News and thoughts

news & thoughts

It’s a small world after all

It’s a small world after all! Traditionally, learning took place in a formal classroom/lecture setting, but in a post Covid world – virtual classrooms have increased in popularity. We now learn more than ever before from a variety of
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From lurking to learning by sharing

From lurking to learning by sharing Traditional learning transformed; learning has mainly been the domain of being delivered in a formal classroom/lecture setting for generations, but in a post Covid world- more ever than before virtual classrooms have increased
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Business is not the enemy

Business is not the enemy The world of business is facing a draught of confidence, and more than ever now generally the public see business as ‘the enemy’, whether it is for tax related matters or profits being made
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Questions to ask yourself

Questions to ask yourself Questions every business leader should strive to have the answers to. Rudyard Kipling’s famous poem ‘six honest serving men’ is often quoted in business training programmes to help business leaders ask better questions of themselves
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Qualities of Leadership

Qualities of Leadership TIMES change but the qualities of leadership do not and that is why there is still so much to learn from the Florentine diplomat Nicolo Machiavelli who lived in the late 15th and early 16th century.
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Personal Brand V Business Vision

Personal Brand V Business Vision Most businesses are aware of the considerable benefits of having individual staff members with strong personal brands; and this is now often regularly cultivated and encouraged. As well as the practical benefits of having
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Dont get bitter get better

Don’t get bitter, get better. No one appreciates a bad loser – whether it’s in sport, general life or business! You’ve seen the player where he doesn’t score and he becomes visibily frustrated and angry – and everyone knows
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Respect your competiton

Respect your competiton Relax, I say. Its okay to see what your competitors are doing and what they are doing well. Its okay to benchmark yourself against them and see yourself from their eyes as well as how your
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OODA Loop Theory for Business

OODA Loop Theory for Business The OODA Loop Theory and modern business: JOHN Boyd was a US Air force fighter pilot and military strategist. He was involved in the training of combat air force fighter pilots and developed the
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The issue is never the issue

The Issue is never the issue The Greensill Capital Scandal story has been all over the media for a while with many unanswered questions and a patchwork of serious flaws within due process, governance, and potentially outright fraud, coming
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Authentic, Fruitful and Lasting

Authentic, Fruitful and Lasting You’ve heard of “know me, like me, trust me” which is regarded as a process of forming and building relationships and often quoted at networking events? Following on from that I have personal concept that
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Chest Beaters need not apply

Chest Beaters need not apply by Safaraz Ali Years may come, and years may go Time flies or Tempus Fugit as they say, We cannot stop it or change it! We can only control- what we can control, One of which
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Bravado is Baloney

Bravado is Baloney Another one of my thoughts that I shared originally last year — in my Business Networking Bites videos. I am sure many of us have heard the following sayings, and perhaps have even used them ourselves:
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The rise of the MAD Entrepreneur

The rise of the MAD Entrepreneur MAD entrepreneurs and MAD entrepreneurship – it’s not as mad as it sounds. For a few years now, Make A Difference (MAD) entrepreneurship has been my alternative name for social entrepreneurship, as I
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Do Winners Quit

Do Winners Quit? How often do you do something because others think that it is ‘the right thing to do’? Probably more often than you realise. There is a misconception about the benefits of ‘maintaining the status quo’ in
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Taking positive action

Taking Positive Action What do you think when you hear the word ‘discrimination’? It’s likely that images of someone being treated unfairly due to their race, gender, or sexuality spring to mind. Of course, this unfortunately does exist in
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The Power of Mastermind Groups

The Power of Mastermind Groups What is a mastermind group? In short, it’s a gathering of like-minded people, who come together to brainstorm, educate each other, and support each other’s business goals. Business leaders attend mastermind groups to sharpen
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A Winning Mindset digging a little deeper

A winning Mindset – Digging a little deeper. Back in April, I published a post on the Three Pillars of Sustainable Business Growth https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/3-pillars-sustainable-business-growth-safaraz-ali-pathway2grow-?trk=mp-reader-card What was interesting was that both in the responses to that blog and also in
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The path to reinvention

The Path to reinvention Why do businesses fail? There are of course countless reasons, but a major one, in my opinion, is a failure to reinvent. Resting on your laurels is dangerous in business; business owners need to stay
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SIRII a concept

SIRII – a concept Last year, I published a post entitled ‘The prize for the best buzzword goes to: Innovation’ in which I discussed my concept of ‘SIRII’ – ‘Small Improvements Regularly Is Innovation’. I recently came across an article written
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Do you speak Numbers

Do you speak numbers. We all have an idea of what we’d like to see change in our businesses – more clients, more staff, a stronger service, less IT problems, probably less outsourcing – and anyone who’s ran a
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The Two Faces of Networking

The two faces of networking. Here’s a difficult point to argue: Networking is the number one way for small businesses to grow. Networking –  the process of meeting people, about making connections and building enduring, mutually beneficial relationships, well
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Becoming an Employer of Choice

Becoming an employer of choice. We often hear buzzwords around recruitment and retention, and sometimes they can be banded about without the people using them really knowing what they mean, and how we might achieve them. I’ve found that
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