M Institute

Does green beer work?

Jyoti Banerjee — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 08:13:47 +0100

The amber liquid is turning green - just check out Stella and Adnams. But does green beer make sense? M Institute co-founder Jyoti Banerjee investigates the inside story and discovers how one medium enterprise company is reaping business benefits from...

A hung Parliament?

Jyoti Banerjee — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 22:54:44 +0100

Should we care that next week we may have a hung parliament in the UK? M Institute co-founder Jyoti Banerjee investigates the options. I see that a recent study of growing businesses by the British Chambers of Commerce finds that two-thirds are concerned or very concerned about the impact of not having a majority party, while only one in seven respondents feel that it would be a good thing. Let’s try and place the hung parliament discussion in context. The one thing that medium enterprises crave from their politicians is a stable economy so that business decisions within the firm are not constantly upset by changes without. But it is not just a stable economy that they need. Medium businesses also need top-flight transport and communications infrastructure, access to finance, and a well-educated workforce. So ask yourself this question? Will a hung parliament actually deliver any of these hopes? Or will it stand in the way of achieving these objectives? It is reasonable to expect the main political parties to be different from each other, and given the opportunity to exercise their policies, the UK could look very different in a Labour regime of Big Government, compared to a Tory government of Small Government / Big Society, or even Nick Clegg’s Open Government. But reality is likely to be very different. While each of them could lead Britain into completely different economic territory, that is going to take rather a long time. I suspect Britain’s appetite for a hung parliament may not last long enough to see change on that scale. In fact, a split leadership may not even last the course of a single parliament.

A medium enterprise guide to Windows 7

Jyoti Banerjee — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 09:58:43 +0100

Does Windows 7 deliver the goods for business? M Institute co-founder Jyoti Banerjee checks out Microsoft's latest operating system. In our home, October 22 has been the focus of anticipation for some weeks now. Our eldest becomes a teenager that day, and so the days have been filled with a count-down, and many lists of things to do in the build-up and during the day itself, with friends, and with family. Well, the day is finally upon us – may the celebrations begin. But little does my daughter know that this day has been awaited with much anticipation by a slightly larger group of people than her family and friends. In fact, thousands upon thousands have been waiting for this day: a hundred thousand Microsoft employees and the millions more that share the Windows ecosystem, as October 22 ushers in the official launch of Windows 7. For many in Microsoft, Windows Vista tarnished the brand of the software giant’s most valuable product. Although Vista sought to deliver a new architecture for operating systems that addressed growing security concerns among PC users, the end-result was poor performance on many PCs and numerous security features that annoyed the very users they were supposed to protect. The word on the street was to stick with XP. Although Vista sold in the millions, the vast majority of the Windows installed base, consumer or business, never moved from Windows XP. Will anything change with Windows 7? The answer is yes, and here are some reasons why.

Online security for M enterprises

Jyoti Banerjee — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 22:50:50 +0100

In April 2009, Gartner reported a 40% increase on phishing attacks from the previous year, whereby e-criminals use convincing fake emails or web pages to trick consumers into handing over an array of sensitive personal information, including user names, passwords, and credit card numbers. The price can be dear, with Gartner reporting the average loss per attack to be $351. In addition to monetary costs, companies targeted in phishing attacks also suffer immeasurable brand damage. Given the current threat landscape, an effective online security strategy is essential for any business, no matter what size. That’s not to say that security strategies come with a ‘one-size-fits-all’ tag, and medium-size businesses should look to address security issues in a way that addresses their own specific challenges and requirements.

Confused over the size of an SME?

Jyoti Banerjee — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 11:45:18 +0100

The International Federation of Accountants has published a financial reporting standard applying to SME organisations. But, argues M Institute co-founder Paul Druckman, the new standard will only give rise to confusion. Paul explains why. In July 2009 the International Federation...

Copenhagen summit on climate change sees greater US engagement

Jyoti Banerjee — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 12:56:26 +0100

Paul Druckman visited Copenhagen for last week's World Business Summit on Climate Change: My recollections from the Summit focus on engagement from the great and good; the Copenhagen Call; an immersion in USA-centric Americans; a lost opportunity to engage with the delegates; but a great initiative that should be applauded and advocated. The summit opened with Al Gore delivering a performance as we have come to expect, but he did hit the spot, in my view. His perspective is that business can only operate on the rules constructed by the world’s politicians who need to reward good behaviour by accounting for externalities. A great quote from his session was “Mother Nature does not do bail outs.”

Dealing with carbon regulations

Jyoti Banerjee — Thu, 07 May 2009 09:45:47 +0100

The Americans are still debating the merits of carbon trading schemes versus carbon taxes, with carbon trading, based on existing EU schemes, gaining ground among policy-makers. Right now, no one really knows what the Obama administration will seek to put in place in terms of carbon regulation, but it is quite certain that whatever happens in the US will be felt over here in the UK. The challenge with meeting regulations, whatever they might end up being, is that a business needs to know what its emissions are in order to assess compliance, and manage change. Very few large organisations have systems for tracking and managing their carbon emissions – when you get to small or medium enterprises, the number falls away even further.

IT decisions in crunchy times

Jyoti Banerjee — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 09:40:33 +0100

There is a different style of IT project evolving. People are looking for the cash implications to be less onerous on the business, but that doesn’t mean that they are shelving projects. The projects that are likely to fail are where the organisation doesn’t understand the change that is going to happen. People are starting to understand that projects impinge right across the business and you can’t just bring in external consultants to do that work in the business.

The banks were irresponsible with medium enterprises

Paul Druckman — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 18:44:04 +0000

M Institute co-founder Paul Druckman was wondering how medium enterprises have been impacted by bank actions over the past few months of the economic crisis. Here's what he found. An excellent source from within the accountancy profession prompted me to...

CSR needs new focus on medium enterprise

Jyoti Banerjee — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 12:23:50 +0000

From the perspective of the medium enterprise, there was an unexpected focus on medium enterprise during the morning session of the European Multi-stakeholder Forum on CSR. Some of the issues raised and proposed included: • CSR uses the term “corporate” and this can be a problem in medium enterprise where that term implies large corporates • The link between CSR and public procurement is essential when thinking about medium enterprises • SME’s need tools and instruments to implement CSR, this cannot be simply downgraded large corporate tools.