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Clifford Style and Project 1000 have joined together to take a new approach to business advice and support. Traditionally those with more experience and knowledge – the ‘experts’ – offered this wisdom to those who needed it as ‘consultants’. But is this model changing? What might a ‘different’ (rather than new) normal begin to look…

Exceptional business challenges have in recent times included uncertainties around the eventual shape of our post-Brexit trading position, the challenges of the environmental/social/governance (ESG) agendas, and the cyber threat.  Now they include Covid-19. It’s not far from a ‘perfect storm’. So how do we react? If we take the ‘perfect storm’ analogy a bit further,…

Rishi Sunak, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, announced last Thursday, 2nd April, that he was revising the financial support scheme to help small and medium sized firms suffering during the nationwide lock-down – the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (Or C-BILS) The original scheme promised support to the tune of £330bn. – that is 330,000…

THE CYBER THREAT IS SERIOUS AND GROWING. NO COMPANY CAN AFFORD TO IGNORE IT.  CLIFFORD STYLE CAN HELP We all know that the cyber threat is nowadays a fact of life: something to take seriously in private spheres and in business. But – QUESTIONS – do we fully understand it; do we keep up-to-date; do…

When one word can change a conversation completely … Powerful leaders can use words highly effectively.  One that is least understood and yet really powerful is ‘And’. An Assistant Chief Executive friend of mine once told me about the thing that most irritated him.  This was when his office door opened and a staff member…

The Prime Minister has ruled out a second Scottish independence vote because people were promised it was a ‘once-in-a-generation’ event in 2014.  However the Financial Times now offers polling data suggesting an increase in the numbers believing the UK will not exist in its current form in 10 years.  The reduced confidence in the UK’s…

One of our themes at Clifford Style is the opportunity offered by change, disruption, and uncertainty. All leaders, directors, and managers run – to use a seagoing analogy – at ‘full power’ even in relatively stable times; this is the nature of the role.  Every day we sift our computerised ‘in-trays’, knowing we have not…

The entry of a new Prime Minister into No10 Downing Street at the end of July changed everything.  As the leading politician for the nation he and his team now face a fundamental test – deciding on the best way to deal with an economic, social and political dilemma brought about by a referendum vote…

Much has been written about ‘change’ in organisations as if change is something ‘extra’.  There may have been times in the distant past when slow communications, slow technological development, and slow cross-fertilisation of ideas allowed businesses to stand still.  Even then however not forever, not for long. “Change is part of the day job,” but…

Charles and Nick are both alumni of the University of Manchester, Alliance Manchester Business School.  For a recent programme that they both contributed to, they recorded an interview with each other on the nature of Leadership. The interview was turned into an article with an introduction to both of us: we have left the interview…