All Opinion articles – Page 21
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Opinion
WHY Inspires Change Not WHAT
It is often said that success comes from perfect market conditions, a great team and plenty of capital. We hear people say they were in the right place at the right time and that is why they were successful. Really?
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Opinion
Making M&A Work for your Business
As the world emerges from the global recession, one of the signs of renewed optimism is the increase in M&A activity. Recent research from Dealogic showed that we are on track to hit a record level of global M&A in 2014, with deals totalling $1.3 trillion in the year-to-date. This ...
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Opinion
Why You Should Use Gamification to Achieve Strategic Business Goals
Shakespeare wrote that All the world s a stage / And all the men and women merely players. Advocates of gamification would agree that we re all players but revise the analogy to suggest our entire world is in fact a game. Gamification is a growing trend. ...
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Opinion
The Power of the Small Stuff
Businesses spend so much time trying to sort out the big stuff for their customers and clients, but maybe they spend too much time there.
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Opinion
The Poorly Served Independent Business Sector
It is more a clarion call, representing the views of the various sectors of the independent business community: the start-ups, the micro-businesses, the owner-managed (1-10 employees) and the owner-directed (10-300 staff). These divisions are relatively arbitrary but I do think they reflect the different needs of the different sectors of ...
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Opinion
The Opportunity: Most Firms Don’t Deliver — Official
Start-ups and early-stage businesses are in a unique position to out-manoeuvre existing less nimble, larger businesses who consistently fail to give customers what they want. The smaller businesses should be more flexible, nimble and responsive to customer needs. The emphasis must be on the word should.
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Opinion
The Importance of Image for Small Businesses
With an estimated 4.9 million small businesses in the UK, there is enormous pressure to stand out from the pack and convince prospective customers that your offer is the right one for them.
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Opinion
Post-Holiday Blues: How to Keep your Team Motivated
Any employee who enjoys travelling is subject to what is commonly known as the post-holiday blues. Returning to the routine of work and daily life can be difficult and post-holiday blues can often result in workers feeling unmotivated and disolusional.
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Opinion
All Work and No Play: The Reality of Owning a Small Business?
Many people start their own business because they want a new way of life. The appeal of following a dream and being your own boss are key motivators behind taking the brave step of going it alone. A YouGov poll on behalf of First Data Merchant Solutions, reinforced these beliefs: ...
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Opinion
What will Winter 2014-15 bring? Businesses Prepare for Risk
Cast your minds back to last Winter and you may recall the heavy rainfall and flooding that plagued much of the UK. Many claim it is the worst winter for flooding and rainfall since the year 1766. Although the news reports covered stories of flooding impact in coastal areas and ...
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Opinion
Preparing the Next Generation for Work
A recent British Chambers of Commerce Workforce Survey reported that of the 3,000 firms they contacted, 88% thought school leavers were not ready for employment and 54% said it was the same for graduates. Applicants lack of work experience was also cited by 76% of businesses as being ...
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Opinion
Turning Your Passion into a Business: Top Tips
Confucius was quoted as saying Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life. For many that is nirvana, to spend our work lives doing something we adore, and getting well paid for it.
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Opinion
Top Ten Things Keeping SMEs Awake at Night
Its not easy for SMEs, with increased red tape and many decisions to make on how best to grow your business, there can be a lot to keep you awake at night.
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Opinion
What Can Business Do About It?
While spending a week on Necker Island with Sir Richard Branson last summer, I had the opportunity to discuss his B Team concept in depth with him. The B Team is a group of internationally renowned business and thought leaders like Paul Polman of Unilever, Dr. Mo Ibrahim ...
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Opinion
Anonymisation of Data – Could you Still be in Breach of Data Protection Rules?
So, the courts (Efifiom Edem v Data Protection Commissioner and Financial Services Authority, [2014] EWCA Civ 92) recently decided that a name could be personal data for the purposes of data protection legislation, if it was combined with other information that enabled the individual to be identified. Meaning of ...
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Opinion
Profiting from the Gap - How Entrepreneurs Find and Create Opportunity by Thriving in the Unknown
Not Knowing is what makes being an entrepreneur more amazing than working a regular job with a regular pay check. We take risks, we fail, we don t know what s going to happen, we not only put our toes into the waters of the unknown we dive in, ...
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Opinion
Countdown to Christmas: Get Ready Now for Your Most Profitable Christmas
There are fewer than 100 shopping days remaining = meaning very little time to get websites/emails/stock levels/staff and reviews in place for the rush. At Christmas, a vast swathe of panicked shoppers will be buying things they wouldn t normally choose for themselves. They re going to be highly reliant ...
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Opinion
How do you Know When You’re Doing Organisational Development?
There are two major drivers of change in an organisation. These are awareness that: -Markets or stakeholders could be better served -Processes which serve stakeholders could be better managed or delivered
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Opinion
First Impressions Make or Break a Candidate’s Decision
Research from Monster.co.uk reveals an interviewee s first impression is impacted by everything from the reception area to what they think of the interviewer s handshake and fashion sense.
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Opinion
The 9 Key Steps to Smooth Auto-Enrolment
It has now been two years since automatic enrolment started and the1st October marked the staging date for businesses with 60 or fewer staff to enrol eligible employees in a pension scheme under the auto-enrolment legislation of 2012. While the concept of auto enrolment may seem simple, the ...