What's on the web

Citation

(2007), "What's on the web", Strategic Direction, Vol. 23 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/sd.2007.05623aag.001

What's on the web

Top sitehttp://money.cnn.com/magazines/business2

“A new Web revolution is picking up steam, and the next Google or Microsoft could emerge from the companies that are in the vanguard.”

“Breaking down the Web into small, portable pieces is the smart trend that everyone from Nokia to Google is betting on.”

“What’s cool: 4 professionals on the business tools they can’t live without.”

These are just a few of the stories that led a recent edition of Business 2.0 Magazine. This online news and features site from CNN has succeeded in doing what most others fail to – offer useful, informative content to businesspeople of all kinds, in a lively, readable and easily-found format. The site is necessarily a little US-centric but is otherwise brilliant.

Be therewww.bcentral.co.uk

bCentral is powered by Microsoft so therefore is promoting Microsoft products. However this is a well laid out and comprehensive site containing information on marketing, starting up a business, and people management. It provides some useful details regarding business law, with an excellent “questions answered” section. The site’s interactive features are fun and informative, and include a glossary of technical terms, acronyms and jargon.

The newsletter archive is particularly good with articles including “how to build a website”, “setting up blogs”, and “tips for business success”. You do have to register to receive their monthly newsletter but both registration and the newsletter itself are free. Alternatively you can just check back through the archives for previous newsletters. They also offer free fortnightly security bulletins. This site is definitely worth half an hour of your time.

East is eastwww.apmforum.com

The Asia Pacific Management Forum’s Asian Business Strategy and Street Intelligence online magazine “provides a unique strategic view of Asian trends by providing exclusive analysis and research articles, on-the-street columns, and targeted links to other sources”. The articles are written in the style of short stories which can make extracting the information a bit difficult. However they do make for fascinating reading, with a combination of Asian history, traditions, and sayings used to put strategic points across. The site gives advice on conducting business in Asia and contains some gems concerning etiquette and taboos. For example: “It is usually wiser for foreigners to employ older persons as Japanese interpreters – even when their English-language proficiency may be less than that of a recent university graduate (who may have studied abroad). The greater social status of the older individual will often more than compensate for a lesser ability in English.”

It also provides a business news portal although this can take a while to load. Give this site a go especially if you have any links with Asian business. Oh, and check out the “Rat Droppings: Asian Business Culture and Gossip” for amusing satirical reviews.

Who’s responsible?www.csr.gov.uk

This is the government’s website on Corporate Social Responsibility and has the “ambitious vision for UK businesses to consider the economic, social and environmental impacts of their activities, wherever they operate in the world”. CSR concerns all businesses and this website covers various relevant issues. It contains press conference summaries, speeches, the latest news updates, impending legislation, government initiatives, and outlines government projects and programmes. As may be expected the articles are rather dry, but they do offer some good advice on CSR practices. It also provides several good links to other related issues such as Business in the Community, and information on recent summits. Unlike some government sites it is not too overburdened with information, and its contents are concise and relevant. A well thought out and useful site.

Advicewww.onlinebusadv.com

Online Business Advisor has the modest (if slightly improbable) goal of becoming the best business advice site on the internet, targeting small business owners, managers and supervisors. It offers free business advice on; training and information on managing people, sales management, profit enhancement, marketing, strategic planning, business planning, and customer service.

The site is well presented but its content is lacking. Although what it does have is good, there isn’t enough information, the article layout is dull, and it puts far too much effort into promoting its sister site (a book purchasing site). The “quick tips” link is excellent though and offers some sound advice and guidance on dealing with people management. So it has potential but needs to offer more.

And finally

Dirk Stiller has just set up an academy in Dortmund to teach Germany’s captains of industry that being funny – specifically, being funny in a British kind of way – can win new business and boost profits. “Foreigners are often appalled at the serious lack of humour among German professionals”, he says. “People worry about laughing and this can affect a whole company”.

Thanks to The Humour Business on http://money.guardian.co.uk

Contact uswww.emeraldinsight.com

For a particularly interesting and useful site you could always try the Emerald one! And if you have any favourite (or otherwise) sites that you would like us to review on these pages, please drop us an e-mail and we will submit them to our reviewers’ usual rigorous analysis.