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A Responsible Purpose – What Is Corporate Social Responsibility?

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is the deliberate inclusion of the public interest in business decision making. It is about contributing and giving back to the wider world through local or global initiatives. It is also about considering and measuring a ‘triple bottom line’ - Guy Rigby investigates. read more

 

33 Ways To BE BRAVE

Every successful person knows that they need to develop the courage to face up to fears or self-doubt if they are going to get ahead in business. read more

 

Are You The Key Person In Your Business?

The saying goes that in business, no one is indispensable. But business owners are often the exception to this rule. So, it’s worth taking a moment to think about whether your business and family are protected from a worst-case scenario. read more

 

Two Stories (Going Down Or Going Up?)

Two more stories here - two businesses deal with their imminent cashflow issues in very different ways. One survives. read more

 

Three Sets Of Lessons From The World Of Mastermind Groups

While the journalists and politicians always want to have sexy stories about business growth, the reality is that most growth comes in what appear to be fairly ordinary industries. There can only be so many zero-to-hero stories that turn the owner into an overnight celebrity. Believe you me, there is no shortage of highly successful businesses that just never hit the award ceremony stage, or the entrepreneur of the year prize or the flash lamps of the paparazzi. read more

 

Turning The Corner Out Of The Recession - A Case Study

Three months ago I sat in on a so-called management meeting for a rather lovely business (10 staff in the creative industry) who were heading towards bankruptcy with remarkable speed. read more

 

Step Up Or Step Down - Which Strategy For Recession?

The Recession Talk Your Board Should Have is a challenging article in Businessweek by Kevin P. Coyne. Although the original article was aimed at larger businesses, I will paraphrase as best I can and add my own twist. read more

 

The Importance Of Asking More Questions

Why is it that we don’t ask more questions -not just of newsletter writers like me but of our colleagues, bosses and clients? I remember being in a meeting with a new sales director with an MBA no less, who had been brought in as a bit of a “change agent”. read more

 

How Good Are You At Encouraging Honest Feedback?

I run a number of [b]communication skills and team leadership workshops and a frequent topic of conversation is feedback. Mostly people ask what they can do to be better at giving feedback to others. It occurred to me that one question that almost never get asked is “how can I encourage my team to give me honest feedback?” read more

 

Choosing The Best Medium For Your Communication

Have you ever been caught out as a result of choosing the wrong medium for your communication? Recently an HR consultant friend told me about a client who has sacked somebody by text message with unpleasant and expensive consequences, and this got me thinking. read more