As an organisational Director, Isle of Man law dictates that you must be able to exercise a certain standard of care in financial matters – regardless of whether you are holding a finance-specific role within the company or not.

The risk of personal liability

As seen recently with the Patisserie Valerie fraud case, the group’s multi-millionaire chairman, Luke Johnson, was forced to use £20m of his own money to keep Patisserie Holdings in business, after finding that it was nearly £10m in debt instead of having £28m in the bank, as it had last reported.

The Directors have said they were unaware until 10 October that Patisserie Holdings’ main trading subsidiary, Stonebeach, faced a winding-up petition from HMRC over a £1m unpaid tax bill. Read more…..

Last year the Prime Minister commissioned an independent review into mental health and employment led by Dennis Stevenson and Mind CEO Paul Farmer, as part of a range of measures aimed at transforming mental health support in our schools, workplaces and communities.

The review revealed 300,000 people with a long-term mental health problem fall out of work every year, a cost of up £99 billion to the UK economy. In addition, the human cost of failing to address mental health in the workplace is clear.

Every employer has a responsibility to support employees with mental health problems and promote the mental wellbeing of their entire workforce. Read more…..

Many businesses in the UK remain defiant against the critics who claim corporate growth is slowing down.

The consensus from a Flexspace Business Sentiment Survey found that 80% of respondents expect moderate or substantial growth in 2018, and 78% expect confidence in the UK economy to stagnate or grow for the remainder of the year.

This is despite economists forecasting a potential dip in GDP in Q4 of 2018 and Q1 of 2019.

So, where is this enthusiasm coming from?

With the rise of the internet, information is more accessible and with the right skills, strategy and experience behind you, you can make a big impression online without incurring high expenses for doing so.

Business owners are now becoming savvier, however, they still struggle to tackle all of the demands on their time. Being time-poor is one of the biggest barriers that many SME’s face when working to expand and grow their business.

This means that essential strategic planning stages can be missed, only to cause problems later down the line as too many directors are opting for quick wins over long-term sustainability.

The solution to this is learning how to implement time-effective and realistic strategic planning. Discover how you can do this here.

Read more…..

Many directors and CEO’s throughout the UK have a true passion for their business and a genuine feeling of responsibility towards their organisation, as well as the staff that help to make it work.

However, in difficult times, when cash flow isn’t quite balanced and money is tight, people can change…

The boss that was once an advocate for positive attitudes and working together to make progress, all of a sudden becomes the devil in disguise and makes the lives of their subordinates the equivalent to living in the pits of hell.

When push comes to shove and there are demons at your door, some bosses go into self-preservation mode and as a result choose to disregard the potential impact of their decisions on customers and suppliers, as well as staff.

This isn’t the case 100% of the time, but most of you will have heard horror stories of this occurring and been disgusted by the attitude of those involved.

Read more…..

Take a minute to picture your organisation as a boat navigating across the ocean. The ocean represents the financial world and like the ocean, the financial environment might have dull slow parts, and at times the waves may steer you out of control.

The most important thing you need to understand about sailing is that you don’t have control of the direction you go in, the ocean does. Unfortunately, in this oh-so-complex financial world, the same goes.

The question is do you just sit back let the river take you in any direction, or do you fight the tide? Read more…..

Why is it so hot in Britain this year?

Over recent years, the great British Summer has been getting hotter and longer than many of us have seen if our lifetimes.

The Guardian reported that June 2018 could be “among the warmest, driest and sunniest Junes since records began in 1910.”

This boost in near tropical temperatures is courtesy of our old friend, the jet steam. The jet stream is the group of strong westerly air currents that circle the globe several miles above the Earth’s surface.

Read more…..

IoD99

It began as a pilot scheme at the end of 2014, with only 99 applications accepted. Due to the success of the initiative, IoD took the decision to accept 99 new members every quarter during 2015. Members benefit from IoD support and advice, as well as free networking events with fellow IoD99 members. Read more…..

The Northern Powerhouse is a phrase which is frequently used amongst northern business leaders and political parties. However a recent study found that nearly half of people in the North of England are unaware of the Northern Powerhouse. The Manchester Evening News reported the most unusual hotel requests in the city during 2015, one of which was ‘Where would I find the Northern Powerhouse?’. Yet the importance of the Northern Powerhouse on the Northern Economy, infrastructure and industry is unprecedented. Our recent Conference explored key themes around the Powerhouse. Read more…..

Party conference season is well under way, so far the Liberal democrats and the Green Party have both taken the stage in Bournemouth. UKIP headed to Doncaster, and the Labour Party hosted in Brighton with their the new Leader addressing his party for the first time. This week is the turn of The Conservative Party, making Manchester their home for the week.

A wide variety of topics have been discussed during this weeks event. With EU membership, Immigration, maternity leave for grandparents, child benefit, Isis and Terror, Prisons, education, Right to buy, social housing, the deficit, and the topic which had social media in a frenzy was the introduction of a 5p tax on supermarket bags.

Read more…..

Northern Powerhouse On The Agenda 

A major conference on what the future holds for Greater Manchester under the Northern Powerhouse is to be staged in Salford this November.

Speakers at the summit will address the impact on government, transport, arts, science and business.

The conference will take place on Tuesday, November 10.

Read more…..