Just back from my extended holiday (hence the lack of posts this week!) to pick up my eldest son’s GCSE results. The new new GCSE system (I was O levels!). I’m really chuffed with how he’s done. But it prompted me to look at some of my old school and uni notes, and I was […]
Values
Interview for Values fit, not Cultural alignment
Do you interview for cultural fit? I did. And I was wrong. I’ve interviewed well over 1000 people. As the person responsible for my team (whether in my own company, on the board of another, or as a senior manager post-acquisition), I was the “culture” part of the interview for a long time. What became […]
UK Government Gets on the Responsible Capitalism Bandwagon
It is good to see the government making noises about the role of values in the companies which it buys goods and services from (http://bsb.tips/ukgovtvalues). Minister for the Cabinet Office, David Lidington said that the government will “extend the requirements of the Social Value Act to ensure all major procurements explicitly evaluate social value where […]
Don’t let your clients’ lack of ethics or inefficiency endanger your business
Cash flow, revenue, sales. These are the oxygen for our businesses. They’re not what creates the value, but we’d be unable to create value without them. Which is why it’s infuriating to see small businesses often left at the mercy of late paying larger customers. Recent surveys by the Small Business Insights Index and Xero […]
Your company can only contribute sustainably if it is profitable
When discussions with my clients turns towards the contribution their company makes to their community or environment, I obsess that they need to be reliably profitable. Especially if their contribution is philanthropic. I’m a governor at my kids’ primary school. I was astonished how many children struggle to do their best simply because their families […]