Last week I waved bye to the Atom after taking the difficult decision to sell the car. Weirdly it was easy to make the decision to put the car on the market…
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…
Set a clear vision
One of the hardest challenges I find in running a business is coming up with a clear strategy. As a founder or MD people want to see a clear and bold vision…
Recognition time
It seems to be that in the run up to the summer quite a lot of organisations are holding their award ceremonies, and this year Fluidata and I have been the beneficiaries.…
Time for a holiday
Interesting comment pieces in the news over the past few days over the criticism of our Prime Minister going on holiday so soon after the horrific attack on the soldier in Woolwich.…
Cars are taking a pounding
With the recent good weather, well the bank holiday weekend only, saw the Atom dust off its winter cover and managed 250 miles buzzing around four counties (Worcestershire, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire).…
Give women a chance
With Baroness Thatcher having her funeral this week I thought it was interesting to read all the related ‘women leader’ articles that appeared. I am not going to argue positive or negative…
Daylight robbery
With the recent announcement that Cyprus will soon have to steal money from peoples savings in order to qualify for a bailout (€17bn compared to Spain’s €400bn) to support their banks I…
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…
Train hard, fight easy
With Christmas nearly upon us plans in the office have turned away from eating lots and relaxing to our next Tough Mudder challenge in May. Tough Mudder is the 12 mile obstacle…
Bad car design in the name of safety has become an epidemic
Something that has bothered me for a number of years and that I haven’t shared, has been the placement of wing mirrors on cars. Ok stay with me, honestly I haven’t gone…
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…