A new way of growing a business -Pitching for Management

Yesterday evening I think I saw the future - and it works!

You have a great idea, you have the finance and now all you need is the people - often the most difficult part of the start-up process.

The innovative Angel News team have come up with an exciting and challenging way for new or expanding companies to find key personnel.

Pitching for Management enables a company to showcase their work to a carefully selected group of professionals.

Last night the format was simple. Meet at six after work. Drinks, three eight minute presentations. Coffee. Three more presentations. Buffet dinner.

The presentations varied but the enthusiasm didn't. I must confess to being lost on one or two of the high tech products but each pitch concluded by focusing on  the business's  requirements.

Over dinner there was much exchanging of cards and it was obvious that the evening had been a success.

I spoke to several of the audience and was impressed by the breath of knowledge and experience. Somebody had clearly done their homework and created a great invitation list.

This is a great new form of business development and one that I would recommend to both start-ups and professionals. I will predict that we will hear much more about Pitching for Management in future months

Can a PR firm harness the power of blogging?

Public relations is yet to come to terms with the implications of blogging. All the usual rules apply to blogging that should apply to any other media outlet. It is a big mistake to write bloggers off as of no consequence. Ignore a blog post today and it can come back and bite you tomorrow.

A PR firm in New York decided to try and harness the power of blogging. Ten out of ten for trying!

Bloggers were invited to an upmarket New York restaurant together with their guests. They thought they were in for a gastronomic treat. They were upset to find that this was a ruse to serve up some production line food and film them complimenting  the food.

The expectation was  to use the footage for promotional videos on YouTube and the client web site, and for bloggers to generate buzz when they wrote about being pleasantly surprised.


The company were using a technique much used in American advertising in the 1980s and 1990s where diners in upscale restaurants unknowingly enjoyed instant coffee instead of the house brew, to more recent Pizza Hut ads, where diners, again in upscale restaurants, unknowingly enjoyed pasta from Pizza Hut.

"But while consumers tend to laugh along with the ruse, ConAgra was about to learn that bloggers, who often see themselves as truth-seeking journalists, find the switcheroo less amusing, especially when it entails them misleading their readers beforehand."

The full salutary story can be found on the New York Times media and adverting page. 

How to write a great CV

by Sarah Daniels

When looking for a new role your CV is the first impression that people have of you so what it looks like and what it says are hugely important.  A well written and well presented CV could make all the difference between potentially securing an interview or ending up in the rejection pile.

You would be amazed at the number of poorly written, inaccurate and grammatically incorrect CVs that I have seen over the years. If I open a badly presented CV which the author couldn’t be bothered to check properly, I will hit the delete button.  If you can’t take the time to put something presentable together, then you shouldn’t be surprised if an employer won’t take the time to invite you to an interview.  

So what should it look like?

·         Your CV should ideally be 2 pages or for more detailed CVs no longer than 3.

·         It should be typed using the same font and same colour, i.e.black.  Don’t bother with tables, graphics or pictures.  It will just annoy the recruiter or employer.   

·         It should be positive and emphasise your achievements, strengths, successes and how you have contributed to your employers’ bottom line in any way (add figures to support facts whenever you can and use positive action words, for example: ‘implementing’, ‘negotiating’, ‘managing’ etc).

How to speak to a multi-lingual audience through interpretation

David Hallam 

 If you are in the business of making customers, raising funds or influencing policy at a European or international level you invariably have to attend meetings where the participants speak many languages and you are communicating through interpretors.

Even the most seasoned executive can find it very daunting to move from operating exclusively in English. Few senior people, in any case, have ever had any formal training in public speaking. 

Mistakes in constructing, delivering and illustrating,  a speech or presentation, in a mother tongue are magnified when delivered through simultaneous interpretation.

All the basic rules of good public speaking apply – only more so.

Speeches should be carefully planned and timed to meet both the needs of the audience, and the allotted time slot. Audiences should be researched as far as is possible. The venue should be carefully reconnoitered.  Industry or professional jargon should be avoided and sets of initials always spelt out in full.

The classic “three part sermon” is always a good starting point. You say what you are going to say, say it, then recap what you have said.

Blogging for business (3): Content is king

by David Hallam

You are clear that your business would benefit from a blog, you are certain that you have the capacity, you have taken care of the technicalities. You have already drafted 20 possible posts. Now lets look in detail at what you should post.

First impressions

Whatever you write it may be the very first impression that someone has of your company. Search engines can work in very quirky ways and you have little choice as to how and what is featured. Therefore every post is a possible "landing page" and could be a potential customer's first sight.

Informality and pitfalls

Blogs and other forms of social media can create an air of informality. This can be a productive and relatively relaxed way of introducing yourselves. It has advantages. In certain markets the less formality and fun the better.

Blogging for business (2): What are the technicalities?

by David Hallam

Starting a blog is technically very easy and can cost nothing. Both Blogger (now part of the google group) and Wordpress offer simple stand alone  solutions, free of charge. Both boast that you can start blogging within minutes, but  that's not quite how you should approach it.

There are other platforms and most IT service providers now have some form of blogging as part of their portfolio. My strong advice is that if your business runs to having an IT department or has an external provider you should speak with them first. It obviously makes sense to integrate your blog with the business's own web or CRM platform, especially if, for example, the blog is purely for internal audiences, membership or identified customers.

Blogger and Wordpress provide easy to follow installation instructions. A new blogger should sign up to both platforms and work out which one is most comfortable. For this blog I've gone with Blogger mainly because it provides the package with which I am most familiar. It is just a feeling but Wordpress blogs tend to look visually more appealing.

Blogging for business (1): Can we do it?

by David Hallam

Blogging may look simple but it requires resources, material and a market in order to be a sustainable business activity.

A blog is the easiest and most cost effective way of getting a presence on the internet. A well written blog can bring business in. A badly written blog can turn business away. An abandoned blog can be evidence that the business no longer exists. A great blog can improve communications, create new friends and generate leads.

I have been a blogger for over five years. In that time I have found that blogs can create great benefits, but also have a downside. My own blog is personal to me, it is about my hobby and carries many of my eccentricities. Over five years I have developed competitors, made friends and had to stretch myself to find new and interesting material. I enjoy hobby blogging, but I know it isn't for everyone and I know that there can be drawbacks for commercial organisations.