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Why is the Archbishop of Canterbury getting involved in debates about business?

Archbishop Justin Welby tells firms - pay your taxes - BBC News

The Archbishop insisted he is not "anti-business", saying that on a recent visit to Coventry he saw how a revitalised car industry had created jobs and local wealth.

"Business is important, we need to affirm the significance of those who generate and create wealth," he said.

It seems an odd time to embark on sermons and public debate about commercial business concerns as we ramp up for a general election and with all the spin doctoring going on from various parties.

Does he really want to be seen dragging the church into political debates, or be seen to, even if its mistaken?

Just seems a bit odd to me 

In an era of 24 news and a continual stream of doom and gloom, war, misery and moaning, wasn't it great to have a good news story for once.

ie The fundraising page set up by Katie Cutler to help Alan Barnes, the disabled pensioner who was attacked in his home.

Although her aim was to try and raise £500 for him, she can't have imagined what the response would be as people from around the world donated, with donations approaching £300,000! 

Local businesses and tradespeople have also offered to help with practical help. The money will be put into a trust fund for him. Warm cosy glows all round 

Full story BBC News

Just shows no matter how good your idea, if a big boy thinks you are stepping on their patch, things can get messy.

Nokia has got heavy with a London based technology company who have launched a personal assistant app called HERE. 

"Here helps you tell people where you are and easily tell people you have arrived"

www.lowdownapp.info

But Nokias argument is that they have invested a fortune in rebranding Nokia Maps to HERE which provides location services data for the likes of Amazon, Garmin, BMW and Oracle, as well as map services for Windows smart phones Android operating systems.

So what do you think? Is it fair for Nokia to bully a small company like this over the use of a generic word? Is this trademark infringement as Nokia has claimed, ie the use of the word relating to computer software or an app?

Certainly food for thought if you are thinking about Trademarking a word or phrase, or if a particular word is key to your brand, find out if you can use it!

But whatever happens, it's been great publicity, so every cloud... 

So McDonalds has a Brit taking over the helm of the McEmpire, Steve Easterbrook. Looking at his bio on the BBC news site, he has lots of previous history with the group as former president of McDonalds Northern Europe, before stints running Pizza Express and Wagamamas, then returning back to McDonalds.

But the bit that made me smile is his marketing and PR approach.

"Launching a petition to change the dictionary definition of the term McJob as a dead-end job..

He took on Eric Schlosser, author of the bestselling Fast Food Nation, in a fierce debate on the BBC's Newsnight, and then set up a website to answer questions ranging from working conditions to animal welfare, as well as more curious enquiries such as "is there any pork in your gherkins?"

...He took a canny approach to the criticism over the firm's environmental conduct, by campaigning for the Prince's Rainforest Project."

Full story BBC News

So he's obviously very aware of the image problem fast food has in this modern obese world we live in where the NHS has to buy bigger stretchers and wider ambulances 

Be interesting to see what initiatives and marketing campaigns he launches to convince us how healthy a Big Mac is and if the McJob is something to aspire to rather than a stop gap.

I think we can expect a Brand refresh, or maybe lick of paint in the near future. Must admit, not a McDonalds fan food wise, (as opposed to the other half) but last time I was in, they seemed to be pushing healthier stuff like wraps and non burger stuff. I wonder how far they can push this while keeping their identity. Or will new generations of kids always want a Big Mac?

Was trying to work out how many awards they do. Has to be about 40 different nominations x 100 different business sectors x by every Country on the planet.

That's an awful lot of judging and dinner functions!

Buried in the blurb of their website I saw this great line..

While we offer packages to help the winner promote their achievement, there is never any commercial requirement and further, no award can be guaranteed by payment, only by merit, sheer determination and hard work...

So with the sheer volume of nominations, can't believe it's taken 10 years for the world to realise how brilliant I am. Just need a promotional package now to convey that message

Received this email last week:

It is with great pleasure that I can announce that My Local Services has been nominated in our prestigious 2015 Business Excellence Awards.

Over the past two months we have been encouraging specialist nominations on a global scale, reaching out to over 500,000 global professionals worldwide...blah blah

All we require from you at this stage is to reply to this email simply stating "I Accept my nomination".  We will then come back to you with the next steps.

Please note that there are no costs involved in accepting your nomination or if you do go on to win an award and that email is sent for information purposes only. However, we do need your reply to move forward...

Scam radar went into full power mode so spent a good 3 minutes googling before making my mind up.

It seems this company are a professional awards company. In fact looking at their website, they have an award for every occasion, every position in a company, and just about every kind of industry! Oh and it seems to run in every country as well

and it goes on, and on.....

But to be fair, there is some money to be made in awards:

But there do seem to be plenty of companies that are happy to show off their awards and obviously proud to receive them. I've no doubt there is a cost at some point, even if its an overpriced award ceremony.

Or am I just being a cynical grumpy and ungrateful git? 

Blimey doesn't bear thinking about!

It's an interesting subject, if anyone has time to fill out Wills survey. He's allowed to add his link here as was invited and it's not self promo 

Is a genuine favourite, won't give too much away, but a master class in sales patter / scam

Well I did wonder stranger!

Sounds interesting, looking forward to hearing your progress