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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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
Ask how employees can help define the vision
At data firm Viga, founder Lewis Reeves wanted to ensure the company values were approachable and so got everyone involved helping define the vision.
Vision & Values
Sales & Growth
Article
Honing the company offering using customer feedback
While there have never been more ways for comments – be it positive or negative – to be given on products or services, customer feedback can be a powerful tool, if used wisely.
Marketing & Sales
Sales & Growth
Article
Coronavirus: Protecting customer relationships
There’s lots individual companies can be doing to protect customer relationships and revenue streams, even in cases where operations have had to be halted.
Marketing & Sales
Digital Readiness
Article
Want to rid yourself of those pesky business admin burdens? Here are some great solutions
From balancing the company books to paying utility bills, business admin can start to become a real productivity drain. However, embracing technology automating processes means this needn’t always be the case.
Digital Commerce
Sales & Growth
Article
How pop-ups provided a gateway into new cities
Board game café business Chance & Counters took the leap and opened a second site after 18 months, but not before some clever pop-up related research.
Identify target markets
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
Leadership & Strategy
Article
The honest leaders not afraid to admit they don’t know it all
While it may be tempting to lead from the front on all matters, honest leaders are those who recognise employees are often better at their role than they are – as two SME owners explained.
Leadership Behaviours
Leadership & Strategy
Video
Three tips for improving your business’s productivity
Andrew Peters, from Siemens, passes on three tips for improving your business’s productivity, based on his experiences in business over the past twenty years.
Leadership Behaviours
Leadership & Strategy
Article
Management behaviour: Work amongst staff or hide away?
As one of the most visible manifestations of management behaviour, the location a leader chooses to place themselves within an office environment can have a big impact on politics and productivity.
Leadership Behaviours
People & Team
Article
Boost the company culture with a lunch time activity
Lunch breaks can help boost team energy levels and integrate new team members quickly into the company culture, believes Shai Aharony, a business leader with lots of employee engagement experience.
Motivation
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
Productive meetings – Ditch mobiles and risk being kicked out
They’re critical for communication and collaboration, but what is the secret to productive meetings? Be the Business showcases eight innovative and original approaches to driving efficiencies.
Leadership Behaviours
Planning
Article
Coronavirus: Rent, rates and business property
With the outbreak of coronavirus, many firms are facing the temporary closure of their primary business property. But there are some steps you can take.
People & Team
Article
What happens when you think you’ve hired the wrong person?
If you discover you have hired the wrong person should you cut ties or take time to mould them into the worker you need?
Talent development
Planning
Article
How do you plan in a rapidly changing environment?
No matter what new rules or guidelines may emerge over the summer, Kristina Rowe is aiming to cover all bases with her forward-thinking planning efforts.
Digital Readiness
Article
Customers will always appreciate transparency
For energy suppliers Octopus, transparency to customers has been a priority since day one, and today when people have a complaint it is their CEO Greg Jackson whose email they will see when sending in details of whatever is bothering them.
Digital Commerce
Digital Readiness
Video
How digitally simulating your business can transform productivity
Andrew Peters tells us that using digitalisation tools to simulate your business can create step changes in productivity by helping you to see whether your processes are aligned with your value streams.
Digital Commerce
People & Team
Article
Using an alternative performance appraisal can help improve staff retention
Choosing an alternative performance appraisal method can help with more than goal setting – it can help with employee retention and wellbeing too.
Performance management
Digital Readiness
Article
Learning from the leaders of hospitality sector innovation
Find out how three entrepreneurs embraced hospitality sector innovation to help diversify in a competitive industry and take their companies to the next level.
Collaborative tools & analytics
Sales & Growth
Article
How multiple product lines can be a more successful approach
While it may be tempting to focus on a few product offerings to really nail the proposition and offering, Be the Business spoke to five businesses not afraid to go big with their product lines to test and learn from customer feedback.
Expanding & Exporting
Planning
Article
Cash flow management: You know how to do it, but can you do it in a crisis?
Our crib sheet brought together 15 steps to cash flow management best practice. Now, we've asked some finance experts what they're saying to SME clients.
Sales & Growth
Article
The businesses selling into unusual export countries
Libya, Jordan, Senegal and the Philippines – all unusual export countries British SMEs are doing business with. Be the Business looked at how each of these companies selected the right trading nations and what was crucial in de-risking the process.
Expanding & Exporting
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