Category: Opinion

George Osborne’s Shares for Rights scheme was rejected twice by the Lords, before scraping through in April. Darren Fell, MD of Crunch Accounting asks just what the controversial new legislation will mean for SMEs.

As I settled down to watch this evenings The Apprentice I contemplated whether Barbie would beat Bratz, whether fairy cakes would trounce facelifts, or if blondes or brunettes really do have more fun?

The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (Ipsa) says we should give MPs a £7,500 pay rise, and I am 90% behind them. My problem with this is that it’s not nearly enough!

The right attitude to work and a strong set of basic skills remain at the top of employers’ wish lists when it comes to hiring new recruits. That’s the finding of new research we carried out with our members.

Research says you make your mind up about a candidate in the first two to three minutes of an interview and you spend the rest of the interview justifying that decision.

It is encouraging to see increasing recognition of successful SMEs as the growth engine for the UK economy. Accelerate 2013, a business festival held in Liverpool at the end of June, hosted 1,000 delegates from SMEs nationwide, designed to promote discussion, knowledge sharing and operational efficiencies among fast-growing companies.

You may recall I wrote a few weeks back about whether being called ‘sweetheart’ and being manhandled constituted appropriate business etiquette. Well I have cause again to question this – but from a written perspective; to kiss or not to kiss in an email sign off?

It was a week where the task was to ‘dump the useless stuff’ and sell what worked. Much like Lord Sugar himself does in the boardroom each week.

The University of Leicester School of Management’s Professor Martin Parker has fiercely criticised the BBC reality television programme

I was fascinated to learn that claims to Employment Tribunals were up 36% for the first three months of 2013 when compared with the same period in 2012 – a whopping 57,737 apparently.

So what does the concept of ready meals conquer for you? Homicidal hummus? Gruesome grub? Powerful posh nosh or deadly dinners? None of the above? Oh dear no wonder Endeavour’s idea didn’t fly in the face of this weeks challenge.

With a nest of vipers and blood on their lips this weeks Romeo and Juliet inspired task was beautifully narrated by these, Jason’s words, as he entered the boardroom. Their aim was to come up with an online dating concept that they then had to create a full marketing campaign for to present to a group of industry experts and marketing gurus.

Intelligence isn’t simply a fixed quantity, a learning expert explained in a talk recently. How smart we are is powerfully affected by our situation, and that’s something we can control.

New data published recently around bank lending has confirmed suspicions long suspected, but have hitherto been unable to prove this year. And that is that bank lending is still in decline – or it certainly was up until the end of March.