Build or burn?

Men and women

In the workplace, men are fast learning many of the feminine skills.  Women, on the other hand, are probably not investing the same effort in developing some of the masculine skills because, let’s face it, they’re not very edifying. Take multi-tasking.  Both men and women can be equally single-minded in pursuing an objective that’s important

I’m in a meeting

The first time I said the words, ‘I’m in a meeting’ my fiancé, who had just phoned, burst out laughing.  In three years training as an accountant I never once attended a meeting but, in only the second week of a new job as a financial accountant, here I was.  I thought I sounded grown-up

What it means when a client queries your bill

Gauging how happy a client is with the service provided by a professional firm can be surprisingly hard.  The relationship between service provider and client is intimate and in the UK we find it uncomfortable to give even mild criticism directly to someone’s face.  There is however one sure fire way of knowing for certain

When market research is unreliable

When I was a kid I participated in the worst piece of market research ever.  A group of us were playing in the street when a car pulled up and a couple of strangers stepped out and offered us free crisps.  (This was the seventies).  Quite aware that you shouldn’t talk to strangers, we nevertheless

If you don’t know what you want in life, look at what you do

If you want to know what you want, look at what you do.  Consider the ways we fool ourselves into believing we want things we really don’t.  How often do you hear yourself saying ‘I want a new job’ or ‘I want to get fit’, ‘see my friends more’, ‘lose weight’, ‘learn a language’, ‘see