I’ve just completed a six-week course with the excellent National Organisation for Responsible Businesses, led by Jill Poet, and I’ve learnt a lot. So what is responsible business? Isn’t it just ticking trendy boxes? Absolutely not. Being responsible in business is much like being responsible as an individual — recognising that we’re all part of […]
Responsibility in Business Read More »
Samuel Taylor Coleridge — in my opinion, the greatest poet in the English language, with the possible exception of Shakespeare and Bob Dylan — once defined the difference between prose and poetry. He said that prose is words in their best order, whereas poetry is the best words in the best order. Besides being a
Marketing with the Best Words Read More »
In the first episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, someone asks the android Data if he considers himself superior to humans. Data’s reply is “I am superior, sir, in many ways. But I would gladly give it up to be human.” Besides getting him called Pinocchio, this sets the main theme of Data’s story,
The Data Factor — AI Versus Humans Read More »
The chances are that, at some point in your business journey, someone has told you that you need a blog. It’s most likely to have been a coach, but the advice may have come from another source. Perhaps a marketing or SEO advisor, or simply a client or colleague who’s concerned to help you get
Why Do You Need a Blog? Read More »
A couple of years ago, I wrote a blog about writing Artificial Intelligence — ChatGPT and other similar versions. I still broadly agree with what I said then, but I’ve had more chance since to look at what AI can help with — and what still needs Word Wizardry. AI — Strengths and Weaknesses There
What Artificial Intelligence Can Do — And What Still Needs Word Wizardry Read More »
In general, a business today needs a website. There are people who’d disagree with that, and maybe certain businesses can do well enough without one — but why would you want to? A website can serve as a shop window (or even a shop, if you’re selling products), but it’s much more. It can be
What Do You Need for Your Website? Read More »
Ten years ago, I walked into a networking meeting a contact had invited me to. I’d been in business about four months, and for the most part my experience of networking was simply drop-in chats — but this one, run by an organisation I’d never heard of called 4Networking, was slightly more formal. We even
Ten Years in 4Networking Read More »
Most of what we do in business involves communication, from marketing and sales to HR, planning and collaborating on projects. We need people to understand what we mean (not to mention us understanding what they mean) and that obviously requires clarity. It needs something else, though, as well. It’s needs empathy — understanding that other
Communicating in a Diverse World Read More »
At one time, finding business contacts was tricky — but introducing yourself was simple enough. You had to be meet through an intermediary, or else go somewhere where there’d be other business owners, such as a conference, an award ceremony etc. Once you were face to face, though, all you needed to do was talk.
In Profile — What Makes a Great Online Profile? Read More »
I always say that all businesses need written marketing content — and that’s true. But what kind of content do you need? Needless to say, that depends partly on what kind of business you have, but there are some generalisations you can make. It’s likely that any business will need some, at least, of these
What Written Content Does Your Business Really Need? Read More »