Knowledge Peers

Stand Up for the Youth of Today

I write often about giving our young people a chance whether through employment opportunities, mentoring and support or just by listening to them.

This resonates clearly with how I choose to volunteer, most notably as a Trustee for Centrepoint, a charity that works hard to give homeless young people a future. At Centrepoint we believe that through help and support young people can succeed. We provide opportunities like the Centrepoint Parliament which gives young people who have experienced homelessness the chance to have an influence within the charity itself and with national government to help others like them. It is the only body that gives homeless, young people, a voice.

Why Parting is Such Sweet Sorrow

I was not a romantic teenager.   I didn’t kiss posters of popstars before I went to bed.  Nor did I consume romantic novels and sigh for a strong man to sweep me up and carry me away.  (So it was hugely ironic that I met my husband by fainting into his arms – but I digress). 

I thought Romeo and Juliet were soppy.  And I could never understand the line, “Parting is such sweet sorrow.” 

What will shape business in 5 years time?

At a recent Knowledge Peers gathering we had some debate and discussion on what will shape business in five years time. Inherently these tend to be more “strategic” influencers and, with the help of our network, we ran a research poll asking executives to rank their top 5 opportunities and threats in the longer term horizon. If you want to read through the full results and commentary take a look at our Survey Results.

Could the Private Sector learn from Charities?

Debra Allcock-Tyler wrote in last week’s Third Sector magazine that charities are good at what they do and that businesses should learn from us. This was in response to Nick Hurd’s statement that ‘The sector has to open its mind to absorbing skills from the private sector because it clearly needs more business skills.’ 

Well done Debra for defending charities against this outmoded view that many charities are run by a bunch of sandle-wearing do-gooders who make decisions on the back of a fag-packet (sorry, on the back of a mung-bean packet). I do accept the fact that not every single charity is run as efficiently and effectively as possible but in my experience many work hard with limited resources. 

How to build a school through the web: SCA 2.0, Ogilvy and many others

We're delighted to have got involved with the development of the School of Communication Arts 2.0 (or SCA 2.0). You can read the full history of the original SCA which folded a number of years back here - but the new Dean, Marc Lewis, is clearly determined to create something very different.