Peter Hughes
Agri and Family Business Consultant; Farmers Weekly columnist
The festive season brings a great opportunity
The end of the year provides a unique opportunity to build team spirit, motivation and loyalty in your team. Use it, writes Peter Hughes.
Preventive maintenance saves you time and money
Poor maintenance is not only costly and disruptive, but dangerous. There is only one way to deal with it: set up a preventive maintenance system and stick to it, says Peter Hughes.
Best strategy and management practices
Business books provide a wealth of guidelines for business success, but are often too complicated. Raynor and Ahmed boil it down to three essential rules, says Peter Hughes.
ChatGPT: hero or villain of the 4th Industrial Revolution?
If you haven’t been following the drama accompanying the release of ChatGPT, you’re not paying enough attention to the current surge of technology. Tune in or you’ll soon become obsolete, says Peter Hughes.
Solid defence: the secret of success in rugby and in business
Running a business is like playing rugby: you can barge in without a plan, but you do so at your peril. Strategies for attack and defence are crucial, with the latter arguably being more important, says Peter Hughes.
Financial literacy is vital at work and at home
Financial literacy is not only essential for any ambitious business manager to master. It’s a critical life skill for building a successful and happy family and home life, says Peter Hughes.
Profit: an unreliable concept that results in confusion, or worse
Profit is a concept that cannot be trusted. It’s difficult to calculate and provides an ideal way of manipulating figures, so beware of those who habitually use the word, warns Peter Hughes.
Money talk is good talk
Financial literacy and intelligence are crucial life skills for personal and business success. If you believe ‘talking money’ in public is bad manners, you will hinder development of these skills, says Peter Hughes.
Time to say goodbye to bad habits
To truly excel at what we do, we need to achieve excellence over and over again. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence is thus not an act, but a habit, and it’s one that every manager needs to cultivate, says Peter Hughes.
If you have a brain, you’re biased
Despite what we might think, all of us have biases. Some are hard-wired into our brains; others are the result of our life experience. Know the difference, and do something about them, says Peter Hughes.
Eschew obsfucation and ‘keep it simple, stupid!
‘Complexity’ results from success and growth. ‘Complication’ is the way we choose to deal with it. Peter Hughes explains how managers and staff can streamline and work smarter.
Make 2023 your own ‘good to great’ year
There’s no management problem that hasn’t been faced before. Lessons from these issues are at your fingertips on the Internet and in many publications; use them and have your best year yet, says Peter Hughes.
Kill your pessimism before it kills your business
No matter how good a situation is, pessimists are unable to escape their negative outlook on life and will only see the pitfalls ahead. They have no place in a growing business. Keep them out, says Peter Hughes.
Tech is taking over. Are you embracing the changes?
Incredible new technologies emerge almost daily, providing great opportunities for those who have the courage to exploit them. In contrast, those who ignore these advances face great risk, says Peter Hughes.
Great managers can work miracles
The secret to success in any organisation is almost invariably quality management. Finding the right people and developing these skills in yourself and your staff is priority number one, says Peter Hughes.
Great agribusiness intelligence at your fingertips
If you want your agribusiness to thrive and expand, you need to know what the future holds for your industry. BFAP’s agricultural outlook reports give you the knowledge to plan your future, says Peter Hughes.
Dealing with strikes and violence: the toughest job of all
When facing labour unrest, you have to manage the situation carefully. This can be extremely difficult, which is why it’s so important to get professional help to manage the situation, says Peter Hughes.
Beware the Peter Principle
Don’t act without careful consideration when identifying employees for promotion. If you carry out your homework diligently, you should be able to avoid tears and recrimination, says Peter Hughes.
Used properly, ‘idle time’ isn’t wasted time
Creativity has had more impact on the world than any other human trait. We all have it, but some nurture it better than others. Creativity blossoms when we give ourselves ‘idle time’, says Peter Hughes.
You can’t wing it with staff succession and development!
A promotion based solely on ‘gut-feel’ can prove disastrous. I know; I made this mistake years ago. It damaged our organisation, my confidence, and the lives of a man and his family, says Peter Hughes.
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