The Reality of Business

In this podcast Bob and Jeremy explore Leadership Levels – and Disloyal Bonding from Head Office.  Are you strategically forcing your people to bond with customers in a way that puts your own company at a disadvantage? What are the Head Office decisions which sound like a good idea, but actually damage your business? The effect of internal meetings and decisions and the knock-on effect once they g...

  In this episode we focus in on the major sweeping changes retailers need to make to survive in our post pandemic society. Having first worked with the two biggest high street names in Travel, your hosts have gone on to work with many leading and world class retailers and helped them to change the way they operate with regards to sales, service and leadership. In this episode we talk about the mi...

Should people still go to University and saddle themselves with £60k+ worth of debt ? Should they mortgage their futures for the hope of a better start? Does University give them that? If we are all living longer, why do we try and cram all of our education into the first 20 years? Time to rethink time, value, and money. Your hosts give you several different perspectives, as fathers of teenagers f...

When lockdown hit presenteeism bias became even more challenged.  If people aren't in the building how can I trust them?! Often the least trustworthy people project, unconsciously biased... In this episode we look at: Confirmation Bias Action Bias  Declinism Bias Ageism  With remote working here to stay we discuss how we now view people working from home; whether they are single, or a busy pa...

This episode is about you. Are you interested in how you are perceived? Would you like to change people's perceptions? Get ways to work out what you stand for and a method to develop your personal brand. Listen out for the fun and insightful exercise that requires you to spend time talking and learning from someone you admire in your business or marketplace. We discuss mixing or sharing parts...

Bob and I go into the appraisal jungle. When we consider the time, effort and outcome - should we bother anymore? Is the appraisal another business habit that should be retired in 2021? Or with thought, and a revitalised approach can it be upgraded and be a force for good. You'll hear a case study of what Adobe have done instead of the appraisal, take note of the numbers, especially if you ne...

The second part of the interview where Jeremy talks with actor Ed Stoppard. Ed talks about what he does when he isn't acting.  He shares the advice actor Nigel Lindsay gave him to help him think differently and creatively about earning and living and the fact of periods of not working. Ed speaks eloquently about his Father Tom Stoppard and his writing process and you'll get a real insigh...

In this episode Jeremy interviews the actor Ed Stoppard. From his early break in Polanski's oscar winning film The Pianist, through to the series Knightfall, the recent Brave New World and having to leave the West End production of Tom Stoppard's Leopoldstat as Coronvairus spread, Ed is enjoying a varied and growing career. He talks about the early days, drama school, getting an agent an...

While recovering from cancer James discovered cycling and until December held the world record for the longest distance cycled in 7 days.  He's rasied millions for charity and while attempting new records works with foundations and and inspires people to achieve more with their lives. He joins me from his home in Portugal  having just talked to Eddie Izzard during his challenge of running 31...

No smell, no trains, no gigs, no embrace... Changed priorities, countryside, lie-ins, gardening... We look back on quite a year with our 2020 vision in the rear view mirror. We chat about what has been turned on its head and how you and all organisations have had to change beyond all recognition. The year that presenteeism became obselete to all but the most committed sociopaths! We will back with...

It's that time of year when people start having their office christmas parties. What about this year? We share some fun research on the topic. You'll learn which job role thinks most about handing their notice in, the day after the office party! You can also take advantage of our must know tips to ensure party survival. You'll also pick up a valuable marketing lesson we learned year...

Have you ever sat through a never-ending meeting with no conclusive decisions taken? We've all been there, and it's time to break the cycle. In today's episode, we take a hard look at the reality of most professional meetings - the lack of structure, impromptu calls, and the fear of appearing unbusy leading to wasted time and energy. We dig into the dynamics of remote work and how i...

In what seems like another age, we began our business with a stand up set to get our delegates on side and open to learning with some comedy.  We worked at being a comedy double act, writing and rehearsing, we still do.    Elmer Wheeler said, "Your first ten words are more important than your next ten thousand."    With that wisdom in mind why are so many people's first ten words du...

"We pursue the things in life that matter so much to us, and we bother to follow up. Why doesn't this come through in sales?" Bob and I go after the Achilles Heel of so many businesses, lack of professional follow up . Managers are paid to make sure sales calls happen.  It seems many feel their role is not to manage people to convert those leads into sales. We've been with peop...

In this episode Bob and I talk about the election in the USA,  which leads us on to talking about leadership and finally lockdown. At the same time you'll get my top tip of a drink made by monks; after Bob suggests I get tonsured. Bob talks about parenting his new hound Margot, after getting a little Basil Fawlty with her. And he shares the thing Margot does with his wife and him that his tee...

Why are companies so obsessed about measuring promoters and detractors? We explain what NPS is and who created it. We go behind the scenes of some of our own experiences in working internationally with clients; and share with you some of the questionable tactics some firms use to increase their NPS score. Finally we put forward some new ways to work with this KPI, if you must... To find out more a...

In this episode we talk about whether we should continue working from home or head back in. We talk about the huge changes that have already taken place in how we view work and our workplaces; and the knock on effect on the wider locations around those places. We share research from conversations with friends working in cities, and in a rural location with employees. Can cities be redesigned and w...

Sales isn't taught in school. Yet all children are natural salespeople and persuasive,they just don't all go into sales. So picture a young person, after their education and even their degree, arriving at their first job and hearing, "so our main objective is to sell more and more of these products and services!" Gulp.  When we do talks in schools and we ask: "Who wants to...

What if your employees were disloyally bonding with your customers without even realising it? Imagine the impact of such a situation on your brand's value and reputation.  Dive into this fascinating discussion with us as we dissect the concept of disloyal bonding, a term coined by our very own host, Jeremy. Uncover the many ways this phenomenon subtly infiltrates into our professional interac...

We look back on our first trip to train salespeople and managers in the US. Us teach North Americans to sell? The land of Zig Ziglar and Elmer Wheeler...  We talk about the great characters we met and the fun and at times bizzare experiences we had, mostly outside of training. We throw in a few sales stories for good measure too.  To find out more about our work and to see what we could do to help...

We have had some of our best ever experiences working with travel companies- agency businesses, operators, tourist boards and associations. We've bee booked to speak around the world and we are not alone in wanting the travel industry to grow back to better times, and it will. We comment on some of the strange business quirks of travel firms and give travel people hope and some crucial practi...

We have a lot of fun discussing company values. Can they be created by you or by some agency? In the Covid 19 era and beyond do you even need a set of company values?  Bob and I share our research into this topic which throws up some fun and startling revelations. Discover what many of the top 100 companies on the New York Stock Exchange have in common when it comes to their values. Hear what one...

In this episode Bob and I talk about our experience of training in India. How much we learned while delivering training and in some areas we didn't expect. We talk about the journey, the food, buying clothing and a cricket bat, getting the analogies right, great nights at Strikers, spending time with a top music star and his band, and much more. To find out more about our work and to see what...

In our second episode we discuss the future of employment. Following a virtual live debate where Jeremy was against the motion and Bob was for it, we then heard from our audience. They responded to what we had presented and added some highly valuable insights and observations that were from a geographical and cultural standpoint as well as opinions from the industries and marketplaces they served....

In our first podcast we debrief a live debate we held on Zoom titled The Age of Targeting is over. On the toss of a coin from one of the participating audience Jeremy was for the motion and Bob against. In between our short presentations we heard from our audience over what they felt about targeting and the arguments we had made. This first episode looks at the topic of targeting in the light of t...