quirky

Yes, salespeople are notorious for not being natural negotiators. Happier to give the shop away to quicken or avoid any relationship-straining haggle rather than buckle down into a serious hard-nosed deliberation over the basis of future client-supplier relationship. Another sales negotiation tidbit picked up lately reminded me of one of

Zero-based budgeting (ZBB) is a system that requires managers to justify all expenses afresh with each new year. I first encountered this in the mid-Noughties with a client suddenly swamped with execs from their Dutch parent. It wasn’t so much that the discipline was a complete mystery to the

The desire to have better meetings is currently all the rage. How do you start a key meeting? One where a decision must be made. Here’s a terrific paragraph from a recent book review. (A Tale of Two Tyrants, subscription req’d [https://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/what-to-read/

From a grey Autumn day in Britain’s second-city, Birmingham. A ‘parklet’. A hospitality venue, in this case hotel bar, is allowed to make a covid-compliant outside seating area where once parking bays lay and maximise patron numbers. This sector maybe more than most starkly split between those innovating and

dailymail table graphic -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Another emergence from the Brexit deal. The planet’s largest current talks securing a £660bn arrangement. With post-match spin quick to surface. The British leaked documents preferring to suggest their ‘win ratio’ was higher; 28 to 11 with 26 drawn. The European Union strangely opting to

Amidst the peak shedding season for retrospectives, I came across one of many coronavirus Top Tens. (Subscription req’d [https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2020/12/26/10-stark-numbers-tell-story-covid/] via London’s Telegraph.) Here’s their headline-summarised economics editor 10 stark numbers that tell the story of Covid; > 1.

Got any reasons to be optimistic for 2021? A recent collage in London broadsheet The Telegraph (subscription req’d [https://www.telegraph.co.uk/family/life/reasons-optimistic-2021/] though) surely the template for many a salesteam, or even company-wide, slot at a kick-off conference as this new year begins. The idea

From the Yale Professor that brought you the finding that “moods spread like ripples through friends”, comes a coronavirus pronouncement. Recovery will come. Phew. Yet Winter sure is long, hey. The message comes from clickbait pr of ‘social epidemiologist’ Nicholas Christakis’ latest book, Apollo’s Arrow: The Profound and Enduring

> The deal is done. pic.twitter.com/zzhvxOSeWz [https://t.co/zzhvxOSeWz] — Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) December 24, 2020 [https://twitter.com/BorisJohnson/status/1342123159181516802?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw] Christmas Eve saw surely the largest ongoing negotiation in the world complete. The Brexit deal was done. Against so many odds,