Something for the weekend
Pie Eyed and perfect at 150
Notts County fan and real ale lover Eric Jackson, of Keyworth, has earned a place in the histories of beer and football by coming up with a perfect name for the world’s first real ale brewed to celebrate a football league club's 150th anniversary.
His 'Pie Eyed 150', from Castle Rock Brewery, has been brewed and gone on sale at the Meadow Lane ground as well as at pubs across Nottingham and the East Midlands to help mark the milestone in the history of Notts County. As part of his prize, Eric toured the brewery and added hops at a vital stage of the brewing process. As a guest of Notts County, he helped the club's chairman, Ray Trew, launch the beer before the club's first home game of 2012.
For Eric, this is his first big competition win. "OK, I've had a couple to tenners on the Lottery; but this is beyond my wildest dreams to enter a competition at the club I love and end up naming this beer. All the better as I've been a real ale fan since I started drinking; I think it's good for you," he said.
And all that jazz
There seems to be no shortage of role models for the busy manager – Thatcher, Branson, Churchill. There’s even a handy little manual called Jesus: CEO. But according to academics at Warwick Business School the best way of running a company would be to, like, pick up a sax, and blow, daddy-o, blow.
Professor Mike Humphreys of Nottingham University Business School has been researching how jazz giants ran their teams. Apparently Duke Ellington's laid back approach to musicians' foibles was the price he paid for talent, but he had partners who stayed with him for decades.
Miles Davis preferred creative tension, hiring musicians who didn’t know each other because relationships hampered innovation and improvisation: if it worked, brilliant. If not, start again. Meanwhile Art Blakey was a father figure, intent on bringing on young musicians, was concerned about decorum and behaviour.
"Talent’s not easy to manage," says Humphreys. "To what extent do you accommodate wayward behaviour? You have to give freedom and space, but direct in subtle ways so the end result comes together harmoniously."
So next time you hear your offspring deafening the household on some overloud guitar, console yourself that it's just a bit of management training. Honest.
Tomorrow’s world
Patients in Swadlincote are set to benefit from a speedier medication dispensing service as a new pharmacy is officially opened in the town.
Brennan's Pharmacy, situated within Swadlincote Surgery on Darklands Road, has invested £125,000 in a 'state-of-the-art robotic' dispensing system, which will reduce waiting times, improve patient safety and give pharmacy staff more time to spend dealing directly with patient requests and concerns.
Kevin Brennan, director of Brennan's Pharmacy, said: "The new robotic system is extremely efficient. Pharmacy software processes the prescription and the highly accurate robot performs the time-consuming and often tedious task of counting pills, filling bottles and labelling prescriptions.
"It doesn't cut down on the number of staff but simply frees them up to respond more effectively to patients' needs."
The future – today.
