Why productivity matters
Productive companies get more out of what they’ve got, enabling them to increase their profits, pay higher wages and invest in their future. More productive businesses mean a more prosperous country. Discover why productivity matters below.
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Sales & Growth
Article
From the coal face: Speaking up saw one digital content executive rewrite her job spec
Realising there was an opportunity for the company she worked for to better leverage digital content, Clarissa Bloom took an idea to her boss and has now undergone a comprehensive job role overhaul off the back of it.
Marketing & Sales
People & Team
Article
Coronavirus: How to monitor staff wellbeing of remote workers
For owners and managers, perhaps the most important coronavirus question is how do you monitor staff wellbeing if you’re not in the same building every day?
Sales & Growth
Article
Researching new markets? How asking your rivals for help can work
Next time you’re researching new markets before moving into a new sector or geography who will you consult? Will it be a research company, a marketing agency or simply Google? There are other options out there.
Expanding & Exporting
Sales & Growth
Article
The Climbing Hangar is getting professional fast to meet a market need
Having initially set up The Climbing Hangar to fund a lifestyle, Ged Macdomhnaill sensed the time was right to grow the business and is assembling a team to take the leisure brand national.
Expanding & Exporting
People & Team
Article
Be innovative to retain your best staff
Keeping talented staff members in your company means accepting that traditional working conditions and standards may no longer apply, believes entrepreneur Callum Negus-Fancey.
Talent development
Sales & Growth
Article
An inspiring export strategy built on trial and error
It’s a brand now synonymous with British design and craft, but an ambitious export strategy was what really put Brompton on the map.
Expanding & Exporting
Leadership & Strategy
Article
Struggling SMEs brush up on survival skills
A look at SMEs which are struggling to survive following a decline in revenue and a drop in customer demand during the coronavirus pandemic.
Leadership Behaviours
Leadership & Strategy
Article
A business mentor re-united our family firm behind the same vision
With the third generation at family firm Carrs Pasties not finding things straightforward, mentoring turned out to be the experience-based support needed.
External Collaboration
Article
I’ve been in hospitality for 30 years, but I never stop learning
As MD of Dukes Collection, a boutique hotel in London and Dubai, Debrah Dhugga has developed a keen eye for what customers are really looking for.
Sales & Growth
Article
Countries in focus: How the Irish economy took a hit but came out the other side fighting fit
It’s weathered crippling recessions and struggled with an uncompetitive currency, but now the Irish economy is booming and producing highly-productive small and medium-sized businesses.
Expanding & Exporting
Planning
Article
Define your business USP so it isn’t just hypothetical jargon
The easiest place to start talking about your company is probably the business USP – what makes your product or service different? But it’s difficult to define a USP that doesn't rely on industry buzzwords or hypothetical jargon.
Ambition
Planning
Article
Setting long-term landing zones helps drive business growth
Landing zones help define what the success of a company looks like in the long-term. Providing focus for the management team and helping drive motivation at every level of an organisation.
Ambition
Digital Readiness
Article
Why a CRM system isn’t just for making sales
Often thought of as a corporate luxury, a CRM system is a tool facilitating sound communication between a business – both large and small – and its customers.
Digital Commerce
Digital Readiness
Video
VIDEO: Why easyJet embraces a curious, not critical approach
Eager to uncover how it can better serve its diverse customer base, easyJet ancillary revenue director Andrew Middleton explained how the airline is iterating and evolving through constant feedback.
Collaborative tools & analytics
Leadership & Strategy
Article
Want the best day of your career? Join an advisory board
Our interim finance director, Regina Lombard, joined our Advisory Board programme for family businesses and had one of the best days of her career.
Seek external advice
People & Team
Video
Bronwen Bamber of Butlers Farmhouse Cheeses believes engaging your team brings success
Bronwen Bamber is new product development manager at Butlers Farmhouse Cheeses in Lancashire, a family business dedicated to making the very best handmade British farmhouse cheeses.
Motivation
Leadership & Strategy
Article
This family firm attracts new customers by thinking locally and acting globally
The family run Lakeside and Haverthwaite Railway is attracting new customers internationally by working with their local community.
External Collaboration
Leadership & Strategy
Article
A day in the life of former Cisco CEO Phil Smith
While the average working day of a top-level CEO is hard to nail down, Cisco’s Phil Smith had some tried and tested strategies to ensure his hours in the office and on the road were as efficient and effective as possible.
Leadership Behaviours
Leadership & Strategy
Article
Learnings from a 133 year-old family bakery business
An Open Business Days event gave 30 family firms the chance to extract learnings from Frank Roberts & Sons, a fifth generation bakery operation.
Seek external advice
People & Team
Article
From the coal face: Changing the way an employee rewards process works
When management charged Francesca Bull and her two colleagues with bettering the company’s employee rewards system the small team took things one step further and set about addressing other concerns and ideas they had.
Motivation
Sales & Growth
Article
Business lessons from a third-generation family farm
Long-term planning and deep-rooted relationships with the local community have helped one family farm through the ups and downs of the food and farming sector.
People & Team
Article
We invest in learning and development schemes to see great outcomes
If you want results from your learning and development schemes, then you need to invest in them believes Stephen Oakden, director of BE Design.
Talent development
Leadership & Strategy
Article
Go behind the scenes at The Headland Hotel
It’s one of the most iconic hotels in all of Cornwall, with a history dating back over 100 years, but Darryl Reburn and the team at The Headland Hotel have a decidedly modern approach to business.
Leadership Behaviours
Sales & Growth
Article
Three ways entering business awards can give you a competitive edge
Entering business awards might not be at the top of your to-do list, but we think it could be once you find out how three family business leaders gained an upper hand by doing so.
Marketing & Sales