Features - Page 168

In a fascinating article, Paul Rouke, founder and director of the Cheshire-based customer insights experts PRWD has set out seven ways that his organisation will continue to help businesses in 2020 and beyond.

The fact that the UK government’s plans for the health and care visa under the post-Brexit transition period immigration system will not include concessions for care home staff is likely to leave specialist recruitment agencies such as Adeline Recruits with much work to do.

Christina Thakor-Rankin, the co-founder of the All-in Diversity Project, has called on the gaming and gambling industries to strive for inclusion as well as diversity.

By her own admission, Nailya Belkacemi, founder and chief executive of high-end garment manufacturing studio Plus Samples, began her journey in business back in 2003 without really knowing where it would lead her. Intending to create a temporary workplace to keep busy during her maternity leave that appealed to her own enjoyment, Belkacemi started out with just a pattern cutting table in her home.

Communication is a vital element of running any business, let alone when executives are faced with the prospect of managing a crisis. Speaking to the Leaders Council, Emma Bradley-Bond, founder and managing director of home rehabilitation provider Community Rehabilitation Management [CRM], highlights the importance of communication and close collaboration, while the Commons Public Accounts Committee takes aim at the government for failing to sufficiently plan for the economic impact of a pandemic situation.

Following on from our recent story about Locate In Kent offering free consultancy to SMEs in the county, comes the news that Tunbridge Wells-based accountants Shaikh & Co have received a raft of positive reviews from their customers.

In the week where the long-awaited Russia report was finally publicised, the need for leaders to instil a mutual sense of trust has become more relevant than ever. Ruth Badger, the managing director of her own eponymous consultancy service, speaks to the Leaders Council about the need for today’s leaders to establish a culture of trust, while news had emerged from the south coast that the Green Party will take control of Brighton and Hove City Council following the resignation of three Labour councillors, two of which were accused of anti-Semitic behaviour.

Businesses in Kent could benefit from up to twelve hours of free consultancy from business advisors and industry experts as part of Locate in Kent’s new Future Forward business recovery support service.

As the Covid-19 situation has wore on over the course of 2020, many commentators have spoken of the fact that the experience of going through a crisis has created a sense of unity within UK communities. This same sentiment of togetherness has also been seen in businesses up and down the country as they have charted their own course through the pandemic, with support from the government’s economic measures.

The Covid-19 pandemic has affected UK business and society as a whole on an unprecedented scale, with firms forced to adapt quickly to the challenges of the pandemic while the government introduced numerous measures to safeguard businesses and employment which have taken their toll on the public purse. James Adams, director at Chiltern Marble Group, discussed how his company had to pivot in order to respond to the crisis, while chancellor Rishi Sunak responded to the latest borrowing figures forced by the pandemic.

The words "Covid-19", "business" and "impact" have been strung together in the same sentence frequently in recent months. When sharing his own experience of the Covid-19 pandemic and how he has seen the crisis affect businesses, Paul Newsham, managing director of RFM Accountants + more, identified three defined stages in how firms respond to said impact.

While many others firms have been unable to do any business whatsoever, Gattica have still managed to achieve a great deal since lockdown was declared in March.

As businesses have had to adapt and overcome to meet the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic, the co-founder and director of one such innovative business, Onsite Technologies, speaks to the Leaders Council about establishing a business “out of necessity” in an ever-evolving sector and juggling that with the challenges of being flexible enough to meet the challenges of Covid-19. Elsewhere, Conservative MP Liam Fox has played down suggestions that Brexit is an important factor in his bid to become the first British director general of the World Trade Organization.

Throughout the duration of the Covid-19 lockdown thus far, the public has been forced to seek out new ways to keep the mind busy. With the lockdown seeing workplaces, businesses, bars, pubs, leisure facilities and social spaces closed, daily exercise began to take precedence as a means of staying occupied. Some took to jogging through the streets and local parks, some took to their bicycles, while others got creative at home and set up their own home workout spaces.