!

MyBnk’s Lily Lapenna’s definition was apt at describing the mood at last Thursday’s Women Social Leadership awards, organised by Servane Mouazane, founder of Oguntê and the Global Tribe Network.

Candidates flew in from as far as the USA and India to take part in the annual event, set up to celebrate inspirational women who are diving positive social change in the UK and abroad.

Smarta couldn’t miss this occasion for the world, so we teamed up with exciting new citizen journalism start-up Newspepper to bring you the highlights…

A big thank you to Servane for welcoming us with infectious energy and enthusiasm!