You’ve planned and prepared your presentation, or training workshop, in detail.

The services economy is picking up.

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Picture the scenario.

The best project managers are those who deliver results on time, within budget and exceed expectations.

We all have that little voice that sits on our shoulder and advises us every now and then.

Large European buyout groups are facing a difficult environment in which to sell some of the very large businesses that were bought at the peak of the market.

After years of remaining fundamentally the same, the business computing environment is changing rapidly.

Barack Obama famously crowd-sourced the finance for his election campaign - a powerful example of the ability of new technology to create a great aggregate result out of lots of small voluntary actions.

Trust and confidence in our economic and financial institutions has collapsed.

You’ve probably already heard this ancient wisdom tale: There was once a king who wanted to marry off his daughter.

For many years our ability to add value to the organisations we work for has been compromised by the behaviour of those who manage us.

Work related stress is a hangover from our prehistoric past.

Why? Because these new ideas are tender and can get crushed all too easily.

This week, many parts of the UK have been disrupted by heavy snowfall following last month’s severe flooding and storms.

Do you feel nervous before presenting? Do the nerves affect you performance? Are they stopping you from doing things or progressing in your career or business? Would you like to start 2013 feeling more confident about speaking in public? According to Alan Donegan from Toastmasters International, the first step is to stop for a second and ask ourselves; “are nerves always a bad thing?” Do you think the professionals get nervous? You bet they do and those nerves are a good thing, they drive us to prepare well, they drive us to focus and they give us energy on the day.

The last couple of years have brought an intriguing quandary for senior leaders, and one that is probably here to stay.

Is an ROI assessment possible on investment in leadership? The answer is yes and usefully so.

The route you take to ascend the top of your professional tree will vary hugely depending on the type of firm you work for and your own individual experience, there are, however four main routes to partnership; as follows: Traditional: Do your time and work your way up from the bottom – probably the route the more senior partners in your firm would’ve taken.

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It is staggering to think that Apple's App Store celebrated its fourth birthday in July - in some respects it does feel like it should be much older than that.

The answer to the question lies in an appreciation of the way that both the workforce and management have changed in the relatively short time since both concepts have existed. In different countries the time scales may differ but the mile posts on the developmental journey are pretty much the same. At the beginning of the last century in the UK two classes predominated, the landowners and those who worked the land. There was no social security or social mobility and the owners of the land, and of the industries, tended to be the same people.

We have been celebrating the Olympics for a while, some have had enough, and some can’t wait till Rio.

Well, it’s been and gone! And while the nation awaits the opening of the Paralympic Games, some of the athletes who graced the world stage over the past two and a bit weeks will be basking in the glory that will change their lives.

1) Negotiate credit terms when you negotiate your sales price Begin to think of your cash-flow as the most valuable part of your business.

Most companies do not have a market entry strategy when looking to expand their business.

The consulting lifestyle is challenging on a number of different levels and this means that stress is rarely far away.

The stats say that social networking media has become a powerful tool for finding/attracting potential customers or clients.

As any consultant will recognise, it’s impossible to flick a switch and fundamentally change the behaviour inside an organisation.

Too many senior leaders adopt a top-down approach to their roles.

There’s no doubt that we’ve experienced one of the wettest early summers on record in the UK.

Unless IT Security is a core element of someone's job, it is not necessarily considered their on-going development needs.

Employees Matter is the name of a report written by the SJF institute of New York and San Francisco and oddly enough it is about what happens when Employees are allowed to Matter.

There are many ways the games will impact on the UK’s businesses this summer.

Much of today’s leadership writing focuses on what high performing leaders should do.

There is a discipline in Management called Change Management.

Some time ago an article appeared about a vision of the future that was called “The Fourth World.” That vision asked us to consider what was happening to the manufacturing ability of the West in the face of the deluge of cheap imports that were overwhelming our markets from the East. The example used was the Maglite, a high quality torch that at the lower end of the market retailed between £12.99 and 16.99.

The quality of an organisation’s human resources can be critical and talent management has become a topic for boardroom discussion.

Contemporary organizations are seeking leaders who are authentic, adaptable, open to change, and resilient in the face of adversity.

Companies need to be agile - capable of changing in response to movements in the business environment in which they operate.

The majority of business leaders I have worked with have a ravenous fascination with and curiosity about top-level sports.

Yet despite the welcome words of encouragement from government for start-up entrepreneurs there are significant hurdles and barriers in their path.

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High-performance teams are not only desirable in achieving innovation and speed – they are essential.

But things are very different when times are tough.

It might seem hard to believe but the mobile phone was first introduced to the UK in 1985.

When the NHS was first set up in the UK, its champion, Nye Bevan, told us that the people who deliver the services should be the people who decide how those services should be delivered.

Have you ever read a novel you couldn’t put down, or watched a film you couldn’t turn off, or listened to an audio book which held you spellbound? Why did they have that effect on you? They told a story. Storytelling is an essential aspect of speech-making.