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<title>BA Business Life</title>
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<description>British Airways Business Life.  Business advice and inspiration, insider tips from the world’s top CEOs, analysts and entrepreneurs, cars, gadgets, books, hotels.</description>
<language>en-gb</language>
<copyright>(C) Business Life 2012</copyright>
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	<title>How to save the British pub</title>
	<link>http://www.babusinesslife.com/Tools/Features/How-to-save-the-British-pub.html</link>
	<description><![CDATA[Hundreds of Britain's landlords will celebrate British Pub Week this month &mdash; and you couldn't blame them if they all felt in need of a bit of a pick-me-up. After all, pubs are closing at the rate of 25 per week, according to the British Beer and Pub Association, thanks to a vicious cocktail of cheap supermarket booze, rising taxes on alcohol, recession and the smoking ban. And that &mdash; believe it or not &mdash;is a vast improvement on last year when no fewer than 1,300 licensed premises gave up the unequal fight for survival. Things got so bad that last October the government appointed a pubs minister. (He's called Bob Neill, since you ask.) 
 But the good news is that a select band of pint lifters appears to have found the Midas touch when it comes to luring drinkers back to a national institution. "Although 25 pubs close down every week, about nine or ten new ones open," points out Paul Charity, editor of landlords' bible The Publican's Morning Advertiser. "And pub ope...]]></description>
	<category>Features</category>
	<pubDate>Fri, 03 Feb 2012 16:07:53 GMT</pubDate>
	<guid>http://www.babusinesslife.com/Tools/Features/How-to-save-the-British-pub.html</guid>
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	<title>What I&apos;ve learnt: Carole White</title>
	<link>http://www.babusinesslife.com/People/What-Ive-Learned/What-Ive-learnt-Carole-White.html</link>
	<description><![CDATA[Carole White, 61, founded Premier Model Management with her brother Chris Owen in 1980. It is now one of the world's leading model agencies, and one that established the careers of supermodels such as Naomi Campbell, Cindy Crawford and Claudia Schiffer. Last year, White and her team starred in the Channel 4 reality show, The Model Agency, which peaked at 1.6m viewers. This month, she is preoccupied with catwalk shows, in particular London Fashion Week, which runs from 17-21 February. 
 I went to many boarding schools from the  age of five because my parents lived in Ghana and the schools were pretty rotten. In those  days &mdash; I'm so bloody old &mdash; there weren't jets  and so it took a day and a half to get to England. I suppose it taught me independence, at a very, very young age. 
 My parents said I could leave school if I got my  O-levels and A-levels and so, at 17, I took three As and nine Os. I never worked but I realised I had this brain that meant I could read the wh...]]></description>
	<category>What Ive Learned</category>
	<pubDate>Fri, 03 Feb 2012 01:02:57 GMT</pubDate>
	<guid>http://www.babusinesslife.com/People/What-Ive-Learned/What-Ive-learnt-Carole-White.html</guid>
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	<title>Badge engineering: what&apos;s in a name?</title>
	<link>http://www.babusinesslife.com/Tools/Cars/Badge-engineering-whats-in-a-name.html</link>
	<description><![CDATA[If I buy a BMW, I expect  a car that's engineered, designed and built by BMW . Yet in the arcane world of cars , what you see is not always what you get. To be fair, BMW doesn't make cars for anyone else, nor affix its roundel to other makers' products. (This was not always true: the first BMW was an Austin Seven, built under licence in Munich in the 1920s.) 'Badge engineering' has proliferated since then. Almost every maker has slapped its moniker on someone else's product, from Alfa Romeo to Volvo , Buick to Bentley. The worst post-war proponents were probably GM in the US and British Leyland (later Rover), who randomly affixed different badges to the same cars with modest alterations to style and trim, thus extending their range without increasing choice. The car buyer wasn't fooled. Both companies paid for their sins and eventually went bankrupt. (The US taxpayer has since bailed out GM, just as the UK taxpayer tried to save BL.) 
 Badge engineering remains common. Peugeot 's...]]></description>
	<category>Cars</category>
	<pubDate>Thu, 02 Feb 2012 11:08:14 GMT</pubDate>
	<guid>http://www.babusinesslife.com/Tools/Cars/Badge-engineering-whats-in-a-name.html</guid>
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	<title>10 tips on recruiting for a start-up</title>
	<link>http://www.babusinesslife.com/Tools/Features/10-tips-on-recruiting-for-a-start-up.html</link>
	<description><![CDATA[#01 Know your DNA Make sure you know what you want from the culture , look and feel of your company. Without this, you will end up hiring people who don't fit in with you, the company or each other &mdash; leading to problems further down the line. 
 #02 Draw up a checklist Your recruitment must focus  on these three areas: attitude , natural talent and experience . They may seem obvious, but if you've never recruited before  it can be a daunting task. Make a checklist of essential criteria you are looking for that span these three areas to ensure that you are focused at all stages. 
 #03 Get the right experience As a start-up, you need someone with drive and self-sufficiency so you must factor in the size of the organisation(s) the candidate has worked at. Bear in mind that someone coming from a larger company or who only has this experience may expect certain resources to be readily available to them, rather than being used to fighting for them. A balance of both is usually goo...]]></description>
	<category>Features</category>
	<pubDate>Thu, 02 Feb 2012 10:15:19 GMT</pubDate>
	<guid>http://www.babusinesslife.com/Tools/Features/10-tips-on-recruiting-for-a-start-up.html</guid>
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	<title>How British Airways and other brands are backing the Olympics</title>
	<link>http://www.babusinesslife.com/Tools/Features/Inside-track-how-British-Airways-and-other-brands-are-backing-the-Olympics.html</link>
	<description><![CDATA[On 27 July 2012, some 4.2 billion pairs of  eyes around the world will be focused on Stratford in East London, as the Opening Ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic  Games sounds the starting pistol on the  world's greatest sporting event. The ceremony is the climax of a vast organisational  effort which began in 2005 when the Games were awarded to London, involving everything from construction to logistics and the competition to take part among the athletes themselves. But there's another party without  whom it wouldn't be happening at all: the sponsors. 
 Sponsorship helps fund every dimension of the  Olympics and Paralympics &mdash; providing around half of  the &pound;2bn cost to LOCOG (London Organising Committee  of the Olymic and Paralympic Games) of actually staging the Games. And for the sponsors, it represents an opportunity that, hype aside, really is unique. According to Philip Patterson, client services director of global marketing consultancy IMG Consulting, "The Olympi...]]></description>
	<category>Features</category>
	<pubDate>Tue, 31 Jan 2012 12:05:52 GMT</pubDate>
	<guid>http://www.babusinesslife.com/Tools/Features/Inside-track-how-British-Airways-and-other-brands-are-backing-the-Olympics.html</guid>
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	<title>British Airways: helping the Olympics to fly</title>
	<link>http://www.babusinesslife.com/Tools/Features/British-Airways-helping-the-Olympics-to-fly.html</link>
	<description><![CDATA[BA has been flying British Olympic and Paralympic teams around the world for decades, and the airline's forerunner BOAC was involved in the original 1948 London Games. But becoming official airline partner to the Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2012 marks the first time the company has been an official Games sponsor. 
 "BA is a proud British brand, and so it's an opportunity for us to celebrate what's great about London and our country," says Luisa Fernandez, global sponsorship manager. "This  is going to be the biggest sporting and cultural event of our lifetime." 
 BA is investing heavily in its London 2012 sponsorship, which includes air travel for athletes alongside the financial contribution. Its objective is to achieve a significant impact on how BA is perceived by consumers in terms of preference for the airline, so that it receives higher consideration among these consumers when they are planning to travel. "We want people to feel warmer towards BA but we also need to dem...]]></description>
	<category>Features</category>
	<pubDate>Tue, 31 Jan 2012 11:55:13 GMT</pubDate>
	<guid>http://www.babusinesslife.com/Tools/Features/British-Airways-helping-the-Olympics-to-fly.html</guid>
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	<title>Has the music industry survived the file sharing revolution?</title>
	<link>http://www.babusinesslife.com/Tools/Economics/Has-the-music-industry-survived-the-file-sharing-revolution.html</link>
	<description><![CDATA[It's not a great time to be a major record label. The traditional music industry is dying: high street record shops are closing their doors or seeking new things to sell. Music sales over the last decade have fallen by around 40 per cent. Digital music sales, once seen as the music industry's salvation, are clearly failing to plug the gap from sinking CD sales. A key explanation for all of this is surely 'file sharing' &mdash; a kind term for copying music without paying for it. 
 But does this matter? According to economist Joel Waldfogel of the University of Minnesota, three quarters of pirated music would never have been purchased anyway. In such cases, the consumer gains but the producer does not lose. Alas for the record labels &mdash; and, perhaps, for the artists too &mdash; the one-in-four acts of piracy that do reduce sales are doing damage enough. 
 But, says Waldfogel, "Consumers don't care about the wellbeing of the recording industry. We care about the existence of g...]]></description>
	<category>Economics</category>
	<pubDate>Tue, 31 Jan 2012 11:52:13 GMT</pubDate>
	<guid>http://www.babusinesslife.com/Tools/Economics/Has-the-music-industry-survived-the-file-sharing-revolution.html</guid>
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	<title>Need inspiration? Find it in flight</title>
	<link>http://www.babusinesslife.com/News-and-Blogs/Guest-Blog/Need-inspiration-find-it-in-flight.html</link>
	<description><![CDATA[Let's start with a little quiz. When you're heading to the airport with the prospect of a long flight ahead, which of the following captures how you usually feel? 
 a)&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Relieved that you'll have time to read those pre-meeting papers you haven't even looked at yet. b)&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Stressed at the prospect of being incommunicado for hours on end. c)&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Thankful for the chance to catch up on some sleep. d)&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Relishing the opportunity to indulge in some really creative thinking. 
 I'm guessing &mdash; and it is only a guess &mdash; that most of you will have answered a), b) or c), and there won't have been many people opting for d). And to be honest I used to be exactly the same, especially when I was working full-time and flew more for business than for pleasure. So what changed my mind? Why would I now answer d) every time? 
 I had my road to Damascus moment on a flight from London to New Zealand, if you'll forgive such a dreadf...]]></description>
	<category>Guest Blog</category>
	<pubDate>Tue, 31 Jan 2012 11:36:19 GMT</pubDate>
	<guid>http://www.babusinesslife.com/News-and-Blogs/Guest-Blog/Need-inspiration-find-it-in-flight.html</guid>
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	<title>How to find your &apos;transferable skill&apos;</title>
	<link>http://www.babusinesslife.com/News-and-Blogs/Lifer/How-to-find-your-transferable-skill.html</link>
	<description><![CDATA[The one term you can guarantee to find in any CV , after 'enthusiastic' and 'self-motivated', is 'transferable skill'. I recently found this stamped on an application from some young buck wanting to work as a project manager. He declared that three years of bar work and six months as a hospital porter had granted him 'transferable skills' that qualify him to run heterogeneous teams of designers, contractors, engineers and salespeople. 
 If I had been drinking coffee at the time I would have spat it out in mirth but, as it happens, my PA refuses to make it. In fact, it is the lack of good coffee that has driven me to recruit . I advertised for a project manager by mistake through the internal recruitment system we run, but decided to stick with it to save face with those judgemental folk in HR. After all, crafting a top-notch latte is a project of sorts, and the aforementioned candidate's bar experience had potential. 
 Last week I had  my own annual HR review, in which  I was gaw...]]></description>
	<category>Lifer</category>
	<pubDate>Tue, 31 Jan 2012 10:53:13 GMT</pubDate>
	<guid>http://www.babusinesslife.com/News-and-Blogs/Lifer/How-to-find-your-transferable-skill.html</guid>
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	<title>Storytelling is the key to good business writing </title>
	<link>http://www.babusinesslife.com/News-and-Blogs/Guest-Blog/Storytelling-is-the-key-to-good-business-writing-.html</link>
	<description><![CDATA[Why is it that we can read gripping novels and be captivated by movies until late into the night, but barely skim through financial reports before throwing them in the bin? How often do we find ourselves checking our e-mails and scrolling through Facebook during a PowerPoint presentation? Could it be because the latter lack both plot and tension? Yet it doesn't have to be this way. Mastering the rules of storytelling will prevent your audience being bored to distraction and can prove a powerful business tool. 
 People love a good story because it is entertaining and captures the imagination. Yet this message has obviously not reached the ears of many corporate writing staff. Every day we are bombarded with boring corporate announcements and snore-inducing reports. Some may argue that it is difficult to present technical information in an entertaining way. But the fact is, the more abstract the product, the more important it is to make it more palatable by wrapping it in a compelli...]]></description>
	<category>Guest Blog</category>
	<pubDate>Tue, 31 Jan 2012 10:48:55 GMT</pubDate>
	<guid>http://www.babusinesslife.com/News-and-Blogs/Guest-Blog/Storytelling-is-the-key-to-good-business-writing-.html</guid>
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	<title>Cloud computing, iCloud and the future of home use</title>
	<link>http://www.babusinesslife.com/Tools/Tech-And-Gadgets/Cloud-computing-iCloud-and-the-future-of-home-use.html</link>
	<description><![CDATA[I complained in September about cloud computing , whereby resources are retrieved from the internet through web-based tools and applications rather than via a direct connection to a server. To my mind, the geek world is trying to drag this technology (brilliant as it is as an economy measure for businesses) too early into consumer computing. 
 If I were a bank, a government department or startup business, I'd go cloud . But for home users, business travellers and laptop-dependent freelancers, I remain unconvinced for the moment by cloud &mdash; even  now that Apple has launched its smoothed-out, simplified iCloud project, which gained 25 million users within a couple of weeks of its October launch. 
 My big problem with cloud, iCloud included, is that, as things stand, our broadband connections and 3G aren't sufficiently fast, robust, reliable, affordable or widespread for us to rely extensively on data stored in remote data centres &mdash; particularly when we are on the move. M...]]></description>
	<category>Tech And Gadgets</category>
	<pubDate>Thu, 26 Jan 2012 11:30:10 GMT</pubDate>
	<guid>http://www.babusinesslife.com/Tools/Tech-And-Gadgets/Cloud-computing-iCloud-and-the-future-of-home-use.html</guid>
	<source>http://www.babusinesslife.com/Rss.xml</source>
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	<title>Entrepreneurship: niche taxi firms go the extra mile</title>
	<link>http://www.babusinesslife.com/Tools/Entrepreneurship/Entrepreneurship-niche-taxi-firms-go-the-extra-mile.html</link>
	<description><![CDATA[Off the top of your head (no looking at the receipts in your wallet), what was the name of the company operating the car the last time you took a taxi cab? If you don't know, you represent the vast majority of passengers. Taxis are the kind of service that has become a commodity across the world. Standardised. Ubiquitous. Necessary. But undifferentiated. 
 Opportunity Stoplight 
 Commodity is convenient for the user but, from the provider perspective, it is a keyword for an unattractive industry.  Unless you're an entrepreneur who uses the existing situation as only a starting point and  as something that can be changed based on what you have available and the actions you take. So what does this kind of forward thinking looks like once it is in motion? 
 Green Passengers 
 Those of you living in or travelling to London have certainly enjoyed the iconic black city cab. Distinctive in  its chunky bulbous shape, it represents the commodity of the cab in the UK. But Nicko Williamso...]]></description>
	<category>Entrepreneurship</category>
	<pubDate>Thu, 26 Jan 2012 10:27:44 GMT</pubDate>
	<guid>http://www.babusinesslife.com/Tools/Entrepreneurship/Entrepreneurship-niche-taxi-firms-go-the-extra-mile.html</guid>
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	<title>Four of the best steak restaurants in Europe</title>
	<link>http://www.babusinesslife.com/Travel/Food-And-Drink/Five-of-the-best-steak-restaurants-in-Europe.html</link>
	<description><![CDATA[What could be easier than grilling a piece of raw meat to a customer's specifications? Sadly, quite a lot. We all know the sense of annoyance in a good restaurant when a steak arrives that is anything but cooked as we had hoped, whether it be medium, rare or even well done. An added disappointment is when it has no flavour to boot. I have always had a passion for good steak and not just because of the taste. Cooked properly, it is an exquisite accompaniment to fine wine, especially the more robust varieties from the Rh&ocirc;ne Valley in France or the better regions of the New World. These four establishments have a fetish about getting it right, even to the extent of importing cuts from around the globe and then ageing them as required. 
 RESTAURANG AG Kronobergsgatan 37, Stockholm, Sweden, +46 8 410 681 00, restaurangag.se Restaurant AG, which is on the site of a former silver workshop, has the buzz of a very hip private club (in fact, one half of the room is actually a bar). Gu...]]></description>
	<category>Food And Drink</category>
	<pubDate>Wed, 25 Jan 2012 14:48:35 GMT</pubDate>
	<guid>http://www.babusinesslife.com/Travel/Food-And-Drink/Five-of-the-best-steak-restaurants-in-Europe.html</guid>
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	<title>What I&apos;ve learnt: Steve Wiener </title>
	<link>http://www.babusinesslife.com/People/What-Ive-Learned/What-Ive-learnt-Steve-Wiener-.html</link>
	<description><![CDATA[Steve Wiener, 60, is the American founder and chief executive officer of Cineworld, the UK&rsquo;s biggest cinema chain in terms of box office revenue, with 49 million admissions in the last year. Founded in 1995, it has 79 cinemas with 811 screens and revenues in 2010 of &pound;343m. 
 My first job in a cinema was at the first auditorium to have rocking chairs in it and the manager wanted to make sure that they were all installed right. The big auditorium had 903 seats and the small auditorium had 548. I know that because I rocked three times in each one of them. When I was coming up the ladder I would often be told: "This is the way head office wants it done." Cineworld doesn't work that way. We try to listen to the people in the field. I constantly tell our people: "Head office is the tail and we do not let the tail wag the dog." We've got 5,000 people working for the company and, while the hundred of them who work in head office make the major decisions, if the people in the f...]]></description>
	<category>What Ive Learned</category>
	<pubDate>Wed, 25 Jan 2012 10:13:44 GMT</pubDate>
	<guid>http://www.babusinesslife.com/People/What-Ive-Learned/What-Ive-learnt-Steve-Wiener-.html</guid>
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	<title>How can I convince my office to commit to its eco policies?</title>
	<link>http://www.babusinesslife.com/Tools/Dear-Deborah/How-can-I-convince-my-office-commit-to-its-eco-policies.html</link>
	<description><![CDATA[I'm embarrassed by the lack of effort my company puts into its environmental policies. It's a large, profitable corporation that packages itself as being very green. However, reams of paper are wasted and there seems to be no real passion behind it. Should I say anything? I don't want to ruffle the wrong feathers. 
 It is a huge mistake for any company to think that they can talk about being green without following through in their behaviour. What we all try to do in business is gain trust and loyalty from our customers. If you lie to them over green issues and they find out &mdash; which they probably will as people are so much more informed about the environment and corporate social responsibility &mdash; then you will lose their trust over general issues. No customer likes to have the wool pulled over their eyes, and no business should think it's OK to lie to their customers. 
 Approach this from a business perspective with your boss and point out that it is going to be extrem...]]></description>
	<category>Dear Deborah</category>
	<pubDate>Mon, 23 Jan 2012 17:13:48 GMT</pubDate>
	<guid>http://www.babusinesslife.com/Tools/Dear-Deborah/How-can-I-convince-my-office-commit-to-its-eco-policies.html</guid>
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	<title>Think like... Janus</title>
	<link>http://www.babusinesslife.com/People/Think-Like/Think-like-Janus.html</link>
	<description><![CDATA[The ultimate clipboard-brandishing security guard, Janus, Roman god of gates, doors, beginnings, endings and time itself, is something of a handful. Given that his name is the direct root of janitor (and January), you might think he would be perfect for that role &mdash; and you'd be right. But he's got a lot to offer besides wandering around performing basic security and door-checking functions. 
 As one of the most powerful gods in the pantheon, and the one in charge of time, he can be incredibly useful when, say, running late for a meeting. Just give Janus a call and he'll alter the time. As a special favour he might also turn back the clock in order for you to erase that particularly embarrassing thing you did involving your boss and a bottle of Tequila at the Christmas party. 
 He will have issues being managed &mdash; what with being a god and all &mdash; and will probably insist on the occasional sacrifice and having a temple rather than the normal desk space. But his bigg...]]></description>
	<category>Think Like</category>
	<pubDate>Fri, 20 Jan 2012 01:02:21 GMT</pubDate>
	<guid>http://www.babusinesslife.com/People/Think-Like/Think-like-Janus.html</guid>
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	<title>Four of the best hotels with luxury spas</title>
	<link>http://www.babusinesslife.com/Travel/Hotels/Four-of-the-best-hotels-with-luxury-spas.html</link>
	<description><![CDATA[LONDON 
 ESPA Life at Corinthia Here are four floors dedicated to pampering, including a stainless steel pool, flames, acres of black and blond lacquer walls, and private sleep pods in a circular room. The spa lounge serves Tea Palace brews and healthy dishes from the comfort of quilted white leather chairs. The rest of the hotel is similarly eyecatching, from the lobby's Baccarat Full Moon crystal sculpture to the seven-metre bar crafted from a working grand piano. In such company, the neutral function rooms fall a little flat, so hire a signature suite instead. The Royal has a two-storey chandelier, walk-in wine cellar, dining room for ten and a private gym. At 5,000 square feet, it's comfortably larger than most London homes. corinthia.com 
 MARRAKECH 
 Spa at Royal Mansour Literally fit for a king, this is the brainchild of Morocco's current incumbent Mohammed VI. The medina-style hotel, with 53 two-storey riads, was built to show off the country's artistic heritage. Over 1,...]]></description>
	<category>Hotels</category>
	<pubDate>Thu, 19 Jan 2012 01:01:58 GMT</pubDate>
	<guid>http://www.babusinesslife.com/Travel/Hotels/Four-of-the-best-hotels-with-luxury-spas.html</guid>
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	<title>Protecting your business&apos;s reputation online</title>
	<link>http://www.babusinesslife.com/Tools/Features/Protecting-your-business-reputation-online.html</link>
	<description><![CDATA[How do companies protect their reputations in the age of Twitter ?  We live in a time when bad news travels like  the plague thanks to digital communications and online networks. Almost anyone has the power to cause damage: unhappy customers, staff with a grudge, or unscrupulous rivals. 
 A couple of years ago Domino's Pizza, the home delivery chain, suffered a mini-crisis when two cooks uploaded a video on to YouTube of them doing disgusting things to Domino's food. Fairly swiftly the company fired the miscreants, and posted their own film  of the CEO apologising. He  made the right moves: a rapid,  firm response, being honest and transparent. 
 On a somewhat more trivial scale, I learnt just before giving a speech a while ago that a &lsquo;friend' had tampered with  my Wikipedia entry, and added details of a purported prosecution in my youth for inappropriate relations with badgers! My oration was not up to scratch that evening,  I have to report... 
 But such issues can be se...]]></description>
	<category>Features</category>
	<pubDate>Wed, 18 Jan 2012 11:28:58 GMT</pubDate>
	<guid>http://www.babusinesslife.com/Tools/Features/Protecting-your-business-reputation-online.html</guid>
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	<title>Book review: Who Cares Wins</title>
	<link>http://www.babusinesslife.com/News-and-Blogs/Books/book-review-Who-Cares-Wins.html</link>
	<description><![CDATA[Who Cares Wins By David Jones &pound;14.99 PEARSON EDUCATION 
 Fans of The Office &mdash; the British TV series starring Ricky Gervais &mdash; will recall that one episode featured a staff training video called Who Cares Wins. Now David Jones, a high-flying adman, has written a book under the same title. 
 But while Gervais was poking fun at HR types and their cheesy catch phrases, Jones' message is that, in modern business: "Doing well and doing good are no longer mutually exclusive." He points out that "social media has given people an amazing tool to keep business honest, to share information and above all to support or bring down those businesses, leaders or governments they do or don't 'like'." 
 Jones believes that we are now entering an age where "big can be good", with companies such as Unilever and General Electric taking a scythe to their carbon footprints. The downside is that will also be 'The Age of Damage', when companies that fail to change their ways will find th...]]></description>
	<category>Books</category>
	<pubDate>Tue, 17 Jan 2012 10:18:39 GMT</pubDate>
	<guid>http://www.babusinesslife.com/News-and-Blogs/Books/book-review-Who-Cares-Wins.html</guid>
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	<title>Gadgets: January 2012</title>
	<link>http://www.babusinesslife.com/Tools/Tech-And-Gadgets/Gadgets-January-2012.html</link>
	<description><![CDATA[NuForce Icon2 and Amphion Helium 410 speakers If you like working to high quality music, this new desktop sound system  from Finland is exceptional.  A small, sophisticated amplifier, the NuForce  Icon2 Micro DAC, is wired  to your computer and  feeds two fine Amphion Helium 410 speakers made  in a rather lovely composite material to create peerless sound specially that is specially engineered for listening at close quarters. The Amphion + NuForce combo costs &pound;775 and comes in a variety of  subtle colours. Sony Vaio Z laptop If you're looking for a PC laptop, this is pretty well the best on the market currently and the most suitable for travel. The carbon fibre Sony Vaio Z Series is just over half the thickness and weight of the ubiquitous Apple MacBook Pro 13-inch, and measures up well against the MacBook Air. The Sony runs  for 14 hours with a long-life battery option, carries a 3G SIM and has the option of a 512Gb SSD hard drive. It's not cheap, from &pound;1,453 to &pound...]]></description>
	<category>Tech And Gadgets</category>
	<pubDate>Fri, 13 Jan 2012 11:04:10 GMT</pubDate>
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	<title>business:life meets Miles Templeman</title>
	<link>http://www.babusinesslife.com/People/Interviews/Interview-with-Miles-Templeman.html</link>
	<description><![CDATA[Miles Templeman, 64, leaves his post as director-general of the Institute of Directors next month after seven years in the job. He began his career as a marketeer working on brands such as Daz, Lucozade and Levi's jeans and then moved into general management, running the off-licence chain Threshers before becoming MD of the Whitbread Beer Company. During his tenure at the IoD he has worked hard to raise its profile, especially amongst politicians and the media, and has begun to establish it as an international centre of excellence for directors around the world 
 business:life : When you first joined the IoD as director general, what struck you most as you travelled around the country talking to members? 
 Miles Templeman : I think what surprised me was the high quality of the directors I was meeting. I'd mainly worked in the large corporate world and although I'd had a bit of contact with smaller companies I hadn't had a lot of contact across all the different sectors. What impr...]]></description>
	<category>Interviews</category>
	<pubDate>Wed, 11 Jan 2012 16:54:14 GMT</pubDate>
	<guid>http://www.babusinesslife.com/People/Interviews/Interview-with-Miles-Templeman.html</guid>
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	<title>business:life meets Hew Blair</title>
	<link>http://www.babusinesslife.com/People/Interviews/Interview-with-Hew-Blair.html</link>
	<description><![CDATA[Hew Blair is chairman of Mayfair-based wine merchant Justerini &amp; Brooks, which has &pound;200m of private client reserves. Founded in 1749, the company recently celebrated the 250th anniversary of the granting of a Royal Warrant by King George III &mdash; an honour it has been bequeathed by every successive monarch since &mdash; and Blair sits on the Buckingham Palace Wine Committee alongside the likes of Jancis Robinson MW and Michel Roux Junior. J&amp;B has just expanded its operation in Hong Kong to target wealthy private buyers in China, the world's fastest growing wine market. 
 business:life : How valuable is a Royal Warrant as an endorsement in the contemporary marketplace? 
 Hew Blair : I think it's becoming more valuable. There are people who've said we're in a modern era now and you don't have to have warrants to sell wine or have a high profile but if we're selling wine in places such as China and Japan, it certainly helps. If you have a warrant you will probably h...]]></description>
	<category>Interviews</category>
	<pubDate>Wed, 11 Jan 2012 16:53:13 GMT</pubDate>
	<guid>http://www.babusinesslife.com/People/Interviews/Interview-with-Hew-Blair.html</guid>
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	<title>business:life meets Sir Martin Sorrell  </title>
	<link>http://www.babusinesslife.com/People/Interviews/business-life-meets-sir-martin-sorrell-.html</link>
	<description><![CDATA[business:life: How&rsquo;s business? 
 MS: Clients tend to operate on  a calendar-year basis and budgets seem to  be pretty much locked in for 2011. In fact, we&rsquo;re heading for a record year. But fears of euro contagion, the lack of attention to the US deficit, the supply chain problems in Japan, the political upheavals in the Middle East, the rise  in commodity prices and, last but not least,  the fiscal and monetary stimulus post-Lehman &ndash; these six things obviously must have an impact at some point in time. 
 Having said all that I feel reasonably OK  about 2012. We have a number of events next year, such as the summer Olympic Games in London &ndash; which promises to be extraordinarily good &ndash; and the impact on media of the political spending in connection with the US presidential election, which should be around $4bn. My biggest concern is what happens in 2013. I think President Obama probably has a very good chance of being re-elected and, if he is, it will p...]]></description>
	<category>Interviews</category>
	<pubDate>Wed, 11 Jan 2012 16:27:07 GMT</pubDate>
	<guid>http://www.babusinesslife.com/People/Interviews/business-life-meets-sir-martin-sorrell-.html</guid>
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	<title>business:life meets Sir Clive Woodward </title>
	<link>http://www.babusinesslife.com/People/Interviews/business-life-meets-Sir-Clive-Woodward-.html</link>
	<description><![CDATA[Sir Clive Woodward, 55, is the British Olympic Association's director of sport and Team GB deputy chef  de mission. A former coach of  the England rugby team, he was knighted in recognition of its famous triumph in the 2003 Rugby World Cup final, which saw England beat Australia with a drop  kick 26 seconds before the end. 
 business:life: The full glare of the media spotlight will be on Team GB this summer. How do you go about creating the right culture for the team in order to enhance performance? 
 Clive Woodward: The 26 team leaders  and I have created what we call the five values, which we're asking every athlete, every coach, and everyone who's involved with the team to buy into. These are: performance, responsibility, unity, pride and respect. Under these five values we have listed 16 'behaviours'. They're like the bedrock. The key thing is: it's not us telling the athletes what to do. We want to create an environment that will allow them to perform at their very best. The...]]></description>
	<category>Interviews</category>
	<pubDate>Wed, 11 Jan 2012 15:50:13 GMT</pubDate>
	<guid>http://www.babusinesslife.com/People/Interviews/business-life-meets-Sir-Clive-Woodward-.html</guid>
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	<title>business:life meets Allan Leighton</title>
	<link>http://www.babusinesslife.com/People/Interviews/business-life-meets-Allan-Leighton.html</link>
	<description><![CDATA[Allan Leighton, 58, former chairman of the Royal Mail, made his name at Asda in the 90s, when he and Archie Norman turned round the ailing supermarket chain before selling it to US retail giant Walmart for &pound;6.7bn in 1999. Leighton left shortly afterwards, saying he was 'going plural', ie taking on a string of non-executive directorships at companies such as lastminute.com, BhS and BSkyB. His latest book, Tough Calls , is out now. 
 business:life: What do you think has been your toughest call? 
 Allan Leighton: Oh God, I've had so many of them. I seem to have one every day. But going back to my days at Asda, I arrived at a company that had once been a great success but had turned into a great failure and I thought if you go back then you get yourself back on track. It's very interesting, we sort of went back ten years. It's quite a big thing to go backwards sometimes and that was a pretty big call. Our advertising went back too because we resurrected the &lsquo;Asda Price&rs...]]></description>
	<category>Interviews</category>
	<pubDate>Wed, 11 Jan 2012 15:47:41 GMT</pubDate>
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