Updated 10:42am 11 February 2012:

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Bill Midgley

Bill Midgley

How come you can't get a bus from Team Valley to Newcastle?

There is a danger at this time of the year in becoming something of a holiday bore, as we tend to recount with somewhat rose tinted spectacles our all-too-brief summer experiences in far flung parts.Read

Bill Midgley column

The problems facing far too many businesses over the issue of Directors and Officers Liability cover, far from going away, have become ever more challenging.Read

EU 'Utopia' should be taken with large dose of salt

It is a well known Government ploy to leak contentious areas of policy as "thinking about", listening to reactions and deciding whether to go ahead with what has been leaked as a basis for new legislation.Read

We need to do more to help ourselves

During the course of the past week a group of tourists to the region made a short visit to one of our outstanding small coastal towns in Northumberland.Read

Helping out can bring dual benefits

The number of appeals which are made to companies to assist with community associations and charitable needs seem to be on the increase.Read

Bill Midgley column

The relationship which any business has with its workforce is naturally vital to its success.Read

Bill Midgley column

Once upon a time a group of prominent individuals formed a committee and decided they would set up an exhibition to demonstrate the wealth and energy of their own country to the rest of the world.Read

Time to harness skills of older workers

Among the endless stream of surveys that fall upon our desks was one indicating that the number of people in employment over the age of 50 is now increasing.Read

Excuse me, it's Mr Midgley to you

As is no doubt the case with many people in the business world, I receive a great deal of unsolicited post, and I am intrigued by the way in which companies who send out such correspondence address their recipients.Read

Reputation can be destroyed in seconds

Two small events in recent weeks have brought home just how short-term is the thinking of many organisations.Read

Until we break the tape we're all losers

As with many people, I am a poor loser, believing the individual who considered it more important to take part than to win was an inevitable loser.Read

Brian Tora column

It would appear that crime against business is yet again on the increase.Read

Small firms can beat the giants on customer service

The problems I experienced a few weeks ago when trying to buy some new gardening equipment have prompted some interest.Read

Vital lessons to be learned from history of the Concorde

Tucked away in last week's news was the rather saddening report that Concorde is to be withdrawn from service this autumn.Read

I never knew why Saturday was flat cap day

The recent tribunal case regarding alleged discrimination against a male employee who would not wear a tie causes me some not inconsiderable fascination.Read

Bill Midgley column

I read reports to the effect that the insurance industry is booming. I presume these are references to that part of the industry that does not include pensions or endowment business, given the well reported difficulties of those particular products.Read

Put the customers back on their thrones

In spring a young man's fancy turns to thoughts of whatever, but someone slightly older starts to concentrate on the garden.Read

How to convince ministers of red tape's dangers

Whenever two or three businesspeople are gathered together there is inevitably one topic of conversation to which their combined minds are directed.Read

Business News

It came as something of a surprise to realise that I have been writing these few words now for some four years, probably matched also by the surprise that I shall be celebrating my silver jubilee shortly as a resident of the North-East of England.Read

Far too many rules - is it any wonder so few want to play?

In what now seems the dim and distant past, I used to enjoy playing rugby. It was a simple game, really, until the introduction of a whole range of rules which made the game so complicated, that unless one had played it from birth, it became almost impossible to understand.Read

Author Profile

Bill Midgley is a Cumbrian-born businessman, who spent most of the first 30 years of his life in Yorkshire, has long been a high-profile figure in the North East business community. His career in financial services began as a 16-year-old with the Midland Bank in Huddersfield and eventually led to him spending two decades with the Newcastle Building Society where he was chief executive and latterly executive vice chairman, before retiring in 1998. He has continued to expand his business and charity interests both regionally and nationally and is a high-profile media commentator.

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