At a recent awards dinner Dr Mike Lynch spoke about the difficulties in investing in new businesses and supporting innovative and growing companies. Since his departure from Autonomy he has created a…
Is being an entrepreneur a good thing?
I have always considered what I do, in terms of starting and running a business, as the role of a businessman and not one of an entrepreneur. My view has always been…
Unions out of touch with reality
Having grown up in the eighties the impact of unions and their significance has only reduced as I have grown older and today that has been reinforced as we see situations like…
Payment terms start to slide
I wrote back in October 2008 about larger companies bullying small businesses with ridiculous payment terms and contracts. Well it seems the practice is alive and well with the likes of Marks…
Waitrose work hard to lose customers
I have written before about the power of a brand and the loyalty it can create, but this too can go against the business. Customer care, quality of product and reliability are…
Should a leader be a visionary?
With news that Steve Ballmer is going to step down as CEO of Microsoft and shares in the business jumping at the prospect, it got me thinking as to who makes a…
What is an award worth?
As the holiday period draws to a close there seems to be a plethora of award entry forms hitting my desk. It seems to be the time of year when award ceremonies…
Proof that not all old technology is dead
News that China is investing heavily in the use of thorium in a next generation of nuclear power stations should not come as much as a surprise. The technology will provide clean,…
More risk and more money is required
With the government today announcing some amendments to their Start-up Loans scheme it got me wondering how actually useful these types of schemes are. I can completely appreciate where the government are…
Tax avoidance or the problem with a global economy?
I have been quite interested over the past few weeks on the on-going press interest into multinationals that have been trading in the UK and dodging UK tax payments. Well that is…
AR Drone view of the office
I had some fun with my new AR Drone yesterday by recording a quick tour of the Fluidata office. As you can see it is a little bit tricky but I managed…
Bandwidth Bandits!
Christmas is always a time for New Year resolutions and this year is no different. This time however there has been a bit more organisation with thirteen of us in the office…
Retain the standard to retain the customer
I have always been a big fan of our national carrier, but after a recent trip to Cyprus to visit some of my family I was pretty disappointed in the level of…
Let’s hope the attention to detail stays
Sad news this morning on the death of Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple, who successfully brought the company back from obscurity and into the forefront of technology innovation. No small achievement, especially…
From Vision to Exit
I attended Guy Rigby’s book launch for ‘From Vision to Exit’ in the City recently. I’ve known Guy for a few years now in a professional capacity, so was intrigued to see…