Lingfield College Business

Share Save Save There are many myths about success in business. This week I thought I’d tackle a few of them. •  Overrated  Ideas — anyone can think up a new product or service, but very few can build a business. I get at least one amazing new food concept suggested to me every week, and the vast majority go nowhere. Often it is not the pioneer who reaps the rewards of innovation, but a latecomer who learns from their predecessor’s mistakes and does it better. In his book Zero to One, Peter Thiel calls this the “last mover advantage”. Underrated  Execution — actually carrying out a plan and delivering on a hypothesis separates the few winners from the many losers. Running a company is a gritty, demanding task, which is why so many fail. •  Overrated  Passion — millions of people are passionate about something, but zeal is not sufficient to ensure a profitable business. Do not mistake blind enthusiasm for a practical proposition.  Underrated...

Pink Panther wafers become first corporate victim of Brexit Deirdre Hipwell, Retail Editor December 16 2016, 12:01am,  The Times The fall in the pound was the last straw  Brexit claimed its first corporate victim yesterday as the maker of Pink Panther wafer biscuits plunged into administration after a sharp rise in costs following the fall in the pound. Rivington Biscuits made 99 of its 123 staff redundant yesterday. The remaining staff will stay on to keep the business running and to fulfil Christmas and new year orders while the administrator FRP Advisory tries to sell the business as a going concern. The company is based in Wigan but is owned by Van Delft, one of the largest biscuit manufacturers in the Netherlands. Its products also include Count Down granola bars, but it is best-known for its wafers sold under the Pink Panther brand. The manufacturer also makes close to 1.4 million wafers a day for supermarket own-label brands. It is under...

UNDERCOVER REPORT The real cost of your gifts from Amazon this year The retail giant recruits an army of temporary staff in the run-up to Christmas at its biggest UK distribution centre. One undercover reporter joined them to see how the slick operation works; what she found was a soulless world of back-breaking toil, petty rules, low pay and Orwellian surveillance Mary O’Connor December 11 2016, 12:01am,  The Sunday Times Amazon sold 7.4m items on Black Friday last year GERENME/GETTY My journey to the heart of Britain’s booming online economy began with a wake-up alarm at 4am and a nervous 20-minute trek along empty streets to a Glasgow bus stop. There I stood in the biting cold with a half-awake group of ashen-faced workers awaiting the 75-minute transfer to a 21st-century El Dorado — the vast warehouse in Dunfermline, Fife, that serves as Amazon UK’s biggest distribution centre. We boarded the bus at 5.15am and settled into our seats, desperate to sn...