When Joseph Cullen had the idea to set up a mineral exploration company, he knew he was going to need money to get the business started. But rather than going to a bank or an investment firm, he opted to go closer to home, borrowing $75,000 from a friend. It’s a move that many entrepreneurs make. Among those who look for outside investment, around 20 per cent ask family and friends, according to data from Starling Bank, which analysed information from more than 1,200 entrants to its 2023 Start-up Awards. Separate data from Charles Stanley’s Fortune Favours study, which spoke to more than 500 e ..read more

Companies are usually reasonably good at preserving knowledge around processes and operations but fare less well when it comes to tacit knowledge. With staff turnover still high and sickness on the up, that’s a problem.  Whenever anyone in a business hands in their notice or is off for an extended period (for example for sickness or parental leave) there is concern about the transfer of knowledge. In almost every role, there are clear tasks that need doing every week, but there are also the intangible responsibilities that people pick up as they navigate relationships at work and discover ..read more

Many business leaders are obsessed with the sporting mindset. Communication, dealing with pressure and crisis management are just some of the lessons we can learn from the best in the world sport. With that in mind, we’ve scoured the much-anticipated autobiography of Rassie Erasmus, the double Rugby World Cup-winning coach of South Africa, for some of the lessons within it that you can apply to your organisation. The book – Rassie: Stories of Life and Rugby – begins with Erasmus’s early years growing up in the small, working-class town of Dispatch in South Africa’s Eastern Cape and follows him ..read more

“Love and work are the cornerstones of our humanness,” Sigmund Freud once wrote. So, what happens to our humanity in an era of AI, which – according to the headlines – threatens to replace millions of jobs and livelihoods? When algorithms eclipse humans across an ever-wider range of cognitive and creative tasks, what will ‘work’ even mean? Well, I have good news for you (good news, at least, for those who want to keep their job). The doomers are wrong and we don’t need to be fortune-tellers to see it. AI is already transforming many professions for the better – making work more fun, dynamic an ..read more

The story of The Body Shop has never lacked for twists and turns. It was founded by an activist entrepreneur, Anita Roddick, who disliked the cosmetics industry and the business status quo in equal measure. Yet from one shop in a Brighton side street, The Body Shop blossomed into an international company selling ethical products in a sector that often embodies all the worst aspects of capitalist indulgence.  Roddick inspired a generation of entrepreneurs – many of them women – who put people before profit. Then, a year before her death in 2007 at only 64, Roddick puzzlingly sold the busin ..read more

Business Leader has revealed the shortlist for this year’s Go:Tech Awards. The finalists were decided through a rigorous selection process by the awards’ judging panel, which this year included HSBC’s head of technology sector Roland Emmans; Dr Sofie McPherson, patent director at the law firm HGF; Yiannis Maos, founder and CEO of Birmingham Tech; and the founder of cybersecurity platform CybSafe, Oz Alashe. The awards aim to celebrate the UK’s tech pioneers and innovators. Through our close collaboration with business incubators, universities and technology associations, the Go:Tech Awards hav ..read more

Rock bottom is a painful term to describe the lowest point in a person’s life. But what can come with rock bottom is the opportunity to change and reinvent. It’s not easy by any stretch of the imagination but with true resilience, many can turn this pivotal time in life into their biggest strength.   Ella Mills is one of those people. Her rock bottom has led to a juggernaut brand and community that have fundamentally changed the way the world looks at plant-based food.  While in her second year at the University of St Andrews, Mills suddenly became very unwell. She was in and ou ..read more

Well into the 20th century, only sensors governed by the principles of classical physics were used. With the advent of quantum theory in the 1920’s, this set in motion a new quantum age. By the 1950’s, the first practical application of quantum sensing came into reality in the form of atomic clocks, which measure time by monitoring atomic resonant frequencies. Today, cutting-edge quantum technology is revolutionising the sensor industry. Not only are sensors becoming smaller (and, in turn, more portable and accessible), they are also delivering improved sensitivity and measurement precision. H ..read more

When I think back to the last four or five years of our High Performance Podcast, there are a small handful of lessons that on a daily basis are useful to me. Probably the most important is separating fault from responsibility.  There’s no doubt that for a long time I would say to myself: ‘Well, that hasn’t worked out, but it’s not my fault. So, I’m just going to move on and do something different.’ I think this idea of blaming others led me down a path of not having an awful lot of resilience. Then we had a conversation on the podcast about separating the two things – fault and responsib ..read more

The legendary quantum physicist Niels Bohr once said: “It is difficult to make predictions, especially about the future.” This sage perspective echoed in my ears as I sat down with the PureGym management team recently to discuss how we should evolve our strategic plan and set course for the years ahead. As one of my team wryly pointed out as we talked: “Over the past few years we have been closed by a pandemic and navigated the business fallout from the war in Europe, including 100 per cent energy price increases. What possible hope have we got of setting a strategy we can stick to over the ne ..read more