Insolvency Service figures show that total company insolvencies registered in England and Wales jumped by 57% year-on-year to 22,109 in 2022.

While there is no denying that conditions for businesses are currently extremely tough is it possible that at least some insolvencies have been the result of the CEOs’ mindset?

According to research published in the Harvard Business Review a CEO needs to have five essential qualities:

• Foresight: critical thinking when it comes to future planning
• Adaptability: the ability to adapt to changing markets and technology
• Reliability: A steady hand on the controls
• Teamwork: the ability to engage with the team and show them they are trusted
• Decency: essential quality to show trustworthiness in cementing relationships with shareholders, investors, employees, and the public

But what happens when the CEO is suffering from mental health issues?

According to a study in the Applied Journal of Psychology, mindsets are contagious so if the CEO is...

We have been talking for several weeks about mental health and how important it can be to business owners especially given the current perfect storm of financial pressures they are facing.

While over-confidence can be dangerous, so too can another condition, known as imposter syndrome.

Originally thought to affect mainly high-achieving professional women, psychiatrists now believe it is more widespread and can affect up to 30% of business decision makers.

Imposter syndrome is characterised by a feeling of being a phony in some area of your life, despite any success that you have achieved in that area.

It can be undermining liked as it is to a fear that someday the person affected will be found out and exposed as a fraud.

There are several characteristics from the perfectionist, the expert, the natural genius to the super person and they all lead to an inability to be realistic about the sufferer’s achievements, competence and skills.

It leads to constant anxiety and a lack of...

70 years is a long time to have remained head of an organisation and to be dedicated to the duties it requires.

Yet the Queen has achieved this and retained the respect of most people, regardless of whether they support the idea of a monarchy or not.

She has often referred to the royal family as “the firm”, so are there lessons for business leaders who want to see their businesses thrive and endure for a long time?

The world has changed dramatically over this period, not only in terms of technology but also in terms of people’s attitudes and behaviour.

So, mastering the skill of adaptability while retaining core values is a skill business leaders should aspire to.

There may be times when it is necessary to pivot a business in a different direction.

Of course, leadership requires both dedication and hard work, but another attribute recognised in the Queen is courtesy.

No matter to whom she is talking this is an attribute that she shows and one that business leaders...

When working life resumes properly once Coronavirus restrictions have eased people may find that their work patterns are substantially different from previously.

While, sadly, some SMEs will not have survived others may find that their agility and perhaps new innovations introduced during lockdown will have given their businesses a new lease of life for the future.

Those who have shown consideration for their employees, suppliers and customers will have built up a level of goodwill that will stand them in good stead for the future.

I shall examine in another blog those businesses, sectors and processes that may benefit from the changed landscape but in this blog I am focusing on the likely changes to business work patterns and the relationships between employers and their stakeholders.

Because, of course, employers are also people, they will have discovered that they and their families are no more immune to the health risks of the pandemic than any of their employees.

This may well...

Robust business models should be based on a clear proposition with a plan for profitable activity.

Each model is essentially a road map of how money will flow from activity.

Business models are a financial expression of the company’s business plan in a way that summarises the strategy, funding, organisation and processes used to achieve objectives.

Given that unforeseen roadblocks and successes will occur, business models should be reviewed regularly and adapted depending on new circumstances and new information.

Tools for refining the model are also useful, such as a SWOT analysis to identify Strengths, and Opportunities to be exploited and Threats and Weaknesses to be avoided.

While arguably, few businesses and especially SMEs, will have had plans to cope with the coronavirus pandemic, it has affected most businesses in ways that were not foreseen. The lockdown has also exposed how little resilience they may have built into their business models to protect from such a...

As we all adjust to the new realities of working remotely while we self-isolate during the Coronavirus pandemic, we still need to maintain contact with staff, clients, suppliers and others where online conference calls and video meetings are proving much better than the phone.

But how do you avoid an online conference descending into anarchy with people talking over each other?

There are some simple rules that are not so different from those we adopt during face-to-face meetings.

One of the meeting platforms that is becoming increasingly popular during the pandemic has been Zoom, but there are plenty of others such as Microsoft Teams, Skype for Business and even WhatsApp. Security is an issue and all are constantly improving their security measures following concerns about uninvited intruders, in particular for Zoom which seems to have become the most popular platform.

It is important that the chair should host (convene) and be familiar with the technology since each platform has...

There are many situations in our working life that have the potential to damage relationships with colleagues and managers and it takes emotional honesty to confront them.

Disagreements are inevitable especially where individuals are ambitious and want the best for the business and its goals. There are often many solutions to problems and teams need to learn how to share differing ideas without disagreements being seen as confrontation and in particular avoiding individuals being afraid of others in such a way that they don’t contribute.

Team decision making doesn’t necessarily mean agreement but is should be positive, especially when the team is needed to implement the decision. Sophisticated teams may explore decision making as a form of idea meritocracy by considering the knowledge and expertise of each contributor rather than team democracy where everyone is equal, or worse, where overconfident individuals, bullies or HiPPOs (Highest Paid Person’s Opinion) make...

A YouGov study has found that small business owners identified most strongly with the analogy of a juggling act when asked about running their businesses.

The analogy was strongest in the North West, in Yorkshire and Humberside, where 63 per cent in each region compared themselves to jugglers.

Bookkeeping was rated the biggest chore by 27% of the 1000 respondents, while 42 per cent of respondents believed central government added to the hassle for small businesses.

As an analogy it makes sense where dropping one ball can cause a knock on effect such as the consequences of not having contingency plans or missed payments or failure to file Tax Returns.

Among the issues identified in an article in The Economist on the same subject is knowing the right time to take certain steps in a business.   In that sense, it argues, the juggling act is a permanent exercise in balancing a variety of trade-offs. Such as holding high stock levels can help avoid the consequences of being let...

Effective meetings depend on discussion that is constructive and to the point, and on wasting as little time as possible.

It has been calculated that the average executive spends around 50 percent of his or her time in meetings of which at least a third are useless.

This was the finding of a 3M study carried out by Annenberg school of communications, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, in 1989.

Studying effective meetings has been ongoing for years and certainly since the 1960s and there has been a growing body of evidence to support the 1989 findings, which suggests that executive productivity could be much improved.

There is an assumption that using lists or PowerPoint presentations can result in more effective meetings, but in fact, this has proven to be incorrect, as Amazon CEO @Jeff Bezos and subsequently others have proved.

A couple of years ago Bezos banned the use of PowerPoint and bullet point slides in executive meetings requiring instead that...

Too often the word diversity as applied to directors of companies is seen as demonstrating representation by gender, ethnicity, religion, and possibly of age. But it should actually be about more than that, it should also be about diversity of thought and ideas.

The challenges facing businesses in the 21^st Century are becoming more complex and happening at a faster pace so it makes sense to have people at board level who think differently and can communicate their ideas.

In a recent survey carried out by Social Mobility Pledge as reported by The Times newspaper, the researchers found that by and large “who you know” was still the most important factor when promoting staff.

Sadly, the inference from this is that recruitment tends to favour like-minded people, which is hardly helpful to businesses wanting to avoid being stuck in a rut.

The ability to challenge the status quo at all levels and in particular a board level was a topic discussed in a recent vimeo by Kenneth...