“Authentic leadership needs skill to succeed”

Posted on February 29, 2012 by Alun Rees

Nice article from Andrew Hill in the FT.

As a coach I spend time encouraging clients to discover their authentic selves, however as with all things  particularly when politicians or salespeople get involved the word can become devalued.

Here’s the link

www.ft.com/cms/s/0/508107a2-5ed9-11e1-a04d-00144feabdc0.html#ixzz1nls2hKFE

Brings to mind the quote from Jean Giraudoux

“The secret of success is sincerity. Once you can fake that you’ve got it made.”

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Banks miss targets for small business lending

Posted on February 23, 2012 by Alun Rees

From Morris & Co’s newsletter

The experience of my clients is that banks are doing anything they can to avoid lending to (some not all) dental practices. Methods include buck passing, demanding the same paperwork time and again, individuals “responsible” being on prolonged holidays and courses without delegating or sharing responsibility. Those of us who have lived through this before recognise the tactics (and the excuses).

Banks miss targets for small business lending

The UK’s five main banks have missed their Government targets for lending to small businesses, a new report has revealed.

The banks met their overall lending targets, allowing new loans of £214.9 billion, but only £74.9 billion was lent to small and medium-sized businesses, compared to the target of £76 billion.

According to the banks, demand for credit fell among smaller firms during 2011 and remains weak.

The All Party Parliamentary Small Business Group has recently been examining the reasons why many small firms are still struggling to access finance.

The group’s Entrepreneurship Inquiry has explored a number of issues, including why women and mature people are less likely to apply for bank finance, and why a third of small businesses are still having problems accessing money from the banks.

The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) has called for measures to remove the barriers to increasing non-bank lending, and to tackle the current lack of demand.

John Cridland, CBI Director-General said, ‘This is as much a problem of demand as supply. Firms need independent help and support to locate the finance that’s right for them. So we must cut through the red tape and complexity surrounding non-bank finance to make it more easily understood by small and mid-sized businesses, which often lack the resources of a larger company’.

Meanwhile, the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) has highlighted the fact that entrepreneurs lack the confidence to apply for bank finance, with many new business owners using more of their own money to fund their business.

John Walker, FSB National Chairman, said, ‘We have heard for so long that small businesses cannot access finance from the banks, but for some entrepreneurs even approaching the bank is not an option. While alternative forms of finance need to be promoted, this needs to change and confidence needs to be instilled in all sectors of society so that they know bank finance is a real option’.

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The Monday Morning Quote #155

Posted on February 20, 2012 by Alun Rees

“If you have ten thousand regulations you destroy all respect for the law.”

Winston Churchill

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Most dentists not ready for compulsory EPCs…say Frank Taylor Associates

Posted on February 15, 2012 by Alun Rees

More TLAs…..

Here’s a link to the FTA blog.

The majority of those dentists who are looking to sell their dental practices in 2012 are not ready for new legislation in regard to EPCs according to Andy Acton of Frank Taylor and Associates and Phil McCabe of the Forum of Private Business. The new changes will come into force on 6th April and mean that:

  • An energy performance certificate will be required on all marketing for all properties that are to be sold or let
  • The responsibility for the EPC will rest with the ‘relevant person’ – defined as either the owner or the agent. Both will have a duty to ensure an EPC is commissioned before marketing a property
  • Trading Standards Officers will have new powers to force sellers and agents to produce copies of EPCs for inspection
  • It will also be a mandatory requirement for air conditioning inspection reports to be lodged on the central Non Domestic EPC Register
  • EPCs will need to be attached to written details of the property – the option to include the asset rating will no longer apply. The first page of the EPC must be included
  • Andy commented, “This legislation may slip under the radar as it seems to have been announced quite quietly and we want to ensure that dentists are aware of this. Put simply, after the 6th April, the marketing of a dental practice just cannot happen without an EPC.”

Phil McCabe, Senior Policy Adviser at the Forum of Private Business added, “Any costs like these are an extra burden for small businesses to bear. The EPC scheme is essentially a watered down version of the unpopular Home Improvement Pack (HIP) scheme, which was dreamed up by the last Government but quickly abandoned by the Coalition after it came in to office for being unnecessary and costly. We would say the same of the EPC.

Aside from the cost implications, there’s also the extra paperwork that will be involved. More red tape and yet more form filling for businesses at a time the Government is pledging to cut bureaucracy is just not necessary.”

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The Monday Morning Quote #154

Posted on February 15, 2012 by Alun Rees

“Never mistake activity for achievement.”

John Wooden

(Too much activity has led to inaccuracy and low achievement this week – hence this is late!)

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Transplant jaw made by 3D printer claimed as first

Posted on February 7, 2012 by Alun Rees

From BBC website makes me wonder where this technology is taking us and its possible use in “routine” restorative dentistry

Transplant jaw made by 3D printer claimed as first.

A 3D printer-created lower jaw has been fitted to an 83-year-old woman’s face in what doctors say is the first operation of its kind.
The transplant was carried out in June in the Netherlands, but is only now being publicised.
The implant was made out of titanium powder – heated and fused together by a laser, one layer at a time.
Technicians say the operation’s success paves the way for the use of more 3D-printed patient-specific parts.
The surgery follows research carried out at the Biomedical Research Institute at Hasselt University in Belgium, and the implant was built by LayerWise – a specialised metal-parts manufacturer based in the same country.

Articulated joints

The patient involved had developed a chronic bone infection. Doctors believed reconstructive surgery would have been risky because of her age and so opted for the new technology.
The implant is a complex part – involving articulated joints, cavities to promote muscle attachment and grooves to direct the regrowth of nerves and veins.
However, once designed, it only took a few hours to print.
“Once we received the 3D digital design, the part was split up automatically into 2D layers and then we sent those cross sections to the printing machine,” Ruben Wauthle, LayerWise’s medical applications engineer, told the BBC.
“It used a laser beam to melt successive thin layers of titanium powder together to build the part.
“This was repeated with each cross section melted to the previous layer. It took 33 layers to build 1mm of height, so you can imagine there were many thousand layers necessary to build this jawbone.

Once completed, the part was given a bioceramic coating. The team said the operation to attach it to the woman’s face took four hours, a fifth of the time required for traditional reconstructive surgery.
“Shortly after waking up from the anaesthetics the patient spoke a few words, and the day after the patient was able to swallow again,” said Dr Jules Poukens from Hasselt University, who led the surgical team.
“The new treatment is a world premiere because it concerns the first patient-specific implant in replacement of the entire lower jaw.”

Screw-in teeth

The woman was able to go home after four days.
Her new jaw weighs 107g, just over a third heavier than before, but the doctors said that she should find it easy to get used to the extra weight.
Follow-up surgery is scheduled later this month when the team will remove healing implants inserted into holes built into the implant’s surface.
A specially made dental bridge will then be attached to the part, following which false teeth will be screwed into the holes to provide a set of dentures.

Printed organs

The team said that it expected similar techniques to become more common over the coming years.
“The advantages are that the surgery time decreases because the implants perfectly fit the patients and hospitalisation time also lowers – all reducing medical costs,” said Mr Wauthle.
“You can build parts that you can’t create using any other technique. For example you can print porous titanium structures which allow bone in-growth and allow a better fixation of the implant, giving it a longer lifetime.”
The research follows a separate project at Washington State University last year in which engineers demonstrated how 3D-printer-created ceramic scaffolds could be used to promote the growth of new bone tissue.
They said experiments on animals suggested the technique could be used in humans within the next couple of decades.
LayerWise believes the two projects only hint at the scope of the potential medical uses for 3D printing.
Mr Wauthle said that the ultimate goal was to print body organs ready for transplant, but cautioned that such advances might be beyond their lifetimes.
“There are still big biological and chemical issues to be solved,” he said.
“At the moment we use metal powder for printing. To print organic tissue and bone you would need organic material as your ‘ink’. Technically it could be possible – but there is still a long way to go before we’re there.”

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The Monday Morning Quote #153

Posted on February 6, 2012 by Alun Rees

“Never waste a crisis. It can be turned to joyful transformation.”

Rahm Israel Emanuel

(from an article in the New York Times -March 17th 2009)

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