By Sally Waterston, director of Business and IT Consultancy Waterstons Limited Everything goes in cycles; fashion, the weather, Information Technology and even manufacturing. It feels sometimes as if we are like a pendulum as a country, racing after the next new thing and piling all our hopes on it in the name of strategy and forward thinking. When we started this business in 1994 we had a few customers who offshored their production and seemed to be very successful at...

By Simon Richardson Around a year ago, I was in the middle of a gruelling battle against drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB), taking a cocktail of drugs with horrific side effects and fighting for my life. If you’d told me then that just over a year later I’d be a fully trained soldier and planning to cycle the length of Great Britain, I’d never have believed you. But here I am. I wanted to mark a year free of TB by setting...

  Dr Barbara Kubicka, MD, CIME/ICAM, MBCAM Aesthetic Physician Too often, dermatologists and non-surgical skin treatment practitioners think in terms of delivering treatments.  It’s simple – a patient asks for botox injections or dermal fillers, you give them some and everybody’s happy – right? Actually, at my skin clinic in Belgravia/Knightsbridge, we work very differently, putting the patient before the treatment programme. That means understanding who they are in quite some detail. To really get a detailed picture of what...

By Emma Raw When you think of the top athletes in the world, how do they get ahead? Take a look at the FIFA World Cup teams. These athletes train nearly every day together - they always have a buddy to train with. They have that extra support that keeps them motivated and determined. Well, you can think of fitness training in this way too. When you hit the gym make sure you ask a friend to come along with...

By Guy Dorrell @GuyDorrellEsq Pfizer’s abortive bid to take control of Astra Zenica in May 2014 was widely commented to have been motivated, at least in part, by Research and Development issues. More specifically, Pfizer has for some time relied upon the cash-cows of its existing products; bolstering its share price through attempting to increase sales, while driving out back-office costs. R&D is an expensive pursuit whatever the industry, though pharmaceutical companies seem to have an especially tough time. Around...

By Charlotte Stringer With the wedding season in full swing, fashion experts STYLIGHT have put together the ultimate wedding guide; whether you’re attending the wedding of the year (or planning it!) they have thought of every detail to make sure the day goes off without a hitch. Taking inspiration from three of the year’s most beautiful trends, there’s a wedding style for everyone. Classically Romantic Simple, stylish and beautiful: a classic, romantic wedding is an enduringly popular theme. With muted...

By Guy Dorrell @GuyDorrellEsq In March this year, the nation lost an iconic figure from both parliament and the wider political and protest scene with the death of Tony Benn. Once billed as the most dangerous man in Britain, he would later be feted as a national treasure. The son of a Liberal MP and later hereditary peer, Anthony Wedgewood Benn would turn his back on the system that educated him and renounce the peerage that would eventually fall to...

By Rachel Wilson Political Reporter The current cuts to the public sector look set to impact on women the hardest. Women make up the majority of public sector workers and cuts to the sector has pushed women’s unemployment up over the past few years. Women make up 65% of the public sector workforce in the UK and the latest figures from the Office for Budget Responsibility estimate that 929,000 jobs will be lost in the public sector by 2018. Over...

By Valentina Magri The decision of the European Council to propose Jean-Claude Juncker as the next President of the European Commission was “one step closer to quitting Europe” for Britain. The move made David Cameron feel very angry. Indeed, the PM has promised a referendum in 2017 over EU membership if the Conservative party win the 2015 general election. Opinion polls show that Brits are split on the issue. But what would be the economic consequences of Brexit? The five economic consequences...