Moving to the dark side

For as long as I can remember there have always been ‘Mac’ people and ‘PC’ people. I have always been firmly in the latter camp...

Freedom of the City of London

Last week I had the honour of becoming a Freeman of the City of London as I joined the Worshipful Company of Information Technologists. The...

Does a low tax model work?

I have been interested in the past few months on the increasing publicity around the growing divide in our country between the haves and the...

A truly separate Openreach

The ongoing discussion of Openreach and BT Wholesale combining into one entity seems to be dividing opinion among the industry. My personal view is one...

Seeing is believing

Last week saw our new video phones being rolled out across our offices in an attempt to improve collaboration between staff. Because of our adoption...

A chance to meet the Queen

Recently my business was a beneficiary in the Queen’s Award for Enterprise, winning the Innovation category for our work on the Service Exchange Platform. This...

Amazon want to know everything

A great use of mobile technology is the ability to accept credit card payments on any smart device without all the cumbersome hardware usually associated...

Working lunch or afternoon beer?

For me that five minutes in the day when I get to leave my desk and grab a sandwich is my opportunity to reflect on...

Business guru or celeb

They say the media corrupts and feeding the ego of a ‘successful’ entrepreneur is surely one of the worst examples. Ultimately a business founder has...

A wish and a prayer

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...