An inspirational film for business leaders

ON WISDOM from Nic Askew on Vimeo.

Thought-provoking, challenging and beautifully lit, this film contrasts an unrewarding  existence in business – as riches and opportunity are blindly pursued at the expense of huge amounts of energy – to that of a life based on a philosophical and holistic approach.
The word "love" is used in a context that will not be familiar to most people. Courageous.

NHS 24 communications in critical condition

HERE’S something that gets my goat in a big way: Organisations who purport to embrace the modern advantages of social media but continue to live in the past.

Broadly, I refer to bodies who fail spectacularly to grasp the concept that Twitter, Facebook, et al, are means of communication and are, therefore, “live” 24 hours a day. The key is in the words “social” and “media”, the latter being the more important of the two.

Specifically, I refer to NHS 24, which, for the uninitiated, is an “online and telephone-based health information and self-care service”. In plain language, it is who you call if you are in need of medical help outside of “normal” hours.

Now, my gripe is not with NHS 24 generally and its fine frontline medical professionals. It relates to its management – in particular its communications management.

As I regularly state, like a stuck CD, to those in my circle of influence, social media is a form of publishing. This principle is not overly important for those using the likes of Twitter

New Age censor attack on UK journalist at Olympics

New Age censor attack on UK journalist at Olympics

#NBCFail: NBC blames Twitter for complaint that led to journalist Guy Adams having Twitter account suspended after complaining about London 2012 Olympics coverage

THE web has come of age, and, as a result, is starting to fall prey to a control freakery that  "mainstream" media resisted for generations, at least in the UK.

So it's hardly a surprise that journalist Guy Adams, of The Independent, has fallen foul of New Age "censors". But it is no less a scandal for all that. 

"Freedom of speech for everyone" was the vaunted cry of the geeks 10 or so years ago as they blabbed about embryonic new media streams and held their noses 

Social media seeds in the Big Apple

WHEN the United States of America sneezes, the rest of the world catches a cold, goes the time-honoured saying. Yet, on the British side of the Atlantic, it would appear that, in one aspect of modern business life at least, preventative medicine has been taken by the bucketload.

The reticence in some commercial quarters to wholeheartedly embrace the social media dimension is something of a mystery. But there must be a reason because everything in life is explainable.

The affliction that prevents small to medium sized companies delving into the most exciting and potentially beneficial realm of the current age must have its roots somewhere. Is it ignorance? Doubtful. Is it fear? Perhaps. Is it a pre-conceived notion that the social