News in brief

Education and employment secretary David Blunkett told business chiefs at the 40th Anniversary Ashridge Lecture that they should make full use of the competitive advantage of the English language in the knowledge economy. He also mentioned that the government intends the UK to be “the best place in the world to trade electronically”, as currently 80% of websites are in English. Another priority is to have a million SMEs trading online, according to Blunkett, with the Small Business Service supporting this by providing online information.

New economics are enabling progressive and imaginative organisations to prosper, while those unwilling or unable to change are finding life more difficult, according to a report from the Butler Group. The survey, E-markets – colonising the emerging digital economy, examines the e-market’s business environment, providing information and analysis for business and technology managers looking to formulate commercial strategy for their organisation. To order a copy of the report, or a management summary, visit butlergroup.com.

In our careers feature on change management last month, we mistakenly referred to Partners for Change as People for Change, and co-founder Mark Smith as Mike Smith. Apologies all round.