Strategy

  • Benchmarking

    Every business can use benchmarking. At its simplest, it helps you to compare statistics and control costs. More sophisticated benchmarking looks at process design and business strategy. Benchmarking is a process that compares your...

  • Cost Control

    Cutting costs is the simplest way to improve your bottom line. Introducing a cost control system can bring immediate savings and ensure that you remain competitive in the longer term. But cost control needs to be carefully managed. While...

  • Creating a Valuable Business

    Hundreds of everyday actions affect the performance of your business, whether you are negotiating a sale, recruiting a new employee or complaining to a supplier. Much of the working day is spent reacting to circumstances, making small decisions that have a...

  • Directors' responsibilities

    Company directors are responsible for the management of their companies. But they act on behalf of the owners, and must consider their interests in everything they do. They also have responsibilities to the company’s employees, its trading partners, and...

  • Effective Board Meetings

    The way you run board meetings speaks volumes about how you run the company. Successful companies use board meetings to create and improve key business strategies. This briefing is aimed primarily at companies large enough to have board...

  • Filing and Records Management

    Filing and records management is a vital — if uninspiring — part of any business. Information is a major element in many companies’ competitive advantage, but it can only be utilised if it is available when needed. At...

  • Forming a Business

    Whether you are forming your first business or adding to an existing one, it pays to set it up correctly. Choosing the wrong business structure will expose you to unnecessary costs and risks. Failing to address the key practical issues can result in you...

  • ISO 9000

    Many companies see the introduction of a quality management system as a major step forward in controlling and improving their key processes. Other companies simply react to customer demands that their suppliers should have suitable systems. ...

  • Increasing Profitability

    Few people are in a position to sit back and watch the profits roll in. Creating and increasing profitability depends on doing a hundred little things better than the competition. If you are lucky, a single change could provide an...

  • Innovation

    In a world of change and competition, innovating is not a luxury, but an essential. All businesses need to innovate, though it may take any number of forms, from the steady refinement of established products to the leap in the dark when...

  • Key Performance Indicators

    Running any business effectively requires good decision-making, which is based on good management information. All businesses need to monitor profitability and cashflow carefully, and use management accounts for this purpose. ...

  • New Product Development

    A ‘new product’ can be a product or a service. It can be the next revolutionary computer chip, or a new holiday package put together by a travel agent. The point is, it is new, so it is often risky. This briefing will not help...

  • Role of the Company Secretary

    Every company is obliged to appoint a company secretary. If you accept this appointment, you will become an officer of the company, with legal responsibilities under the Companies Act. From 6 April 2008, it will no longer be obligatory to...

  • SWOT analysis

    SWOT analysis looks at your strengths and weaknesses, and the opportunities and threats your business faces. By focusing on the key factors affecting your business, now and in the future, a SWOT analysis provides a clear basis for...

  • Strategic Acquisitions

    An acquisition could increase the size and profitability of your business overnight. It might enable you to take advantage of new economies of scale, or diversify into new areas. You might be able to acquire a bigger and better customer base, or strengthen...

  • Writing a Business Plan

    Every management team should know where it is taking the business, and how it is going to get there. This is the purpose of the business plan. This briefing outlines the key issues to consider when putting together a ‘typical’...

  • Your Business and the Environment

    We are all concerned about the environment, but most of us prefer to believe it is someone else’s problem. Such complacency can be costly. As a minimum, you must find out how environmental legislation affects your business. At the...

  • Your Money and Your Business

    As the owner-manager of a small or medium enterprise, your own financial affairs are likely to be closely intertwined with the way you run your business. You should think about how the business will affect your own finances from the...