Any organisation that can create a barrier to entry which prevents new competitors entering the market can, in theory, keep prices high. Economies of scale (think Airbus or Boeing), branding (think Apple) and distribution channels (think Coke) are all excellent examples of barriers to entry but one of the toughest barriers to break through are [...]

Maybe the more important question I should have asked is “if you disagree with your boss would you tell him or her?” My personal view is that whilst you’ll need to show a bit of “emotional intelligence” when it comes to disagreeing with your boss, in today’s business world there should be a certain amount [...]

Have you ever been to lunch with a colleague? My guess is that unless (a) you work by yourself, (b) nobody likes you , or (c) you have a serious body odour problem then the chances are that you have had lunch with a colleague. Now let me guess. What did you talk about over [...]

If something goes wrong on an audit, whose fault is it? Is it the partner’s fault or the junior member of staff’s fault? Over in Australia, the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper has provided some interesting commentary on a legal case that is currently taking place concerning an audit undertaken by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). The background to [...]

You’ve all used a computer and the “qwerty” style keyboards which are named after the first row of the letters of the top row of the keyboard are things that we currently take for granted. The interesting thing though is that 20 years ago they weren’t very common and my feeling is that in 20 [...]

It never ceases to amaze me. You’re at an airport, you check-in and then wave goodbye to your luggage. When you arrive at your destination you expect your luggage to arrive on the luggage carousel at the same time you. I met an old friend last week who was telling me about a situation he [...]

Michael Porter is arguably the world’s most famous management theorist. His theories such as the 5 forces model and Value Chain Analysis are key parts of the syllabus for several ACCA and CIMA papers. His generic strategy approach of “differentiation” and “cost leadership” has been around for a number of years and whilst there is [...]

I guess we’ve all done it at some time or another. We’ve woken up one morning and due to too much work (or too much drink…) you look in the mirror and think “oh dear” (or some similar but slightly stronger words). Well step forward Mr Ed Moyse and Mr Ross Harper who when they [...]

The majority of you have no doubt attended an interview for a job at some stage. Some of you have also probably done the interviewing. So, what do you think are reasonable questions to ask at an interview? There are classic interview questions such as “What are your weaknesses?” (in my view the obvious answer [...]

The IT guys I’ve met in my career have all been very nice people. Admittedly they all seem to be slightly mad and do tend to talk in a strange language with lots of mentions of “coding this and coding that”. To be fair though they all probably think I’m slightly mad when I talk [...]