From the category archives:

Business

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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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10 factors of freelance pricing

August 6, 2009

Debating freelance pricing recently, I started thinking how many variables can affect daily rates: Future proof – repeat business is virtually everyone’s goal. Will this project have a long-term effect (perhaps even an adverse one) on your business? Order book – are you currently desperate for the phone to ring or are you (and your [...]

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Green business from scorched earth

June 14, 2009

Tom Asacker recently said, “…That is what strategically building a strong brand is all about today. Sure it’s about being different and creating desire and preference. But it’s also about evoking compassion, passion and pride.” I’d go a smidge further and say that since our near complete capitalist meltdown (not yet fully avoided) there’s a [...]

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Sexist experience anyone?

June 9, 2009

It’s the time of year when schools christen students with some work experience by sending them out to organisations to be blooded with genuine toil. I vividly remember donning a snazzy tie and Hush Puppies and turning up for my fortnight’s work experience at a high street bank. They were great. No floor polishing or [...]

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Biscuit marketing

April 30, 2009

Complacent and lazy marketers know people like to follow the crowd. There’s safety in numbers, right? They play this card as often as possible with their marketing messages. The company mindset can be, ‘Why do we need to do any better when product X sells just fine?’ It strikes me that the banking and motor [...]

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