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 »
I have just spent 2 weeks in my homeland at the foothills of the Snowdonia National Park in North Wales. It’s a magical place. It’s the land that time forgot and long may it stay this way. Anyone who knows me, knows just how important my time there is. Considering the hectic duties of our Manchester business UKFast, a place which is aptly named, I can’t remember a moment where we have ever come up for air. Yet, inspite of craving the intensity and fast paced business life, I never tire of the Welsh countryside and there’s not a more beautiful time of year. Time out is so important and the bigger UKFast gets the more I realise I need the complete switch off. I… Read the Rest »
I was quoted in the press this week commenting on the budget and the recent changes the chancellor has made. Whatever my politics and whatever my beliefs, what is plain to see from where I am sitting, there is a brighter horizon approaching. I am ever the optimist and I have been wrong more times than I have been right on most subjects, however it does feel as if the mood in the board rooms of businesses is continuing to lift. It is difficult to ignore the politics in other parts of the world, there are so many countries and people fighting for a myriad of causes. It certainly is a reminder to us all how fortunate we are in the UK. Yet back here… Read the Rest »
I blogged last year about the Government’s overspending. It was described to me in plain and simple English. “For every £3 the government earns, they are spending £4.” So to break even they’d have to reduce spending by 28%. Watching the BBC’s political programmes this morning, it shows just how oblivious today’s politicians are with basic accounting principals. To compound the huge problem of overspending there are politicians drumming up unrest against necessary cuts in expenditure. What is even more worrying, it is clear that councillors from certain regions seem hell bent on deliberately cutting frontline services in the knowledge that it puts significantly more pressure on communities, in the hope that it reflects badly on the current government. In business, if you overspend, you… Read the Rest »
At the CBI awards at the Midland Hotel on Friday I sat and listened to a very clever man Jon Moulton put some of our country’s problems into plain and simple English. “For every £3 the government earns, they are spending £4.” So to break even they’d have to reduce spending by 28%. How can this happen? Charles Dickens famously said: “Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery.” With all the technology at our fingertips in today’s society how can we not balance the books? Where else in the world can you get away from this sort of lack of control where you can spend more than you… Read the Rest »
At the heart of every organisation, team or company are “core values”. In businesses these are quite often made public and businesses will recruit and train with these in mind.
I congratulate the winner of this year’s EN Entrepreneur award, Bruntwood’s Chris Oglesby. In a tough environment I thought this was a very fair result. He is a worthy winner and the rapturous response he received when his name was announced reaffirms that he is a great entrepreneur and has the popular vote amongst the business community. UKFast was a sponsor of the awards this year and I have to say I was pleased with the result. It is difficult to find another organisation that has done as much for Manchester as Bruntwood. There are many awards nowadays and some people think that the sentiment behind the ceremony has been diluted. But personally I like to view them very positively. I am honoured to have… Read the Rest »
In the past week the British government has been criticised over its websites. A report states the websites have barely improved over the last seven years. In this period of time, the internet has grown and changed considerably. There is much more offered by way of interactive and dynamic content now, making internet usage undeniably better than it was back in 2001. When I look back over the years at how the UKFast website has grown, it is barely recognisable as the site of 2001. It wasn’t that it was a poor site back then, just that the internet has moved on so much. The speed and reliability of new internet technology – broadband, quadcore web servers, innovative applications, etc, etc – offers the ability… Read the Rest »
