Glenda Parker, Rob Dobell, and Allen Reid of Hart Square, gathered together a ‘coalition of the willing’ in London recently to launch the CHASE 25than...

Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st Century EconomistKate Raworth

If you’ve ever felt disadvantaged by imperfect knowledge of the events that shaped the second half of the twentieth century; ever been party to a conv...

Since the turn of the century jewellers have come under sustained pressure from campaign groups to consider the human and environmental costs involved...

 Client Earth are activist lawyers committed to securing a healthy planet: using environmental law to protect oceans, forests, and other habitats as w...

Is it All Over for Cash?   I make contactless payments just like anybody else, and it always alarms me to hear the person next in line decline their r...

At the back-end of 2009 I signed the go-ahead for a CRM system that was going to integrate all my association’s systems, including membership, trainin...

The phrase “Mind the Gap” was coined in about 1968 as an automated announcement, after it became impractical for drivers and station atten...

It Does You Good The flavour of the month may be data, especially in its ‘big’ form. But are we deluding ourselves into believing that big is always b...

As recent events – such as allegations of Russian electoral hacking – have proved, the merest hint of uncertainty over the conduct or legality o...

Keep those brain cells active! Here are two titles to make you think: keeping you on your toes until we see you again in the New Year! They may not be...

What does the brave new world of disruptive technology have in store for trade associations? Will they have a future purpose, and how will they justif...

Before the headline-grabbing taxi App misappropriated the word for its own purposes über – the German prefix – had become a term to denote something o...

According to recent reports in The Guardian the Association of Model Agencies (AMA) has about three months to submit their responses to allegations by...

Selling jewellery involves the risk of theft!  That it is easily transportable, can be recycled, or broken down into component parts, and still repres...

Thirteen years as CEO of the now defunct National Association of Goldsmiths (NAG) and I was beginning to experience a sense of frustration that the de...

The jewellery industry has been angst-ridden for most of the current century over the moral, ethical, and environmental damage done by the exploitatio...

For most of the twenty-first century the jewellery industry has agonised over the moral, ethical, and environmental damage done by the exploitation of...

What does the brave new world of disruptive technology have in store for trade associations? Will they have a future purpose, and how will they justif...

The jewellery trade press are reporting that a business owner in the U S has completed what is thought to be the first ever drone-delivery undertaken ...

Nobody expects the unexpected, but you can at least try and plan for it! Opening up the building after the Christmas shut down a few years ago I disco...

Do you have virtual meetings? By that I don’t mean ones where virtually no-one shows up, but ones where decisions are made by email only. It appears t...

What does an association CEO actually do? Good question! A combination of politician, ambassador, tactician, and showman you might say. And a small bu...

Benjamin Franklin supposedly once said, “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail” whilst Thomas Edison is credited with, “I have not failed. I’v...

It may be flattering to be asked to join your trade association’s board but it could also be a very bad career move. So, before joining, you should co...

Sports Direct is facing heavy criticism in the press. Its board labelled as dysfunctional by the Institute of Directors (IoD) for failing, among other...

As the Labour leadership contest proved, the merest hint of uncertainty over the conduct or legality of a selection process can seriously damage the c...

Association executives will all have experienced difficulties with presidents, chairmen, or directors. They are a mixed bunch and over the years the g...

Hilaire O’Shea is a man who has spent most of his professional life dying bank notes lurid colours or sticking them together into inseparable lumps. N...

I love trees, and one of the great things about London – compared with other cities – is it’s green spaces and tree lined streets. So I’d like to see ...

The opening of the new V & A exhibition – What is Luxury? – has got the press into a lather this week trying to decide what constitute...

As a nation we seem to have a developed a thirst for lists and superlatives, and TV shows ranking everything from top ten records, funniest comedians,...

Was it an April Fools stunt? When launched on the first of the month, some commentators thought Amazon’s new Dash service was just that. But it isn’t!...

“Is armed conflict always wrong? What is child labour, and is it always wrong? If gemstones come from land taken from indigenous people without compen...

So, as a membership organisation, trade association, or professional body, your world is changing. Your role as gatekeeper to privileged information h...

It came as a shock to realise that over ten years have passed since a conversation between Greg Valerio and I that led to the Joint Ethics Committee U...

With echoes of the Scottish referendum, the British Jewellers’ Association (BJA) and the National Association of Goldsmiths (NAG) issued – accor...

The Co-operative Group has been voted the most ethical company over twenty-five years despite a recent crop of scandals including those at its bank th...

Regent Street is to become the first shopping street in Europe to pioneer a mobile telephone app which delivers personalised promotions to visitors. C...

OK, so retailers have got face scanning technology, and the self-service checkout, what next? Zooming right to the top of the list of stuff we didn...

About 9.30 a.m. on Bank Holiday Monday my home telephone rang, and I answered it cheerily, thinking it was an offspring anxious to share his latest tr...

Man’s capacity for finding ‘miracle’ solutions for problems of his own making never ceases to amaze me! The latest wheeze involves what the Daily Tele...

Every trade association or membership organisation should have a social media presence, right? Yes, but think hard before leaping in! It’s not somethi...

The big retailers are making another of their periodic attempts to abolish Sunday Trading restrictions.  But why? According to the Daily Mail, Philip ...

It seems that on-the-spot justice is back on the agenda again. But isn’t right-leaning think tank Policy Exchange just putting old ideas in new ...

A couple of weeks ago I wrote (Wait for it…wait for it!) about the  adrenaline kick from the instant gratification provided by shopping; remarki...

Thirteen million people are believed to live below the poverty line in the UK. Rising costs of food and fuel combined with static incomes, high unempl...

This headline in the January 3rd edition of The Daily Telegraph has to be one of the most intriguing of the year so far – just for its sheer improbabi...

Running anything – let alone a trade association – is never easy, but to do it with your head buried in the sand requires not only a certain level of ...

As a trade association manager, how many times have you been asked your membership’s view on a particular issue, policy, or piece of legislation, only...

Long ago, I, like most well brought up children was taught that the satisfaction of acquisition was made all the sweeter if you had to wait for it. It...

 ‘Tesco is to tailor adverts in petrol stations by using face scanning screens’ according to The Grocer magazine. Detractors are already lining up to ...

A few days ago I spoke at a Fairtrade Foundation gold meeting in London – standing in for Vivien Johnston – and was privileged to meet the miner...

Twelve years on the periphery of the jewellery industry and my association with SaferGems taught me that security is never far from a jewellers’ mind ...

Should be a must-read for the jewellery sector and anyone who wants to make the world a better place. It’s not often that you read a book that is so a...

The repeal of the Trucks Act in the mid 1980’s changed workers’ relationship with their wages for ever. A series of Acts in force since the 15th...

A couple of column inches on the front page of today’s Daily Telegraph suggest that payment for carrier bags may be back on government’s a...

Reports in daily newspapers (Daily Telegraph 05-08-13) that the planning minister Nick Boles is to grant local authorities greater freedom to convert ...

Show-rooming, the act of checking a product in store then buying cheaper online: we all do it, so it’s acceptable, right? That was the headline ...

..At least that is the claim made in a short item in the Daily Telegraph newspaper, that I came across recently, and also mentioned in The Times, and ...

An item by crime correspondent Martin Evans in yesterday’s (3rd July) Daily Telegraph newspaper highlights the unforeseen hazards of using Twitter. Ac...

In my last post I argued that we already have too many shops and that developers need to wake up and smell the coffee. I have also previously contende...

Oxford is a beautiful city, of that there is no doubt, but put together its historic street layout, listed buildings, and the colleges who own most of...

So another series of Channel 4’s Mary Queen of the High Street has come to a close and once again it’s time to pop down town and see what progress has...

  I’ll soon be promoting my services through this page – but whilst we get this webpage up and running, feel free to get in with me v...