Posted on August 01, 2018

Welcome to a series of practical thoughts on simple business processes affected by GDPR such as business cards exchange. Today what theorists would call processes related to business card exchange. The rest of us may do this without thinking. As a starting point we must consider all stages of a process before considering the impact. Often […]

Posted on July 25, 2018

60 days after GDPR’s D-day, it’s the right time to ask to whether it has affected email marketing. The answer is mainly positive. In the last 2 months spammers have continued to spam, but email traffic from businesses hastily trying to beat the deadline has decreased substantially! Consent is essential in any relationship Sadly some […]

Posted on July 13, 2018

England’s success in the men’s football world cup is a healthy reminder that this old saying is true. There were no big stars around which the youngest team needed to be moulded. While the way Gareth Southgate managed and communicated with his players and others spawned hashtags posing the question what would Gareth do in […]

Posted on July 06, 2018

Any business that stands still, dies. Why? Because markets change all the time. If a customer buys your product and with repeat purchases your demand soars, then you will need to meet the challenge of scaling production. If it’s a one-off purchase then that’s one fewer potential customer and time for a ‘new’ product. Both […]

Posted on June 26, 2018

As a Gloucestershire Growth Hub and Warwick Business School Alumni mentor, I’m often in conversations about the differences between coaching, mentoring and consulting. Some believe each of these to be distinctly different. Yet often the skills and methodologies that might be deployed can seem the same. This in practice those distinctions are blurred. My own […]

Posted on June 18, 2018

Research shows that coached businesses thrive. Over 90% of coached senior teams have clarity on their business vision compared to only 14% of un-coached organisations. Moreover 56% had increased staff and on average report a 700% ROI on their coaching investment. With start-up and growth companies the statistics are even stronger in terms of survival […]

Posted on June 11, 2018

Various words come into vogue and then get extended so they become meaningless. Entrepreneur is just such a word. In the last 20 years, it hasn’t been enough to run or own a small business what you needed to strive for is to be an entrepreneur. And then even large companies and public bodies started […]

Posted on June 01, 2018

Although EU funding has rapidly declined, there is still a wide range of funding available looking for good bids. Successful bidding is about finding the right funds. Note that funds in the previous sentence is plural. Any project will require at least 2 sources of funds as you are very unlikely to be given all […]

Posted on May 23, 2018

I don’t know whether it’s the same with you, but I’ve never been so popular this last week. All my old friends and companies I’ve barely heard of are getting in touch to thank me and ask me to stay on their databases for the sake of GDPR. Some particular favourites stand out. Pseudo-phishers Companies […]

Posted on May 17, 2018

From the latest start-up to the oldest established company, how often is the refrain heard, ‘I don’t like to sell’ or ‘I’m not a salesperson’. Yet selling is fundamental to business growth and a necessary activity for business survival. Without sales there is no company however large it may have grown. And don’t be fooled […]