Articles & PR

Biotech Clusters must prevent their pools from drying out.

2010-02-25T06:52:00.000-08:00

There is significant competition in the fight for the skills, experience and talent to transform fledgling biotechnology companies into sustainable enterprises with something more than big ambitions. The small and agile biotech company has many advantages to offer the adventurous and entrepreneurially minded life science professional. Using these attractive characteristics effectively to appeal to talented people takes consideration and analysis as well as huge amounts of time and effort if you’re truly going to hire the quality required to drive the business forward and execute your plan.

Because biotechnology companies are largely in clustered hubs across Europe, often supported and backed by an association or group whose mission is to raise awareness of the cluster, these companies have a great opportunity to ride this publicity wave and deliver their message of opportunity to candidates with impact.

Yet to do this, companies need to concede the protectionist attitudes they take to talent they recruit. It is advantageous to all the companies within the cluster to attract great people as it will make all the companies stronger and more successful by attracting other great talent and stimulate stronger International interest.

It is widely acknowledged that people and skills are critical in executing any business plan but to attract high quality talent to the dynamically changing world of biotech, it sometimes requires those same individuals to think about their contingency options should things not work out. Who else is there that can provide them with a career?

This is where clusters have a distinct advantage. By accepting that people will give you good service but will want to move on at some point, they can work on keeping the talent locked into the cluster rather than losing it to external markets. Recruiting is currently so difficult, expensive and competitive that by creating an open talent forum where cluster companies can broadcast their opportunities and open their doors to those people ready for a fresh challenge, you can strengthen the cluster by retaining skills rather than losing out to competitive talent markets.

But how?...Well, as company executives and investors you regularly convene to discuss trends, alliances and industry developments. You network, share ideas and swap contact information and all these prevalent concepts are well ingrained in modern business and acutely employed across these biotechnology clusters. Take these principles, develop them and apply them to recruiting and careers and you begin to provide the connectivity conditions similar to large companies. People can then move around to progress their careers and acquire the experience they feel they need to achieve their longer term ambitions. You begin to build up the loyalty and ties people feel with the area and the companies that comprise it, which can only enhance the ability of the respective companies to attract other great people from the global talent markets. So preserve your talent pool and work with your fellow cluster companies to find ways to offer opportunity and lock in the skills of the world’s best talents.

Karl Simpson
Managing Director
Liftstream
Medical diagnostics recruitment agency
Speciality biotechnology recruitment agency
Life sciences recruitment agency

Can middle-men leave smaller footprints?

2010-01-04T04:12:00.000-08:00

Fetching and carrying has long been seen a rather mundane activity, a necessity of function required to get the desired object from place to place. It is a task that most of us would rather usually leave to others to do, which is why we see internet shopping take a greater hold year after year.

It could be argued that recruitment companies have benefited from this very outlook. They have repeatedly taken on the role of collector and deliverer and found value in the role of the intermediary; only providing people rather than groceries. I’m sure Fred Smith of FedEx would tell you that the business of getting things from A to B in time, with little inconvenience, is a service people will value greatly and pay for willingly. The fact is, the more difficult it is for the end-user to find the product they want, the more willing they are to pay a specialist to find it and bring it to them.
However, the world is changing. It is not time to talk of killing off the middle man, as for now they are alive and well in this expanding global market. Yet they are having to face up to the more challenging tasks in meeting the desires of their customers.

Over recent years we have seen the growth of the internet which, while serving a considerable advantage in terms of communication and efficiency to the go-between, has equally empowered the end-user. Suddenly, the end-user has the potential to break down the barrier between them and their required product or service. They can access information and details that allow an informed buyer decision and then actually contact them directly and do the whole process without the use of anyone else. No showroom to visit, no distributor, no adviser or salesman, no misleading or diluted information, no unmet promises, just straight and direct, unadulterated commerce.

The middle-man has learnt to live and survive amongst these threats but now a new challenge is facing the middle-man, the environment. Globally people are beginning to face the realities of climate change. In business, whether for genuine reasons or commercial edge, companies are driving the agenda. They are facing up to their environmental responsibilities and also the importance of sharing the philosophies and beliefs of their employees. They are moving to reduce their carbon emissions and go beyond merely ‘off-setting’. The greener we become in our personal lives, the more we will demand this of our employers and so this becomes an important issue for recruitment and employee retention.

So how does the middle-man, in particular recruitment companies, keep pace with this? Most companies select their suppliers on a number of criteria. These can range from expertise, infrastructure, back-up and support through to shared business philosophies. As an example, a company who has a strong equal opportunities policy is unlikely to select a recruitment vendor to supply people unless they know the vendor shared that approach or their pledge is in any way disingenuous.

We are already seeing evidence of increased ‘green’ employment opportunities within larger companies. And as the environment climbs the corporate agenda and companies begin to dedicate more internal resources and finance towards solving environmental issues, they will also surely look to synchronise these values with their partners.

Recruitment companies have both an opportunity and a challenge. Their opportunity is in meeting the needs of a changing workplace. The environmental issue will stimulate a change in attitude by many businesses to think differently about how they might employ and organise people. The necessity of commuting and office-bound workers should decline and people will be encouraged and offered more flexible working arrangements where home-working, telecommuting will be normal. This widens the opportunity to employ people across borders and hands a considerable chance to recruitment companies to deliver value.

But where value is added it can also be eroded. The perceived value of most recruiting services is that they provide a fundamental role in collecting, filtering and delivering people with the right skills and experiences. This is a service that is often seen as time consuming, administratively intensive and fraught with anomalies that can result in failure. Because of this, companies often want to mitigate these pressures by involving a third party recruitment firm that will apply their expertise to identify the person, meet and evaluate them, then deliver the rather more attractive package back to the customer. The problem for the recruitment company will be how to continue to provide this service while meeting the client’s environmental considerations. Will these clients continue to endorse the frequent need to hop around international markets assessing prospective candidates and leave big dirty carbon footprints that lead straight back to their door, or will they require a more virtual and carbon friendly approach. And if they do demand a change, how will recruitment firms continue to provide that rather important intermediary role with the same accuracy and effectiveness on an increasingly international stage, without the chance to properly fetch and carry.

With recruitment companies not yet likely to be forced into examining their supplier agreements to ensure environmental compliance, it is an issue which will ultimately need to be faced. However, the future will undoubtedly require all middle-men with climate conscious clients to draw-up clear guidelines that will ensure that both performance and environment remain protected. Those companies who proactively address the topic now by creatively changing the way they deliver services will naturally establish a lead over the rest.

Karl Simpson
Managing Director
Liftstream
Liftstream is a biotechnology recruitment agency specialising in life sciences executive search and pharmaceutical management recruitment.

10 of the Best Fake Tanners

2009-12-23T02:40:00.000-08:00

Can't afford a beach break this year? Worry not. With our top 10 tanners you'll be bronzed in no time...

Fake Bake Lipo Bronze Self Tan with LipoCare

Not only does this deliver a convincing, deep tan in hours, it works to bust cellulite too. Brown and buff? That's what we like to hear.

Piz Buin 360 Self Tan Spray

This spray is magic for getting to those hard to reach places like the shoulder blades and backs of the thighs.

Urban Decay Midnight Cowboy Body Shimmer Lotion.

Achieve a shimmery sheen on already tanned skin or use on nude limbs to cleverly conceal imperfections - plus it's packed with skin-loving green tea and jojoba oil.

Rodial Brazilian Tan Light

From the same people who brought you the Tummy Tuck and Boob Job comes an ultra natural bronzing spray with added avacoado and coconut oil for bikini smooth skin.

St Tropez Everyday Gradual Tan

Build up a believable colour with absoloutely no streaks, guaranteed! Slather on before your hols for first-day-at-the beach confidence.

Clinique Self Sun Face Tinted Lotion

The lotion is tinted so you can see where you're putting it and in a few hours it turns into a non-wash-off golden glow to rival Bar Rafeali.

Benefit Talk To The Tan

If you want a dark deep tan then this is for you. After applying this to our faces, we looked like we'd just come back from a fortnight in the Caribbean!

Soleil Tan De Chanel

This bronzing powder gives a sun-kissed glow that looks very natural, which also makes it perfect for livening up your sun-starved face in the winter months.

Too Faced Tanning Bed in a Tube

This tinted lotion is great for those days when you need some quick fix colour. Plus after a few hours it develops into a natural golden glow that'l last a few days.

L'Oreal Self-Tan Gloves

If you're a girl on the go, you need this product in your bag now! These are great for travelling too and give a natural, even tan.

Sinead O'Donoghue
Look Magazine
All the latest fashion news including Kate Moss, New Look, other high street fashion shops & much, much more.

Dial O for Fashion!

2009-11-19T08:50:00.000-08:00

We remember when shopping online was ‘far out’ but now Oasis have become the first high street store to bring fashion to your phone!

Recently Oasis have created an application for iPhones that will enable fashion fans to view new stock daily, scroll campaign images and find their nearest store using a GPS function all at the touch of a screen.

Sharon O’Connor MD of the fashion brand says “We are very excited to be launching our new shopping application with iPhone and proud to be the first UK retailer to offer this exclusive service to our customers.”

As well as daily updates and the store finder options we love the sound of the ‘Shake Your Style’ feature where musthave Oasis items are suggested each time you shake your phone.

Available now from the App Store or online at iTunes. Shopping will never be the same again!

Bella Binns
Look
lookys@ipcmedia.com
Tel: 0203 148 5000
Fashion News, beauty news, style news...

Tess Daly’s Beauty Range For Marks & Spencer

2009-10-21T08:51:00.000-07:00

Tess Daly’s beauty range has finally arrived on the Marks and Spencer shelves.

Tess Daly is the latest celebrity to design her own range of beauty products. The ‘Daly Body Collection’ has been designed to bring a touch of glamour to bathtime.

Our favourite pieces include the skin shimmer, bath soak and body moisturiser. If you’re already adding items to your Christmas wish list then we suggest you put the glamour beauty gift set on top of your list.

Tess spoke to LOOK about her new collection and revealed that her favourite product was the cheek highlighter. “ I can’t live without it.”

Despite having a five-month-old baby, Tess has had full input into the designs “ I’ve been involved in the whole process from day one- that’s why I’m really proud of the range, it’s been a journey and it’s like another baby. It was my idea, the packaging is my design, the products are born from passions of mine - products I'm passionate about - I've been instrumental since day one. I haven't just lent my face to it”

Tess also explained that the collection has been a dream come true, “'It's been wonderful because it's every girl's dream, isn't it - to have a beauty range and be girly? 'I've always been a beauty junkie and love products, so it's been wonderful and interesting.

Check out this week's LOOK magazine to see the full interview and the sexy photoshoot.

Sinead 0'Donoghue
Look
lookys@ipcmedia.com
Tel: 0203 148 5000
Look
Fashion Website.
All the high street fashion shops in one magazine.
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Tesco clothing now available online!

2009-10-15T06:35:00.000-07:00

Tesco have launched a fully-fledged online store!

We love online shopping and you can pick up an outfit for Friday night along with your groceries. Tesco's online store features Florence and Fred, Liquorish as well as their mainline range.

It's perfect for snapping up a t-shirt or an emergency pair of tights, but there's also some good trend pieces. Give their jumpsuit a try with a wide belt, we also like the foil-print tee and the orange heels give instant impact to an outfit!
Isabelle O'Carroll
Look
lookys@ipcmedia.com
Tel: 0203 148 5000
Look
Fashion Magazine.
All the high street fashion shops in one magazine.
All the latest fashions from high street clothes shops across the UK.

Beauty Product Of The Week: Remington’s Wet2Straight Slim Straighteners

2009-10-14T07:10:00.000-07:00

Want sleek and shiny hair to rival Jennifer Aniston’s? Then here’s a new way to achieve A-list hair without spending hours in the hairdressers!

Sleek, glossy hair is always on-trend and looks great whatever your face shape or hair type. With the party season soon upon us, it's great news that you can now achieve a long-lasting silky-smooth style, with the new Remington Wet2Straight Slim.

Forget spending hours with the hairdryer or in the salon, as long-lasting, silky-smooth hair can be achieved in seconds, without ruining your luscious locks.

All you have to do, is simply run the new Remington Wet2Straight slim over wet hair and it will instantly straighten hair while drying. Genius!

According to Remington’s research, 82% of women who tried the new starightners preferred them to their current ones.

So if you want a straightener, hair dryer and conditioner rolled into one, then it's time to make the Remington Wet2Straight your new must-have essential!

Sinead O'Donoghue
Look
lookys@ipcmedia.com
Tel: 0203 148 5000
Look, the high street fashion magazine.
Check out the latest fashion & beauty news.

H&M’s Latest Fashion Collaboration

2009-09-28T04:38:00.001-07:00

Yippee! H&M have revealed that their latest collaboration, will be with fashion designer, Sonia Rykiel.

Yes ladies, you have read correctly, H&M have indeed announced yet another fabulous fashion collaboration!

We jumped for joy when we found out about the Jimmy Choo collection, earlier this year, and now we’re just as excited to read about their designer partnership with Sonia Rykiel!

‘Queen of Knits, ’ Sonia Rykiel, will be the next guest H&M designer for winter 2009 and spring 2010. The first collection will hit stores on the 5th December and will consist of a range of lingerie and related accessories, a first for H&M.

The second collection will feature an iconic knitwear collection for women and girls and will hit stores on the 20th February.

Nathalie Rykiel, president and artistic director of Sonia Rykiel spoke about her excitement, ‘the Sonia Rykiel pour H&M lingerie collection is the ideal way to offer the essence of Rykiel to a great number if women around the world, and a beautiful way to close the year. The knitwear collection is perfect for welcoming a colourful new season.”

See you in the queue!

Sinead O'Donoghue
Look
lookys@ipcmedia.com
Tel: 0203 148 5000
Look, the high street fashion website.
Check out the latest fashion & beauty news.

Topshop’s Gone Dotty!

2009-09-24T04:51:00.000-07:00

Polka dots have been a huge hit on the spring/summer catwalk and luckily Topshop has already gone polka dot crazy.

Love being ahead of the fashion pack? Then Topshop is your one-stop shop this autumn. Not only are they bang on trend with this season’s hottest designs, they’re also well ahead of the high-fashion designers, as their rails are already packed with must-haves for spring/summer.

Luella’s catwalk show was full of polka dots, from mini skirts and bags to dresses and tops. We wanted the whole collection!

Unfortunately our budget doesn’t extend to the latest designer must-haves so we’re relying on good old Topshop to come up triumphs.

We’ve fallen for their sequin polka-dot pieces and their dotty frocks, not only will they take you through the party season, they’ll also be fashionable come July. Snap up these three statement pieces now- they’ll be the best investment pieces you’ll buy all month!

Sinead 0'Donoghue
Look
lookys@ipcmedia.com
Tel: 0203 148 5000
LooK, the high street fashion magazine.
Check out the latest fashion news.

Sleep Solutions for your Baby or Toddler

2009-09-23T06:34:00.001-07:00

Of all the challenges parents face, getting your kids to sleep properly is possibly the biggest.

Whether it's a screaming 6-month-old or a scared two-year-old, a full night's sleep is a goal that can sometimes seem almost impossible to achieve.

If your baby won't sleep through the night or you want to know how to get your baby to sleep in the first place.

Baby sleep solutions

Follow these steps to help your baby learn to settle herself without leaving her to cry it out.

Step 1: Watch for your baby's sleepy signs: yawning, eye-rubbing and general crankiness.

Step 2: Put your baby in her cot while she's drowsy but awake.

Step 3: If your baby cries, pick her up and comfort her with a 'shhh' sound until she stops crying, then put her down.

Step 4: Continue with picking her up if she gets upset. Eventually she'll realise that although you're there to soothe her you'll put her down once she's calm, and she'll learn to fall asleep by herself. She'll begin to associate the 'shhh' sound with sleep so that if she wakes the sound alone should help her settle.

This is the gentlest way of teaching your baby to fall asleep by herself. It can take a long time unless you're really tuned in to spotting when your baby's tired. Plus, constantly bending to pick up your baby can be hard on your back.

Tough out the tears

Try leaving your baby to cry for progressively longer periods of time until she settles herself.

Step 1: Put your baby in her cot awake, say goodnight to her, then leave the room.

Step 2: If your baby cries, wait five minutes before going in. Stay for a few minutes to reassure her, then say goodnight and leave the room.

Step 3: If your baby is still crying after five more minutes, go back in and repeat the process. This time, wait for 10 minutes before going back in, and extend the time between visits by two minutes until she falls asleep.

It's probably the quickest sleep-training method. This short, sharp shock treatment takes a will of iron, because you have to wait while your baby cries and every instinct is telling you to comfort her. Although this technique works for many parents, some health professionals feel it may be emotionally and psychologically harmful to leave your baby to cry for any length of time.

Louise O'Connell
Good to Know
Good to Know features loads of great advice on families, health and food.
Checkout our new recipes section which includes somegreat quick and easy recipes including a delicious rocky road recipe.

September Exhibition Geneviève Dolle - 18th - 28th September

2009-09-22T05:31:00.001-07:00

Genevieve was born and lives in France, working from her studio near Mulhouse in the Alsace; she has developed her highly respected artistic career with a fine sense of colour, and a direct brushstroke revealing the skilful handling of her subject. Her paintings evoke the joy of nature with a vibrant palette balanced with mellowness and shadow.

Genevieve has been regularly exhibiting with the Gallery; she has also shown at the Salon de Paris, the Grand Palais, the Salon d’Automne and Pantheon Paris. She was also awarded first prize at the Wittelshiem Salon.

This will be Genevieve’s first showcase at the Gallery. The exhibition includes a series of her Floral works and also a selection of her Fruit Series of Still Life paintings.

Lesley Carpenter
Advocate Art
mail@advocate-art.com
Tel: +44 (0)20 8879 1166
An Illustration Agency with a large number of greeting card designers.
Founded as an artists' co-operative, Advocate Art retains the core principle that set us apart from conventional illustration agancies: Fairness, Ability, Creativity and Trust. four f.a.c.t.s, which enable us to attract the most creative greeting card illustrators and artists.

New research shows grads set to leave employers after recession

2009-09-21T03:54:00.000-07:00

Results from independent research show that 67% of graduates surveyed are likely to consider leaving their current employer when the economy picks up.

The results offer a snapshot of how graduates are viewed and valued in the workplaces of some of the UK’s largest employers, including the NHS, Thomson Reuters and the Lloyds Banking Group.

Focusing on graduates two and a half to three and a half years into their scheme, the report investigates the perceptions and reality of graduate retention, recession impact and valuation issues for graduate programmes, both from the organisation and graduate’s perspective.

Key findings

Retention

• 49% of HR managers highlighted the difficulty of retaining graduates for long enough, with 22% reporting that on average they lose graduates within two years of their employment.
• 57% felt that there was more they could do to retain these graduates - the ability to identify and retain the right graduates will be a crucial success factor as the economy comes out of recession.
• 75% of HR managers saw most graduates leaving between two and a half and three and a half years after starting their graduate programme, or one year after the end of the programme.
• 78% of HR managers agreed or agreed strongly that a specific development programme to increase retention of graduates one year after the end of their graduate programme would be of benefit.

Return on investment

• The research uncovered the many difficulties HR managers face in measuring the return on investment of graduate schemes. 16% of respondents didn’t know when a company’s investment in a new graduate reached the break-even point and, in most cases, this figure is an estimate rather than a reliable piece of management information - 57% stated that this occurred before three years.

Recession

• While some respondents stated that graduate programmes had been scaled down, the majority of HR managers viewed stopping schemes altogether as a mistake that would lead to a disproportionate gap in the talent pipeline amongst new graduates.
• A big effect of the recession has been a shift in application patterns, with the financial services seeing a drop-off and public sector organisations, such as the NHS, seeing a massive rise — 7,000 applicants last year compared with 16,000 in 2009.
• HR and graduate managers thought the recession could have a significant impact on the attitudes of graduates starting work now, that ‘Generation Y’ may feel less secure and change their long-term career plans as a result.

Hana Searson, Head of Talent Management for IDG, said: “The information we have gathered highlights a lack of measurement in terms of return on investment and a need for companies to get better at identifying the right graduates for their business. It seems that many companies view the high turnover of graduates at this crucial two to three year point as inevitable.

“Organisations need to identify potential stars early on in their placements in order to map out clear plans to retain these individuals. How companies measure the value of a graduate also needs examining.

more…

It is not all about monetary return — the enthusiasm and fresh-thinking that graduates bring to an organisation is definitely beneficial and can be reaped throughout the duration of the graduate programme, even if individuals decide to leave once this is over.

Those businesses that have cut or greatly reduced their graduate schemes are short sighted. Graduates remain a vital source of future capability for organisations. Yes, there’s a short-term cash flow gain from removing or reducing the scale of a graduate programme, but the long-term gap in the pipeline of young, energetic, affordable, mouldable graduate talent will be much more painful in the end.

Evidence was gathered from over 150 graduates in the second or third year of their employment within companies that employ 500 or more staff. Also surveyed were 65 HR managers/directors across a range of industry sectors, including banking, engineering and public and private sectors. In addition, face-to-face qualitative interviews were conducted with 10 HR managers.

Bob Jones

IDG

Leadership Training Courses & Team Leadership Training.

Paula Doherty: Nominated For Industry Awards In Both USA and UK

2009-09-21T01:45:00.000-07:00

A double nomination! Paula Doherty, long time Advocate Artist (gosh- 12 years!) who specialises in hand applied and sewn creations has produced 2 greeting card ranges which, separately, have been nominated by independent panels (made up of acclaimed industry pros) for a ‘Louie’ and ‘Henries’ award. Her beautiful creations are sold in major retailers in the USA such as Target and Walgreen’s and here in the UK with Clintons and WHSmiths, no one can tell me if it is a first to be nominated twice but it certainly seems so! Well done Paula, shame the publisher gets to keep the silverware.

Lesley Carpenter
Advocate Art
mail@advocate-art.com
Tel: +44 (0)20 8879 1166
Illustration agency UK: specialising in greeting card illustrations.
Founded as an artists' co-operative, Advocate Art retains the core principle that set us apart from conventional illustration agancies: Fairness, Ability, Creativity and Trust. four f.a.c.t.s, which enable us to attract the most creative freelance illustrators and artists.

Phases of a migraine attack

2009-09-11T06:34:00.001-07:00

A migraine attack can be divided into four phases:

A 'premonitory' phase occurs in up to half of people with migraine. You may feel irritable, depressed, tired, have food cravings, or 'just know' that a migraine is going to occur. You may have these feelings for hours or even days before the onset of the headache.

The aura phase (if it occurs).

The headache phase.

The resolution phase when the headache gradually fades. During this time you may feel tired, irritable, depressed, and may have difficulty concentrating.

Less common types of migraine

There are various other types of migraine which are uncommon, and some more types which are rare. These include:

Menstrual migraine. The symptoms of each attack are the same as for common migraine or migraine with aura. However, the migraine attacks are associated with periods. There are two types of patterns. Pure menstrual migraine is when migraine occurs only around periods, and not at other times. This occurs in about 1 in 7 women who have migraine. Menstrual-associated migraine is when migraines occur around periods, and also at other times of the month too. About 6 in 10 women who have migraine have this type of pattern. Treatment of each migraine attack is the same as for any other type of migraine. However, there are treatments that may prevent menstrual migraines from occurring. See separate leaflet called 'Migraine Triggered by Periods' for more detail.

Abdominal migraine. This mainly occurs in children. Instead of headaches, the child has attacks of abdominal (tummy) pain which last several hours. Typically, during each attack there is no headache, or only a mild headache. There may be associated nausea (feeling sick), vomiting or aura symptoms. Commonly, children who have abdominal migraine switch to develop common migraine in their teenage years.

Ocular migraine. This is sometimes called retinal migraine, ophthalmic migraine or eye migraine. It causes temporary loss of all or part of the vision in one eye. This may be with or without a headache. Each attack usually occurs in the same eye. There are no abnormalities in the eye itself and vision returns to normal.

Hemiplegic migraine. This is rare. In addition to a severe headache, symptoms include weakness (like a temporary paralysis) of one side of the body. This may last up to several hours, or even days, before resolving. Therefore, it is sometimes confused with a stroke. You may also have other temporary symptoms of vertigo (severe dizziness), double vision, visual problems, hearing problems and difficulty speaking or swallowing.

Basilar-type migraine. This is rare. The basilar artery is in the back of your head. It used to be thought that this type of migraine originated due to a problem with the basilar artery. It is now thought that this is not the case, but the exact cause is not known. Symptoms typically include headache at the back of the head (rather than one sided as in common migraine). They also tend to include strange aura symptoms such as temporary blindness, double vision, vertigo, ringing in the ears, jerky eye movements, trouble hearing, slurred speech, dizziness. Unlike hemiplegic migraine, basilar-type migraine does not cause weakness. There is an increased risk of having a stroke with this type of migraine.

Do I need any tests?

Usually not. There is no test to confirm migraine. A doctor can be confident that you have migraine if you have the typical symptoms. However, some people with migraine have non-typical headaches. Sometimes tests are done to rule out other causes of headaches. Remember, if you have migraine, you do not have symptoms between attacks. A headache that does not go, or other symptoms that do not go, are not due to migraine.

Tension headaches are sometimes confused with migraine. These are the common headaches that most people have from time too time. Note: if you have migraine, you can also have tension headaches at different times to migraine attacks.

Louise O'Connell
Good to Know
Good to Know features loads of great advice on health and food.
Be sure to checkout our new recipe section which includes some great cake recipes including a classic cake recipe page & some delicious chocolate cake recipes.

Winning Beauty Look: Nude Lips and Smoky Eyes

2009-09-11T05:26:00.001-07:00

Always a winner and always in style – smoky eyes and nude lips will remain a red carpet favourite, forever!

It’s one beauty look that will never ever retire and just like Herve Leger’s bandage dress, it’s a red carpet formula that celebrities will rely on again and again.

Marchesa designer, Georgina Chapman has the look perfected and always uses the combo as her signature red carpet beauty look.

Georgina teams her smoky eyes and nude lip gloss with her dark and glossy mane for full impact.

If you want to try out this signature beauty trend then we recommend Benefit’s smokin eyes palette. It’s step-by-step guide is fool-proof and will help recreate a look that Georgina would be proud of, without the help of a celebrity make-up artist.

After applying your heavy eye make-up, just add Vaseline to your lips and you’re good to go!

Sinead 0'Donoghue
Look
lookys@ipcmedia.com
Tel: 0203 148 5000
Look: Fashion Style.
The high street fashion website. Check out the latest style news.

Look's Beauty Ed dishes out tips and advice

2009-09-11T04:24:00.000-07:00

Want to know the Look team's make-up secrets? Head down to Selfridges for a one-to-one beauty masterclass with Beauty Ed Sophie Beresiner.

For just £20 you can book a one-to-one appointment with Sophie at the Shiseido counter in Selfridges. The luxury make-up label have launched 15 gorgeous new colours, so you could leave with a whole new look! All the proceeds from the event go to Look Good... Feel Better charity which helps women with cancer to regain their confidence.

The event is being held on the 19th September, all you have to do is ring 08001388140 to book a slot and what's more everyone who sees Sophie will leave with a goodie bag packed with Shiseido swag!

Sinead 0'Donoghue
Look
lookys@ipcmedia.com
Tel: 0203 148 5000
The high street fashion website. Check out the latest fashion news including the lastest fashion news and the best in celebrity style.

Melanie Sykes Rises to the challenge – Join the UK’S biggest bake off with Green's Tuesday

2009-09-09T03:49:00.000-07:00

Bake a cake to share and show you care every Green’s Tuesday

Celebrity Mum and top TV presenter, Melanie Sykes, joins Britain’s much-loved baking experts at Green’s to bring you Green’s Tuesday - the tasty new initiative to encourage a sense of caring and sharing across the nation. Join the biggest bake off by simply baking and sharing the delicious cakes with friends, families, colleagues and your community, and with Green’s range of quick and convenient cake mixes it couldn’t be easier! Let Green’s Tuesday remind you every week to whip up a reason to make someone smile - it is the thought that you count not the calories! To add an extra large helping of goodness, sell your cakes for charity – just log onto www.greenscakes.co.uk and start making a difference today.

As part of this big baking bonanza, Green’s Tuesday is giving bakers even more food for thought as cake sales is a fantastic way of fundraising. Get creative with your baking and organise an in house fun event at work, a cake sale at school or a picnic in the park with friends. Then simply make your donations to Green’s chosen children’s charity on www.greenscakes.co.uk and once you register for the Green’s club, you could be in with the chance of claiming a FREE Green’s cake mix to help kickstart you in the kitchen!

Whether it’s mouth-watering muffins, cakes or cookies, Green’s mixes provide the easy baking solution for a whole afternoon of baking family fun for less than £2.50. Celebrating over 100 years of baking, Green’s know the importance of spending quality time with those around you. Whether at home, work or play, take a break for a cake, away from the hustle and bustle of everyday life and enjoy Green’s scrumptious snacks made with natural ingredients and no artificial colourings. With quick and convenient great tasting recipes that perform every time, Green’s Tuesday is a great and easy way to impress and show someone you care, plus you reap the rewards as you revel in the results together!

Celebrity mum and popular TV presenter, Melanie Sykes; comments; “I love baking with my sons - it’s a great way to spend quality time together and have fun. Green’s cake mixes are the perfect recipe for success to keep even the littlest baker in the house happy! Now everyone can rise to the challenge every ‘Green’s Tuesday’ and bake a cake to make a difference. Whether it is cakes, cookies or muffins, raise money for charity and also a smile with a tasty token of affection that can be shared by all around you.”

With its extensive cake range available to buy from all good supermarkets, Green’s ensures that you will never get bored with everything from Rocky Road, a classic Victoria Sandwich, Velvety Cheesecake, amazing Lemon Meringue, to oozy centered Choc Orange muffins and many more. Plus, Green’s has the fun kids range, including TV favorites Barbie, Tom and Jerry, Scooby Doo, Dennis the Menace, Dora the Explorer, In the Night Garden and many more. Each comes with an action-packed activity sheet to keep the children amused while they wait for their tasty treats to bake.

With Green’s baking club you will never miss out on the latest offers, up to date baking news and recipe suggestions. Plus, it’s packed with fun and games to entertain and educate the little ones and provide top tips on party planning and more. With Green’s Tuesday you have all the ingredients to help make a difference this summer – there has never been a better time to indulge yourself. So what are you waiting for... Get ready, Set and Bake-Off!

For further information or visuals, please contact:
Hannah Milne/Susanna Underwood
Rare Communications
T: 020 7284 5911
E: hannah@rarecommunications.co.uk / susanna@rarecommunications.co.uk

Notes to Editors:

About Green’s (www.greenscakes.co.uk)
Celebrating over 100 years of baking, Green’s was founded in 1907 by Horace Green, a baker from Brighton who decided to blend together dry ingredients creating his special cake mixes. Since then production has continued and in 1998 Green's was bought by Kerry Foods Ltd.

Green’s is the country's number one mixes brand with strong retail distribution in every major supermarket in the UK. The recipe of success stems from their policy of keeping baking simple, fun and very tasty as well as being committed to maintaining and promoting the value of quality time together as a family through their brand and product. The extensive product range offers everything from mixes for kids' cakes to mixes for both large and small cakes and desserts that cater for all tastes and every occasion. Green's product range also includes licensed product from top children's brands including Tom & Jerry, Dora The Explorer, Thomas & Friends, Barbie, Scooby-Doo, In the Night Garden and Dennis the Menace.

Ed Burns finally gets published!

2009-08-26T04:36:00.000-07:00

You may think this is a slightly odd statement in the light of the fact Ed’s company Advocate Art has been supplying greeting card images for 15 years and holds a library of over a 100,0000 designs, but this one card has a special place in his heart - he actually features on it.

Long term Advocate artist Alec Macdonald had used a photograph of Ed and his two sons beach-combing as an example of the private commissions available from Advocate’s successful original art gallery in Wimbledon Village. Jayne Watson of Gibson Cards saw Alec’s painting and judged it perfect for their male birthday card range.

Ed is absolutely delighted, ‘I now feel that having worked behind the scenes for so long, I’m getting to take a bow front of stage at last and become a little piece of greeting card history. I hope that any Dad who receives the card will enjoy his day as much as I enjoyed that day with my family.’

Lesley Carpenter
Advocate Art
mail@advocate-art.com
Tel: +44 (0)20 8879 1166
Illustration agency specialising in greeting card illustration.
Founded as an artists' co-operative, Advocate Art retains the core principle that set us apart from conventional illustration agencies: Fairness, Ability, Creativity and Trust. four f.a.c.t.s, which enable us to attract the most creative illustrators and artists.

Label Lust Beauty: Luxury Buys

2009-08-26T01:02:00.000-07:00

Check out our edit of the cult beauty products we'd all love in our bathroom cabinet! Book out a few hours for some high class pampering with our pick of the beauty products all the A-listers love.

1. Chantecaille Lip Chic

This famous french brand have just launched a cream containing real gold! But for the rest of us, their gorgeous lip colours are slightly more attainable (and avaialable from SpaceNk!)

2. Sarah Chapman Skinesis Age-Repair Concentrate

Choc full of potent anti-ageing ingredients it's the secret beauty weapon that every A-lister wants to get their hands on!

3. Rodial A-List Cleanser

Fans of Rodial include Rachel Bilson and Kate Moss. Invest in this skin-changing cleanser to find out why...

4. Elizabeth Arden Prevage Body Total Transforming Anti-Ageing Moisturiser

It's the no-needle botox for face and body which has stars like Tyra banks tripping over themselves to rate it. From the same house as cult classic, 8 hour cream.

5. Ole Henriksen Express the Truth Anti Wrinkle Cream

Ole's treated the LA elite in his Californian clinic for years. Now his amazing products are available on counter and his signature treatments in the Shop at Bluebird spa are not to be missed!

6. Elemis Pro Collagen Collection

For products with instant active-natural clout there's only one brand to beat and that's Elemis. If you like natural recipes with proven science behind them this brand is for you.

7. Dr Bragi Face + Body Salvation Spray

Dr Bragi's high-powered products contain rare marine enzymes from his native Iceland to hydrate and smooth dry or sensitive skin. They're pricey but the results are worth it!

8. Diptyque John Galliano Candle

The kings of all luxury candles are found smouldering in swanky boutiques and bars the length and breadth of Britain. For discerning noses there's nothing nicer.

9. Lady Dior Radiant Couture Touch Up

For bling make-up there's no better brand than Dior. We're loving their most recent turbo-trinket, the Lady Dior Touch Up with shades for face, eyes and lips!

10. Creme de la Mer Lip Balm

CDLM are famous for their £100 wonder creams but even mere mortals like us can afford the cult lip balm, a snip at £34.26! Pucker up.

Sinead O'Donoghue
Look Magazine
The UK's High Street fashion mag
All the latest fashion news including celebrity fashion, fashion photos & much, much more.

Online file and retrieval (FARIO)

2009-08-25T02:26:00.000-07:00

File and retrieve information

The digitisation and retrieval of documents and records can be very complex. That's why we developed our own purpose-built platform, FARIO (File and Retrieve Information Online).

FARIO is an advanced system that enables us to operate as an extension to our clients' in-house operations, managing active files as well as archives, and routing, analysing, tracking and retrieving information.

Authorised personnel in the organisation can create, store, retrieve and use corporate records as easily as if they had been on their personal hard drive.

Locating and sharing records is possible in seconds, rather than minutes, hours or days.

Widespread use

The current FARIO system is in use at many large and geographically spread companies with tens or hundreds of different departments.

Sala is developing a new version of FARIO to provide a wider set of services and to deliver a number of improvements, particularly to the user interface.

Objectives

The objectives of the new system are to provide an easyto-use online system to manage archived boxes and files.
However, we have now included as part of the product roadmap extended services to include electronic delivery options and improved management information.

Product roadmap

Sala's current roadmap for FARIO development is:

Version 2.1: Maintain standard archive and retrieval services.

Version 2.2: Enhanced online imaging with scan on demand viewing without the requirement for third-party installation.

Features of the new versions include:
Improved system design
Enhanced login functions
Improved help information
Customised saved search
Export of search results to
Microsoft Word or Excel
Sorting of search results by index field.

Sala International is a leader in records management, document scanning & scan on demand services. Over 200 public and private sector organisations trust the care and management of over 3 billion documents to us and we currently manage over 25 million 'live' records.

We are active in a wide range of industry sectors, predominantly financial services, public sector and healthcare.

For more information:
Tel: 0845 301 3705
Email:
info@sala-international.co.uk
Web: www.sala-international.co.uk

Busy mum's guide to staying fit and healthy

2009-08-25T02:04:00.000-07:00

Sometimes staying in shape seems like a lot of hard work - follow our 10 commandments to keeping slim and healthy while juggling everything life throws at you.

1. The housework workout

Cleaning, cooking and tidying can be so time consuming - so why not turn your chores into a workout? Clench your buttocks while you iron, do squats when you're picking things up from the floor and put some music on when you vacuum and get up a bit of a sweat!

2. Walk to the shops or the kids to school

Walking is really good for you. Fit it into your day however you can, even if it's just giving up the bus or your car to get the kids to school or to pop to the local shop.

3. Portion control

Make sure you're cooking the correct portion sizes for your family and there shouldn't be any leftovers to snack on.

4. Get your eating plan right

If you're constantly trying new diets to lose weight then you need to settle on one.

Once you have a plan you can live by, it will take a lot of time and energy out of losing weight.

5. Get lots of sleep

A good night's sleep will give you loads of energy and make you feel ready to face the day, but less than 10% of goodtoknow users regularly get 8 hours uninterrupted sleep a night.

6. Boost your metabolism

There are loads of simple ways to give your metabolism a kick, and they don't all involve time-consuming, exhausting exercise. Little changes like having spices in your diet, drinking green tea and cutting out sugar.

This will help you lose weight and give you loads of energy.

7. Snack healthily

When you're always on the go, it's easy to skip meals and snack on crisps and chocolate. Make sure you always have healthy snack alternatives in your cupboards. You can even keep some in the car or in your bag.

8. Have lots of sex!

You'll like this one...

Having lots of nooky is really good for weight loss.

Sex also makes you feel good as it releases endorphins, otherwise known as 'happy chemicals'.

9. Drink lots of water

Water is great for the body as it helps flush out toxins, does wonders for your skin and can help you lose weight.

By replacing sugary teas and coffees or cans of fizzy drinks with water, you'll also be reducing your calorie in-take, too.

10. Get your five-a-day

It often feels like a real hassle trying to cram in five lots of fruit and veg into your diet every day, but it doesn't have to be that hard going.

Anna Penniceard
Good to Know
Good to Know features loads of great advice on health and food.
Be sure to checkout our new recipes section it's full of healthy recipes and cooking tips, including sections on easy recipes and quick recipes.

10 ways to a flat belly

2009-08-24T02:06:00.000-07:00

It's easy to fit into your jeans again or look great in a bikini with our easy exercise tips. So even if you're sitting down all day or rushing around after the kids we've got some great suggestions to help you flatten your belly.

1. Dance it off

All types of vigorous dancing is great for burning fat and calories - around 400 an hour - and dancing is a good workout for your waist too. Salsa, ballroom and belly dancing are particularly good.

2. Swap your chair for a fitness ball

You might feel silly but sitting on a fitness ball instead of a chair when you watch telly will help tone up your belly. You have to use your muscles, especially your stomach muscles to balance and stay on the ball.

3. Sit-ups

Yes, we know you've heard it before but sit-ups or crunches can help fight the flab. You won't see a change immediately and you may need to build up to doing 10-15 sit-ups a day. Always hold your hands by your ears rather than behind your head so you don't strain your neck or back.

4. The reverse curl

If you find sit-ups difficult try the reverse curl instead, it's just as effective but easier on the back. Start by lying on the floor, with your hands by your sides. Lift your bum off the floor using just your stomach muscles and keep your arms and shoulders on the floor. Hold for a few seconds then lower yourself back to the floor. Repeat 15-20 times.

5. Yoga

It's not just for celebs like Madonna, Yoga can be done by anyone at any level. It's great for toning all over but especially good at toning the belly because of the breathing exercises that are involved, and because it helps your posture - and good posture leads to a flatter tum!

6. Check your posture

To keep your tummy flat you need to keep your back strong too as the band of muscle around your waist also helps support your spine. So stand up straight and keep your back and stomach muscles taut.

7. Crunch and twist

Once you've been doing sit-ups for a while you'll notice that they've become a lot easier, don't give up and don't just do more, do them differently instead. Keep your hands by your ears and raise yourself up slowly then twist your body - from the waist, not your back or shoulders - and try to touch your knees with your opposite elbow, i.e. your right elbow comes up and across to touch your left knee. Untwist and go back to your starting position. Repeat on each side 10-15 times.

8. Touch your toes

If you're bored of sit-ups, try this exercise instead. Lie on the floor with arms straight up, pointing at the ceiling. Slowly curl yourself up and forward so that your hands are pointing towards your toes - and if you can, touch your toes. Then return to your starting position but do it slowly to stretch the muscles. Repeat 15-20 times.

9. Hold your stomach in

This is easy exercise if you're feeling lazy. Just holding your stomach in when you're walking or waiting for the bus can help tone your belly.

10. Could it just be bloating?

If it is, then there are loads of things you can do to get a slimmer waist, almost overnight. Swap fizzy drinks for still drinks, chew slowly and take pre and pro biotic supplements, which will increase your good gut bacteria and lessen the bloating.

Louise O'Connell
Good to Know
Good to Know features loads of great advice on health and food.
Be sure to checkout our new recipes section which includes soup recipes, curry recipes and a whole host of cake recipes including our delicious fairy cakes recipes.

Label Lust Beauty: Luxury Buys

2009-08-21T02:12:00.000-07:00

Top barbecue safety tips

2009-08-17T08:19:00.000-07:00

We all love a barbecue, but there's nothing worse than having friends over and spending the afternoon worrying about whether or not the meat's cooked properly.

Stick to these simple barbecue safety tips and you can relax, knowing you and your guests are safe from food poisoning!

1 Remove any old ash from the barbecue and use a clean grate. The grate can be heated over the barbecue and brushed with a wire brush to remove any burnt-on residue. It can be useful to lightly oil the grate before cooking any food.

2 Light the coals in plenty of time. It's best to wait for the coals to turn grey before starting to cook, which takes about 30 minutes.

3 If you're cooking a large amount of food, you'll need a good depth of coals in your barbecue to keep the heat going for long enough.

4 Take care when cooking over the barbecue. Use long-handled implements to turn food. A set of oven gloves may be useful.

5 Make sure clean plates are available for the cooked food. Don't put cooked food onto a plate that's been used to carry out raw food (unless the plate is washed first!).

6 To check the temperature hold your hand about 7cm away from the coals. You should be able to hold your hand over the coals for 4-5 seconds. This is medium hot, which is usually a good temperature for barbecuing. It's unwise to cook over very hot coals, as food will burn on the outside and stay raw in the middle.

7 Some foods, (such as sausages) may drip fat onto the coals and cause flaming. A spray bottle of water is useful to have on hand so you can spritz any flames that get too fierce.

8 It's best not to cook foods that are very thick or large. Chicken breast is best halved horizontally into escalopes and drumsticks and thighs can be part cooked in the oven before finishing off on the barbecue.

9 Try not to use a marinade with lots of sugar, honey or syrup, as the sugar will tend to burn quickly in the heat of a barbecue. Wipe off the marinade if necessary and boil down to use as a glaze as the end of cooking time.

Beth Ivory
Good to Know
Good to Know features loads of great recipes and cooking tips including chicken recipes, cake recipes and much, much more...

Busy mum's guide to staying fit and healthy

2009-08-14T18:18:00.000-07:00

10 ways to a flat belly

2009-08-12T08:17:00.000-07:00

Will you call the swine flu pandemic service?

2009-07-31T08:11:00.001-07:00

30 July 2009: Almost 3 in 4 goodtoknow users wouldn't call the national pandemic flu service (NPFS) if they thought they had swine flu, a poll has revealed.

The poll, run over the last week on goodtoknow, had over 700 responses and of those only 25.9% said they would call the NPFS phone number or use the website.

56% said they would just go to bed and take paracetamol, while 18.1% said they'd rather talk to their GP if they had symptoms swine flu.

Last week, the government launched its national pandemic flu service, to take pressure off the NHS while swine flu continues to spread.

People with symptoms of swine flu are now encouraged to call 0800 1 513 100 (or textphone number 0800 1 513 200) or visit the website www.direct.gov.uk/pandemicflu if they are worried about swine flu.

Health secretary Andy Burnham said: 'People can still speak to their GP if they are concerned. In fact - it is important to stress that people with underlying health conditions, pregnant women, and parents with children under the age of one should speak to their GP if they have symptoms.

'For the vast majority of people, swine flu has been mild. Some people find that they get better by staying in bed, drinking plenty of water and taking over-the-counter flu medicine.'

Professor Steve Field, Chairman of the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP), also stressed that there is no need to panic. He said: 'We are pleased that the message is getting through that swine flu is, in the majority of cases, a relatively minor illness.'

Last week, goodtoknow spoke to Woman Magazine's Dr Chris, who stressed that anti-viral drugs such as Tamiflu are not a cure for swine flu.Good to Know contacts:

The site editor is Jolene Akehurst jolene_akehurst@ipcmedia.com
For advertising enquiries contact kate_mackenzie@ipcmedia.com
For competitions contact mary_bird@ipcmedia.com

Editor's notes:

Goodtoknow.co.uk was set up in 2007 by IPC Media
Goodtoknow.co.uk has 550,000 unique users per month

Good to Know features lots of health advice including information on pregnancy, conception, fertility and much, much more.

Also, don't forget to checkout our great new recipes section.

Dial 0 for Fashion

2009-07-31T08:09:00.000-07:00

We remember when shopping online was ‘far out’ but now Oasis have become the first high street store to bring fashion to your phone!

Launching this week Oasis have created an application for iPhones that will enable fashion fans to view new stock daily, scroll campaign images and find their nearest store using a GPS function all at the touch of a screen.

Sharon O’Connor MD of the fashion brand says “We are very excited to be launching our new shopping application with iPhone and proud to be the first UK retailer to offer this exclusive service to our customers.”

As well as daily updates and the store finder options we love the sound of the ‘Shake Your Style’ feature where musthave Oasis items are suggested each time you shake your phone.

Available now from the App Store or online at iTunes. Shopping will never be the same again!

Bella Binns
Look
lookys@ipcmedia.com
Tel: 0203 148 5000
Fashion, fashion news & style news...

Holiday Hair Tips

2009-07-27T06:41:00.000-07:00

If you want gorgeous celebrity hair when go on holiday then read on as we have the best tips on how to maintain healthy hair even when your sunbathing and swimming.

Neil Moodie's tip for dry hair

If you're hair is already a little dry, before going on the beach put a 50p size amount of Creme De Coco on to your hair. Tie your hair into a ponytail or knot and let the sun do it's thing.

Beverly C's tip on coloured hair

It's very important to have your hair coloured before you go on holiday. Bearing in mind that your colour will fade a little, I would recommend having a stronger and richer colour.

Mark Hill's Tip on hair burn

Like skin, hair can easily burn in the sun. Get into the habit of using a protective SPF spray on a daily basis to defend the hair from damage and sun stress.

Kevin Murphy's Tip on frizzy hair

After sun bathing, if your hair is frizzy and coarse take a tiny bit of Motion Lotion and rub it through your hair, this will blend with the salt in the water and give you a bit of texture.

Beverly C's tip on heat

Heat causes havoc! Straight hair goes flat and lifeless, so apply a light serum applied to the ends of the hair only. Curly hair gets bigger and frizzier, so I would recommend using a curling balm.

Tigi's damage prevention tip

Ensure you are using a good comb to minimise damage. The TangleTeezer his a unique hair care tool that banishes tangles, it's brilliant for wet beach hair as it removes knots quickly and painlessly.

Neil Moodie's tip on sea salt hair

Sea water is always great for leaving to dry in the hair to get a beachy sexy texture in the evening. In the morning though, always rinse the sea water out and spray on some Prep spray.

Mark Hill's tip on beach hairstyles

Don't over complicate hairstyles. Plaits are one of this year's hottest trends. Best achieved on a smooth finish, first spray the hair with my Holiday Hair Anti Humidity Spray to lock out humidity.

Paul Mitchell's tip on beach party looks

If you're going to a beach party, then try bands, bobbles, clips, scarves, combs, slides and a whole lot more to make your hair look sassy and sexy.

Neil Moddie's tip on too much sun

If you're worried about the sun bleaching your hair lighter, then evenly distribute a small amount of Bumble And Bumble Leave in Rinse Out Conditioner through towel dried hair and braid it tight.

Tigi's tip on sun damage

The best way to undo summer damage is to boost moisture levels. Feed your hair with Catwalk Oatmeal and Honey Shampoo and conditoner!

Sinead O'Donoghue
Look Magazine
Fashion, beauty & celebrity style.

10 of the Best Fake Tanners

2009-07-27T06:39:00.000-07:00

Raising Business Performance

2009-07-27T04:08:00.000-07:00

In the constant search to create and sustain a high performance organisation, how do you attract, retain and optimise really great people who can deal with any transformational challenge that the turbulent “more-for less” 21st Century business world can throw at them?

Taiichi Ohno (1912-1990) is considered to be the father of the Toyota Production System also known as Lean Manufacturing - a generic process management philosophy that is currently ‘a hot topic’ in the Financial Services Sector.

‘Lean’ - as it is now more commonly known -focuses on improving overall customer value through the reduction of Ohno’s original ‘seven wastes’: transportation, inventory, motion, waiting, overproduction, over-processing and defects. But it was only recently that some ‘new wastes’ were added to this list including one which we believe should be the single biggest issue on the minds of many business leaders today i.e. the waste of untapped human potential. Research from the Performance Forum shows that disengaged employees are costing financial services companies in the US $300bn per year, in the UK the equivalent is £7bn a year. Troika’s own benchmarking surveys of both the life and pensions and investment management sectors have shown that if the weakest performers could emulate that of the strongest then this could add 42% to the bottom line. With the size of some of the numbers involved it’s clear to see that even small incremental changes can produce dramatic results.

In attempting to squeeze the most juice out of their human capital many large firms are being drawn into a talent management “feeding frenzy”, but is this the right response?

Many firms do a great - and similar - job of mapping their managers on to a nine-box matrix to define a future leadership cadre which is then often ring-fenced and exposed to a whole array of very worthy development opportunities from executive coaching and mentoring to shadowing senior executives. But is this narrow focus on developing only the leadership role and capabilities enough? What about the growing interest in management circles in the innovative concept of “effective followership”?

Most of us actually spend more time in followership roles than we do in leadership roles and...

Now just pause for a moment and type the words “leadership” and “followership” into your web browser. Then type them into your favourite online bookseller. The likelihood is that the ratio of hits will be in the region of 1000:1 in favour of leadership – or even higher. Why is this? Does that reflect the ratio of leaders to followers in your organisation today?

Your first email of the day comes from the Head of Talent Management and reads: “I am delighted to confirm that you have a choice of attending one of the following (a) the next iteration of our Business Leaders Development Programme or (b) the next iteration of our Effective Followership Programme” Which option are you likely to take? Followership may dominate our lives and our organisations but it does not dominate our thinking because our preoccupation with hero leadership keeps us from considering the nature and importance of the talented follower in the creation of high performance business cultures.

At about the same time as Taiichi Ohno was establishing the principles of Lean Manufacturing in Toyota, another Japanese industrialist - Konusuke Matsushita, the Executive Director of the Matsushita Electrical Industrial Corporation - was taunting us with these words:

“For you (in The West) the essence of management is getting the ideas out of the heads of the bosses into the hands of labour. We (in Japan) know that business is now so complex and difficult, the survival of firms so hazardous in an environment increasingly unpredictable, competitive and fraught with danger, that their continued existence depends upon the day-to-day mobilisation of every ounce of intelligence. For us, the core of management is precisely the art of mobilising and pulling together the intellectual resources of all employees in the service of the firm. Only by drawing on the combined brain power of all its employees can a firm face up to the turbulence and constraints of today’s environment”.

That quote may be almost 3 decades old now and the Japanese economy may have taken some big hits in that time but Matsushita’s words still hold a sinister here-we go again resonance because we also believe that in the crucible of the complex 21st Century business world a narrow focus on only developing select groups of “Super-beings” is a flawed me-too feeding frenzy strategy. For us, only organisations based on fluid high performing teams i.e. the combination of effective leadership AND followership in partnership can truly raise the performance bar and most importantly sustain it -and we’ve started to prove it.

Following a typical business re-engineering process, one of our clients was faced with the inevitable challenge of re-energising its middle management; those leaders and followers crucially responsible for the performance and morale of thousands of the organisation's customer facing staff. In many large companies such middle managers are often seen as "skeptical time-servers” who are blocking organisational progress – certainly not part of the talent management group of leaders.

Our client’s executive team were open to the challenge of changing their perception and started treating these managers as a valuable reservoir of "University-of-Life, common-sense experience" i.e. talent which had been neither properly tapped nor sufficiently recognised. We designed a comprehensive five step programme of over twelve days of development over twelve months that harnesses the valuable collective experience of these managers and focuses it on measurably raising the business performance bar through enhanced leadership AND followership skills, closer networking and more effective teamworking.

So far a critical mass of over 400 managers has completed the programme, which includes a before and after, web based 360º feedback process based on leadership AND followership capabilities. The performance improvements directly arising have delivered tangible business benefits of £7 million with a further £5 million expected to accrue each year.

In 2005 this programme won the Institute of Financial Services Most Innovative Training Programme of The Year award. The programme starts and finishes at The Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst where IDG has a special relationship that enables us to weave into the programme some of the operationally pragmatic leadership, followership and teamworking lessons that the army has been honing over centuries. Sandhurst is a global brand and the environment is unique; there is a pervading atmosphere of excellence, which has had an inevitable effect on previous participants who have found it inspiring and who “raise their game” accordingly.

However, the innovation is not in the content nor in the design of the programme but in the fact that it has been attended by cross-functional, cross-hierarchical teams who now have a firm belief in the principle that at the heart of every high-performance business culture is a strong belief that effective followership skills are as important as effective leadership skills.

Business is obsessed with ‘best practice’ not different practice. Is it any wonder that products, services, systems, organisations and yes, approaches to talent management are often increasingly hard to tell apart? How do you differentiate your company in this area? It has always been hard to attribute quantifiable business benefit to people focused investment. We firmly believe that this cynicism can be overcome and that the ‘permafrost’ can be thawed. Our approach, as illustrated in the example above, delivers in a way which provides more than a full return on the investment made. It took a long time for business to wake up to the need and value of investing directly in the management of talent. Sadly the journey seemed to stop there. How long will it be before the industry accounts for the potential dormant in the remaining 90% of their workforce? By tapping into the rich seam of human potential in their organizations businesses not only raise the day to day performance bar but also gear themselves up for maximizing the benefits and speed of delivery of future changes.

It is a truism that we operate in a shrinking business world, with greater competition, where organisations are still looking to do more for less in an environment that has already harvested most, if not all of its opportunities. So why would you not want to liberate the untapped human potential that resides in your organisation and do something about it?

Do you honestly know the full nature of the talent that is buried in the heart of your organization and just how much of it is being wasted? If so, what are you doing about it?

It is this question, which in Financial Services strikes at the heart of increased cost and lost competitive advantage, that the enlightened 21st Century organisation must first ask and then resolve. Where does your organization stand in this process?

These challenges are not unique to Financial Services organizations. FS companies can learn a great deal about ways to maximize human potential from the experiences of other disciplines and for this reason Troika and IDG have joined together to host a forum at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst on 29th November 2007. This event will explore perspectives of leadership in the 21st century drawing upon the best in class experiences from the military, business and sport.

Bob Jones

Inspirational Development Group

Team Leadership Training UK, Management Development & Executive Leadership Training Courses.

Is your board effective?

2009-07-18T04:02:00.000-07:00

Is your board effective? Is it providing the leadership and direction that the business needs? Is it building the organisation’s capability for the future? Is it prepared to make the big strategic bets that organisations need to make to survive and thrive in today’s turbulent markets? Is it the best available team to lead your organisation into an uncertain future?

There are far more pressures within a top team than with any other in the organisation. The top team is made up of leaders from other teams and functions and those leaders bring with them ambitions and egos which are far greater than those further down the organisation. Some of the top team will be rivals for the top job or have been passed over for the top job in the past and so may not be too favourably disposed to each other or even have a shared commitment to each other’s success.

The top team is also grappling with big problems which don’t have an obvious solution. They are looking, or at least should be looking, several years ahead and yet they are measured in the main
by the share price, dividend and the latest profit figures. Equating the effectiveness of the board with the current success of the business is like measuring a marathon runner by their speed over the first quarter of a mile.

There are all sorts of ways that a board can go wrong:

Too homogenous – too many people with the same views and the same experience and so no access to different viewpoints and too much consensus. I once heard of a board of a large insurance business who were all Scottish actuaries in their mid-fifties – consensus was easy to achieve but where was the contention between different ideas?

Too unwieldy – some boards invite so many people to act as nonexecutives that they have too big a group to effectively cohere as a team. In government, cabinets are usually large to incorporate different political groupings but the real decisions are made by a small group of senior ministers. Boards that include too many people for political purposes usually split into factions very quickly and the real work of the board gets done by the Chairman, CEO and Finance director without
oversight from the other directors.

Too remote – boards that are too cosy amongst themselves often achieve this at the expense of
remoteness from the business they are running. Boards that are too inwardly focused usually lose touch with their major stakeholders or focus on one group of stakeholders at the expense of their others.

Too divided – diverse boards run the risk of spending too much time in personal contention. Conflict around ideas and strategies is good; conflict on power plays and personal ambition is extremely unhelpful and needs to be crushed quickly. One fault-line which is dangerous is the
split between the Executive Directors, who run the business, and the Non-Executives who oversee the business. If these two groups form two different factions, then the business is doomed as investors sense the lack of confidence in the direction of the business and start to put their money elsewhere.

Too unfocused – boards need careful directing, they need to have some clear priorities where they are genuinely adding value to the business rather than interfering in an unhelpful way. They have to have their own performance measured and evaluated in the same way as other humble people further down the business.

A fully functioning board is a key factor in the growth of the organisation as a whole. Where the board is ineffective or dysfunctional, then the organisation is too. Being aware of the potential scenarios detailed above it is possible to begin to shape a board that can provide the leadership and direction that a business needs.
Bob Jones

Inspirational Development Group

Leadership Training UK, Management Development & Leadership Training Courses.

Sandhurst Challenge

2009-07-11T04:01:00.000-07:00

The Royal Military Academy Sandhurst is world famous for developing a superior class of officer.
In November, the officer training academy opened its doors to 20 delegates, including supervisors and managers from Kier, who were put through their paces as part of the new Front Line Managers course. All camouflaged up, Anthony Hewson reports on the two-day people management module.

Masked in swathes of olive, brown and black paint, eyes wide and fixed, facial muscles tensed, Jason edged a sideways shuffle along the plank. The wood bowed with his weight, nine inches from the water, then eight, then suddenly four. Left arm held tight by one of the 10-man team, while the rest of them used their combined weight to offer a counterbalance to keep him out of the single-figure temperature water below, he reached tentatively over the edge. One thrown weighted rope missed its target, and the plank bearing his body moved alarmingly, his balance almost lost. The second weighted rope hooked the suspended target rope and he pulled it within reach. A huge cheer rang out, and he moved with increased speed and tangible relief back towards the shore and safety.

The riskiest part of the manoeuvre completed, the team realigned planks and bridged the air to reach the platform opposite. Two minutes later all 10 team members were across, dry and elated. Time for a cup of water as cold as the river they’d hovered so close to, and then on to another exercise.

Cadets are sent from all over the world to train at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst (RMAS) such is the reputation of its leadership training, so where better to hone leadership skills? Inspirational Development Group (IDG) is a development and training company that has set up a partnership with RMAS to deliver business leadership courses on site at the officer training academy. IDG’s own facilitators on the course are ex-Sandhurst, and RMAS provides its own personnel to assist with courses.

A two-day pilot people management module, introduced by Kier learning and development manager Mel Lake, took place fromWednesday 1 November to Thursday 2 November. The previously separate Supervisor Development and New Manager Development programmes have been consolidated into one programme – Front Line Managers. The people management module had previously been a six-day session spent largely in the classroom.

In a marked departure from the usual training offered, this course, aimed at supervisors and first time management, meant a lot of time in the woods and training facilities of Sandhurst. Twenty delegates drawn from all over the Kier Group from various UK offices, complete strangers to one another, were thrown quickly into two teams to perform group tasks.

The four precepts of the course – plan, brief, delegate and motivate – were lessons introduced rapidly and with a distinctly dynamic and practical method. Each delegate was appointed leader of a team for a task, performed in between lengthy treks with loaded bergans. The challenges set out for the participants drew on those four precepts heavily. Time constraints meant fast and effective briefing, and planning was a necessity. Delegation proved important and as the numbing cold and sheer physical toll took effect motivation was more important than ever.

Not only were people given the chance to put their leadership skills to the test, but they had a genuine opportunity to learn from the examples set and mistakes made by their teammates. Feedback from accomplished officers on their approaches to each task enabled the delegates to analyse their own performance, and the classroom discussions and debriefs consolidated and expanded upon the lessons learnt in the field.

One delegate had expressed severe doubts about another classroom-based course “where you drift off, don’t get to know anyone else, and don’t get anything out of it”, and it was only more detailed information on the course’s content that persuaded him to attend. On day two, as we stood shovelling scoff while awaiting a briefing on the outskirts of the woods, he was all restless anticipation. “It’s been great… it’s been interesting and challenging.” But have you learnt anything? “God yes, there are such strong characters here I didn’t think it could work, but we got to know each other quickly, and I think we’re all learning from each other.”

I spent my afternoon largely with Bravo team, one member of which was Stacey Burton, a buyer from Kier Build. He was effusive with praise for the course, both on the day and when I spoke to him the following week. As we shuffled in the cold he told me he “felt richer for the experience”, a choice of words I felt spoke volumes about the value of the course. Speaking to him the next week he told me he was “a different person to the one who arrived on the course.”

Participants spoke about the importance of learning to delegate, something easily forgotten, and taking what the military calls a ‘condor moment’ – when one steps back and looks at the entire operation to get an oversight.

What’s more, while the focus of this course was the development of people management skills and leadership, the side-effect of selfless teamwork was on constant display. As Stacey put it, “I’ve never felt anything like it for camaraderie.” Of course every team leader is also a team member, and the teams genuinely drew together. Some moments were undoubtedly gruelling, and as Natalie Jones, print room supervisor at Marriott, said: “The guys were fabulous. If we dropped behind at least one of them was always there to support and help us.”

Brendan Cannon, a managing surveyor at Kier Build felt the motivation was extremely strong, and that the teams made noticeable improvements throughout the course. “We proved in the earlier challenges that we didn’t communicate well enough, but the improvement with each challenge just showed the value of decent planning and briefing.” Preliminary tasks had resulted in a free-for-all of thoughts and actions, but with each new task came improved communications and planning. Finally teams were being bisected to brainstorm separately, comparing plans, discussing merits and pitfalls and taking decisions in a freeflowing fashion.

Arduous and draining the course may have been, but the overwhelming majority of participants felt they had drawn a tremendous amount and, what’s more, would be able to put that knowledge straight into practice.

Bob Jones
Inspirational Development Group
Team Building, Team Building Management & Team Leadership Training.

How to Save Money and Make Your Small Company Appear and Become BIG!

2009-07-01T06:42:00.000-07:00

As any business owner will know, your company's image is absolutely crucial to its success. Whenever a potential customer makes a buying decision, this is made as much on who is selling as on what is being sold!

Whether you are providing a service or a product, if you don't already have much competition (in which case, is there a demand?), you soon will have - and unless your company is moving forward, it is definitely moving backwards.

Many entrepreneurs I've spoken to in the past will tell me how they had to pay THIS MUCH for such and such and THIS MUCH for something else where, with a bit of research, huge savings can be made and these savings can then be churned back into cashflow; the lack of which is the number-one cause of most small to medium businesses which fail. However, when it comes to ensuring that you can meet your client's expectations it is essential that your 'value for money' purchases are not replaced by 'cheap'!

For example, you're planning to make an important IT hardware purchase that will be business critical and you find 2 suppliers; one can seemingly offer the same solution but at a fraction of the cost of the other however, whenever you call to find out some information, there is nobody to answer your calls for you. How would this make you feel? Particularly if 3 months after purchase you had problems and couldn't get hold of your supplier to rectify it. The value of your lost business could far outweigh the original cost savings and the damage to your business's reputation could be irreparable.These thoughts will be going through your customer's minds when they are making a purchasing decision (even if it is low value - it still could be of huge importance to their needs) and that's why ensuring that your business conveys a consistent, professional image is not just important to your company's success, it is absolutely essential.

That's not to say that you have to spend a fortune in order to present a professional image but make certain that you do concentrate an element of budget and time to ensuring that you have the fundamental resources in place. Essential requirements in today's market include a professional looking website (this is your shop window) - which doesn't have to be extremely complex; just ensure it appears professional, illustrates clearly what you do and invites your customer to act.

Also a means of ensuring that your phones are always answered by a real person during opening hours by someone who understands your business is absolutely key - what is the cost of a missed call to your business? But how can you visit clients, make sales, attend meetings and still ensure that there is always someone there to ensure your telephones are answered without the cost of hiring full-time staff. One flexible and cost-effective solution is to use a business phone answering service who will answer your calls for you, at a fraction of the cost of hiring staff and without the burden of an ongoing overhead of staffing and similarly the headache's of covering holidays, sick-leave etc.

And when you have your customers, do your very best to retain them; Good customer Relationship Management (CRM) databases can be bought 'off the shelf' for less than £100 and are an extremely valuable tool in keeping track with your customer's ongoing needs, issues and so much more. It's essential not to become complacent with existing customers but need to keep winning their business through excellent customer service!

However, even if you have the best website in the world and the most amazing telephone answering service, the most fantastic IT system and support and all your potential customers have a fantastic impression of your company from the word go, unless you have a high quality product/service and are able to deliver on your promises your customers will rapidly disappear.

And one final piece of advice that I once read and try to live by in running my business is that in today's competitive marketplace just being "good" is simply not good enough!

Andrew MaKenna

Best Reception

Telephone Answering Service & Virtual Reception

For further information about our call answering services visit the Best Reception website.

White Wash

2009-06-17T04:49:00.000-07:00

From Kate to Kylie, celebs are working the white stuff.

A whiff of sunshine and suddenly, white is the hottest shade this side of Summer!

Over the weekend Kate Hudson sported a classic ivory dress and floppy sunhat at the Manhattan Polo Classic and galloped off with the best dressed award, despite Chloe Sevigny looking tres chic in a cream shorts and jacket combo by her namesake designer. Sadly the Aunt Sally straw hat ruined it for us.

Kylie stepped out in a sweltering London yesterday in a cute broderie dress and lilac gladiator heelsshowing that you don’t need a deep tan to work white successfully. Meanwhile, playing the casual card, Cameron Diaz was spotted in a voluminous white cardi and tank accompanied by another, you guessed it, straw hat.

The high street is awash with white hot hits but our faves have to be this lace shift from Warehouseand Next’s fold detail dress – the latter wouldn’t look out of place on Diane Kruger , we know she’s partial to a LWD – little white dress. Along with the trend for white denim, this summer’s shaping up to be the brightest yet. Somebody pass the sunglasses…

Bella Binns
Look
lookys@ipcmedia.com
Tel: 0203 148 5000
Top of the pile of UK fashion magazines. Look has all the latest fashion news. Checkout the fashion website...

Free outdoor fun for Kids

2009-06-15T09:25:00.000-07:00

Keeping the kids entertained can be hard work - and expensive. Here are 7 great outdoors ideas to help you spend quality time with your kids - from toddlers to pre-teens - for free. Enjoy!

1. Go on a welly walk

Ages 2-10. Great for wet weather.

There are few things kids enjoy more than being allowed to jump in puddles and get wet. So ignore the weather, pull on your old clothes and boots and get outside and do some puddle-jumping.

2. Take photos

Ages 5 and up. Great to inspire their creativity.

Go for a walk and let your kids loose with a digital camera.

Let them take snaps of anything they want while your out. If they're having trouble, maybe point out some good opportunities for them as you go.

You never know, you might unearth a real talent for it.

3. Get on your bike

Ages 5 and up. Great for family bonding.

Not only is going for a family bike ride a lot of fun, it's also a great way for all of you to stay active.

Make sure everyone is wearing helmets and visible clothing and if at all possible, steer clear of big roads. Go for parks and woods as the main part of the ride.

4. Wild in the country

Ages 2-12. Great for nature lovers.

Go looking for nature with a romp along some public footpaths or nearby woods.

Looking out for animals and insects is always fun for kids and if they spot free food in the form of berries, then it's often pretty exciting.

Many woods also have education centres which will teach your kids even more fun stuff about the trees and what lives in them. The Forestry Commission has more information with their Woodlands for Learning programme.

5. Get some animal magic

Ages 2-10. Great if you don't have a pet but they want one!

As we spend more time in towns and cities, our kids spend less time in the country and close to nature.

There aren't many kids who don't enjoy petting and stroking animals and there are lots of city or school farms up and down the country that are free. Your kids can even sign up to become a volunteer if they love it.

6. Make stencils and rubbings from nature

Ages 3-10. Great to get them thinking differently.

Take a piece of paper and a coloured pencil or crayon and go out into the garden, or on a walk in the park.

Find something that will make a nice pattern with a textured surface, tree bark, letters on grave stones, leaves, concrete paths, and get the kids to put their piece of paper over it and colour in with their pencil.

When you get home you can talk about the patterns they've made. You could even use the art work as wrapping paper or as presents for friends and family.

7. Make mud pies and magic mixtures

Ages 3-7. Great if you want to leave them to it.

If there's a spot in your garden you don't mind the kids digging in, give them a bucket and some water and leave them to it! Children can spend hours pretending to be witches, cooks, mums...

Beth Ivory
Good to Know

Good to Know's family section features lots of parenting advice.

From tips on conceiving a baby and how to enjoy the pregnancy, through what to do in those first few months, advice for controlling toddlers and coping with your children as they reach school age and puberty, we've got it all.

Childrens Furniture: Guidecraft USA & Cosatto.

Cable & Wireless - Keeping pace with fast change

2009-06-13T14:17:00.000-07:00

Senior managers needed specific skills training to maintain the momentum built up by C&W's period of fast growth. The result? A programme called Accelerate. Mary Carmichael explains.

The Challenge

"Cable & Wireless (C&W), Europe, Asia and US has been through a transformation in the past three years," says Caroline Burgess, the telecoms company's learning and development manager. (See HR, Interview, November, 2008). "Business has been growing fast and we want to keep building on this momentum." The company recognised that mid- to senior managers were crucial to this and wanted to make sure both new and existing managers developed the skills to manage teams through a period of change. It called in management training consultancy Inspirational Development Group (IDG) to help develop its Accelerate programme, a modular, part-residential course. IDG's partnership with the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst and its ability to make use of the facilities there made it especially appropriate.

The Programme

The programme consists of three two-day residential modules, each four to six weeks apart, which take place at Sandhurst. The 24 participants in each intake work together on some activities and on feedback sessions, but they are also divided into groups of eight. Theory and discussion is combined with problem-solving outdoor activities, all of which involve teamwork. The groups may have to work out how to negotiate an obstacle or be blindfolded and guided, for example.

The first module covers understanding the role of the manager and there is a strong personal awareness element: participants have to look closely at themselves in their role and work out where they need to improve. The second and third modules anchor and extend this learning by looking at methods, such as coaching and mentoring, that can be used to get the best from their team. A fourth module designed to be done after a three to six-month gap may be added to the course in the future.

The course is applicable to around 650 of C&W's 6,000 workers who are spread across Europe, Asia and the US. So far, 150 have completed the programme or are in the middle of it.

The Results

It is hard to get statistics measuring success but Burgess says the anecdotal evidence is excellent. "We use a 360-degree feedback tool, with input from the participant, their line manager and their team," she says. "And we visit the groups at Sandhurst and have dinner with them to get immediate responses. We also do coaching sessions and one-to-ones. It's not a static programme either; it is constantly evolving; it hasn't been identical for any two groups because so much is driven by their input."

The HR Director's View

Caroline Burgess is learning and development manager at Cable & Wireless. "We needed a practical, core management development programme to provoke different ways of thinking and to equip managers with skills they could apply immediately to their jobs," she explains. "IDG's military connections added value and the fact that the modules take place at such an impressive place as Sandhurst is a real plus point too." The 150 people who have taken part in the course are extremely enthusiastic about the programme, she says, and there is even a waiting list to go on it. It has proved to be a good way of getting to know people from other parts of the business. "Participants have come from all over the business and from other countries and they form close bonds. The connections can help in a practical sense too," she points out. "One told me he had had a problem that he expected would take him two or three weeks to resolve. However, he phoned someone he'd met on the programme and got it sorted in an hour."

The Employee's View

Marcus Houghton is commissions manager at Cable & Wireless. He was in the pilot group for the Accelerate programme and is a highly enthusiastic advocate. "The programme has been great and Sandhurst is such a motivational place," he enthuses. "You learn to assess what sort of a person and manager you are, and how to improve. The activities really break the ice and the feedback is useful for working out how to change whatever didn't work. The 'sheepdog' task particularly stood out." This is the part of the programme where all the team except one are blindfolded and spread out around a field. The one who can see has to guide everyone into a pen but is not allowed to speak. "My group had an awful first task," he recalls, "but we worked out a way of doing this one in record time. It's not about the right or wrong way though; it's about learning new ways and about the process. You build up a support network throughout the business with the other participants too, which makes hearing the - very honest - feedback easier."

Bob Jones
Inspirational Development Group
Team Leadership training, team building management & corporate executive coaching.

Wild Risotto Recipe

2009-06-11T13:34:00.000-07:00

This colourful risotto makes an excellent healthy dinner party main course if served with salad - and it's easy to make a vegan version, too...

Serves: 4

1 l/1 ¾ pints vegetable stock (you may need more)
10ml/2 tsp olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
375g/12 oz arborio rice
150ml/5 fl oz dry white wine
15g/1/2 oz dried cep mushrooms
/1/2 oz butter (or vegan margarine, if making the vegan recipe)
225g/8oz mixed wild mushrooms, sliced
100g/4oz wild rice, cooked
50g/2oz Camargue red wild rice, cooked
50g/2oz vegetarian pecorino cheese (optional - omit for vegan recipe)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

1. Bring the stock to the boil in a large saucepan and keep it simmering.

2. Meanwhile, heat the oil in another large saucepan and fry the onion until soft and just starting to colour. Add the arborio rice and cook for 2 minutes, stirring all the time.

3. Pour in the wine and cook for 5 minutes. Start to add the stock using a large ladle. Cook gently, stirring regularly and making sure all the stock has been absorbed before adding the next ladle full. This should take about 25-30 minutes .

4. While the rice is cooking, cover the ceps with boiling water and soak for about 15-20 minutes. Drain, reserving the soaking liquid and chop. Heat the butter/vegan margarine in a frying pan and quickly cook the sliced wild mushrooms for about 5 minutes. Add all the mushrooms to the rice together with the two cooked wild rices and the reserved soaking liquid. Add a little more stock if necessary and heat through thoroughly.

5. Remove from the heat and if using, stir in the pecorino cheese. Season to taste and serve immediately.

Top tip: The liquid from soaking dried mushrooms is full of flavour. It is a good idea to strain it through fine muslin before adding it to a dish as there can be a gritty residue from the mushrooms.

Louise O'Connell
Good to Know
Good to Know features loads of recipes. Checkout our quick and easy recipes and our great selection of healthy recipes.

Understanding your teen: 10 dos for parents

2009-06-09T02:01:00.000-07:00

How many frustrated parents are left seething after yet another row which ends with their teenager slamming out of the room?

Here are 10 ways to help you understand and deal with your teen.

1. Have a clear boundary between your parent role and your friend role

You can be a friend to your child but sooner or later your parent role will clash. A teen should be able to tell a friend anything without being judged and parents just can't do that because they care too much. Be a good friend, but remember, kids can find friends anywhere. Good parents are extremely rare.

2. Be involved

This means being there even when it isn't easy or convenient and when they aren't interested in having you around. It's about knowing what's going on in your teen's life, heart and mind, and being there so they'll come to you if they're in trouble.

3. Make your teen accountable

It's your responsibility to prepare your teens for life. Teach them that if they want a certain lifestyle they have to put some effort in to achieve it. It's not about money, it's about responsibility, independence and being able to stand on their own two feet. Give them an allowance for jobs, but don't pay them if they don't do what they're supposed to. That's teaching them how the world works.

4. Listen to them

This means listening and understanding, not hearing and judging. Even if they're argumentative or disrespectful, don't interrupt. Try to get the message that's underneath. Often it's a cry for help. Remember, you're the grown up.

5. Explain yourself

If you explain your reason for making a decision, you'll help them to know how to make good decisions themselves. For instance tell them you want them home by a certain time because after that the streets aren't safe. Even if they don't respect it now, they will as adults.

6. Stand up for your teen

Back them up. They need to know you're behind them.

7. Tune in

Know what music they're listening to and everything they're involved in.. the names of their friends (and their parents). Check out their bedroom and downloads. If you don't you're shirking your responsibilities.

8. Be flexible

It's good to have rules, but if there are exceptional circumstances, it?s OK to bend them.

9. Share your interests

Shared interests mean you understand each other better. You learn together and share experiences. Believe it or not your teen wants to have some connection with you besides arguing over the car keys.

10. Keep talking even when they won't listen

This is a secret, but teens do listen to their parents. Even when they're yelling, your words do stick. Tell them what you think about smoking, drugs, sex and it will get through, even if it looks like it hasn't. If you don't, you're neglecting them.

Jay McGraw
Good to Know
Good to Know features lots of parenting advice including information on how to talk to children and a everything else you need to know when raising a family.

How to Save Money and Make Your Small Company Appear and Become BIG!

2009-05-27T01:45:00.000-07:00