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
Simplified customer interaction is key
It is important for companies to think about the way how their customers want to interact and make it as easy as possible.
Marketing & Sales
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
Planning
Article
Coronavirus: Managing your business cash flow
The delicate balance between sales, creditors and debtors has been disrupted by coronavirus. Finding ways to manage cash flow has never been more important.
Leadership & Strategy
Article
Joining a family business advisory board can unlock new leadership skills
Three business leaders share their advisory board experience and reveal an unexpected perk – advisors to family businesses gain as much as they give.
Improve your own leadership capabilities
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
Leadership & Strategy
Article
Let new employees see how the whole business works
Suresite's Geoff Oldham makes sure that all new employees are introduced to managers to get an understanding of what the different departments do and, in turn, see the bigger picture in which they can play a part.
Vision & Values
People & Team
Article
Building a cost-effective training culture requires knowledge sharing
Developing an internal training culture is essential to keep employees engaged, motivated and productive. Be the Business spoke to three companies, each of which have taken different approaches to training staff.
Talent development
Digital Readiness
Article
A skills plan that works just as well for older staff as it does for younger
With the age of retirement set to hit 66 by 2020, it’s vital that companies ensure a skills plan is in place that's as appropriate to people in their sixties as it is to those aged 16.
Digital Commerce
People & Team
Video
Know your customers and inspire your people
Louise Fowler is chief customer and marketing officer at The Post Office, and has spent a quarter of a century working with some of Britain’s leading brands.
Talent development
Leadership & Strategy
Article
Bosses don’t have to be their staff’s best friends
In trying to be a friend to each of his employees one business leader ultimately found it harder to have the difficult conversations when they did arise.
Leadership Behaviours
Leadership & Strategy
Article
The power of prioritising business must-dos over can-dos
Business leaders need to manage the tension between investing resources in long-term strategic must-dos with the more immediate and easier can-dos.
Leadership Behaviours
Leadership & Strategy
Article
Coronavirus: How to negotiate with your landlord during the outbreak
With coronavirus uncertainty, you may be thinking about the best way to negotiate with your landlord about future rent. Here's how businesses should do it.
Sales & Growth
Article
How to do business in China: Expert advice for British businesses
International business expert David Nicholls takes a look at doing business in…
Expanding & Exporting
People & Team
Article
Leading a worried workforce: Are you supposed to be counsellors now?
Furlough has kept the wolves from the door, but it's also left leaders trying to keep a worried workforce motivated during the coronavirus outbreak.
Leadership & Strategy
Article
Hibernating SMEs work out how to get going again
The challenges and opportunities for SMEs hibernating since the coronavirus pandemic forced doors to close are numerous. We look at how to tackle them.
Leadership Behaviours
Planning
Article
12 hospitality trends you should pay attention to
Businesses that rest on their laurels seldom prosper, and perhaps nowhere is this more true than in the fast-moving hospitality sector.
Planning
Article
Creating a scalable and reassuring back-to-work plan
From working out its maximum safe occupancy to creating an induction document,…
Sales & Growth
Article
Exporting into unusual countries can open up unexpected doors
Doing business successfully to one unusual export country can lead to opportunities in others.
Expanding & Exporting
People & Team
Article
Are you managing your freelance team as effectively as possible?
While it often makes sense to engage with a freelance team or temporary workers, three creative SMEs tell what needs to be done differently – and what should remain the same - to get them working efficiently.
Talent development
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
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
Leadership & Strategy
Article
33 deliverables to stand out in the hospitality sector
Strategic planning is crucial to succeed in the competitive hospitality industry. Jon Yantin, a senior hospitality strategist at Stake Concepts, shares with us his framework for launching new businesses and reinvigorating existing ones.
People & Team
Article
Meet the family-run care home business going the extra mile to support staff
Lucy Craig is taking remarkable steps to support staff and reduce the stress they face as the impact of coronavirus continues to grow.
People & Team
Article
Why hiring for passion, not just experience, can be transformational
While it may be tempting to de-risk recruitment by prioritising academic achievement and work experience, hiring for passion can help populate your company with the kind of people who will live and breathe the business.
Motivation