Through a long, hot summer we've
been growing our business. Marketing
continues to be a key part of building our customer base and
understanding our customers' needs and expectations is
critical. In this edition, we look at how you can
improve your marketing effectiveness.
The most successful businesses have
inspirational leaders at the their head. We look at a
little known tool developed by the DTI that enables you to
assess your own leadership qualities.
We offer you more of our popular Microsoft Office Tricks
'n' Tips; this time focussing on PowerPoint and Excel.
Please
feel free to forward this e-zine to a colleague.
Marketing - The Power of
Corporate Blogging
Successful businesses in the digital
age are turning to corporate blogging to expand their
customers' understanding of the business and to build the
corporate brand. Blogs must be designed as part of
your organisation's marketing and communications strategies.
Click
here for the complete article
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Inspirational Leadership
Leadership is about inspiration and
vision rather than technical competence and is a
transferable skill that can be developed by continued
learning. Research has shown that effective leaders
work in four dimensions and the DTI's Insight to Action tool
gives you insight into your own leadership qualities.
Click
here for the complete article
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Making the Most of PowerPoint and
Excel
Our regular "tricks and tips" features offers practical
advice on using Outlook and creating, formatting and navigating spreadsheet workbooks.
Click
here for the complete article
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Recent Successes
Over the summer months, we have added some new customers
to our portfolio. Here's a selection of some of our
new business.
We have been commissioned to provide
independent advice and assistance in
developing the plans for shared support
services for the proposed co-location of
Borders College & Heriot-Watt
University on the Netherdale campus
as part of a new inter-institutional
model for delivery of Further and Higher
Education in the Scottish Borders.
4-consulting director, Ralph Leishman,
is a member of a team (with DTZ
Consulting & Research) appointed by
the Scottish Executive to carry out
research into Accountability and
Governance in Scottish FE colleges as
part of the Review of Scotland’s
Colleges. Working with Andrew Jack
of Business Excellence International,
who developed the ValueMapping®
performance management approach and
system, we have now implemented
ValueMapping® to enable outcome rather
than output based reporting of
performance in the Violence Reduction
Unit of Strathclyde Police, which
is a police unit that works on long term
solutions for reducing violent crime in
Scotland in collaboration with other
professionals, including social workers,
health experts, educationalists and
academics. Most recently, we have been retained by
HBOS plc to develop a best practice protocol and related
training and mentoring in the management of risk in the use
of spreadsheets.
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Tell
us your view
Almost three-quarters of our
respondents to our last edition felt that their organisation
had no business continuity plan.
We hope that you
will take a moment to answer the following question:
There is much debate among knowledge
management enthusiasts about the importance of tacit
knowledge which cannot easily be written down. Tacit
knowledge is possessed by the people within your
organisation. When they leave they take their
knowledge with them denying your organisation any further
access to that knowledge. There are ways of sharing tacit
knowledge to reduce the dependence on particular
individuals. However, ultimately the largest part of
your organisation's knowledge base will be in the minds of
your staff.
Do you believe that sharing knowledge should be an
organisational value and that staff should be rewarded
accordingly?
Answer our question
and let us know – all responses are confidential.
If you would like
to suggest a topic for future e-zines or have any comments
about this one, please send it to: ezine@4-consulting.com.
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For more information about 4-consulting visit our
web site at www.4-consulting.com
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