Category: Leadership

Healthcare

Millbrook Healthcare: Supporting the NHS to Support Patients

Posted on | by Akeela Zahair

Run by influential CEO Phillip Campling, Millbrook Healthcare Group reflects on its past operations and the acquisition that changed everything. We caught up with the CEO himself to find out what has made the company pull ahead of the competition so dramatically.

Made up of four companies that provide products and services to support the health and social care infrastructure in the UK, Millbrook Healthcare Group was founded in 1995. Since this beginning, its services have experienced heavy demand, propelling the company into further growth when it became the leading provider of community equipment services, home improvement agency services, wheelchair and mobility aids, and care technology. Its services are used by the NHS and other social care groups, and it has developed a high standard of excellence over the course of working with these bodies. This allows it to ensure it can always respond to the needs of its service users. Millbrook Healthcare is committed to giving such users the support they need to continue living in the comfort of their own home, championing working care into their home life and ensuring it fits the individual instead of moving them away from home care. Its specialisms also include outsourced clinical wheelchair services. One of its acquisitions, Consolor, was bought in 2018 to allow Millbrook Healthcare to provide yet more specialist services; this time seating users who require complex posture support.

Its most recent acquisition, however, was Ross Care. This merger has allowed Millbrook Healthcare’s services to be brought to a wider user base by allowing further expansion into the North of England with wheelchair repair services. All told, the business has an excellent turnover rate that exceeds over £155 million, with a huge team of 1200 colleagues across 45 centres. This impressive expansion has allowed it to improve the quality of home care for many more users, as the decisions of the CEO have aided in further supporting the services that seek to provide this care. Starting out as a family run company in the 1940s, the current CEO Phillip Campling joined Millbrook Healthcare in 2008 as managing director. He aided in the building of the company under the previous owner, Colin Croll, and took over as CEO after Millbrook Healthcare was acquired by Cairngorm Capital in 2019 when the family decided to sell all its shares.

The sale was directly followed by a boom in investment growth for its services and systems; but one of the most notable priorities was Millbrook Healthcare turning its focus towards developing its teams. Further building upon one of its founding pillars, the concept of a good team making a good company, it sought to further encourage the following code: care and respect for colleagues and service users, accountability and pride, a readiness to learn, a dedication to enhancing the lives of others, and a commitment to being socially responsible, ethical, and transparent. In putting significantly more effort into this, it fundamentally strengthened its foundations, allowing it to fortify its position in the industry as its team upskilled and developed. This also facilitated the permeation of its core vision throughout the entire company. Namely, enhancing the health and wellbeing of the communities it serves with empathic, advanced and effective care solutions. Yes, its services are purchased by health and social care bodies, but the most important person in this transaction is the end user receiving the product or service.

When he joined the company, Phillip Campling began setting it on the path to diversifying its services and supply chains. Now, as CEO, he retains his emphasis on ensuring that these are vertically integrated, allowing Millbrook Healthcare to provide competitive services at better value. This internal betterment and development have been continuing throughout the past year even during the pandemic, when it was incredibly busy supporting its service users. During this time, it also helped the NHS in discharging patients thus decreasing the pressure on hospitals. Looking forward to a lucrative future in 2021 and 2022, Phillip Campling forecasts seeing his company grow into further success. Millbrook Healthcare will be looking to grow within its contract markets, expecting a surge in tenders once the dust of the pandemic has settled, and maintaining optimism regarding further new opportunities in e-commerce. To this end, it has been developing a new business to client solution and expanding its care monitoring centre, which was brought online in March of this year. With the support of an incredible team behind him and the ability to work under pressure, the CEO has every faith that he and his colleagues will continue to thrive in their dynamic industry.

For more information, please contact Philip Campling or visit https://www.millbrook-healthcare.co.uk/

Global Network

A Helping Hand

Posted on | by Akeela Zahair

With a brand-new CEO at its helm, TaskRabbit, the global service platform, is preparing for the next stage in its evolution, a move which has been accelerated by the global pandemic. We find out more about the role TaskRabbit has played throughout the Covid-19 crisis, and how CEO Ania Smith has begun to make her mark on the international digital enterprise.

TaskRabbit is a dynamic service platform designed to make life easier by connecting users with skilled and reliable ‘Taskers’ from within their local community, who can help them with a myriad of odd-jobs and errands, freeing up the users’ time to be more productive. From minor home repairs and wall mounting to moving furniture and sweeping flats to waiting in queues and rushing passports to the airport to avoid travel crises; TaskRabbit is the ultimate destination for solutions of all shape and size, covering more than fifty categories of tasks.

For Taskers, the TaskRabbit platform opens up a world of opportunity, whether it be for earning extra income or building their own business. The platform’s ease of use and multitude of capabilities means that Taskers can manage the back end of businesses with minimal fuss, allowing them to focus on delivering high quality services in a timely and conscientious manner. The importance of independent contractors in the global economy has never been so clear as it is now during the pandemic, when individuals have relied on those ‘household heroes’ for carrying out essential work such as bringing food and medicine to vulnerable people who can’t leave the house.

As the central ethos of TaskRabbit centres around neighbours helping neighbours and supporting local communities, the platform has developed to support the demand that has seen an accelerated increase owing to the pandemic. As many Taskers began to offer their services for free, TaskRabbit launched its volunteer category in the early stages of the pandemic to enable those who were struggling financially to access the support of their local community. As a result, TaskRabbit has become a more highly valued resource than ever before.

This applies to Taskers too, who are able to create meaningful income on their own terms thanks to the growth of the shared economy and two-sided marketplaces like TaskRabbit. The platform provides the perfect launchpad for entrepreneurs looking to drive innovation in the way they work, benefiting from the flexible working hour model that is unique to TaskRabbit and their ability to take home 100% of their rates and tips, thereby enabling them to increase and strengthen their role as independent contributors to the current and post-pandemic economy.

Taskers and users alike are also able to benefit from TaskRabbit’s strategic partnership with IKEA, enabling access to support for tasks around the home and to opportunities for working on household tasks. The relationship that TaskRabbit has built with IKEA has been fundamental to maintaining a well-funded and healthy business that can endure adversity and crisis and as such, will continue to be prioritised in the ongoing evolution of the platform.

This is just one aspect of the plans for TaskRabbit’s future that CEO Ania Smith has focused her efforts on since being appointed in August 2020. She is also facilitating the continuous development of TaskRabbit from the auction-type platform that it was conceived as in 2014 to what it is today, while simultaneously growing the global reach of the platform. With the launch in Portugal in November 2020 and in Italy in March 2021, Ania has seen TaskRabbit successfully enter its seventh and eighth markets globally, in addition to the US, UK, Canada, France, Spain and Germany.

Ania is at the head of a team of 250 that is dispersed across San Francisco, New York, London and Austin, and is defined by its values that focus on diversity, equality, and inclusion, which has led to the development of a leadership team that is 77% female. Ania’s twenty years of leadership experience have seen her grow to recognise the value of surrounding oneself with a team of experts who can be trusted for their support. As a result, she is a leader with empathy and compassion, who prioritises listening to the different perspectives and experiences of her diverse team in order to generate motivation and inspiration throughout.

Prior to joining TaskRabbit, Ania worked with UberEats and Airbnb, primarily focusing on the supply side of each business and looking after couriers and hosts. She has also managed strategy and growth for other major organisations such as Walmart eCommerce and Expedia, all of which have contributed to a twenty-year career focused on scaling and building multi-sided marketplaces, with a particular interest in enhancing the overall experience for all sides of the marketplace. Thus, as she settles into her new role at the helm of TaskRabbit, Ania is looking to make her own mark on the company by looking in particular at Tasker management and how their experience of the TaskRabbit platform can be optimised. As she does so, with the support of her team, Ania will facilitate the ongoing evolution of TaskRabbit as it plays its part as a vital pillar of communities across the globe.

For more information, please contact Ania Smith or visit www.taskrabbit.co.uk

Telecommunications

British CEO Secures Swedish Success

Posted on | by Akeela Zahair

When Paul Evans started working for EasyTelecom in November 2016, he couldn’t have known that he would become the company’s CEO the following August. Since his appointment, he has seen the firm through many unique challenges. Now, with the firm on the rise, this British icon of business has been recognised for his success as he is named Most Influential CEO, 2021 – Sweden. We take a closer look to find out more.

The world of telecommunications has been transformed over the last few years, with new technologies playing a key role in its expansion and development. A natural part of this success is down to strong leadership in challenging times and no leader has ensured the success of EasyTelecom like Paul Evans.

When Paul first arrived at EasyTelecom, it was as a project manager, with responsibilities for development and deployment with a focus on timescale/budget. He also planned expansion and entry into new markets both technical and geographic. This growth that he was responsible for in this role saw his instalment as CEO where he has taken these plans and executed them incredibly efficiently.

This achievement was thanks, in no small part, to a background of IT and how best to incorporate that knowledge into the way in which the telecommunications industry is serviced. The last two decades have seen Paul, working for several different European telecom service providers. By working across such a range of different backgrounds, he has been able to combine these experiences to achieve a remarkable success.

The strength of EasyTelecom comes from its ability to work within the telecommunications industry. Paul’s rise to the role of CEO reflects the way in which the company is always looking to the future. No other approach would have allowed the team to foresee developments and trends in quite the same way. Indeed, this approach has ensured that before such developments become commonplace, there is already significant support for such systems built into the very fabric of the services that EasyTelecom offers.

Much of the team’s work revolves around being an enabler and provider for MVNOs, operators and resellers. Historically, much of this work, and most of the firm’s success has revolved around the Swedish market, but under Paul’s purview, the firm has been able to expand its offerings into new and exciting territories with the future success of the company very much focused in this area.

Part of the key to the firm’s success is their approach which embraces the potential of their small, but nimble operation. EasyTelecom was an early entrant into the independent provision of telephony services and found that there was a lot that could not be done by other parties or was cumbersome. The result, therefore, was a decision to build in-house, instead. The team is now proud to say that they have developed and provided numerous systems for the provisioning, routing, and billing services for MVNO’s, resellers and operators in Sweden, Denmark and Australia, as well as strategic partners in amongst others USA, Cyprus, Spain and the UK.

The growth of the firm, therefore, is not dependant on any other operator. Instead, when the team at EasyTelecom see the need to extend their services, they can take the appropriate measures at their own speed.  In enabling as much control as possible over their operation, the team at EasyTelecom have been able to serve their customers to an incredibly high standard. It’s a service that is certain not to be ignored.

The success of this independently minded approach enabled EasyTelecom during 2020 to be providing and supporting the largest independent operators of telephony services across Sweden handling over 18 million minutes of calls a month and in excess of 3000 concurrent calls during peak times.  This impressive achievement is a credit not only to the team, but to the leadership who continue to guide them to greater heights. The decision to always look forward can be seen clearly in how Paul operates, and in the direction that the company has taken. It is consistently bold and ambitious in equal measure.

To ensure that clients can thrive in their unique environments, the team at EasyTelecom have developed a variety of bespoke business models for their services. With a platform that is built specifically on modularisation, it’s easy to enable the services that are required as well as easily implementing the new bespoke modules designed at EasyTelecom to meet customer requirements and market developments. Such an approach ensures success for all parties, as care and attention are applied throughout.

For MVNO partners, there is the obvious selection of services that goes from SIM Card personalisation through rating and billing to financial performance and accounting, but there is also the advanced switching and routing platform that sits quietly in the background. This is key to the enabling of advanced telephony solutions for companies, which includes PBX, call recording, IVR, preferred routing, LCR, fail-back routing, MEX services, conference calls and many more.

The system is carefully kept over a range of strategically selected locations built to function as a singular unit.  Specifically, and deliberately avoiding the clamour for cloud computing is a mainstay of EasyTelecom, maintaining complete control over their systems means they can ensure impressively high service delivery levels which is managed through their own NOC. Because the service that EasyTelecom offers is so broad, they are in demand from start-ups and established firms alike.

Another advantage of the team’s modular approach is their incredible capacity for growth. Instead of having to upgrade the whole system, new modules for specific purposes can be added as and when they are necessary. When businesses move to EasyTelecom, they gain an enormous amount of flexibility in the way they operate. The growth and expansion of a company comes simply as all the functionality is contained within a single system with a single interface. This relative simplicity is indicative of the reason behind the firm’s astonishing success.

When EasyTelecom took on Paul Evans, they could not have known he would be the man to define their future. That said, he has been an incredible force for the company, allowing the team to thrive in uncertain times, pushing them to achieve the truly remarkable. We celebrate his astonishing success, and the success he has brought, and continues to bring to this forward-thinking firm.

For further information, please contact Paul Evans via email at [email protected]

Automation Technology

Championing Accessible Automation Technologies

Posted on | by Akeela Zahair

Working hard to make advanced automation technologies available to all, Mekkanos is a young company that has quickly made an impact on its market. Fuelled by the drive of CEO Sree Ganesh, its work has brought it notoriety as it helps budding businesses get the software they need to succeed.

A business dedicated to helping other companies achieve their best, Mekkanos works hard to give its clients the leg up they need to take their work to the next level. In this way, Mekkanos is modern company with a contemporary vision and a fresh attitude to its work, transforming businesses using intelligent automation technology, creating industry specific software that will provide leadership solutions and streamline processes. It knows that often lack of good internal processes can be a barrier to further growth. In taking this burden off a client by introducing them to new ‘digital workers’ that take care of specific elements of work for them, its clients can focus on achieving the goals that truly matter.

Now more than ever, in a world still suffering from the impacts of a global pandemic, businesses have been forced to reassess internal workflows and operations. Many have had to pivot to fully online remote working, and many more have experienced significant difficulties with the need for increased onboarding of more staff in this new environment. This is where Mekkanos has been able to step up to the plate. A relatively young company, CEO Sree Ganesh started it at the beginning of 2020, and he has worked hard to grow its client list and support as many businesses as possible through this trying time. The business has benefitted massively from the mind behind its creation, as Sree brought with him his previous experience in developing, implementing and adopting new technologies, as well as the knowledge he gained from earning his degree in Engineering.

He has ensured Mekkanos’ core principle has remained the idea of making streamlining technologies more accessible. Many businesses found themselves constrained by the cost of Mekkanos’ competitors services, unable to divert the funds when revenue streams were already suffering, and Mekkanos saw this. In response, its services have been specifically developed to be good value for money and to help the companies that need it the most. Its eventual goal is to make these new and invaluable organisational automation solutions available to all businesses. This will hugely cut down on human error in places where accuracy matters the most, improving productivity and decreasing costs across the board.

Working with several prestigious partners and with a highly skilled team of people behind it, the CEO ensures all of Mekkanos’ solutions are constantly in upgrade and development, making them the best they can be. It is this consistent competitive mindset that sets Mekkanos apart from the rest, showing that value for money does not mean one has to scrimp on quality. This business has grown exponentially since its inception, with a client list that has quickly expanded, and facilitated securing new bases in the USA, UK, and India. Its services have now also expanded to include visual process automation, conversational process automation, and robotic process automation.

Its biggest clients are in the staffing, healthcare, and cosmetics industries, but this list is also growing. Mekkanos’ team is predominantly young talent with big visions, and all hold an ambition which fuels the company in moving forward, a huge part of what has put it on the map. It also shows no signs of stopping as it moves on from here, with big goals coming up on its road to success that it is in prime position to achieve. Working with its major partners, it will be striving to break into the South-East Asian, North American, and European markets next, updating its existing expertise in everything from RPA and AI to ML and Blockchain. It is also working hard on projects that are soon to be unveiled, such as one combining RPA and Data Modelling to create a seamless Data Relations Engine. As it takes its market segment by storm, Mekkanos is expecting a further 100% growth over the next 12 months, excited to see where this will lead it next.

For further information, please contact Sree Ganesh or visit www.mekkanos.com

Bywire News

The World of Tomorrow

Posted on | by Akeela Zahair

Bywire News is a vision of the future for the news industry. It allows readers to see the best of independent news on a single platform. Under the leadership of Michael O’Sullivan, the firm has achieved the remarkable. For his efforts, Mr. O’Sullivan has been recognised as Most Influential CEO, 2021 – Richmond-Upon-Thames, the United Kingdom for his work in this disruptive field. We take a closer look to find out more.

What does it mean to be accountable for your actions? For the team at Bywire News, it means to create space where mistakes and errors can be called out. It means denouncing fake news as opposed to doubling down. It means taking a platform which is often maligned and creating somewhere full of hope for the future.

Bywire News is that future. Today, democracy is at the risk of total collapse as we slip steadily towards a post truth, post fact society. Bywire offers a way around that, with accountability and attribution built into the very fabric of how this new web 3.0 decentralised app, network, and web platform works. The team’s technology is stored on the blockchain, which means it cannot be censored or blocked by hostile corporations and tyrannical governments. The truth will remain available to the public, regardless of the censor.

With big tech, decisions can be made a million miles away, but the work of Bywire is explicitly transparent and democratic. The Bywire network is government by an executive council, which is made up of its publishers and creators. Sitting on the council is by democratic means and is renewed regularly. Readers are invited to participate in as much or as little of the democratic process as they wish.

At the heart of this start-up is Mr. O’Sullivan, a man who has always run his own businesses and gone his own way. An entrepreneurial spirit has always been in his blood and has led him along numerous paths. While a man with a passion for web development and how this medium can be used, he is also incredibly politically active, working for the Labour Party, Vote Leave and being a founder of Labour Future. These two interests, combined, formed the heart of Bywire as an idea – one which could change the world.

Mr. O’Sullivan started Bywire with the idea that the public wants to consume news through media with greater trust. They don’t want news put through a political filter, but presented in a way that is as accurate and non-partisan as possible. Knowing that many are suspicious of models which provide free content in return for data collection, Bywire allows publishers to earn revenue from the Bywire democratic ad-network and the revolutionary micro-payments and reward token systems, build around the unique Bywire crypto token: Wirebit.

As a relatively young CEO, in a new and exciting position of the market, it’s clear that Mr. O’Sullivan’s challenges are going to be unique. Currently, however, it’s the growth of the business that is the biggest difficulty. Expanding at the team’s current rate brings difficulties in the form of scaling issues and urgency, but they are also challenges that are good for any business to have. Currently, the team are exploring options for new investors who share the firm’s strong sense of ethics. Finding the right person is key, and it’s worth taking the time to ensure they’re a good fit to secure the future of the firm.

When we think of news, we think of whether it can be trusted. Mr. O’Sullivan has developed a platform where everyone can trust what is being offered. Using blockchains and cryptocurrencies, he has secured freedom of speech and incredible levels of accountability for all. We celebrate his success and look forward to what the future brings.

For further information, please contact Michael O’Sullivan or visit www.bywire.news

Female Leaders

How Can We Create More Leadership Opportunities for Women?

Posted on | by Akeela Zahair

Female representation on company boards is improving, but there is still a way to go before equal representation is achieved.

According to Catalyst, the global non-profit dedicated to creating workplaces that support women, only 26.1% of US companies had a female directorship. Meanwhile, most companies had at least some female representation on their boards, but over half of the companies only had 1–2% of their board represented by women.

The organization argues that for businesses to see the benefits of a diverse board, at least three members should be women. So how can you increase female representation at the highest level in your business?

Here, we’ll discuss some measures you can take to improve your business’ diversity and offer leadership opportunities to the women in your business.

 

Promote internally

When it comes to senior hires, many businesses will look outwardly and choose a candidate with experience at the required level. But you could be missing a trick there. Internal hires offer many benefits, and one of the biggest is that they know your company inside out. While they’ll benefit from some support as they transition into a more senior position, they won’t need training on your company policies, goals, or systems.

This will be especially helpful when it comes to increasing your female leadership representation because the pool of external candidates will likely be male-dominated. Considering candidates with the right expertise instead of prioritizing those with board experience will help – your female customer services manager will likely have more of the right knowledge to become your global customer services director instead of another director-level hire with limited experience in this area.

Women get promoted within their companies at a lower rate than men. Supporting the women in your business into more senior roles will show your staff members that you’re committed to gender equality in the workplace.

 

Take part in leadership training programs

Because the existing pool of directorate and board-level candidates is still made up of mostly men, women are finding it hard to break through the glass ceiling and achieve a leadership role without experience. As well as tapping into your existing employee base when looking at high-level hires, you can offer leadership training programs that will equip your employees with the extra skills and knowledge they need to be successful at the top of your company.

Offering these programs is not only a great way to increase diversity at the top of your business, but it can also act as a great hiring tactic. If your potential new employees know that there are progression opportunities at your business alongside training to help them get there, your business will be a much more attractive place to work.

 

Tap into existing networks

Catalyst is one of many organizations that aims to help women in the workplace. There are a number of membership networks that you could tap into not only to seek out top female talent but also to help your female employees progress in their careers.

The American Business Women’s Association offers educational and networking opportunities that allow women to grow personally and professionally. Its goal is to prepare women for leadership positions, and it partners with general leadership groups to offer specific opportunities for women. Partnering with an organization like this can complement your leadership training to offer a rounded experience for your female employees with leadership ambitions.

The women-led company Seramount has been carrying out research since 1979 with the aim of advancing diversity in the workplace. It has a strong focus on gender diversity and each year publishes a list of the best companies for women in the US to work at. It partners with businesses to help them improve their diversity and equality through developing tailored programs.

 

Female representation at the executive and board levels is improving in the US, but we still haven’t reached a state of gender equality in the workplace. By implementing these tips, you can improve your board diversity while offering leadership opportunities to your existing female employees.

Manager Leader

The 4 Key Points for You to Follow to Be a Leader, Not a Manager

Posted on | by Akeela Zahair

Managing a team of people comes with a new level of responsibilities. But have you ever considered the vast difference between being a manager and a leader? Harvard Business Review reports that 30 is the average age of a first-time manager while 40 is the age where people first embark on leadership training. This is a decade of lost years of building leadership skills – this can lead to ingraining bad habits and not practising to improve your style.

Being a manager doesn’t automatically make you a leader. The main difference between a manager and a leader is that managers delegate tasks to those who work for them whereas leaders have people follow them and believe in what they’re setting out for the company. The best part of the last year has demonstrated that leaders need to be prepared and agile to respond to protect their business and employees.

Here, we will determine the four ways that managers can transform themselves into leaders.

 

Respect goes two ways

Firstly, and most importantly, be respectable. Respect should be earned, not expected – no employee is going to consider a manager their leader if they don’t respect them. There are a number of things you should consider in order to gain your employees’ respect. After all, if they respect you, they’re likely to work harder for you, cooperate more with others, be more creative, resilient, and likely to take direction.

These include:

  • Leading by example. Be prepared to pick up tasks big and small, for example making your own cup of coffee or printing copies out to hand out to the workforce.
  • Listen to your team. Open the floor for others to speak and allow them to voice their opinions on how to improve things. Holding steady team meetings opens up a dialogue of feedback and ideas.
  • Follow through on deadlines and agreements. If you can’t meet your own deadlines, why should your team? If you offer to help someone on a particular project, honour that promise.
  • Accept responsibility if things don’t work out.

 

Communication is key

Never underestimate the power of communication. Managers with poor communication skills often alienate their workers, leaving the team confused and with little faith that things are being run properly. Take time to communicate your ideas, expectations, strategies, and everything in between, making everyone else feel involved in what’s going on. You can do this by thinking of any strategy the same as telling a story to someone who knows nothing about it. You can focus on things you don’t know or what you need to understand yourself in order to relay it others.

By involving your team and keeping them engaged, this will also allow successful executions and a happy, motivated team – you can’t expect a strategy to work if it isn’t understood and nobody is committed.

 

Shape company culture

Leaders should contribute to an active company culture. If workers’ characteristics don’t fit into the culture, this could influence their decision to leave. By defining a culture early on and recruiting those who fit into the talent pool, employees will feel comfortable which will have a positive effect on their performance.

Harvard Business carried out research to find out which qualities are most important in leaders. 700 workers were asked which qualities they value the most – 70 per cent agreed that creating a culture of engagement is a very important attribute and results in lower turnover rates, more productivity, and more profitability.

This reiterates what was mentioned in the first section – leaders must lead by example. They can determine how valued traits are within the business, for example, communication, integrity, and commitment. Employees who work in an engaging culture with their leader will have positive opinions about the company and will be strong advocates.

 

Leadership training programs

Go over and beyond for your team and consider enrolling on leadership training programs. which are designed to guide leaders through key issues and how to effectively adopt forward-thinking strategies. Organisations are constantly evolving in the modern world, therefore so does the nature of leading. Building on agile and reactive skills can help you become a capable and inspiring leader.

Leaders certainly have a big responsibility to inspire and encourage their workers – so it is important to do it properly.

Digital Marketing Consulting

Daniel Tannenbaum – “I Used to Make Tea, But Look At Me Now”

Posted on | by Akeela Zahair

London-based digital marketing consultant, Daniel Tannenbaum, finished University in 2011 with dreams of working for a startup environment. After a decade of tricky clients and challenging work placements, he has established himself in the digital marketing sector.

“I graduated with a degree in business management and Spanish from the University of Nottingham in 2011 and this was in the heat of the economic crisis – so working for a bank or in finance didn’t seem too appealing.”

“It was following a work placement at Wonga.com that changed my perceptions about employment choices after Uni. There were some highly intelligent people there who were ex-Paypal, ex-Facebook and Oxbridge grads and it opened my eyes that you could finish Uni and work for a startup and not have to become an accountant or lawyer, something that is pretty much a right of passage in my tight knit community of north-west london.”

“I was desperate to get a job for a startup after graduation but there were no real major ones around in the UK, other than the likes of TripAdvisor, Groupon and Expedia. I darted around working with a number of hopeless entrepreneurs, working out of garages, basements and even their Gran’s spare bedroom – although she made nice sandwiches on one occasion. These people were probably running businesses because they couldn’t do anything else and I got sucked in as a hapless junior, making tea and sometimes not even getting paid.”

“Finally, a year after graduation, an opportunity emerged to work for an online finance startup, with extremely bright and intelligent people. They worked with a top digital marketing agency and my role was to be the middleman between the agency and the senior staff – and this was where I got to learn the ropes and ins and outs of digital marketing across SEO, PPC, affiliates, emails and user experience.”

“In 2015, I felt I had enough experience to become a freelancer and I specialised in SEO (search engine optimisation), the obscure and often vague techniques needed to rank websites to the top of search engines such as Google.”

“I started working with family friends, friends of parents and any job going around to make a name for myself. Fast-forward a few years, I have truly become a specialist in my niche, working with small startups, family businesses and the dizzy heights of David Cameron, Lord Sugar, McDonalds and Betway.”

“I have always been entrepreneurial and have always run a number of my own websites in parallel with managing clients. Creating sub-sites have always been successful, but driving them to the top of Google and receiving commission for any leads or sales, including vehicle and health insurance, funeral plans and mortgages. One of my most rewarding experiences has been running HolocaustMatters.org, which is a site I run for free, and has grown into one of the UK’s largest resources online for Holocaust eduation.”

“My most recent venture is Pheabs, which combines all the skills and connections I have made over the last 10 years. The website is a loans connection service based in the US and connects people looking for loans with those banks and lenders who are most likely to approve them. The website gets an application every 10 seconds and received over 70,000 visitors last month.”

“Overall, I am glad that I followed my passion for startups and digital marketing, because it was an unlikely path to follow 10 years ago, but today it is one of the most popular options for University graduates. I will continue to live my dream, even if my Mum still wants me to be an Accountant!”

Daniel Tannenbaum
Daniel Tannenbaum
Business Success

How Your Business Can Gain a Competitive Advantage in Your Industry

Posted on | by Akeela Zahair

Businesses of all shapes and sizes will all benefit from gaining a competitive advantage within their industry. However, it can be tricky to identify just how to do this. Here’s how your business can start building for further success.

 

Attract the Best Talent

In order to drive your business to be more competitive within your industry, it is imperative that you have the best team on your side. That means looking at all levels of employment within your business and thinking carefully when it comes to the hiring process.

Not only should incoming employees be skilled enough to be effective in their roles, but they should also be around long enough to be impactful. The last thing you want is to hire an employee, spend time and money training them, just for them to leave a month later. Employee retention is crucial to building a loyal and successful business.

 

Understand the Needs of the Customer

Your business will be doomed to fail if you fail to provide a product or service that is wanted by customers. Indeed, you need to give the people what they want, in order to be as competitive as you possibly can. Even if your business has the tools equipped for success, if you ignore customer demands then your business could possibly collapse.

 

Educate Yourself and Staff

When it comes to running your business, you should be knowledgeable enough to understand unique industry challenges and know how to manage your team. Likewise, your team should be well equipped enough to work without you looking over their shoulder all the time.

In some cases, the best way to overcome these challenges is through education. For example, you could enrol your employees into programmes that help improve specific skills that will benefit themselves and the business.

You yourself as a business owner or manager could look into courses specific to your area of work, such as learning effective management skills, or learning how you can develop strategies that drive a culture of innovation. This will not only help you within your business, but it could also benefit your business externally.

Fortunately, there are plenty of online universities and colleges with a range of courses that you could look into. If you’re wanting to get a bigger advantage over the competition, then you should look into leading professional service firms programmes that help you understand the modern business landscape, and what emerging trends you need to be aware of.

 

Clarify Your Strengths

You may well be familiar with some of your strengths, as a business or individual, but it will be of a great benefit to clarify and understand them deeper. For example, you may realise that one strength of your business is so effective that it would need more investment, both in terms of time and money.

This way, you will be able to realise what works for your business and understand what needs to be done to help drive your business forward. You may discover that you are not able to focus on your business strengths, as you have too many other tasks and responsibilities. That could help you realise it’s time to expand, and hire workers with strengths you don’t have, in order to focus on your own strengths and gain a competitive advantage.

 

Discover Your Weaknesses

You can imagine just how important the flip side of this is too. Identifying your weaknesses will help put you in the best position possible to find what needs more work. Weaknesses, no matter how small, can hinder a business and stop them being successful. This could be down to individuals within a workplace, or models used within the business.

Once you have identified your weaknesses, you will be able to boost your growth by knowing for sure what isn’t working. Not every element of your business will be able to be fixed. In fact, it’s perfectly possible that there will be dead weight within your organisation, in terms of business practice, that could be outdated or just not needed.

 

Increase Price Over Time

When it comes to gaining a competitive advantage, sometimes money can be one of the most important factors. You will have probably noticed that prices from your favourite business have increased over the last ten years, and that’s no coincidence.

Prices will rise with the success of a business, as well as to help match inflation. When prices rise, you should follow that example in order to stay competitive. This will help you maintain success and drive profit.

 

Utilise Data

Don’t underestimate the effectiveness of utilising data. Gathering data has become easier in the digital age, as there are multiple platforms and applications available that can do all the heavy lifting for you.

Data could help show you what’s effective and ineffective within your business, as well as find cost saving methods you could utilise. The end goal is to help drive your business in your industry with a more competitive edge.

Work culture

How to Create a Learning Culture at Work

Posted on | by Akeela Zahair

By Helen Barraclough, Global Education Manager – Customer Success

 

“The single biggest driver of business impact is the strength of an organisation’s learning culture”, according to a recent Bersin report on how learning cultures can empower businesses to be successful. 

Findings from Xero’s Future of Small Business Report reveal that the pandemic has led to ten years of innovation and technological adoption taking place in just 90 days. This disruption has led to a shift in demand for human expertise –  in fact, the World Economic Forum suggests we are on the brink of a ‘Reskilling Revolution’ as we’re required to work more intimately with intelligent machines, data and algorithms. 

To put this into context, a recent report from LinkedIn has revealed that the most in-demand skills today didn’t even appear on their list three years ago. Now more than ever, there is a premium on employees with the intellectual curiosity to adapt and develop new skills. 

Encouraging a learning culture at work is essential to attract top talent, give employees the necessary tools to become successful and thrive as a business. But how can you create a thriving learning culture for your business? Here are the three biggest changes that you can make to your business to do just that. 

 

1. Encourage questions 

Learning cultures are all about having a growth mindset, meaning it’s important for your employees to seek out and engage with new information whenever possible. Collective knowledge is a powerful thing, and actively sharing it among your employees should be encouraged. 

One way to do this is to ensure that your team is able to ask each other questions without feeling self-conscious. In fact, tough questioning should be welcomed as a constructive process. 

There are other ways to grow your business’ collective knowledge, too – engaging with feedback, acknowledging opinions (especially the ones that challenge your own), asking for help and sharing frequent updates on the business are all equally effective. 

This active sharing of information will enable your employees to learn about the business and how it works on an ongoing basis, ultimately developing your business’ learning culture. 

 

2. Find the right tools

When it comes to creating the perfect learning culture at work, having the right tools can supercharge your business’ development. 

There is now no excuse for even a small business owner not to have the best insights and control over every part of their business, from marketing and customer acquisition, to customer service, financial performance and staff wellbeing. There truly is accessible technology for everything. 

Even learning to stay on top of your finances – the thorn in the side of so many small businesses – is made easy with cloud accounting software like Xero, which has over 1000 apps for you to choose from to build a personalised toolkit for your business. 

Finding and implementing the right tools will result in a culture that empowers your employees to develop their understanding and productivity in new areas – in turn, this will nurture your business’ learning culture. 

 

3. Celebrating failures

Perhaps the biggest way for your employees to learn is through failing. Failures are natural for any business – especially in the early days – and the ability to adapt and overcome them is essential for your growth. 

By accepting and even embracing failure as a business, you will create a culture that enables your employees to use failure constructively as a stepping stone towards success, while learning how to improve for next time. 

Creating a vibrant learning culture at work will enable you and your team to stretch each others’ capabilities and thrive. This article has explored the three key ways for you to nurture this kind of culture – from encouraging questions from your team, finding the right tools to supercharge your skill development, and celebrating failures as opportunities to learn. 

But ultimately, the most important aspect of creating a learning culture is openness. By being open to new ways of thinking and challenging old approaches, you can unleash and maintain a growth mindset among your employees that accelerates your business’ potential. 

Three people having a business meeting about their finances, with papers and graphs scattered on the table

Quick Ways to Save Money As A Business Leader

Posted on | by Magdalena Lew

Leading a business as an executive means that there are a lot of decisions you need to make to ensure that your business prospers. One of the key things a business leader needs to figure out is how to save money and reduce spending costs so that they can maximize profit.

Unfortunately, the prospect of saving money often requires a great deal of time, which not every executive can make room for, particularly when trying to run a business.

Thankfully, there are ways to start saving up and cutting costs sooner rather than later, often without having to think about it too much.

If you feel as though you could be doing more to reduce the costs of running your business, here are some tips and tricks you might want to take a look at.

Switching Utility Providers

In the past, switching utility providers may have been a terribly time-consuming undertaking, but thanks to some wonderful price comparison sites and online advisors, it can be done exceptionally quickly while still allowing you the chance to find the ideal service.

This is a great way to save your company money on its overheads without wasting too much time waiting around for results. For example, if you needed to cut down on your business water costs, you can do it from your smartphone with a simple swipe of the thumb. Doing this for all your utility providers can add up to a sizeable saving that a business leader can invest into other aspects of their business.

Hire Freelancers

If you need to get a project done but do not have the workforce to make it happen as soon as you would like, hiring a brand-new member of staff can take up a seemingly unfathomable amount of time, money, and energy, and even then, you might not find the right person for the job.

Hiring freelancers might be a way to get around this while saving yourself some money on wages and hiring costs.

Thanks to some great online platforms that offer transparency and quality, it may be a quick fix to a potentially drawn-out problem. Furthermore, freelancers are great options for executives who need their services for a limited time only.

Automatic Savings Apps

Being a business leader can be difficult if you cannot sufficiently manage your own finances or if you need to use your personal account for work purposes every now and then.

Automatic savings apps could be worth checking out if this is the case for you, as they can pick up the responsibility and start saving behind the scenes, so you do not have to worry about it.

Some of the best apps can even help you come up with your budgeting plan for the foreseeable future and make you aware of where your money is going on a day-to-day basis.

Budgeting often needs to be done realistically and honestly if it is to be effective, but this can take time, so seeking out some help from a reliable AI partner may be a great way to go.

Hire an Intern

Needing help on administrative matters is a fairly common position for small business owners and executives to find themselves in, especially when they are trying to juggle a range of different duties on a daily basis.

Hiring an intern may be able to help you take some pressure off, save yourself some money on wages, and hopefully give an eager individual some valuable work experience at the same time.

Parental Leave

New Research Shows Nordic Countries are Shaping the Future of Shared Parental Leave

Posted on | by Akeela Zahair
  • Shared parental leave is on the rise, with a 33% increase in Google searches for ‘shared parental leave’ in the UK over the past year
  • An analysis of all parental leave policies across Europe has revealed Nordic countries offer the most flexible paid parental leave
  • Pablo Vandenabeele, Clinical Director for Mental Health at Bupa UK, shares the benefits of shared parental leave for new dads and dads-to-be

Throughout the pandemic many workplaces have offered their employees more flexibility.

Flexible working options such as adjusting hours, days, or place of work, are attractive to many employees, and can offer your team more control over how, where and when you and your teams work. New research by Bupa found that 27% of working parents want to see more flexibility at work, too.

One area that’s surged in popularity over recent months is ‘shared parental leave’. This is where both parents can take time off in a more flexible way during your baby’s first year. Our new research has revealed a 33% increase in Google UK searches for ‘shared parental leave’ over the past year, too.

Bupa’s experts have analysed every country in Europe to find out who offers the most statutory maternity and paternity leave for new parents (the number of days new mums and dads can take off work whilst still being paid from their employer when a child is born).

 

Nordic countries are shaping the future of shared parental leave

Our research has shown that Nordic countries are paving the way for more flexible parental leave, allowing parents to share their time-off.

New parents in Sweden are entitled to 480 days leave after their child is born, compared with 50 weeks (380 days) in the UK.

 

Which European countries offer the most maternity leave?

An analysis into every European maternity policy found that Bulgaria offers the highest paid time away from work (58.6 weeks). This is closely followed by a wealth of countries offering 52 weeks of statutory paid leave, including Albania, Denmark, and Serbia.

Whilst the UK currently offers new mums 52 weeks off, only 39 weeks must be paid by your employer. This ranks the UK in 6th place, tied with Kosovo and North Macedonia.

 

Which European countries offer the most paternity leave?

Paternity leave varies widely across Europe, but in general fathers are entitled to fewer days off work compared to new mothers. The average paid paternity leave is just 3.4 weeks, compared to 23.1 weeks for statutory maternity leave.

Nordic countries (Sweden, Norway, Finland, and Iceland) offer generous paternity leave policies, with Sweden offering the highest statutory paternity leave at 34 weeks.

With more parents searching for flexible working options in the workplace, we spoke to Pablo Vandenabeele, Clinical Director of Mental Health at Bupa UK, who has shared how to make shared parental leave (SPL) work as an employer.

“Creating more options for new parents gives them greater choice in how to balance their own work and home life. Similarly, allowing parents more choice and flexibility to combine work with childcare responsibilities means that as an employer, you’ll be able to better recruit and retain talent”.

 

1. Make your team aware of all their options

It’s important to communicate all the parental leave options available to your team that are offered by your busines. This will help your team to make informed decisions that work both for their families and careers.

If you’re unable to advise your team members on SPL in your workplace, put them in touch with a department that can. If you don’t currently have the sources available to offer advice on SPL don’t worry – there are lots of useful organisations that can provide this information such as GOV.UK and Maternity Action.

 

2. Work together to finalise your employees parental leave plan

It can be both daunting and a little confusing to understand how various types of parental leave – especially for first time parents.

As a business leader, take the time to talk to your team members about how they are feeling and work together to create a plan that works for both the individual and your business too.

 

3. Check-in regularly

Becoming a parent can be an overwhelming experience, especially for the first time. However, being open and available to talk to your team about their worries or concerns can help them feel supported.

For those parents currently on leave, it can be easy to feel disconnected from their team the longer they are away from their role. Taking the time to catch-up with your team members on SPL can help them to feel part of the team – helping to make the transition back to work smoother once they return to their role.

Offering a phased return through split SPL can help those team members returning from SPL transition back to their role.

 

4. Offer support for those returning from parental leave

Before a parent returns from SPL, get in touch to see if there is anything you can do as a business to help them transition back into their working environment. Offering your team member help and support as they adjust back into their role is important. For example, understanding as a new parent their schedules may have changed to fit around family commitments.

Similarly, if you notice a team member may be struggling offering metal health and wellbeing support services can help.