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Business Objectives

Looking to grow your business? Some tips for safe business expansion

As your start-up business develops, your thoughts may turn to expansion. This can be a scary prospect. It will mean your business enlarging, spreading its wings further afield, and venturing into new markets. It will almost certainly mean you can’t do everything all on your own, and you will need to get familiar with more […]

The Coalition and Business Partnerships

There is an interesting thread on the IOD group on Linkedin on the Cameron-Clegg partnership. There are a lot of sceptics around, but also a few who think it could change the face of politics in the UK. From a business perspective partnerships can work very well, but they are also often the cause of […]

69. Leadership in recession for small business – John Adair’s Action-Centred Leadership

Leadership has become a major management topic in recent years, and there is a tendency to think naturally about large teams and big corporations. Having yesterday attended a workshop of the Leadership Academy at the Open University the subject of leadership and leading out of recession is top of the mind. Small businesses usually lead the […]

68. Social Media for Small Business and PEST analysis

I attended some time ago an advanced social media workshop which is run for the St Albans Enterprise Agency by two of its licensees: FL1 Solutions and Cerco Communications. The social media offer a wealth of opportunities for small businesses and it is such a fast-moving and dynamic area that any business these days has to […]

67. Leadership thinking for small business (part 2)

Leadership for small business is essential but so often forgotten. We scanned some of the theories in the last of these. So what should a small business person do with all this theory? Most importantly, to be aware. Be aware of the need to lead as well as to manage your business; be aware of […]

66. Leadership thinking for small business (part 1)

We have been looking at some of the motivational theories and how they apply to small business. In the area of leadership, the gurus come by the pile, with lots of theory and not much evidence. What it is critical for a small business to know is that leadership is not the same as management, […]

63. Frederick Herzberg and executive pay – and MPs expenses!

My last post on Frederick Herzberg’s theory of motivation has given rise to a few thoughts in relation to the recent hot topics of pay and expenses. Just to remind you, Herzberg’s research identified that pay is what he called a ‘hygeine’ factor: if it is not adequate it will cause dissatisfaction but it is […]

62. Frederick Herzberg and motivation for small business

I thought it might be time to consider some gurus on the people side of business. Herzberg’s 1959 book, The Motivation to Work, has had a great influence – and if you do not employ anyone, please do not stop reading now as this is just as relevant to your own motivation. He introduced the matched […]

61. Corporate Strategy and Igor Ansoff for small business (part 2)

 Ansoff working on how corporates grew considered a number of important concepts taken up later by other writers, including the core capabilities of the organisation, its product and market scope (or marketing focus) and competitive advantage. The strategy for growth could exploit these factors and consider the options for development which Ansoff defined in his […]

60. Corporate Strategy and Igor Ansoff for small business (part 1)

Igor Ansoff (1918-2002) pretty much invented the concept of corporate strategy – all of course based on large corporate organisations (he worked with Rand Corp and Lockheed). But small businesses also have to make strategic decisions so what he had to say can be relevant. Ansoff drew a qualitative line between strategic decisions which were fundamental […]

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