IoD Blog

Delegates at this week’s IoD ESOP Centre conference for SMEs were treated to an impressive mix of politics, philosophy and economics. “Employee ownership is important for UK economic growth” said Department of Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) Minister, Norman Lamb. He described how engaged economic citizens should be at the heart of responsible capitalism, but highlighted a lack of knowledge as the biggest barrier to promoting employee ownership. Dr Roger Barker, IoD Head of Corporate Governance, confirmed the IoD is committed to raising awareness of employee ownership through events such as the conference, but he pointed to tax changes affecting employee trusts and lack of finance for employee buy outs as additional significant obstacles.

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Just weeks to go until the Olympics, what are the lessons of London 2012 and what parallels are there for British business? Read More »

Each month, Simon Walker, the Director General of the IoD, writes a message to members on a key issue of the day. This can be found in print in Director Magazine and from now on also here on the IoD blog:

A message from the Director General,  April 2012

The UK needs to be open for business. We are a trading nation. We took Britain into the world and adapted well when the world came to Britain. But there are signs that the UK is closing up. Read More »

Let’s put this to rest, once and for all: tomorrow’s popular websites will be the ones who are active on social networks. As far back as 2010, Tech Crunch observed that the amount of web traffic from social networks is rivalling, and in some cases overtaking, traffic coming from the search engines. And alongside this, the search engines are taking social media more and more into account as they generate their results.

It means that social media is not a fad, nor is it something for kids: done well, it can supercharge the success of your business. Read More »

If the polls so far are anything to go by, this year’s London Mayoral election is shaping up to be a photo-finish.  Read More »

Ambitious companies look to grow even during a downturn, but when times are tight it can be a strain to use spare cash on salaries when it could be invested elsewhere in the business.

Finding a solution that also increases productivity sounds too good to be true. But in many cases an employee share plan can do just that. By providing capital instead of cash, the evidence shows that your employees will drive through efficiencies and innovations because they feel part of the business. Read More »