With political changes around the globe, greater advances in technology and various social movements, the way the world does business is forever changing. This pace is something that many institutions like Hult International Business School have to keep up with, which is why they encourage experiential learning as part of their MBA courses. By obtaining hands-on experience, MBA graduates are better equipped to face business challenges and remain competitive and adaptable as leaders in a forever-evolving environment.

Enhancing adaptability

Global markets are often volatile due to influence from social, political and economic issues. MBA students therefore have to demonstrate flexibility and experience in their leadership. Many employers value job candidates with some hands-on experience under their belts, alongside their classroom learning.

Experiential learning allows business students to apply what they have learned in the classroom to real life-like business scenarios. Through doing so, students learn more about themselves and their leadership style. Experiential learning also enhances students’ skills in dealing with stressful and difficult business scenarios, as well as problem-solving in managerial situations. 

Personal development

Experiential learning is essential for an MBA student’s personal development as an entrepreneur or manager in business. By being taken out of the classroom into a scenario that mirrors a real-life business environment, MBA candidates can reflect on their skills and realise their full potential. They are forced into situations where good communication is essential, confidence must be harnessed and social and professional etiquette must be tried.

By having these aspects of their professionalism and character tested, a candidate’s confidence should increase overall. In a Hult International Business School classroom, students are also encouraged to question business scenarios and see an issue from multiple angles. They are taught that they should not be satisfied with simply one interpretation of a situation.   

Experiential learning is completely unlike the classroom and is an immersive experience. Students cannot decide to switch off or become disengaged – in the moment, they need to use all of their problem-solving and analysis skills to learn more about themselves and their leadership style. There is much personal investment in experiential learning, with many students keen to succeed and make a good impression, thereby taking responsibility for any problems that arise (whilst learning from them).

In real-life business scenarios, an MBA student can note the cause and effect of other business persons’ behaviours, analysing such outcomes and making comparisons with how they deal with situations themselves. From this, they can identify personal weaknesses in their leadership style, all the while learning integrity, harnessing accountability and cultivating self-determination.

Project management skills

Experiential learning exposes MBA candidates to scenarios in which they would be required to lead a team and harness project management, goal setting and task management skills. Team building will test how the candidate reacts to conflict resolution, leading with confidence, future planning, company strategy and managing a budget. Managing people requires a delicate balance of understanding and leadership, and experiential learning will test whether candidates have aspects of this balance already, or whether this is something they need to work on to get the most out of their team’s productivity.

Communication

Experiential learning exposes MBA candidates to important business skills like public speaking and giving presentations, obtaining the trust and respect of employees through speech, effective writing methods, how to inspire others, and how to listen when it is most important. Communication skills are also vital for conflict resolution and persuasion in business. Those who are good at communicating with others often make the best business leaders. Without good communication at the top level in business, colleagues are left uninspired, unmotivated, and projects often end up being disorganised and at risk of being unfinished. In taking a positive approach to communicating openly and effectively, MBA students will develop genuine and positive professional relationships with colleagues.

In a class with Prof. Rukare at Hult London International Business School, students are taught to respect one another’s learning styles and to not put down other students if they are learning something new. This creates an equal learning environment while encouraging a mind of curiosity. In having a background of seeing people who are disadvantaged, Prof, Rukare encourages students to take every opportunity presented to them and to develop their collaborative and communication skills by discussing the various aspects and angles to a topic with their peers. 

Networking

Experiential learning isn’t just about exposing students to business scenarios that mirror reality, it also gives them an opportunity to network and create their own business opportunities. This is very important, as the business world is constantly evolving and changing. By establishing a network with other students and business leaders through experiential learning, MBA graduates are more prepared to hit the ground running once they have completed their courses, helping them to advance their careers and in turn develop better leadership skills.

One of the biggest trends in building websites today is using responsive design. With the unprecedented increase in mobile use, it makes sense from a business perspective to respond to the preference of consumers. Consumers today are always looking for fast and convenient ways of doing things. If your business does not recognise the importance of designing for mobile use, then you will be edged out by competition.

What is responsive web design?

As explained by a web development Oxford agency, responsive design is not synonymous with having a mobile-friendly site. The main difference is that a responsive site adjusts to any screen or device the user views it on without compromising resolution and quality. As such, consumers can use a tablet, phone, or computer and have the same experience. 

In this article, we will discuss further several of the significant benefits of having a responsive website.

More traffic from users that prefer mobile devices

Not too long ago, the practice was to create two site versions – one for mobile users and another for computer or laptop users. Although there are some companies that still adhere to this practice, the trend is to build one website that responds to all types of devices. This strategy reduces the time and expense required to design and maintain two websites. Moreover, you are not alienating mobile users, but instead giving them more options to view your site using whatever device they feel is more convenient.

Reduce the cost of site maintenance

If you still have two versions of your website, then you must be paying a lot for design and maintenance. Perhaps it is about time to contact your designer and discuss having a single responsive website to accommodate all users. Yes, the initial investment of redesigning a site will be significant, but the savings you get later on will make up for the initial cost.

A responsive site is also easier to set-up and maintain. The free time allows you to focus on more important aspects of running your business.

Users enjoy a seamless experience

Providing users with a seamless experience on your site has countless additional benefits. For instance, it can help increase conversions, especially from mobile users. Unresponsive web design tends to distort content when viewed using a mobile device; hence, it could potentially deter consumers.

Increasing conversions is one of the primary reasons you should consider abandoning outdated web design and shift towards a responsive site that does not alienate any user. The versatility of your site will far outweigh whatever initial investment you make in building it.

Increase the success of SEO and other digital marketing efforts

A responsive website is more likely to get a higher ranking. By putting the user experience on top of your priorities list, you are helping increase the success rate of all marketing and SEO efforts. Besides, even Google recommends using responsive design.

In conclusion, using a responsive web design is a best practice you should not ignore. It will not only save you money, but also help attract, retain, and convert more site visitors in the long run.

Debt is almost a dirty word in the world of business, with directors often doing all they can to avoid it; as if having any amount of debt will somehow lead to the company’s downfall. While being in a small amount of debt may be unavoidable, if your balance sheet is regularly tilted more towards the red, it might be time to think about taking the necessary steps to reduce them.

Cut down your expenses

It might sound like the most obvious piece of advice ever, but when running a business, losing track of your outgoings is easier than you think. You could even have outgoings that are no longer required, for example; services or premises that are too large for what you need. All of which can be an unnecessary drain on your finances. Even if you are covering all your outgoings now, if the business hits a dry spell and becomes short on cash, some expenses may become unaffordable.

You should regularly take stock of all your outgoings; overheads, hiring, staff, etc., evaluate what you’re spending, and potentially shop around for lower-costing alternatives. Doing so could save you a pretty penny.

Make sure you’re paid on time

One of the most common signs of increasing amounts of debt is the inability to pay your bills on time. However, if your balance sheet shows unpaid invoices or outstanding amounts from clients, you shouldn’t ignore these as they can negatively affect your cash flow.

It’s therefore, a good idea to maintain a positive relationship with your clients and those you supply to; being on good terms means any instances where you might need to nudge people for payment shouldn’t be as awkward.

If you have multiple clients late paying their invoices, your cash flow is likely to take a hit, which could harm your credit file. Should this become a problem, you can apply for invoice finance to help bridge the gap.

Maintain a positive relationship with your creditors

While it’s always a good idea to build positive relationships with your clients and those who’ll be paying you, maintaining relationships with those who you owe is arguably just as important. For example, your business may encounter a period of negative cash flow or lose a large contract, impacting your ability to pay on time. Your creditors may be more understanding, and less likely to resort to debt collection methods if you’re on good terms.

Consider a repayment plan

Sometimes a business can have so much debt that it risks becoming insolvent, or unable to pay its liabilities when they’re due. If left unchecked, this level of debt can even lead to the winding-up of the company through compulsory liquidation. Thankfully, there are several repayment plans available, both formal and informal that allow insolvent companies to repay their debts at an affordable rate.

Summary

Although a small amount of debt is unlikely to sink a company, you should keep an eye on it to ensure it doesn’t grow to a stage where it becomes problematic. Before you run into more serious issues, you should make sure your expenses are necessary and sustainable, both in the current working climate and if you encounter any financial difficulty. Keep an eye on your income too, and make sure anything you’re owed is paid on time. Having a positive relationship with your creditors can help if you do fall behind on your liabilities, as they may be more understanding. If your debts become severe enough to make your company insolvent, then you can explore the options for a formal repayment plan.

As a small business owner, you’ve probably been inundated with offers to take out small business credit cards. You may have resisted for fear of taking debt out on your business, but this is great because it can be a good idea, as they enable you to have a revolving line of credit and increase your purchasing power.

Here are some good reasons why you might want to consider a credit card for your business.

Separating business and personal expenses

As a small company or a solo entrepreneur, you may end up using your personal card for things that you should be putting on your business expenses. For such small business expenses, you want your business credit card as it makes it easy for record-keeping, and allow you to pay off on a monthly basis.

Building your business credit score

If at any point in the future you want to take out some finance to expand your business, or if you require working capital, then having a business credit score can make things much easier. If you use your credit card responsibly and have low-interest rates, then it can be a pretty painless process, and you can build for the future for your credit score at the same time.

Save some time

Business credit cards can be pretty useful when it comes to record-keeping. Some of the providers these days have some advanced technology that does automatic record-keeping and can help you manage your expenses much more easily than using a bank account.

Understand and control employee spending

A business credit card enables you to have different cardholders and so see exactly what people are spending in real-time through your business. You can set individual limits for different people, and you can make sure that people aren’t spending on things that they should be spending on.

Convenience

Business credit cards are really convenient. They make it easy to access extra funds, make payments and are, of course, are a very cheap line of credit.

Making taxes simpler

If you have all your expenses for your credit cards, rather than having to consolidate personal accounts, bank accounts and personal credit cards, it makes tax time much easier. You know exactly where you are each month with your cash flow, and you can easily reconcile your credit card information into tax software for expense calculations.

Business credit limits

If you have a strong business, then your business credit card limit is high. This can make business credit cards are a very good way of making purchases at low-interest rates and paying back the following month or over a short period.

Of course, if you intend to use a credit card this way, you should first know the value of your business to determine if you can get such a high limit on your business card.

Easy sweeping from your business account

Business credit cards often make it easy to pay off your monthly balance by sweeping from your business account. This means that the process is hands-free and really simple.

Understandably, some people are reticent about taking credit out in their business. However, if you use credit responsibly it can build up your credit profile, add some flexibility to your business and make things a bit easier when it comes to reporting and so much more.

In 2019, Mikhail Fridman was named the richest Londoner by the Forbes. He is a UK tax resident, and the 10th richest person in the country according to the Times. Yet he is a Russian tycoon with close ties to the Kremlin… or is he?

It has been widely discussed that Fridman has been trying to distance himself from Russia in general and Russian political powers in particular for several year now. In 2013 he sold his largest  Russian asset (TNK-BP oil producer), set up a Luxemburg based investment company LetterOne, and moved to London. For the past couple of years, he has also become very vocal about leaving Russia behind and doing business predominantly in the West. Most of these statements appeared right about the time he got into the US ‘short-list’ of Kremlin-associated Russian nationals that sanctions may be imposed upon, but that may be a coincidence.

Fridman and his affiliated structures definitely feel the pressure to cut ties with the homeland: in April 2019, U.S. national security officials told Pamplona Capital Management, LetterOne’s investment manager, to sell its stake in Cofense Inc., a US cybersecurity firm used by major corporations, to prevent “active foreign involvement”; his Alfa-Group’s offer to buy an oil shelf deposit in Texas was declined a year before that.

It caused no surprise when last year, the Financial Times reported that Fridman had made another step away from Russia by attempting to sell Alfa-Bank, the largest privately owned commercial bank in the country and the absolute crown jewel of his business empire, to VTB and UniCredit. The attempt failed, and the businessman strongly denied it had ever been made.

He does business in the West all right. LetterOne’s oil and gas, technology and retail divisions have economic interests in several European countries – there is Dea in Germany, ZED and Dia in Spain (not all going well here, he is currently being accused of fraudulent insolvency and business corruption by Spanish prosecutors), Veon in the Netherlands, Turkcell in Turkey, Qvantel in Finland. There is also a telecom start-up FreedomPop in the US.

Yet, there is plenty of old and new business back in Russia. Interestingly, there is one that may be considered a Russian lookalike of the American Cofense Inc. Korund-M, a R&D and production enterprise develops secure computers for Russian state-owned structures (including those responsible for aviation and space programmes), and holds a license for developing weaponry.

Fridman’s A1 investment company bought 50% of Korund-M’s shares earlier this year via an affiliated company and is now being accused of attempted illegal takeover by its founder and director of 35 years Russian Academic Betelin.

Ironically, back at home Fridman is once again faulted for “active foreign involvement” in a strategic national defense enterprise because A1 is registered in Luxemburg. Sources in Russia say that since the ‘Kremlin dossier’ was published, Fridman’s local structures have been avoiding any contact with the national military forces not to anger the US, whether or not Fridman’s involvement in a Russian national defense enterprise will affect the way he is profiled in the US sanctions lists remains to be seen.

If you think that getting true recognition for professionalism in creating accounting software and resources from a giant like Xero is a usual thing, then you are greatly mistaken. To date only 30 companies in Singapore have been awarded such a high grading from the largest supplier of cloud-based software.

Osome now have the exceedingly privileged status from Xero; thanks to their inclusion in the list of the most professional software providers related to financial, accounting, and tax activities in Singapore, Hong Kong, and now in the UK. The company has engaged in the development of high quality software over the last few years and their successes and innovations, in many ways, have lead to becoming one of the most reliable and promising leaders in their field.

Xero have not given the company this high evaluation without reason; but because the global software giant is well versed in seeking the potential of young companies such as Osome.

Osome provide stable and efficient operative programs based on their own software. With these apps, entrepreneurs can track their documentation in a very clear and timely way. If you do business in Singapore, Hong Kong, or within the UK, this supplier are able to help organise the entire business process a company will encounter. To do this, the provider offers online chat services, where entrepreneurs can send any documentation securely. The information will be processed and distributed according to the needs of business customers.

Today, thanks to the cloud capabilities of the Internet, the processing of accounting documents with Osome is extraordinarily fast and secure. Cooperation of the company on producing such programs for small and medium-sized businesses with the participation of the largest leaders of the IT industry, such as Xero, open unprecedented prospects for further development.

Ah, Christmas! Tis the season of joy, harmony and hopefully a steady uphill ranking for your website. Anyone in the world of SEO knows that the best present that they could get is a top spot on page 1 of Google’s search results. So, before you relax and unwind from the madness of Google’s constant updates, it’s time for you to consider your holiday check list. Have you done everything that you want to for this Christmas season’s SEO?

Holiday Marketing Scheme

As it is the Christmas period, one of the most important things you can do for your SEO is focus on your holiday email marketing campaigns. Around this time of year, businesses everywhere are going to be using newsletters and email signups to promote special deals to their clients, as well as promote a direct link to their website and gain some organic traffic. So, have you jumped on the bandwagon? Remember that with any sort of seasonable campaign, you are not only encouraging your clients to engage with your brand because you have a fantastic deal on offer for them, but you are also personalising your deal for them to humanize your brand.

The more personal your email marketing campaigns are, the more positive interaction you will gain from your audience. So, it’s worth pursuing!

Social Media Posts

When it comes to using any sort of digital marketing services for SEO, they will recommend that the holidays are a great way of adding some fun to your brand. Put the content creators at your business to work by asking them to create a social media campaign that incorporates humour, Christmas and most importantly your brand. Create some fun videos, gifs and collaborations with your competition or competitions for your audience to enjoy in order to reel in those sweet clicks. Just make sure that the ads do make sense and are personal to your campaign. Having weird, indescribable content can only get you so far when it comes to getting the attention of your clientele!

“Season up” your website

You want to show Google that your website is always active, right? After all, constant updates are a great way to show that your information is always being added to and that you deserve to be shown to new clients. Well, if you really want to show your customers you take the holiday season seriously, why not update your website with a Christmas layout or theme? If you add a touch of festivity to your website, your visitors will more likely stay on your website for longer. This means that your bounce rate is more likely to go down. Try incorporating some Christmas colours, including in your ads or “special offer” sections. If you show that you are connecting to the season, then this will humanize your brand and make you appear like you are trying to genuinely reach out to your audience. Your clients will appreciate this. Just don’t forget to change your website back to its usual style once the Christmas season is over.