SHORTS

Fifteen pages of business news, views and opinions from across our destinations.

QUOTE, UNQUOTE

"The world is changing very fast. Big will not beat small anymore. It will be the fast beating the slow."
Rupert Murdoch shows that size isn’t everything

BOOK

IN FOR A PENNY
Peter Hargreaves
Out now, €12

Railing against unproductive meetings, bad salespeople and management consultants, Peter Hargreaves is the archetypal no-nonsense businessman. He revels in debunking wasteful business practices and emphasises the importance of honesty in this, his account of a lifetime in business. The young Hargreaves worked in his father’s bakery where he picked up business practices that would prove useful when he became an accountant, and later still when he set up his own company. The simple wisdom of these early experiences chimes well with the current economic climate, as Hargreaves advocates organic growth in business and advises wariness of deals that seem too good to be true. He’s happy to share his mistakes as well as his experiences, and the tone remains accessible whether he’s recalling multi-million pound deals or the importance of picking up leaves that have blown into his office. And in these times, it’s comforting to read the recollections of a man who has ridden through 30 years of boom and bust and survived it all.

WORK

OPTIMISE YOURSELF

Job seekers are turning to the tactics of search engine optimisation in an effort to get themselves short-listed for job interviews, according to online recruitment service TheLadders.co.uk. The recruitment company has surveyed 300 senior job seekers and found that 58% are using web tactics to boost their job chances, focusing on keywords to make their CVs stand out online.

“Many recruiters are snowed under with CVs and are using keyword scanning software as the first line of candidate screening,” says Derek Pilcher, managing director of TheLadders.co.uk. Job seekers should tailor their CV to the job they’re applying for, says Pilcher. They need to pay attention to the buzz words used in an advert and ensure their CV contains the same words, placing them early in the document so they’re easily found by human eyes as well as scanning software.

“Remember that no matter how perfect you would be for a job, your CV needs to get past the HR team before the final decision maker will even see it,” adds Pilcher. “That means your strengths must literally leap off the page.”

TECHNOLOGY

BEEP IN THE NIGHT

New research from Sheraton Hotels and Resorts suggests that, for the majority of us, the working day now extends beyond bedtime, with 88% of the professionals they surveyed admitting to taking their BlackBerry or PDA into the bedroom. Some 64% said they use it to check their email before they go to sleep and as soon as they wake up, and an incredible 62% admitted to reading emails in the middle of the night. It seems that men are better at controlling their electronic urges, though, with 80% saying they have ‘rules’ governing the amount they use their devices, compared to only 61% of women who said the same.

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