Managers come from different walks of life. Many experienced people managers have gained their wisdom through hard work and self-evaluation. They have also typically experienced much frustration along the way, have their own philosophies regarding how to manage a business and employees and have used approaches that appeared to make good sense at the time. With experience, it is easy to see the mistakes which could be avoided:

1. Putting company policies ahead of people. Policies are made to be followed, within reason. Some flexibility with employees, particularly in a small company, is important. An even bigger mistake is standing behind policies at the expense of losing loyal customers. If it is a matter of physical safety or security, policies must be upheld. However, in many other instances, there are reasonable solutions that will not alienate the customer or create a strained relationship with your employee(s). The smaller the organization, the larger the mistake this is.

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Within the past few years, it has now become common place to have some sort of internet access on mobile phones. Whether it be for satellite navigation, simple email processing, or full access to the world wide web, this new technology is clearly here to stay. Most of the mainstream, popular websites have already made the transition to mobile, as well as some smaller personal websites.

“Web-based applications that work across desktop, mobile and soon, TV screens, are the norm and not the exception these days” – Alec East, Director of Do Tank Studios.

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Essentially, a brand is made up of 3 main elements; A name, sign or symbol used to identify yourself. A promise. The pledge of satisfaction and quality in what you do. A collection of perceptions. Albeit in the mind of the consumer, but forged by your actions.

The biggest brands have managed to shape all these 3 ideas into instantly recognisable, bankable, business. Think of a brand, any brand, and you automatically think about your opinion of their product/s, and then you think about the company itself, is it ethical? cool? responsible? out of date? or even important?
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Firstly you may be asking yourself what are Compliancy Standards? It’s a fair question and unless you’re responsible for designing and developing websites you’re unlikely to have encountered it. Compliancy Standards is a term used to describe websites and web browser’s relative compliance with the standards proposed by the World Wide Consortium (W3C) for interoperability of web content.

Put simply this asks is your website accessible and understood by as wide an online audience as possible without discrimination to limitations of technology and disability?
This includes the code used to build the website, HTML, PHP, ASP, Javascript etc., the rise in use of CSS style sheets and other rich media technologies in determining how your website looks in a browser. A cursory look around the web will demonstrate clearly that most web pages don’t comply with the W3C’s specifications.
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Brand is the most overused and most misunderstood word in the last 5 years. The dreaded ‘B’ word! It sends shivers down creative’s backs and sends young marketeers rushing into Borders to research missing chapters. Every company large and small thinks they are a brand and that by using that word as leverage, the tills will starts ringing. Unfortunately it’s only the tills at Borders that are opening and closing with repetitive aplomb. Branding is a word too commonly referred to by advertisers and marketing people alike, but what does it actually mean? How can you get it? And most importantly; how will it benefit your business?

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