Knowledge Peers

Reflection - do you really listen to your employees?

Just a few days after I’d written what I thought was a bold blog about focussing on excellence and quality instead of spending too much energy on protecting intellectual property, I met up with Kevin Fitzgerald, the chief executive of the Copyright Licensing Agency. He’s also the chair of Prisoners Abroad – my former employer.  During the course of an excellent discussion, he helped me to reassess my position – and to understand the importance and value of protecting intellectual property, while permitting its use, depending on circumstance.  It was whilst reflecting on the process of Kevin's help in developing my opinion and thinking about my management of my team, that I wondered whether I was making it easy enough for my colleagues to challenge me, which, of course, can be transformative.

What does the Digital Economy Bill mean for your business?

So the Digital Economy Bill is to become law, despite a lack of debate and high-profile protests over rough justice for suspected copyright infringers.

I've been particularly interested in the Twitter debate about what the Bill means for Britain's creative industries. Ministers - and Brendan Barber of the TUC - say it will protect the creative industries and creative workers by strengthening the rights of copyright holders and performers. Others say it props up a dying 

Why is it so hard to create a unique business?

When we started creating Knowledge Peers, we thought we were building something special. We still think that! However, it's seriously hard work trying to ensure that what is special (even unique) about your creation, is protected from others copying what you do. Our first battle was over domain names, for example! There's a constant battle between the need for 'free' enterprise and the desire to give incentives to those who invest their own cash and time in developing something new.