You need to know the rules in order to break them successfully

Line Management

‘Line management’ is the sharpest tool in the management toolbox and the hardest to wield skillfully.  Exposed in junior management, honed in middle management, human motivation is its raw material. Line management is about getting the best performance from your employees.  It’s a tactical form of leadership, meaning it’s visible and ‘hands on’.  Line management …

The Brand Equity Maze

A brand is like a work of art, and not just because of the visual appeal of a logo, product design or packaging.  It’s the impact a brand has in the mind of a consumer, manipulating their feelings.  Like art, the brand’s consumer may admire the result while being barely aware of the tradecraft involved …

Business Valuation

How much is my business worth?  Every Finance Director should know the answer to this question.  Otherwise how can you advise the Board of Directors should a hostile offer come in?  And it’s not just a question for quoted companies.  How can you advise the owner-manager approaching retirement, the chief executive considering a merger, or …

EBITwhat?

One of the most perplexing things in accounting is why profit is not the same thing as cash.  Well, those clever folks in finance have come up with a solution where profit does equal cash, but they’ve given it a name so obscure it guarantees no one will ever understand it: EBITDA. Earnings Before Interest, …

Leadership

Leaders are 56% born, 34% made and 10% learned (see table below for calculation).  The point is that a born leader may never rise for lack of opportunity.  It also means we should forget the idea that we can all become leaders.  We cannot.  Leaders are a minority among us. If we want to understand …