I just received a call from “M”, my totally competent and wonderful household helper.  The call went like this:

“Hi Karen, I just thought I’d call you because I’ve had a cancellation this week, so I’ve got a slot available.  I know you said you wanted more help with the ironing this week.  Do you want me to come round, as well as your usual slot?”

She’d remembered that I had visitors coming and filled in her vacant slot with an existing customer.  Simple.

It got me thinking about the situation I see in life science technology and service businesses …

Read more ...

Step Away From The Excel Spreadsheet.  Step. Slowly. Away.

I know how hard it is to move away from Excel.  All my account finances are organised in there; I colour in little rows and columns in a systematic way, every month (at least to me) and it all works.  Very slowly.  Not very efficiently.  The challenge is to find the time to find something better, yet I know that once I’ve done this I’ll have more time to dedicate to revenue-generating activities.

The same goes for the CEO or Commercial Director, who has taken sole responsibility for the company’s revenue …

Read more ...

Read more ...