It’s been far from an ordinary year with the coronavirus pandemic still vastly influencing our daily lives both professional and personal. 

We’re mostly still working from home which of course has its upsides but also some down. It’s meant like many businesses; we’ve had to adapt the way we do things, the way we communicate, the way we run our daily operations and how we conduct some of the lesser run of the mill things like work experience placements.  

We know just how important and valuable an insight into the real world of work can be for young people but with a new rising wave of coronavirus cases and the extended work from home message from the Government, hosting our usual office-based work experience this year was not an option. 

We didn’t want to cancel so for the first time ever we operated a virtual work experience placement and we were lucky to welcome Newport Girls High School student Natasha Parker to the fold for a few days. 

Natasha has just completed Year 10 and will be heading into the all-important GCSE year on her return to school in September. 

So, let’s see what she made of her time with Be Bold. 

Written in her own words Natasha describes overcoming her nerves, being challenged, feeling proud and dodging the tea making…. 

This year, everything seems to have been impacted by COVID-19, even things you wouldn’t expect, for example work experience. However, some businesses and schools have gone over and above to make sure 2021 Year 10 students don’t miss out on the incredible chance to get an insight into the world of work. 

I had the opportunity to do work experience with the amazing company, Be Bold PR. 

Throughout my time with the lovely team at Be Bold, I was faced with challenging tasks, such as writing press releases and creating social media posts, all of which I couldn’t wait to get my teeth into. The days were rather long and quite tiring in comparison to a normal school day, however, by the end, I couldn’t have been prouder of what I’d achieved. 

Due to COVID-19 restrictions, my placement with Be Bold was online, yet this did not stop the team from pushing me to do my best and teaching me as much as they could about PR, in the few days I was with them. 

At first, I was rather nervous. Ironically, as I am an avid performer, meeting the team and talking over Teams put me rather on edge. Nevertheless, my supervisors at Be Bold made me feel extremely welcome.  

During my work experience, I completed two sample press releases – one for FBC Manby Bowdler and the other for a fictional company called Turner Industries. I also got to sketch out some social media post ideas as part of the Turner Industries project. My favourite part of my time with Be Bold had to be completing my Bridge Cheese social media project for National BBQ Day. 

Before my work experience, I knew the odd thing or two about PR from my mum who works in marketing. However, the insight I got from Be Bold was so much more than I’d ever expected, which was unbelievable given the current circumstances. In fact, before the delay in the next lift of COVID restrictions, I was ready to be making cups of tea and shadowing the staff, desperately trying not to get in the way. Yet, the team at Be Bold got me as involved as possible; although I’m sure they were disappointed that I couldn’t be on tea duty virtually. 

Thank you for having me Be Bold, I am eternally grateful for the lessons I’ve learnt from you all. I now have a lot more faith that public relations could be a potential career path for me thanks to my time with your incredible team. 

Phew!! At least we didn’t put her off. Just as well because here at Be Bold, we all thought Natasha was a bit of a natural when it comes to PR. Wishing you the very best of luck for your studies next year. 

Team Be Bold 

‘Skill fade’ – is it a risk to your business?

Microsoft Exchange hack – should you be worried?

Pass the Cuisenaire rod… 🤷‍♀️

You might not, at first glance, think your business has much in common with aviation.

We would have thought that at Be Bold before we got involved in flying unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). It thrust us into a whole world of new acronyms, checklists, flight reference cards and having to write and follow a 55-page Operations Manual which had to be approved by the Civil Aviation Authority.

What has become extremely apparent though is how much business generally has to learn from the very ordered, systematic, collaborative and safety-first world of aviation.

Today we received one of the CAA’s routine Safety Notices, this one dealing with ‘skill fade’; the decaying of skills over time because they have not been used.

You can see why this is a concern in flying – no-one wants their pilot to have forgotten critical procedures – but as the commercial world wakes up again and builds back up to doing business at full tilt, it’s worth thinking about what might have been lost in the interim.

Stay current to avoid skill fade

Even businesses which have been operating throughout the pandemic and lockdowns might have been using changed or slimmed down processes, which make a return to ‘normal’ something which takes extra thought and maybe some refreshing.

A number of factors are at risk here, from shop floor safety to record keeping and, yes, communicating. What has changed about day-to-day practises that could put your people and your reputation at risk? The expectations of your customers and suppliers might have changed, or they might expect everything to go back to how it was, so are you and your people ready for that?

If you’ve made strides in any area or revolutionised your business in the last year you need to shout about it (that, of course, is what we do…).

Have those little touches and flourishes of service which made you stand out been lost? If someone who knew their job inside out has left while on furlough, have their particular skills been lost to their replacement?

Maybe a run through of even the most mundane tasks could reveal any evidence of skill fade or it might highlight methods of changing things for the better in an altered world.

The lesson to be taken from those who look to the skies for their living is that clear procedures, check lists and practise are essential to ensure everything works as it should and risk is reduced to As Low As Reasonably Practicable. And yes, that’s one of the aviation-favoured acronyms – ALARP!

‘Skill fade’ – is it a risk to your business?

Microsoft Exchange hack – should you be worried?

Pass the Cuisenaire rod… 🤷‍♀️

For very good reasons, news websites are full of reporting about a serious attack on users of Microsoft Exchange email servers.

A Chinese hacking group suddenly unleashed never-before-seen exploits which allowed them to compromise servers around the world. The focus initially seems to have been on the US but it’s spread now and countries globally are still assessing the risks and damage.

I’m writing about this now because, as we’ve pointed out before, your technology and security is a PR concern. What we noticed in this case though was that in its breathless reporting of the issue, much of the mainstream media failed to point out a fundamental aspect of the story: that it primarily affects what are known as “on-premise” Exchange servers, not cloud-based ones (looking at you BBC).

This doesn’t make the attack any less serious, but it does affect how worried some business owners and managers need to be right now.

Millions of smaller businesses (and, in fact, these days many bigger ones) don’t actually have a hardware email server of their own. They use accounts provided by Microsoft, hosted on its infrastructure in data centres around the world. For the purposes of this particular attack this is a very different beast and is NOT the product which is immediately vulnerable.

Companies which are of a scale to have their own Exchange servers generally have the IT support to manage them. Those technicians have been scrambling to make the adjustments and add software patches recommended by Microsoft since the exploit was discovered. The theft of data and/or damage to systems is still being assessed.

This is not to say if you have a Microsoft 365 tenant, where MS provides all the hosting infrastructure for your email and files (SharePoint, OneDrive, etc) you can be complacent because probes of those accounts are apparently going on, but they are not immediately vulnerable to these particular exploits.

As ever though, when you use networked computers you must be vigilant and encourage and support your staff to be the same way. The fundamentals don’t change:

• don’t open attachments you don’t recognise or weren’t expecting;
• use strong passwords and update them on a regular basis;
• do admin tasks with an admin account, not your main working account;
• limit admin privileges to only those which are absolutely needed and only to the people who absolutely need them;
• think carefully before connecting your account to third party services and disconnect those you no longer need straight away;
• don’t leave shared folders exposed any longer than necessary.

There are many more things you can do and we’re most definitely not the experts here. If you have cloud accounts and have any doubts or concerns that you could be exposed to unnecessary security threats, get a specialist to give your setup the once-over for vulnerabilities. It’s a few hundred pounds that could save your entire business and reputation in the longer term.

But, if you’ve been hearing about this major attack on Microsoft Exchange and were concerned because you use the Microsoft 365 suite, you can relax a bit and know that you’re not the immediate target of this attack. Can’t promise about the next one though…

READ MORE: Here’s good overview from ZD Net (which does mention the difference between on-premises and cloud!)

‘Skill fade’ – is it a risk to your business?

Microsoft Exchange hack – should you be worried?

Pass the Cuisenaire rod… 🤷‍♀️

Of all the amazing successes the Be Bold team have been responsible for this month, the ability to educate nearly a classroom full of children while delivering for clients must certainly top the lot.

Here Be Bold Media’s PR Manager Mel Boulter, with a few words from her eight-year-old daughter, Hannah, gives some insight into her working week. To all the professionals turned home-educators out there, we salute you.

It wasn’t that long ago that home-schooling was something other people did. Other people who were braver, more tolerant, more capable and generally just better at that sort of thing than I am. 

Then 2020 came along and changed all that. 

We were suddenly teachers, albeit at the kitchen table, and became a nation of (mostly) reluctant educators. The jokes about ‘old maths’ and ‘new maths’ stopped being a joke.  

Our home, our children’s safe place, also became their classroom and their playground and we had to assume not only the role of parent and chief snack provider, but primary school teacher too.  

We’re now back at it in 2021. And it is hard. Really hard.  

I’m used to metaphorically spinning lots of plates. Here at Be Bold it is what we do and we’re proud that we don’t drop them. But add educating primary school children into that mix and some are definitely wobbling. 

At least once I day I’m tempted to throw the towel in on home educating. Today it was when my daughter’s lesson said she needed a pencil, paper and Cuisenaire rods. Who knows what Cuisenaire rods* are, let alone has them to hand? 

I asked my eight-year-old daughter if she would like to write about how she felt to add to this blog and here is what she said… 

“Home-schooling is not that great in my opinion, but it is not all bad. PE can be really fun and so can reading. Most of the time I just want to go back to school as home-schooling is nowhere near as good as actually going to school. 

“I am feeling sad because I can’t see my friends in person and I normally see them 5 days a week when I go to school. I’m also feeling happy because I get to see my family all day and I can help my sister with most of her work.” 

So, she’s happy and sad and it’s nowhere near as good but it can be fun. Couldn’t have summed it up better myself. This is a mixed up, upside down, inside out time in all our lives.  

What I need to remember is that it’s not failing if I’m struggling to be a parent, a teacher and work all at the same time. What I know, and keep telling myself, is that I can’t do everything. And that’s okay too.  

*If you are interested Cuisenaire rods are mathematics learning aids for students that provide an interactive, hands-on way to explore mathematics and learn mathematical concepts, such as the four basic arithmetical operations, working with fractions and finding divisors.   

‘Skill fade’ – is it a risk to your business?

Microsoft Exchange hack – should you be worried?

Pass the Cuisenaire rod… 🤷‍♀️

With Christmas parties off the menu this year, Be Bold Media has teamed up with Newport’s food bank to spread some festive cheer in the community.

Newport Food Bank is helping families in the town registered with the local authority as needing extra support, providing them with hampers containing both essentials and seasonal treats to help them have a happier holiday.

A number of organisations and businesses have stepped forward to support the initiative, which has been coordinated by food bank volunteers.

Be Bold, based in Stafford Road, offered to contribute on behalf of the company and our staff, who have missed out on their Christmas party this year. We were pleased to provide 70 Christmas cakes and 70 boxes of mince pies to go in each of the hampers.

Managing director, Amy Bould, said: “We knew that in these difficult times there was increasing pressure on the food bank, which does an amazing job, so we wanted to play our part. We had already decided to support the charity by providing the Christmas cakes for the hampers and when members of our team suggested we could use the money we would have spent on a Christmas ‘do’, we were delighted to source mince pies for the hampers too!”

“The volunteers at the food bank do an amazing job and Newport is a very generous, community spirited town, so we’re just one of many organisations playing its part.”

Sallie Allen, of Newport Food Bank, said: “The response from the town to our plan to provide Christmas hampers has been amazing. All kinds of businesses, organisations and individuals have stepped up to make sure that families who are having a harder time than usual won’t struggle to keep themselves fed this Christmas and will have some of the treats we all deserve at this time of year – and in this year of all years!”

Newport Food Bank works to support families throughout the year with essential supplies. Anyone wishing to support its work or access its services including food parcels, housing and benefits advice, should contact the food bank.

First there was the novelty of having all of your meetings online. Then came the fatigue of being on camera for much of the day. So what DO you do when all those Zoom meetings make it feel like Groundhog Day?

With typical human ingenuity, the video meeting space is moving on, offering us new ways to hang out together in the limited gathering space that is a computer monitor or phone screen.

Of course some of the efforts to break up the monotony are going to be more successful than others, so we’ve taken a quick look at some of the early contenders.

As you browse through you’ll quickly form a view on whether any of them look like the future…

1. Toucan – We’ve all been in that video call, even with friends and family, where the format can make the experience extremely painful, sometimes awkward. Natural conversation is hard and you certainly can’t get away with chatting across each other. Toucan is looking to change that by recreating the huddles that might happen in different parts of the same room. People naturally drift from one to another, but you can’t do that in a typical Teams, Skype or Zoom environment. Break out rooms are too formal and not generally available. Toucan is creating a way you can visualise those groups and quickly move between them, creating fluidity that might be more akin to normal mingling. This one certainly looks like it could have promise for those quiz nights, networking events and more.
2. Famera – Hmm. Not so sure about this one. From what we can tell, it basically puts your head on a cartoonish character for the duration of your virtual gathering, inside an environment that may or may not make you feel like you’re tripping. Verdict: probably mildly amusing for about three seconds (see the promo video for the full ‘side-splitting’ effect…)
3. Flinkit! – This is intriguing. It’s team building in the virtual realm, presenting games and challenges for your online gathering to participate in together. It seems to be pretty advanced and very cleverly executed. You solve problems as a team with clues, maps and visual aids, among other things. There are people who are going to absolutely adore this. That said, in my head I can already hear a certain one of my colleagues muttering about one of the things she hates most – “forced fun”.

There are more (and sometimes even more bizarre) Zoom alternatives popping up and some will get traction in a changed world that is learning to live without much of the traditional need for business travel.

Whether any of these offerings are for the better is widely open to debate, but it might just allow us to keep the format fresh for long enough until we can get back to doing more face-to-face again…

‘Skill fade’ – is it a risk to your business?

Microsoft Exchange hack – should you be worried?

Pass the Cuisenaire rod… 🤷‍♀️

Today we saw a perfect example of how the breaking news of the same story can be conveyed in very different ways with the different use of just one fact.

At about 6.50 this morning I was looking at an iPad as a BBC breaking news alert announced the Oxford and AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine was reporting 70 per cent effectiveness. On the face of it a disappointment compared to the previously revealed 95 per cent effectiveness of the Pfizer/BioNtech version and the Moderna one.

Precisely as I was digesting the headline, I heard Stig Abel on Times Radio declare that the Oxford vaccine had been revealed as 90 per cent effective. In moments more breaking news alerts were flowing in on the iPad, going with the 90 per cent.

Something was out of kilter.

This is something we often have to warn clients about. Just because you see a story one way, doesn’t mean others will accept your premise. So often it’s about how robustly and clearly you present the information that governs the ultimate outcome.

In this case it turns out that both were sort of correct. Two different dosing regimes had been used which, when the results were averaged, came to roughly 70 per cent. In fact one of those trials (the smaller one as it happened) achieved at least 90 per cent effectiveness, suggesting a more positive outcome was possible with this vaccine.

Someone in the BBC newsroom had made an editorial call and gone with the 70 per cent, which must have caused some spitting of tea and cursing in government, university and AstraZeneca press offices (not to mention Number 10).

Breaking news or breaking hearts?

Some will see that as an honest decision to run the story straight, but you can’t help the niggling feeling that it was trying a bit too hard to be worthy in the reporting.

By later in the day we had more clarification and the BBC News story had been re-written (after some pressure from politicians and press officers?) with a more positive headline, intro and focus on good outcomes:

• it’s thought this vaccine prevents asymptomatic people spreading the virus
• it’s cheaper than the alternatives so far
• it’s easier to store, needing less complicated logistics and cold supply chains

These details all matter. Perhaps slightly sadly the country’s biggest news outlet’s initial treatment of them meant what was really good news emerged with a tinge of disappointment, when it probably should have been a cause of national celebration (it’s the one we’ve pre-ordered the most doses of, for a start).

Much of this emerged more robustly later in the day, but it’s a great example of how the rush to break news can skew the story in a big way, whichever way you view it. Very often the first take is what sets the tone and that makes it critical to get right when you are the one who’s news is being broken.

‘Skill fade’ – is it a risk to your business?

Microsoft Exchange hack – should you be worried?

Pass the Cuisenaire rod… 🤷‍♀️

This is a question many a business person has asked themselves from time-to-time. The answer is usually a resounding ‘no’.

Received wisdom is that business stays out of politics, at least overtly. Donations may be made with a view to an end (and in there lies a whole other discussion) but that’s not the same as coming out and backing a candidate or party. There’s just too much risk of alienating a huge chunk of your potential customer base.

PR people tend to shudder at the prospect of their client or employer engaging in political hot topics.

That’s what makes a move to do just that by Expensify CEO, David Barrett, so fascinating.

He’s come straight out with an email to all of his users asking people to vote for Joe Biden in the US presidential election, citing a risk of civil war if there fails to be a clear outcome from the ballot.

Wow. Just received an extraordinary email from @expensify CEO @dbarrett. I can't remember ever seeing anything even remotely close to it. pic.twitter.com/lPCBMjQSh4

— Rick Klau (@rklau) October 22, 2020

Have a read, then choose your favourite word to describe that. The following options are probably all going to be near the top if you made a list of predictable reactions:

• Stupid
• Ballsy
• Calculated
• Honest

Take a read. The guy has nailed his and his company’s colours very firmly to the flagpole from which the Stars and Stripes is currently sagging despondently.

Don’t you love it though?

Like any PR consultancy with plenty of experience, we start from a position of caution when it comes to picking battles. But this is beautifully calculated.

We know that business is not and cannot be a vacuum with regard to ethics and values, and the corporate world has accelerated rapidly in that direction in the last ten years or so.

Expensify (as the name suggests, a business expense management platform) takes this to a whole new level with, as Mr Barrett explains, a very flat and democratic structure, right down to wage allocation. This gives them the perfect platform to hang their hat on being unabashed democrats, doing their part to face down someone they believe is not.

Of course this is a very silicon valley thing to do, but while Facebook may be trying to pull off a tricky balancing act over political ads and Twitter is fact-checking Trump Tweets, they don’t go this far.

The key, of course, is to make a full argument. Barrett has avoided preaching and has laid out his rationale. Agree with him or not, he’s meeting the minds of the people he employs, probably the majority of those he calls customers and whipping up a storm of publicity.

Given the niche his company operates in, I’m not convinced he and his colleagues see this as a cynical publicity stunt though. I think they want to be able to sleep at night knowing they used what platform they had to uphold their values at what is a very serious juncture for their country.

Agree with their view and his actions or not, consider it rash or not, I think there’s something to be admired about that.

‘Skill fade’ – is it a risk to your business?

Microsoft Exchange hack – should you be worried?

Pass the Cuisenaire rod… 🤷‍♀️

So often in business it’s the less glamorous stuff that matters the most. The form filling, the legal agreements, insurances, policy documents and the endless rest of it.

Any business owner though will tell you that the fundamental thing is quite simple and obvious – getting paid.

It’s something we have a bit of a bee in our bonnet about here at Be Bold. Not because it’s been a systemic (or even particularly regular) problem for us because we work with great companies, but because we think being quick to settle up is one of the things all firms should make a point of being good at. Think of it as another PR win.

Big firms dealing with smaller firms have a responsibility not to mess them around. Smaller businesses can make all the difference to each other if they don’t faff about with making payment.

Of course cash flow can be an issue, but where it’s not, why not just consider paying up as quickly as you can? Given the times we are in, it could make the entire difference to a small supplier whether they can keep going into next month.

It’s something we’ve long (as in more than a decade) made a point of. Do we always get it right? No. Occasionally something slips through the cracks or, if it’s a large bill, prudence says we have to wait to get paid before we can pass it on, but wherever it’s possible it’s our aim to pay up smartly.

While it’s not incredibly well known, there is a way you can show your commitment to being a fair payer. It’s called the Prompt Payment Code and it’s an initiative of the Small Business Commissioner.

We signed up a couple of years ago. You have to be verified by some of your own suppliers who are willing to agree that you don’t hang about settling up with them, but once you clear that hurdle, you’re in and can display the member logo if you wish.

We think it’s something that all medium and large companies should certainly be part of, because it demonstrates a willingness to be a good corporate citizen and gives confidence to smaller firms looking to do business with them. Frankly, as a large and highly liquid business you should have little or no reason not to do it.

For smaller businesses it’s almost more important. Their supply chain is often going to be other small companies or sole traders and they definitely benefit from having confidence that you have a solid policy (and evidence) of being a good payer in place.

If the Prompt Payment Code has so far been under your radar why not take a look today. Once you’re admitted, don’t forget to make a virtue of it because you’ll have earned it.

‘Skill fade’ – is it a risk to your business?

Microsoft Exchange hack – should you be worried?

Pass the Cuisenaire rod… 🤷‍♀️

When you put something under immense pressure you very often expose the cracks. Or, you might create a diamond.

What seems to have happened in the business community as we know it is that the pressure of enforced change has caused a concentration of business development into a much shorter time frame than would ordinarily have been the case, out of necessity of course, but as it’s gone on, some have crumbled while some have shone.

There are a handful of tremendously valuable things which have been learned from this process by those of us whose role it is to watch and understand relationships, reputations, mood and trends.

Everyone’s an expert (not)

Most people are very good at what they do, or they wouldn’t be in business or hold down their role, but we all know what trying to be a jack of all trades results in. The absence of normal tasks caused many to turn to social channels as the only way they felt they could keep their business alive and in view of other people, even if it couldn’t trade normally. That’s an entirely understandable reaction. Unfortunately, the need to do this doesn’t mean you have the skills to do it well!

We’re seeing hard won reputations being badly damaged by bosses who have furloughed staff and decided they can do the communicating themselves – or are doing it just because they can and ruining the efforts of comms staff who are still working. Sometimes it has exposed a natural performer who should have been the face of their organisation all along and will hopefully now continue to be. But in other cases leaders have succeeded only in putting shoddy tarnish on what might once have been a polished marketing operation.

It’s often simple things like making shaky, amateurish video or unfocused podcasts that turn into far too many minutes of waffle. Ill-considered social posts are another regular. Normally we’d love to illustrate this kind of thing with examples, but that would be adding insult to injury!

Data is great, but…

Numbers have become even more critical – for everything. Firms which were bounding along comfortably without having to worry too much about cash flow suddenly had to focus hard on how long reserves would last. Spending on everything needed examining minutely in a way that lots of (especially smaller) companies hadn’t really had time to do routinely. That done, those who could have started looking closely at either existing online ad spend or at starting to use those channels.

Sadly, printed publications have been hit hardest by this pandemic, with footfalls past newsagents and kiosks cut back to almost nothing and delivery problems across the board (and that’s assuming their journalists and printers could actually continue to do their jobs). To be honest, many businesses probably shouldn’t have still been relying on print ads, but there was a comfortable routine to it all and often a long history of spending in that way. Now, there’s a desperate rush to investigate per-per-click on Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and more.

They definitely work, as long as you use great content to engage your audiences, but depending on the kind of campaign you’re running, they are not an instant magic bullet. If you’re building reputation by highlighting how you’re helping your community that won’t convert into business for the foreseeable future, but you’ll have created an image which could pay off for years to come.

A well-executed Facebook campaign can reach tens of thousands of people for less than 50 quid (can the local paper do that in a measurable way?). If you’re an e-commerce business and are remorselessly funneling people into completing online product sales with a flawless marketing/remarketing approach, you could be on to a winner. If you’re a professional services firm or specialist widget maker, don’t expect the phone to suddenly be ringing off the hook. The good news is, some of those thousands will know about you now and think about you in future, as long as you targeted your ads really well.

Also, don’t worry about your competitors’ numbers, focus on your own and growing those if that’s what desired. Remember though, it’s not all about the numbers, it’s about who you reach and with what message.

Timing is everything

This one is dead simple. Everything has been changing so fast, if you hesitated or waited, you lost. It’s no use having something valuable to say about the latest item in the news if you ponder it for a day or two, because you’re too late. In some cases news agendas were (still are…) changing by the hour, not the day.

A shopping trend or government policy announcement that would have been ripe for you to engage with in a positive way could have been overtaken or reversed by the time you’d done 15 takes of your talking head video to post on Twitter. Too often we saw the desire for ‘perfect’ being the enemy of the ‘good’.

Great ideas and contributions to the news dialogue were quickly swallowed up by everyone else doing it in a frenzy.

What’s the answer? Do your own thinking, not following. Decide what you can offer and how it will come across and then get on with it. Don’t stop to think too long. Trust your instinct and that of your advisers. If you don’t trust their instincts, get new advisers.

Not just social, sociable

We’ve seen people who should know better pumping out hours of their thoughts on video, as if everyone they reach would be hanging off their every word. It was a waste of time and potentially damaging to their reputations because they looked like they didn’t ‘get it’.

If you’re going to do that, give something valuable – and do it quickly. We might have been stuck at home, but most of u still didn’t have time to chuck away on people pontificating.

Much better was to use that time to engage. Say your succinct piece and then back it up by having conversations. Give people who are listening the chance to pick your brains and go deeper with you or ask their specific questions. It’s amazing how quickly that can turn a stranger in to a customer.

The big takeaway?

Good, genuine and genuinely helpful businesses and the people who run them have risen to the surface. The talkers, twiddlers and unfocused managers have been outed. The forward-thinkers, innovators, do-ers and brave leaders have the world at their feet.

The new rhythm is starting to emerge. A positive direction of travel has begun for those with the vision to look over the horizon. We’ve all been a bit scared – now is the time to be excited and re-energised.

Move on or move out. It’s a tough thing to say, but you’re operating in a newly tough world and it’s time to decide if you sink or swim. Be the diamond, not the coal.

‘Skill fade’ – is it a risk to your business?

Microsoft Exchange hack – should you be worried?

Pass the Cuisenaire rod… 🤷‍♀️