• Knowing who is in charge is the key to success
    Tuesday, 27th July 2010
    DRAGON’S VIEW
    JULIE MEYER
    Twice in the past month, I’ve got back in touch with businesses with husband and wife teams at their core. In both cases, the businesses are doing well, and my hesitancy to not get involved because... [Read more]

  • Fast-growing SMEs are vital for UK’s future
    Tuesday, 20th July 2010
    DRAGON’S VIEW
    JULIE MEYER
    TO a fascinating lunch on Friday at Lombard Odier with Paul Marson, its chief investment officer. He believes that sovereign debt levels will force European welfare states to downsize. Is this a good... [Read more]
  • Think inclusively and watch people help you
    Tuesday, 13th July 2010
    JULIE MEYER
    This past week saw the departure of my good friend, Richard Titus, who had been chief executive of Associated Northcliffe Digital (AND) within the Daily Mail and General Trust (DMGT) empire. I... [Read more]
  • Doing well can be the best way to do good
    Tuesday, 6th July 2010
    JULIE MEYER
    Dambisa Moyo, author of Dead Aid: Why Aid is Not Working and How There is a Better Way For Africa, and I met for breakfast recently. Dead Aid argues that aid to Africa is hurting Africa and should be... [Read more]

  • Thinking more inclusively can boost business
    Tuesday, 29th June 2010
    JULIE MEYER
    Every entrepreneur I have ever met, and that’s quite a few, has expressed on some level exasperation with the public for not getting what they are bringing to life. The best ones focus on... [Read more]
  • Fortunes can be made in times of austerity
    Tuesday, 15th June 2010
    DRAGON’S DEN
    JULIE MEYER
    PEOPLE who come from poorer backgrounds with little money have a huge advantage in creating something of value: the only way is up. That was the assessment of John O’Connell, the founder of Britain’s... [Read more]
  • You can’t beat learning through experience
    Tuesday, 8th June 2010
    DRAGON’S VIEW
    JULIE MEYER
    TEN years ago in late May 2000, boo.com, one of the earliest fashion retailers, which went through an obscene amount of money, was shut down. Between March 2000 when lastminute.com went public,... [Read more]
  • The Labour Party needs to find a new name
    Tuesday, 1st June 2010
    DRAGON’S VIEW
    JULIE MEYER
    THERE’S a saying that goes something like this: “Anyone who wasn’t left wing in their youth, doesn’t have a heart; but anyone who isn’t a conservative as an adult doesn’t have a brain.” The process... [Read more]
  • Successful people help the next generation
    Tuesday, 25th May 2010
    DRAGON’S VIEW
    JULIE MEYER
    CAMERON’S campaign message about the Big Society didn’t exactly electrify the masses. But I wonder if that’s because it’s already happening, and he just had the good sense to hold up a mirror to what... [Read more]
  • Entrepreneurs must dive into the Blue Ocean
    Tuesday, 18th May 2010
    DRAGON’S VIEW
    JULIE MEYER
    I HAVE just got back from the Forest of Fontainebleau, where I celebrated the 50th Anniversary of Insead, the institution that awarded my MBA in 1997. I am still marvelling at the Insead co-founders... [Read more]
  • Young entrepreneurs are hope for the future
    Tuesday, 11th May 2010
    DRAGON’S VIEW
    JULIE MEYER
    LAST Friday night, I spent the evening in Hatfield House – one of my favourite UK historical sites as Queen Elizabeth I is my hero – with the top entrepreneurs of the University of Hertfordshire,... [Read more]
  • A Lib-Lab coalition would be bad for business
    Wednesday, 5th May 2010
    DRAGON’S VIEW
    JULIE MEYER
    I can’t vote in this country, but I can pay tax, so I feel that that gives me some right to share with you my feelings and those of more than a hundred leading entrepreneurs in the UK as the... [Read more]
  • Start-ups secure funding as recovery kicks in­
    Tuesday, 27th April 2010
    DRAGON’S VIEW
    JULIE MEYER
    For those of us on the ground building businesses, a new reality is emerging as the recovery sets in. Ariadne has won funding for five companies in 2010 including Everyclick, which has secured a... [Read more]
  • A message to entrepreneurs: do not give up
    Tuesday, 20th April 2010
    DRAGON’S VIEW
    JULIE MEYER
    TWITTER, which has raised more than $100m (£65.3m) in funding, recently unveiled a series of business models at its first investor conference, Chirp. Biz Stone, one of the co-founders of Twitter,... [Read more]
  • A big state can’t do it all
    Tuesday, 13th April 2010
    DRAGON’S VIEW
    JULIE MEYER
    A GOVERNMENT big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have,” so said Gerald Ford, 38th President of the United States in August 1974. “... [Read more]
  • The Budget was impotent
    Tuesday, 30th March 2010
    DRAGON'S VIEW
    JULIE MEYER
    IT was fitting that in the week of the impotent and Kafkaesque Budget, I would end up at the “Business Not as Usual” conference. It is a summit organised by the National Student Enterprise... [Read more]
  • Darling and Cameron slug it out
    Thursday, 25th March 2010
    The chancellor was dull, but the Tory leader won no City friends
    Jeremy Hazlehurst
    LISTENING to Alistair Darling speak for almost an hour was never going to be an exciting experience, but yesterday he was political diazepam. At one point I expected the whips to come round handing... [Read more]
  • We must choose either fairness or freedom
    Tuesday, 23rd March 2010
    DRAGON'S VIEW
    JULIE MEYER
    ALTHOUGH we are becoming more connected, more empowered by digital devices and more able to control our lives with technology, we are also becoming more nannied, more kept by the state. Shouldn’t... [Read more]
  • Entrepreneurs are helping firms of tomorrow
    Tuesday, 16th March 2010
    DRAGON'S VIEW
    JULIE MEYER
    TEN years ago, at the time of the euphoric dot com boom and bust, we were a “Digital Island” of sorts. The dealmakers were a relatively tiny segment of society: those who saw that the internet was... [Read more]
  • What business can learn from the Avon lady
    Tuesday, 9th March 2010
    DRAGON'S VIEW
    JULIE MEYER
    LAST week I spoke to a convention of Avon sales representatives about being an “accidental” business person. The theme seemed to resonate. Many in the predominantly female audience were achieving... [Read more]
  • All-girls schools lead to bright businesswomen
    Tuesday, 2nd March 2010
    DRAGON'S VIEW
    JULIE MEYER
    EARLIER this week, I met a new friend for breakfast – an M&A man for some of the biggest media executives. He told me all about his daughters; one will represent the UK at the Olympics, while... [Read more]
  • Business models now matter more than sales
    Tuesday, 23rd February 2010
    DRAGON’S VIEW
    JULIE MEYER
    When I was in my late twenties, I had a baptism of fire while trying to establish the Power PC chip as a new industry standard. In early 1992, IBM, Apple and Motorola announced that they would be... [Read more]
  • Diversity is a great asset if managed properly
    Tuesday, 16th February 2010
    JULIE MEYER
    Love means never having to say you’re sorry. Or so the 1970s film Love Story, starring Ali MacGraw and Ryan O’Neil, famously claimed. I never agreed with that sentiment then – and I still do not... [Read more]
  • An investment gap is hindering UK start-ups
    Tuesday, 9th February 2010
    DRAGON’S VIEW
    JULIE MEYER
    A thriving technology sector is a key driver for success against the background of a weak economic recovery and an ongoing debate about the relative values of the service economy and declining... [Read more]
  • Davos is outdated as power is redistributed
    Tuesday, 2nd February 2010
    Dragon’s View
    Julie Meyer
    So you didn’t go to the World Economic Forum in Davos this year. Me neither. Been there, done that, got the T-shirt. As Davos coverage spun through the media again this year, I wondered whether those... [Read more]
  • Forget Cadbury, entrepreneurs will save UK
    Tuesday, 26th January 2010
    DRAGON’S VIEW
    JULIE MEYER
    OCCASIONALLY on a Friday night as I review the remains of the week, I wonder why I put myself through it. Last week, one of my portfolio companies nearly hit a wall, and I had to coach the existing... [Read more]
  • Entrepreneur gathering gives views on 2010
    Tuesday, 19th January 2010
    DRAGON’S VIEW
    JULIE MEYER
    LAST Thursday, 260 delegates braved the cold to come and hear leading entrepreneurs, politicians and think-tank leaders share their views at the 6th Entrepreneur Country Forum, which had the theme “... [Read more]
  • Tech-savvy entrepreneurs want less government
    Tuesday, 12th January 2010
    DRAGON'S VIEW
    JULIE MEYER
    AT the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last week, new smartphones, e-readers and tablet PCs were unveiled. Although the event was over 5,000 miles away, it’s worth considering the implications... [Read more]
  • It’s still possible to build a business in a recession
    Tuesday, 22nd December 2009
    DRAGON’S VIEW
    THOSE of us who were there in the early part of this century when Alastair Lukies was walking the streets of the City of London with his vision for Mobile Money can remember the days before the banks... [Read more]
  • The government should learn from entrepreneurs
    Tuesday, 15th December 2009
    DRAGON’S VIEW
    Julie Meyer
    REGARDLESS of their social class, the thing that unites most of the people that I work with is the aspiration to use their lives to build something amazing. Many of the people I deal with have... [Read more]