News: Royal Wedding - Bank Holiday

Here is an extract from ACAS website regarding the additional Public Holiday for the Royal Wedding of Prince William and Catherine.

We've just had a day of planning for our business.  I run this kind of activity quite often for my clients and probably get used to them to a degree as a result.  In getting used to them I've also become acustomed to the value that they provide to a business.

We spent a day not only planning the business forward but looking at our business model, our costing structures and our profitability amongst other things.  It was an incredibly insightful day and has awaken me once again to the benefit of taking part in planning and business analysis.

This past week I hit the ‘Quarter of a Century’ landmark. I’ve not traditionally been one for making a big deal of birthdays, but perhaps because this one means cheaper car insurance I decided to make something of it this time.

I’ve had enough of having just enough. Talking to a fellow entrepreneur looking ahead to the New Year and we both realised that we’d both been doing ok so far, making consistently ‘just enough’. I don’t know about you but as I go about business I know what my basic scrape by earnings are and when I reach the point in the month when I know this is reached it’s difficult to push on with the same motivation as at first.

This blog is taken from a discussion thread which I was a part of on LinkedIn relating to the impact of austerity on training and development within businesses.  It raises what I feel are some fundamental issues about training and development and the commitment and underlying value systems of organisations.

Discussion Question: What impact will the UK Government spending review have on the training and development of people?

This morning I looked down at the fuel guage in the car on my way into the office and noticed I needed to make in investment in the BP empire.  I stood in the forecourt in the freezing cold and did what I have done during the last 20 plus years of driving.

Once I'd decided there was enough fuel in the tank I went and stood in the queue to pay.

'Nothing strange or particularly insightful about that' I here you think.

Last night I attended the Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB) South Yorkshire Awards Ceremony at the City Hall in Sheffield.  I was asked to attend as I am a Director of a Sheffield based social enterprise which was nominated for one of the awards.  All things considered it was an excellent night although we didn't win the award in our category.

The other day I had the misfortune to find myself in a Birmingham City Centre Travelodge Hotel where I experienced the night from Hell.  I think the people in the room next door must have been operating on a different time zone to me as they were partying to the max at 2am in the morning.

With screaming, shouting, running, banging and laughing in abundance I was quite sure that a contingent from the night's West Bromwich game had decided to 'celebrate' at my expense.