Bite Sized Business Tips

2 minute reads for the values-led business leader

Snippets for purpose and values-led business leaders about meeting our responsibilities to our team, customers, owners, communities and suppliers. Context is everything, so these aren't dogma - rather a stimulus for thought. Subscribe below.

Do you control your team or bring out the best in them?

Are you going to be the CEO who controls your team or the one who brings out the best in them? Because both actually need the same foundation. Both require a framework and direction to be effective. The challenge is that many of us “nice” people misinterpret bringing out the ...
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Time and what to do with it

We don’t have much control over the amount of time we have available to do things. However we have a lot of control over the number of things we try to do in the time we have. This is a guiding principle for how to be fulfilled both as a ...
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“Purpose-driven people are problem solvers and doers” – Ruth Hartnoll, CEO of Matchstick Creative

A fundamental principle if you want to do purpose well in your company is to look after your profit. Note that "look after" is not the same as "maximise". Ruth Hartnoll, co-founder and CEO of [Matchstick Creative](https://matchstickcreative.co.uk/), has seen what that looks like up close! In this episode of the Karmic ...
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Giving your senior team more to do

As your team gets more senior, they need to think more about the organisation than about themselves. It's one of the toughest transitions to make, and many don't. Here's what I mean. Obviously as CEO, you shouldn't overload your team, and you need to make sure there's sense (strategy, genuine ...
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The danger of our current obsession with authenticity

We have a real obsession with "authenticity" today, which I fear in many ways is a toxic one. I'm not advocating by any means that we look for lies, to pretend to be something we're not. But I fear that "authenticity" today, and certainly the way I see it being ...
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What effective collaboration to tackle climate change looks like – Harriet Lamb of Ashden

I have two firsts in this Karmic Capitalist podcast episode. First, Harriet is the first CBE to deign to accept my humble invitation to be a guest on our podcast! Second, she is also the first guest who leads a charity to guest on this show. Why a charity on ...
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The importance of your not making (all / most) decisions

Almost every company I see where the CEO is too busy suffers from at least one of 3 key criteria not being in place. Missing any of them means that the CEO gets involved in too many decisions, often at FAR too micro a level.

(For involved, read "making ...
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You think you’ve survived …

A number of businesses I meet are dying slowly. Often without knowing it. And it's just like the sunny spell we're enjoying in the UK. I know. It's the summer. Sun's out. And here I am talking about business death, and relating it to the sunshine. Here's why. There was ...
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“Who knew that coffee grinds sticking to Teflon would be a thing?” George May, MD of bio-bean

How challenging has it been to get your company going? I think getting a new product to market has to be one of the more challenging businesses to get going. But what if... Your product is a new formulation and needs independent scientific validation for your customers to buy it? ...
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Self help and save the planet snakeoil

Watching the promises made at COP26 fritter away brings to mind the similarities between it and most company strategy awaydays and self-help retreats. One of the things that most of the multi-$Bn self-help industry knows is that it's easier to sell a dream than the hard work to do it ...
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Marketing has fuelled ill in the world. It can do better.

Marketing has been responsible for sooo many of the ills we're suffering in today's world. Overconsumption is the biggie. Encapsulated in the perceptive statement that "we buy things we don't need with money we don't have to impress people we don't like". Personally, I think in many ways, marketing just ...
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Each policy you add is a small nail in the trust coffin

Are you loading up your company with policies? So often I see SMEs feeling like they need to add a detailed policy for expenses, another for travel, for mobile phones, for toilet paper folding, male sandal-wearing and on and on and on. Sometimes, a policy makes sense. But often, sense ...
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