Articles

In the words of Zig Ziglar: “The only worse thing than training employees and having them leave is not training them and having them stay.”

One of the most common pieces of advice you get when you start a business is to find a niche. The narrower the better. And while that works for some, it’s not the only way forward. Over the course of my career, both as an independent designer and the co-founder of a design studio, I’ve learned that my expertise has nothing to do with sticking to a narrow kind of work. That’s how I’ve ended up designing for clients ranging from Pfizer to the Bronx Museum of the Arts to Tribeca-based rooftop bar Happy Be.

Conflicts are inevitable, even in the most engaged workplaces. Regardless of the source of the conflict, if they are left unresolved, conflicts can quickly impact employee morale and productivity.

Startups are early-stage businesses that attempt to grow with large-scale solutions. With most startup companies, fundraising is a crucial element that transforms them from a small team of entrepreneurs into a large outfit with widespread products or services. When should a startup consider funding? What should startups have before they look for fundraising from venture capitalists or investors?

The last two years have seen the face of global mobility change forever. Growing acceptance of remote working has seen more and more businesses integrate relocation and/or flexible working plans into their growth strategies. However, doing so requires a holistic solution, particularly when demand for such flexible working opportunities skyrockets like it has across many knowledge-based industries. The only way to cope with increasing need and interest in global mobility from current and prospective employees is to create solutions with seamless integrations that enable effective remote workforce hiring and management.

A common pain point for many SMEs is the misalignment between the Sales, Marketing, and Product functions. It usually grows with time and the company’s size: Product Management gets attracted by features and technology, Marketing by social engagement, Sales by “quick wins”. The ones who lose are the Customers, with a spiralling effect on the company performance.

I’ve been in more pitching sessions – raising money myself but more often as a potential investor – than I can remember. And the question that so often goes unanswered is this: Why on Earth is it that most of the entrepreneurs who are pitching just don’t have their heads around finance?

LinkedIn now has almost 740 million members and over 55 million registered companies. 40% of these users access LinkedIn on a daily basis, which helps the site achieve 1 billion interactions each month. However, most users only spend 17 minutes a month on the platform.