From the category archives:

Business

John Lewis bucks their own trend

September 22, 2010

It’s difficult to describe how most feel about John Lewis. I don’t mean their gorgeous stores or brilliant staff; I’m talking about their very different business model of employee ownership. Well, with pre-tax profits up 28% to £110m for the six months to July 31 they’re the envy of the high street this autumn. John [...]

Read the full article →

For Prime Minister read Project Manager

September 15, 2010

When the pressure really builds I think of how difficult leadership must be for the Prime Minister. Surely our everyday business ‘issues’ are nothing compared to the table of responsibility inside number 10. That’s why I’m doubly struck by Tony Blair writing in his autobiography and mentioning in his PR interviews that he changed dramatically [...]

Read the full article →

Holiday is with a small ‘h’

August 14, 2010

The world of Formula 1 is taking an enforced break for two weeks as part of a cost cutting exercise. Speaking of the break, Ferrari team manager, Stefano Domenicali said, “We will be on holiday, but that does not mean our brains will stop working. Maybe one can even find fresh inspiration when outside the [...]

Read the full article →

This is really hot

July 2, 2010

Steve Jobs said, “This is really hot,” when he unveiled the iPhone 4 at his Worldwide Developers Conference last month. He wasn’t joking. It took Apple 72 days to sell a million of their original iPhone when it launched in 2007. Last year, the iPhone 3GS sold a million units in three days, a benchmark [...]

Read the full article →

eBay mobile is going BIG

June 26, 2010

Old news: technology and consumerism are intertwined. Simple example, the cheque book and then the debit card were tech replacements for cash. Today’s smart phones and the rush of tablets we’re about to see really are changing the landscape now, not just tomorrow. Watch Scoble interview the head of eBay mobile, Steve Yankovich to see [...]

Read the full article →

Leadership is…

June 19, 2010

I was reminded this week that management is about doing things right and that leadership is doing the right thing. I’m sure you’ve come across that before. But I’ve been thinking about small business leadership and exactly what that all encompassing term means on the ground. Surely everything a leader of an SME does needs [...]

Read the full article →

Move the numbers

May 28, 2010

Someone recently told me about a conversation they’d had with Henry Engelhardt, the founder and CEO of Admiral Insurance. Engelhardt, an American, said the key to his success has been managing to the numbers. At the close of business each day he gets a report (presumably a dashboard) of his core KPIs. One sheet of [...]

Read the full article →

George says billion, I say bull s**t

May 21, 2010

Yet again this savings figure of £6 billion is caught on the newswire this week. What a joke. Our deficit is in the region of £167 billion. Trumpeting about saving £6 billion in a year is the fiscal equivalent of downgrading your weekly toilet paper and tea bag shopping to Tesco’s value range – all [...]

Read the full article →

Childish business passions

May 17, 2010

My daughter was given charge of the class teddy last week and became completely engrossed with him. He was part of nearly every sentence – Teddy Eddy this, Teddy Eddy that. They were instantly joined at the hip: at the dinner table, in the bathroom, washing hands, cleaning teeth, bedtime story and, of course, in [...]

Read the full article →

Defending social media attacks

April 28, 2010

Nestle are used to their fair share of bad press; students the world over have seen to that. But March 2010 is when they will go into social media case study history. For anyone who’s not read the full saga, here’s the short version: a video was staged which drew a play on eating Kit-Kat [...]

Read the full article →

Kraft turns tail, MPs tell tales

April 9, 2010

MPs have published a report this week, from the Business and Enterprise Committee, wagging fingers at Kraft for closing Somerdale after it promised otherwise. Did anyone old enough to spell ‘business’ actually think Kraft weren’t going to slash costs as quickly as they could? As the song goes, the first cut is the deepest. Does [...]

Read the full article →

Help is wanted

March 20, 2010

Why is it such a struggle to ask for help? We want the best for our teams so we work hard. Sometimes we recognise that we’re not winning so we turn it up a notch and work even harder. But wait, that’s not working either. At some point, we can see the failing – at [...]

Read the full article →

Cooking a great culture

March 7, 2010

Read a great article over on Inc. about Nick Sarillo and his pizza restaurants. It tells about his unorthodox hiring process, about his talent development and his $200k consultant’s bill. But essentially, it’s about his business’s culture. Culture is surely one of the most intangible aspects of business and as such can be the most [...]

Read the full article →

Business should buy nation’s broadband

February 28, 2010

Akamai’s ‘State of the Internet report’ shows the average UK broadband speed is 3.5 Mbps and just one in 12 surfers are achieving 5 Mbps and above. At present, South Koreans can get speeds of up to 100 Mbps and Soth Korea plans on raising the bar further with a tenfold increase in their ultra [...]

Read the full article →

Packaging sell out

February 15, 2010

The cigarette brand Windsor Blue is modernising their packaging. They’re “now the number one choice for above king size length adult smokers downtrading into the economy priced cigarette sector. The new pack design will build on this success,” says Rachel Smith, brand manager. Compare this to the comments Seth had for Madecasse chocolate and their [...]

Read the full article →

Brands help sell brands

February 10, 2010

If a salesman turns up for a meeting in new Porsche 911, he’d better be flogging footy players, not underwear or umbrellas to BHS. Most salespeople understand the principles of the game: set a tone that’s both professional and in line with your brand and product offering. That’s why I’m amazed at business people who [...]

Read the full article →

Steptoe returns in social media

February 3, 2010

You’re having a conversation with a company Big Wig, perhaps an interview, and she asks, “What do you think of this social media phenomenon?” Well, imagine it’s the 1960s. Horses pull milk floats, colour TV is just around the corner for most households, shillings are in your pocket and the Bay of Pigs has petrified [...]

Read the full article →

John Lewis tops the charts

January 20, 2010

Following their best Christmas to date, the very on-form John Lewis was recently voted Britain’s best shop by Verdict and its 6,000 shoppers. Let’s be honest, what’s not to like? The stores are upmarket but unpretentious. They’ve a quality product offering and peerless customer service. John Lewis is different from normal retailers. They’re known as [...]

Read the full article →

Are you a Manager or Multiplexer?

December 5, 2009

I was asked this week, ‘What does a manager really do?’ It was a fairly innocuous, rhetorical, jovial question from a well-paid, senior person. The graduate switch flicked and I immediately thought, ‘seeing that the company’s goals are met’. After all, it’s the leader’s job to define and create those goals and aims, and it’s [...]

Read the full article →

Making assumptions

November 15, 2009

MPs follow their vocation diligently to improve our land; teachers are wholly dedicated to the development of children; police and law courts will keep criminals off our streets; companies believe staff are their greatest asset; hospitals are clean heavens of care. What assumptions have you made about that meeting you’re holding this week? Might they [...]

Read the full article →

The sunshine is dimming

November 1, 2009

Piano maker Kemble & Co is closing after nearly 100 years producing over 350,000 pianos. They were the UK’s last large scale piano manufacturer. It’s a reflection of yesteryear when a piano was a central asset in the home. Mum and dad would teach their kids the odd tune in the hope of lighting their [...]

Read the full article →

Digital natives

October 21, 2009

Marc Prensky is acknowledged to have coined the term Digital Natives, but when the business world heard Rupert Murdoch use it, the term became commonplace (remember he owns MySpace). The reference is to the swathes of people who don’t think twice about technology being an integral part of their everyday lives. It’s not exclusively a [...]

Read the full article →

Web breaks 80-20 rule

October 14, 2009

The preeminent Seth Godin commented on a Charles Blow report in the NY Times, pointing out that the internet’s low barrier of entry had led to the markets flooding. He said, “If you can’t sell to 1 in 1000, why market to a million?” The numbers from Blow’s piece were, “…of the 13 million songs [...]

Read the full article →

Tame the impossible

October 1, 2009

The Web makes the impossible possible. Just imagine the pitch for eBay on a 1998 version of Dragons’ Den. “You bid a fraction of the real value… may sell for less than you paid for it… pay before you’ve even seen the goods, let alone held them… trust the seller to post the product to [...]

Read the full article →
  3. 1
  4. 2
  5. 3
  6. 4