One of my most challenging activities is providing mentoring to people who have just sold their companies. They have gone from poor to rich in an instant, and the euphoria…
The biggest challenge that any of us can face is not in the workplace, but at home: parenthood. Suddenly, there is a noisy little bundle of joy who demands our…
We all have mentors, even if we do not realise it. For people in school, it might be a teacher who is willing to spend a little extra time with…
“Ask good questions, listen carefully and give clear instructions.” Sound advice indeed, and I’m writing it down carefully as I’m talking to Sir Philip Trousdell, formerly director of the multinational…
Paul Bridle has made a long study of leadership in effective organisations: what actually works and what doesn’t. Sadly for David Brent and other would-be office comedians, ‘a sense of…
Eric Edmeades is a self-made millionaire and CEO of a computer-based special effects company. But he started as a ‘cornerstone’ to an entrepreneur. They then fell out, prompting Eric to…
It is hard setting up a new business. It is even harder scaling it up. This inevitably requires the entrepreneur to hire people better than themselves. This requires both courage…
We are all familiar with the great double acts in popular culture. Great examples include Morecambe and Wise, Lennon and McCartney, even Del-Boy and Rodney; complementary characters who play off…
One attribute that well describes many entrepreneurs is ‘being right about everything’, a delicate mix of supreme confidence and impossible arrogance. This is another way of describing the important prerequisite…
It is useful to remember the lessons of the last recession of 1991. Keith Steven not only remembers 1991; the events of that time are the ‘defining experience’ that drove…