Blogs

Blogs

Meirc’s blogs are meant to be fat-free write-ups on topics which are of interest to our clients and web-site visitors. These blogs are useful when you wish to get an update on a field you follow or when you are looking for a bite-sized article that you would like to refer to or learn from. If you wish to enquire about our products and services, please visit our Contact Us page

Must Have Skills to Become a Successful Administrative Assistant

Jul 14 2019

Administration and Secretarial

As an inexperienced secretary, I hated taking notes and writing minutes – I’d rather have thrown myself downstairs! However, as I progressed to more senior roles, I eventually got the hang of it and have, since 2000, been helping other PAs and administrators to resolve their concerns. Here are some hints on the skills you need: Being good at taking notes You should have ...;

Co-active Coaching

Jun 27 2019

Interpersonal Skills and Self Development

When I first heard about the co-active coaching concept, I was curious about how this differs from the “regular” coaching I am used to implementing in my daily tasks as a consultant and a facilitator of various types of training sessions. Therefore, I decided to investigate the topic in depth. What I learned, and am planning to implement in my co-active coaching career, builds on t...;

The Importance of Boilerplate Clauses in Commercial Contracts

Jun 27 2019

Legal

I have been training UK lawyers and international lawyers in the area of business and commercial law for over a decade and when we discuss commercial contracts, they all find the topic of boilerplate clauses in commercial contracts most interesting but unfortunately, the reality is that boilerplate clauses tends to get overlooked by commercial parties. So, what are boilerplates clauses?...;

How to Effectively Manage an IT Crisis?

Jun 23 2019

IT Management

When I speak to other IT managers about some of the problems I have encountered, they look at me as if I am from another planet. How could one person have been involved with so many crises? Didn’t you ever ask yourself, David, if you were the common denominator? They could be right, of course. As one former boss said to me, “Just because you are paranoid, doesn’t mean people aren’t out to ge...;

Achieving Cyber Resilience within Organizations

Jun 12 2019

IT Management

I do not for one moment feel that any professional would argue that we are not facing a time of digital instability in our interwoven words of business, social media, or when we utilize some form of online service. It may be that the associated risks manifest as some cloak covered communication, with a must-read attachment sent from a LinkedIn member, who for some reason does not even posses...;

How to Improve Your IMC Plan with Social Media

Jun 11 2019

Marketing and Sales

When you have a business, it’s important to inform the world about it. But how you do it, can make it or break it. An Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) plan acts like a blueprint of the specific ways your company will transmit its message, and what it will say about itself, its products and services. The IMC plan must not be set in stone. It needs to evolve like any other marketi...;

The Construction Project Delivery Process

Jun 11 2019

Construction Management

When I deliver training courses for construction project teams, one of the key messages that I try to get across is: “It’s no use getting the small details right, if you don’t get the big details right” Recently, our family was watching a wonderful movie called Mousehunt and this piece of advice was encapsulated beautifully. In this story, Ernie and Lars Smuntz inherit an old ...;

Traditional versus Agile Projects

May 28 2019

Project Management

“Is there a standard project management approach that works for all projects? When should we use agile project management? Is agile project management applicable only for IT projects? What is the “right” project management approach?” These are some of the most repeated and confusing questions some project managers struggle with when they are first introduced to agile project management. Typical...;

The Importance of Current Knowledge and Awareness in Cyber Security

May 26 2019

IT Management

When delivering the Meirc Certified Cyber Security Specialist course under the PLUS Specialty Training division, it is essential that we provide our attending participants with the very latest information on the state of Cyber Threats, and of course to offer them robust advice and knowledge on the latest products and services with which to mitigate and manage the associated state of ‘insecurity’. ...;

How to Strive for Continual Improvement within IT

May 15 2019

IT Management

Most large companies use ITIL as the process framework for their IT operations. ITIL was in fact created at the end of the 1980’s, so something like 30 years ago. Even version 3 was first released ten years ago with its emphasis on the service life-cycle. And given this long-standing commitment to service, you would imagine things have only got better. So, why is it that business users don’t...;