I can’t help feeling at a time when it’s clear that more people are reading news online and the circulation of newspapers is declining, that The Sun is investing in an already declining market by going live this weekend with their first Sunday newspaper. I blogged last year about the Times’ paywall and how it affected the shear numbers of people that suddenly were banned from reading the articles published on thetimes.co.uk Website. I was amongst hundreds of thousands who never returned. Convinced that the “content is more important than the delivery” the leaders at The Times insisted that all readers need to be paying a fee for the news it provides. Overnight the readership was slashed to a fraction of its original traffic. And… Read the Rest »
At a time when so many businesses are struggling why is it that some survive and others prosper? Is it the economy? Is it the climate? Well the environment is obviously going to have an effect on potential performance, but its not the cause. It’s human error that usually delivers the killer blow. Ironically the economic environment suffers due to human error too. If it’s raining outside and you go out in your underwear, you are going to catch a cold. If you stay out ill equipped for the elements, more serious things will happen. This is exactly what happens in business. Common sense plays a big part. If you go on a spending spree when your bank account is looking full, but you have… Read the Rest »
It was the summer of 1990. I just turned 21. I was sat at a piano in Menlo College Campus in California, whiling away an afternoon on an 8ft concert grand that had seen better days. It was a creative place for me and whilst it was mid holidays and the majority of students were on vacation, I really got a sense that I was in a special place. I had a great summer and made some lifelong friends and although I considered moving there, I was fundamentally a musician and back then, wild horses would have not dragged me from my vocation. I never realised just how important Palo Alto was going to be in the technical revolution that followed. With Stanford University on its… Read the Rest »
Its been a great start to the year. I am not able to give you profit figures yet as its a little early, however I can confirm that we had another record year in 2011. In the last 5 years we have grown 630%. If we maintained that, we’d hit £100m in the next 5 years. We have our work cut for us if we want to keep up this momentum though as it is technically harder to increase percentage growth year on year whilst growing organically. Its the first thing analysts question, “how do you intend on maintaining this trajectory?” The simple answer is, you don’t, unless each year you increase every area in identical proportion to your turnover. Its very difficult to achieve this… Read the Rest »
With a need to add 100 people to our already 150 strong business, recruitment and training are in the forefront of all our minds. Trying to find like minded people is essential. Its not a case of just employing a recruitment agency and hope for the best. Our culture is so defined that the wrong people dont fit in and do more damage than good. Most don’t hang around even if they get through the process. It is essential to ensure we don’t waste other peoples time and our own. I remember Tony Robbin’s sales trainer and great friend telling me ,“I look for people who have the skills that I cannot teach.” I was curious to know what he meant. Essentially, he looked for… Read the Rest »
Are you a glass half empty or a glass half full person? Are you the victim of pressure or do you thrive under stress? I find it fascinating that people can view the same thing from completely different perspectives and say with absolute certainty that they see total opposites. You can look at a picture and see the most magical inspiration before your eyes, and yet someone else might not give it a second glance. The same applies to everything we do and experience in our lives. What might inspire one person, just doesn’t make sense to another. And so what drives this difference in opinions and views? I heard a great analogy that the brain like a computer, is a processor, however, unlike a… Read the Rest »
I met a very interesting professor from Stamford recently who wrote and spoke about happiness and the importance of it in business. He explained that happiness is something that comes from within. It depends entirely on your internal state and the lens that you look at life through. So if you’re unhappy, you will probably see the bad in everything. If you’re immensely positive and happy, then you’re bound to approach life with a spring in your step and see the good in everything. Lets face it, there is good in everything and everyone. Sometimes you just have to look a little harder. I have met many people who assume that money is the “be all and end all.” But money doesn’t bring happiness. People… Read the Rest »
It was the perfect New Years Eve. It was 1999. I was in Vermont in the US the home of the famous film, A White Christmas. As the clock struck midnight, I walked outside in the snow hand in hand with the new girl in my life. Its a beautiful place and at the start of the Millennium it was a landmark moment that I am able to look back at. We were not well-off, we had very little and if I am honest, I was barely keeping up with my mortgage repayments, but we had our health and dreams to make a better life. UKFast was only months old and we sat down in front of the log fire the next day and wrote out… Read the Rest »
I was asked recently to be on a panel for a great event organised by the 6th formers at William Hulme School, in Manchester. I had not been there since the old days when I used to kick goals through the posts on their front field for Ruthin School. As someone who failed dismally as an academic it was nice to be asked to contribute so I jumped at the chance. The line up consisted of 3 politicians, myself and another business person. One of the big topics concentrated around university fees and whether or not the £9,000 is fair. There seems to have been a massive cultural change over the last 10 or 15 years. Blair popularised the idea that everyone should go to… Read the Rest »
By the time I got the call, she was already in the Sea King helicopter. Some girls will do anything to meet Prince William. According to the eye witness reports, it was an impressive full-summersault, with a “Ben the Chef” style face plant, which are painful enough off a diving board into the sea, but on Snowdon, this is one place I like to keep my feet firmly on the mountain side. “The good news is she’s smiling, she’s a real tough character.” Jonathan reassured me. I clearly don’t have exclusivity on being accident prone. Our trips to Snowdon down at the Lake House (Castell Cidwm) are special. It is tough, and in windy conditions you have to keep your wits about you. And that’s… Read the Rest »
