Stick your go-pro

18 Sugru Holiday Hacks

/in , /by

If there’s one thing we know, it’s that you guys never stop fixing. Turns out Sugru-ers don’t switch off their hacking and repairing instinct, even when they’re away from home or on the road. Whether it’s mending a damaged zip on a suitcase, fixing broken sunglasses, or even hacking a GoPro to capture your adventures in new ways, Sugru seems to come in handy wherever you are, whatever you’re up to!

Here are a bunch of clever little ideas from the community…

SUGRU TO THE RESCUE…WHEREVER YOU ARE!

1. Fix your sandals

The last thing anyone needs is for something to break while you’re away — like your sunglasses or your sandals falling apart just as you hit the beach. That’s when Sugru can come in very handy!

2. Make a go-pro mount to capture unforgettable moments

There’s a definite trend of Sugru-ers making their own DIY GoPro poles — and they’re using them in some epic places! Here are more ideas on how to hack your GoPro, plus a tutorial on how to make your own mount.

3. Take your music anywhere you go!

Make your music sound better outdoors using Sugru! By making your speakers magnetic, they’ll sound better everywhere – from the park to the beach.

Find out more here.

Rugby Expo

Rugby Expo Returns To Coventry With New Format

/in /by

Rugby Ventures Ltd., the management team behind Rugby Expo, has confirmed Rugby Expo is returning for its second consecutive year to the Ricoh Arena in Coventry on Wednesday 08 November 2017.

A new format, designed to more effectively support and engage those from the professional and community game, will see the conference and exhibition combined into one extended day, providing attendees with more than 12 hours packed with high-level discussion and debate, interactive coaching content, partner events and a busy exhibition showcasing the latest rugby-focused products and services.

New for 2017, Rugby Expo will officially open on the evening of Tuesday 07 November, with an exclusive networking event for VIPs, sponsors, exhibitors, delegates, club & league representatives.

The morning/afternoon will be focused on the professional game, before attention switches to community club rugby, with this year’s event running into the evening to support those attending from the grass roots game.

Rugby Expo 2017 will also have a greater focus on interactive content, with sessions offering expert opinion, practical demonstrations and take-home advice from a playing, coaching and technical perspective, to further engage with the volunteers at the heart of the community game.

Commenting on today’s announcement, John Hockey, chairman of Rugby Ventures, said: “We are delighted to confirm our return to the Ricoh for 2017 and to share our vision and plans for the new-look Rugby Expo.

“Now in its ninth year, the event is very well-established, but we are always looking at new ways in which to refresh and reshape our offering to further support and engage both sides of the game.

“We’ve listened to feedback from past attendees and key stakeholders to help form our plans for 2017 and the response so far has been very positive. The changes that we’re implementing will not only support those attending from the community game, but will ensure that we continue to deliver the big names, hard-hitting content and unrivalled networking opportunities that Rugby Expo is known for.”

Read more here.

Communication

Stop treating communications as an afterthought

/in /by

Companies too often make decisions without thinking about what their real impact will be. Public announcements become lessons in damaging their own brand rather than protecting and building it. The damage is done because communications are not fully considered.

Just take the recent example of the ‘Singhbury’s’ vs ‘Morrisinghs’.

A decision made by Sainsbury’s to protect its name and brand by threatening legal action against the owner of the local shop featured in media across the world. It is not that the decision was ‘wrong’ but it was communicated in a way that made the company look distant and heavy-handed. Morrisons, on the other hand, grabbed the media opportunity with both hands and welcomed the shopkeepers ‘good taste’.

The situation for Sainsbury’s was only protected from further damage as the shopkeeper said he understood their position. If he had been more damning then the reputational impact would have been even worse.

But time and again decisions made by one part of an organisation, many apparently sensible, have an adverse impact. Instead of thinking about communications from the outset, the relevant teams are only used when it comes to sorting out the mess. The ‘communications team’ then has to become the ‘crisis communications team’ trying to get the company out of a hole of its own digging.

Read more at here.

A big 4D welcome to the team

/in , /by

Peter Bleeze

Peter is an IOSH Charted Health and Safety Consultant with over 20 years’ experience delivering H&S Consultancy and training. Accredited to deliver and assess over 60 distinct areas, Peter has a wide range of knowledge and hands on experience across small and large companies, multiple sectors.

Ed Tapp – Lead Consultant 

Ed has over 10 years’ experience in logistics and manufacturing with, particularly within large FMCG companies. His specialist areas include: supply chain, inventory management, manufacturing, project management and systems & software optimisation, where he is able to evolve the latest innovations and ideas into a client’s existing systems.

Ian Barclay – Executive Consultant

Ian is a highly motivated leader specialising in operations, technology and people. This is comes from more than 25 years of distinctive experience across varied sectors including advanced industries (automotive, aerospace, defence),  financial services, chemical industries, and healthcare, with a portfolio of 100 plus transformational engagements. These achievements are based on a solid foundation of world leading operations and business consulting from Toyota and McKinsey and holds a 1st class honours degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Salford.

Find out more about our team.

Health and Safety

No greater way to show respect to your people

/in , /by

At 4th Dimension we have always advised and encouraged our clients to install and manage an effective Health & Safety system as the foundation for any business transformation.

Clearly you have a legal compliance responsibility but beyond that there is no greater way to show respect to every individual and organisation associated with your business than to create a safe, healthy environment in the workplace. If you can install and manage consistently an effective H&S process this will enable you, and give you confidence to, transform other operational and business processes.

That we believe is enough of a compelling reason to involve experts in supporting you to develop your H&S system. In the busy day to day pressures of managing a business it is all too easy to allow these processes to slip and therefore using a consistent external resource can ensure vigilance and improvement is maintained. Our case study and these examples from the HSE support that view:

The last set of published figures for UK covering a full year.

• 1.3 million working people suffering from a work-related illness

• 2,515 mesothelioma deaths due to past asbestos exposures

• 144 workers killed at work

• 72,702 other injuries to employees reported under RIDDOR

• 621,000 injuries occurred at work according to the Labour Force Survey

• 30.4 million working days lost due to work-related illness and workplace injury

• £14.1 billion estimated cost of injuries and ill health from current working conditions (2014/15)

Add to this the risk of any sort of prosecution as illustrated in a recent case:

“Engineering company fined £40,000 after worker suffers hand injury.”

Whilst using a manually operated metalworking lathe, the employee’s hand became entangled with the rotating workpiece. This incident resulted in the worker later requiring surgical amputation to part of his left index finger.

The company failed to identify that employees were routinely carrying out an unsafe work practice when hand applying emery cloth to a workpiece rotating at speed. The HSE report stated:

“The company also failed to take the faulty lathe out of service, resulting in the employee not being able to stop the lathe immediately. All companies have a duty to ensure employees carry out work in a safe way and the machinery they are using is in good working order.”

Read our case study here.

Business transformation

Digital transformation is just business transformation

/in /by

The trend for businesses to adopt a strategy to drive digital transformation is out of control. Here are 5 steps to ensure you drive the change your business demands.

Everywhere people turn there are digital transformation projects popping up and people being given the shiny new title of digital transformation officer. But let’s get one thing straight: what these businesses are attempting to do isn’t really about digital first and foremost. It’s actually about the necessity of transforming their business model.

This is really hard stuff though, particularly for legacy businesses and it’s why, all too often, the problem is pushed to the edge of the business through the creation of a digital transformation team. It’s the wrong approach as it’s akin to burying your head in the sand and hoping a problem will go away.

>See also: The robots keep rising as AI-driven business transformation evolves

Here are five simple steps to help ensure you drive the type of digital transformation that will also transform your business.

1) Get real

The first and most important step is to be realistic about what can and can’t be changed. Every business is at a different stage of evolution and you need to be clear about where your own organisation currently sits.

Evaluate what skills you have in house, determine where the gaps are, be clear on what is already working and what is not. To draw an analogy, if you were about to train for a marathon, you’d work out how fit you were for it and gauge how much training is needed before the day of the race!

2) Set goals and communicate them

Once you understand your starting point, the highest levels of the organisation needs to be clear on what they want to achieve. Is it to reinvent the business completely? Be faster to market? Transform the customer experience?

>See also: How businesses can transform through tech innovation

This can’t be left to a team outside the business’s strategic core. Instead, set up a transformation team that is empowered to drive the right strategy towards clear KPIs. Then be very directive by telling your employees why and how you are going to transform. And, most crucially, make sure they understand their role within it.

3) Cultural change that drives transformation

The biggest challenge with transformation is the employees’ ability to cope with change. So accept immediately that some of your people won’t manage to cope with the transformation and they are therefore probably not right long term for the business.

The good news is that a significant majority of your people will be motivated and excited about how the business is changing. However, they need to see the change in culture and process to reflect how the business is changing.

And that needs to come from the top with strong, executive communication (in fact over communication is no bad thing!); leadership needs to stress why change is happening and how it will succeed. Just as importantly, practices and processes also need to evolve. Words alone will not be enough to change a culture from the ‘old way’ to the ‘new way’.

>See also: Legacy technology holds back companies keen for digital transformation

4) Be symbolic to prove you are serious

In any change process, certain things need to happen that symbolise the change and herald a departure from the past. For example: the appointment of a totally new manager to represent the change that is happening. Or changing staff incentive schemes to match the new direction. I’ve even seen some organisations change their dress code to reflect the kind of business they want to become.

5) Measure, measure and then measure some more

The challenge with change is that it needs to be continual. After all, reinvention doesn’t happen overnight and it certainly isn’t a finite process. But understanding, and measuring, the progress of transformation can only happen if you regularly review progress on your initial KPIs.

>See also: Building an innovative business by transforming digitally

Be rigorous and honest about how you are performing against those KPIs; what’s working and what’s not. Where can you speed up and where may you need to slow down. And, as ever, communicate this back to the business so that everyone understands where on the journey the business currently is.

Success in today’s economy is predicated on one thing: the ability to transform quickly and efficiently to meet competitive pressures and satisfy customer need. Cope with this pressure and you have a strong change to drive growth.

Shy away from it or fail to address it and your business will struggle. The five simple steps above provide you with a framework to have at worst a fighting chance of being successful, and at best a foundation for true transformation.

Find out more here.

Sourced by Rob Mellor, GM for UK, Mainland Europe and EMEA, WhereScape

Sweatshop

Workers need legal protection, not voluntary standards

/in , /by

An international standard for health and safety may sound like a good idea, but the current proposals could let many workers down, argues Hugh Robertson, senior policy officer at the TUC.

Hugh Robertson, Trades Union Congress

The International Standards Organisation (ISO) is developing a standard, called ISO45001, for the certification of employers’ health and safety management systems. However, the standard has been met with strong opposition from international employer and union bodies on the basis that this matter should be dealt with through social dialogue and through regulation.

They also believed that international standards on labour issues were a matter for the International Labour Organisation (ILO), which has developed 13 conventions on health and safety that have been agreed by trade union, employer and government representatives.

A new draft of ISO45001 has recently been published, and is out for consultation with voting taking place between 19 May and 13 July. Last year, an earlier draft was rejected following criticism from a number of countries and organisations, including the European Trade Union Confederation. Despite considerable criticisms of the overall structure and content of the first draft, the second draft does not make many substantial changes and few of the criticisms of the structure have been addressed.

Read more here.

Teledyne E2V, Chelmsford.

Chelmsford-based e2v acquired by Teledyne Technologies for £620m

/in , /by

E2v Technologies, an electronics manufacturer, is set to be acquired by Teledyne Technologies for £620m.

Under the terms of the deal, e2v’s shareholders will receive 275p in cash for each share, a premium of 48% on the startup’s closing share price on Friday.

Based in Chelmsford, e2v manufactures imaging sensors, camera solutions, components and sub-systems for application in various sectors including aerospace, space, defense, healthcare and communications.

Neil Johnson, chairman of e2v, commented: “Teledyne has recognised the value inherent in our business and prospects by making a cash offer at an attractive premium to the share price. The board of e2v has also considered the merits of being part of a larger, complementary group with enhanced scale and a wider range of capabilities to service its key customers and management and employees having access to the opportunities available in a larger group.”

“The board of e2v is therefore unanimously recommending e2v Shareholders to vote in favor of the acquisition,” he added.

Teledyne, which is based in California, also provides instrumentation, digital imaging products and software, as well as electronics and engineered systems for the aerospace and defense industries.

 

Read more here.

England Rugby

England Rugby reaping rewards of player pathway

/in , /by

As Max Malins was sending over a late penalty to send England into the World Rugby U20 Championship semi-final in Georgia, several hundred miles away Tom Curry was learning he will make his senior debut against Argentina on Saturday.

Curry was part of the England U20 team that sealed a Grand Slam earlier this year and he will become the youngest England starter since Colin Laird in 1927 when he takes to the field in San Juan at the weekend.

As head coach Eddie Jones looks to build towards the 2019 World Cup, Tom is joined in Argentina by four other members of this year’s Under 20 Elite Performance Squad, including brother Ben, while Nick Isiekwe and Jack Maunder are in line to make their international debuts off the bench on Saturday.

Jones sees the tour of Argentina as the perfect opportunity to increase the depth of his squad and give experience to previously uncapped players.

“What I’m looking to do is improve the squad and I feel these young guys can take the squad to a new level,” said Jones.

“We’re looking to discover the best young talent in England and see how we can bring them through. To win the world cup we need to have the best and that is our ultimate aim.”

Meanwhile, England U20 continue their quest in Georgia to defend their World Rugby U20 Championship title. Despite being without those five players as well as losing four to injury during the tournament they have still advanced through to the last four. This is just a small indication of the work done by the pathway performance programme to increase the strength in depth of English rugby.

“This is a truly exciting time for English rugby,” said Rugby Football Union chief executive Ian Ritchie.

“With five players away in Argentina and having sustained injuries to several players in their opening three matches to make the semi-final is a good achievement. Credit must go to the fantastic work done by the pathway coaches to grow the strength in depth at all levels.”

Read more here.

Brockwell Park

Sugru’s city guide to finding community gardens

/in , /by

Get your hands dirty and learn new skills at your local community garden

So you want to get into gardening. Why wouldn’t you! It’s a fun weekend hobby, can be a cheaper way to add fresh fruits and veggies to your diet, and studies have shown that it’s a great way to reduce stress and improve mental well being.

As a city-dweller, you may be thinking that gardening is a privilege only reserved for those lucky few with access to their own outdoor spaces, but cities have ample opportunities to get involved in community gardens. And this certainly doesn’t mean waiting two years plus for an allotment!

Whether you’re simply looking to get your hands dirty and spend some time outside, learn more about gardening, or you’re looking to give back to your local community through volunteering, there are plenty of activities for you to take part in.

Here’s Sugru’s rundown, from London to LA, of the best community gardening programmes near you.

Find out more here.