Purging clients: painful but necessary

I was recently asked to write on when and why professional service firms should dump clients. It's not as easy as it seems. Inherently conservative, partners are, at times, almost pathologically reluctant to part company with clients who are simply wasting their time. Anyway, with the help of a few experts I explored the issue for AB magazine in an article headlined Sifting your client list.
Click here and turn to page 40 on the e-reader to read the full article.

Distractions: lessons from jailbirds; technology stalls and negative emotions

Distractions:
Oh dear, getting back to work is a chore after New Year. Far better to take a colleague for a latte in a trendy coffee bar or even surf the net looking for anything else to do but work.

Anyway, below are some (un)welcome distractions and, if you're interested I'm listening to Shallow Bed by Dry the River while pretending to work. Click below.





Porridge: Time inside is not just about dodging the showers and sociology degrees. Jeff Smith (above) a US politician jailed for electoral fraud says they are hives of entrepreneurialism and business savvy. We could learn a lot from jailbirds. Click here.


Techno trap: Global growth is stalling - we’ve reached a cul de sac in technological development. Blogger and author Charles Hugh Smith has some grim news about where we're all going. Good read for a gloomy New Year. Click here.


Getting emotional: If there’s one thing important about businesses of the future it is perhaps that they need to build emotional bonds with their customers. But consumer emotions can go wrong.   A Tesco backed coffee house has found that to it’s cost. Reputation tainted by association with an investor? What do you do about that? Click here.