Milamber Blog

(London: 14 April 2011): PIXELearning (PIXEL), a global leader in business simulations and games-based learning in the e-learning marketplace, has been acquired by Milamber Investments in a cash and share deal.

The company provides custom as well as off-the-shelf games and immersive learning services to blue chip customers, business schools and colleges.

Investors in PIXEL include regional VC fund Advantage West Midlands and loan fund Advantage Transition Bridge Fund. Both, along with others, will become shareholders in Milamber Group.

Andy Hasoon, CEO of Milamber Group, joins the PIXEL board. Richard Smith remains CEO of PIXEL and will continue to spearhead the growth of the company.

Richard Smith says, ”We have been working with Milamber since April 2010 when I took over as CEO of PIXEL. During that time we have made significant progress to move from a bespoke serious games and immersive simulations company to having a suite of products that are also off-the shelf such as PIXEL’s finance, business, entrepreneurship, sales and leadership simulations, plus ‘must have’ products such as our ‘diversity’ and ‘data security’ simulations – we plan to make many more over the coming years”.

In addition, says Smith,  “We have put in place development and distribution arrangements with companies  such as Reality Works, Global Novations and Pearson Education. Teaming up with Milamber gives us the ability to take the next step in our growth.”  

Headquartered in the Serious Games Institute at Coventry University’s Technology Park, PIXELearning has pioneered the application of computer games and simulation techniques to create world-class technologies and tools for education, training and marketing communications in the corporate environment.

PIXELearning has an excellent track record in developing innovative solutions to business learning issues. Recent examples include the creation of a new recruit induction programme for KPMG and an online game for HP to help employees understand good practices for data security. Its client list includes 3M, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Shell, Comcast, and CocaCola.

Milamber is already working to bring access to capital, management resources, and scale to PIXEL’s product portfolio. Says Hasoon, “We have the expertise and experience to build a global distribution footprint and access content and development partners who can help grow this business significantly”.

Notes for editors

For further information contact:

Andy Hasoon, Milamber Group Ltd

Email: andy.hasoon@milambergroup.com

Tel: +44 (0) 247 623 6971

In my job I get to meet some fascinating people and this week was no exception. I met with Dr Liz Miller author of Mood Mapping an extraordinary lady who has her finger literally right on the pulse of the mood of you and your team.

Dr Liz Miller

Liz is a GP, psychologist and occupational health physician and works with companies and individuals to help people better manage their mental and physical health.

She first trained as a neurosurgeon until becoming ill with bipolar disorder. It was through that experience of managing her own mental states that she developed mood mapping and her strategies for improving moods.

She co-founded the Doctors’ Support Network with Dr Soames Michelson in 1995, took part in Stephen Fry’s 2006 TV documentary The Secret Life of the Manic Depressive and was voted Mind Mental Health Champion in 2008.

In 2009 MacMillan published MOODMAPPING™. She currently see’s clients, run’s workshops and is writing her second book Mood and People.

So prior to meeting Liz I realized that whenever I walk into an office the first thing I ascertain is the mood of the people – whether the place has a buzz or as in numerous cases whether it feels ‘dead’.

So what Liz has to talk about resonates with me personally i.e. ‘Mood Mapping’ provides a simple graphical way to quickly capture the mood within a team, department or enterprise.

This data can then be used by the leadership team within any company or organisation to make evidence-based decisions on how to improve mood, morale and productivity.

Whether an organisation is expanding or downsizing, a workforce with a positive mental attitude and an ability to combat stress can be a critical success factor for business improvement. What I found out is that effectively Mood mapping can help improve the mood of employees in a cost-effective and easy-to-implement way.

With Liz’s methodology she provides you with numerical data, therefore, mood mapping can be an important addition to a companies key performance indicators, balanced scorecard and/or executive dash board. What’s more it is important to keep on top of the ‘mood’ of your organization so Liz’s team can provide you with a view of the daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual mood of your whole organisation at the same time as ensuring individual employee privacy.

They tailor the mood mapping tools to best meet the unique culture of each organisation and can undertake the analysis of the data and provide reports as an outsourced service and / or train your staff to carry out this task themselves so Liz and her team provide second line support for them only.

Think about it – if you and your team are in a positive mood and feeling good you can do anything. In fact its the strap line of this blog. But as leaders how many times have we ignored morale, at the cost of productivity.

On the front of Liz’s web site is this simple diagram – and for me it hit the mark and showed what she is all about!

www.moodmapping.co.uk

I started thinking about how if you could harness the mood of an organisation in a positive way then all sorts of things would happen, including increases in productivity, and profitability being the by product. Seriously, what organisation can not afford that sort of positive change in this climate!

I recently met with Spencer Holmes who is the managing director of Global Project Leaders Ltd. He runs projects, trains and consults globally on the subject. His passion is for helping project managers develop the resilience required to thrive in an increasingly pressurised world. His company can be found at www.projectleaders.com

Anyway Spencer manged to convince me to take Psychometric test for Project Managers at  http://www.thepsychometrictest.com/

At the end of answering some simple questions (truthfully) you are given a report that assess your personal potential for project leadership.  The facets that are measured are shown in this diagram:

How is it then that despite the fact that this sort of training has been around for donkey’s years, I keep hearing very similar stories about project disaster (blame the training maybe?).It seems that, whilst technical training is important, it is maybe the wrong tool to solve modern project problems, or at least an incomplete tool kit. My exposure to off-shoring in the flat world suggests that project challenges are less practical than political, less mathematical than multicultural.

http://www.linkedin.com/in/spencerholmes

Finding and Angel Investor – 5 things you need to know.

Looking for someone with deep pockets and big ideas? How to find an angel investor who can take your company to the next level.

By Geoff Williams

Posted 7/ 25 10 at 5:15 PM

The article can be found at: http://smallbusiness.aol.com/2010/07/25/how-to-find-an-angel-investor/

In Section 2…………………………………

‘And what should be in that business plan? Andy Hasoon, CEO of Milamber, an innovation consulting firm based in London, says your business plan should cover three things: What you are doing (product), why you are doing it (market need), and how you are going to do it (execution). Explain how the business will make money, with documents projecting your estimated profit and loss, a balance sheet summarizing your financial data and projections on your cash flow. “Remember, cash is king,” Hasoon says.’

Woke up to find Milamber Group had been quoted in the FT this morning! Good start to the week.

Article: Corporate learning: Out of body experiences are ‘in’.

By Jane Bird

Published: March 15 2010 …………………….“If someone is used to playing World of Warcraft, which is all about collaborating on tasks to achieve a result they won’t be happy with a slide of Porter’s Five Forces on screen,” says Mr Sheehan, alluding to the industry analysis framework developed by Michael Porter of Harvard Business school.

To help fund virtual course development costs, business schools are turning to specialist companies such as Immersive Workspaces, Milamber Group and PIXELearning.

Andy Hasoon, Milamber’s chief executive, says this approach can heavily reduce the $250,000 that it might otherwise cost to develop a fully customised simulation.”………………………………