Category: Opinion

Coalition policy is failing to deliver the public sector innovation that could dramatically boost value for money and benefit the economy beyond the public sector, argues a recent report published by The Work Foundation.

In the run-up to the Budget George Osborne announced potential changes to current maternity regulations which would have made small businesses exempt from paying for maternity leave.

As the owner of a small- to medium-sized business, l was pleasantly surprised, but as it turns out the proposals weren’t followed through.

There is much criticism that politicians are out of touch with people who run small and medium sized business across the UK. We asked Lord McFall of Alcluith, who was the Member of Parliament for Dumbarton and the West Dunbartonshire between 11 June 1987 and 12 April 2010 to explain how the UK Parliament is engaging with SMEs to learn from them and offer them as much help and support as they can to help then grow.

Life’s scary. Think about those things that are scaring you right now. Is “losing my job” or “starting a business” one of those? Then face them now!

It is not often that private sector business initiatives have a keynote address by the Prime Minister, are attended by some of the UK’s leading business entrepreneurs and also receive the backing and support from Sir Richard Branson, the man who many regard as the UK’s best entrepreneur. So surely nothing could go wrong…

Even though the Olympics haven’t taken place and construction of the Olympic Stadium isn’t yet finished, the flagship stadium has already been allocated to West Ham Football Club for use after London 2012.

I for one am relieved that West Ham won the bid. Not because l’m a die-hard ‘Hammer’ but because they appear to be wasting a lot less of the stadium by keeping the athletics track than the other hopeful club, Tottenham, would have done by re-building it as a football-only venue.

In 1884 Thomas Marks opened his first market stall in Leeds. Over the next few years he opened 20 other stalls around the UK. In 1894, Thomas Spencer invested in the business and retail chain Marks & Spencer (M&S) was born.
From humble beginnings, M&S became one of the UK’s biggest success stories and was the first retailer to make a pre-tax profit of over £1 billion.
Companies like WH Smith, Woolworth’s and AMSTRAD all started the same way, so it would seem that in order to make it big, you should start small. Can the same thing be said of the web? Andy Budd, managing director at Clearleft investigates.