business Archives

A Roadmap to Sustainability for SMEs

There’s little doubt that consumers care deeply about the environment and sustainability, and prefer to deal with businesses which care about these things too. According to a recent survey conducted by Accenture, a leading global management consultancy, 60% of respondents said that since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic they were making more environmentally friendly, sustainable or ethical purchases.

A societal shift towards making better environmental choices had begun well before the pandemic took hold and it is accelerating now that the world is returning to normal.

Small Businesses Need to Up Their Game on Sustainability and Ethical Sourcing

A very good friend of mine, Julian Lyons, runs IMI Ltd., a long-established premium sourcing company based in Central London. Julian recently announced in a LinkedIn post that his company, which does a lot of business internationally, particularly with China, had updated the Sustainability and Ethics Policy on its website. It’s a very comprehensive policy and I know that Julian believes passionately that his company should operate sustainably and needs to avoid at all costs doing business with any suppliers which could be benefitting from the use of child labour or forced labour.

Conducting Successful Business Interviews

As a financial copywriter I must often interview people face-to-face in order to be able to complete my work, whether it’s for a magazine article, an annual report, a press release or anything else.

Face-to-face interviews get the best results

Although they’re harder to arrange and take more time, I’ve always found that face-to-face interviews get the best results. They’re far better, certainly, than interviews conducted over the phone or on Zoom.

Most people are happy to give interviews and will communicate freely and openly. I do though sometimes encounter interviewees who are a little reticent, perhaps through their natural shyness or concern about being misquoted.