I was talking to Les Prichard, patent attorney with Culverstons Intellectual Property, the other day.  This probably isn’t the question.  The question is probably, how well prepared are you to file a patent?

I went to a workshop given by Richard Smith of Integral Finance at the BioHub in Alderley Park the other week.  “The Science of Valuation” was organised by the BioHub Acceleration Manager, part of a series of workshops to support established businesses.  Valuing your business is an important step if you need investment or are […]

Ian Walker of CPDWORKS recommended the book, Black Box Thinking by Matthew Syed, to me.  The start of the book considers two different industries’ attitude to failure; healthcare and aviation.  In both cases failure can have tragic consequences.  How the two industries view failure tends to be very different though.  The suggestion is that the […]

I was having a chat with Mark Pemberton at The Heath in Runcorn the other day.  Mark’s business, Global MSDS Ltd, won the Chemicals North West “Product Services Supplier to the Chemical Industry” Award in March this year.

I met up with Karen Davies and Fiona Davidson of Dav-idea Workshops, in Cheadle the other day. We were talking about innovation in business. Karen and Fiona consult, mentor and train businesses in the management of innovation.

Creativity is not just about art, and innovation is not just for science and technology businesses. Every business can and should be creative and innovate. Karen and Fiona reminded me of the Darwin quote “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, not the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that […]

A couple of marketing books I’ve been reading have mentioned the importance of choosing your customers wisely.  Marketing tends to advocate niche marketing – targeted so you can concentrate your resources where they are best served.

They say a brand is a promise that you make to your customers and brand value is determined by how well you keep that promise.

I was chatting with Ruth Sanderson the other week from blue pea POD about the importance of business culture.  Ruth calls it the silent assassin because a business with cultural conflict will struggle to survive.

Branding is clearly prevalent in consumer marketing.  Very well known brands spend millions maintaining probably the most valuable asset a business has.  Understanding what a brand is, is the first step in understanding how brand value is created.