The FSB ‘Voice of Small Business’ survey revealed that small businesses still have difficulties finding suitably skilled staff despite a steep rise in unemployment. In order to solve this global crisis, businesses will have to look at new flexible approaches as a knowledge driven work environment makes it much harder to find the right person for the job, regardless of geographical location or business size.

The marketing landscape has changed significantly in the past few years with the shift mainly driven by new technology, changes in customer needs and the evolution of consumer tolerance.

A few years ago marketers were talking about customer relationship management and brand management to drive loyalty and retention. Fast forward a few years and the new buzz words are customer engagement and brand experience. So you may ask, what is the difference? Notice that the words management has evolved into less authoritative terms, engage and experience.

I read an article a few days ago about how you can build Emotional Capital on your balance sheet by inspiring everyone connected to an organisation. Even though emotional commitment is very important, I see something wide of the mark with this approach.

More often than not growth is driven by leaders who inspire their teams to be more effective and to contribute to the overall goal of a business. On the other hand it is quite easy for leaders to get caught up in the business instead of focussing on leadership and growth.

If your business is doing just ok, but you’d like it to do more than just ok, it’s often more productive to take a step back and look at things from a different angle.

When asked for his verdict on losing the 1992 Presidential Campaign to Bill Clinton, George Bush Senior identified “the vision thing,” or rather his lack of it, as a major contributing factor. This notion that leadership is about a single leader with a unifying vision which they communicate, usually in inspirational Churchillian rhetoric, is an enduring one.