Entrepreneurs and leaders must become managers and embrace management when they want to achieve something - when, metaphorically, they want to build ‘great big ships’. They must work with their people and help them excel, not demand performance and dismiss when that does not follow, or the relationship otherwise sours. Here's why - but take care, some managers may find that the truth in this offends.

Why would any manager grant his or her workforce flexibility in when and where they worked? Just think about it. Flexibility suggests that the manager doesn't know when or where the worker is working. Put that way, flexible working is nonsense. But analysis of what the manager gets back suggests huge returns for the firm. It just takes a bit of trust.

An assessment centre is where a number of candidates participate together, undertaking exercises as selection tests while being observed and rated by multiple assessors. The candidates are effectively in competition. Assessment centres can replace interviews and a host of other tools as methods of employee selection but they are misunderstood and controversial. Here's why.

There’s no rule about how many people one manager should have reporting to them. For effective leadership the leader must build the dyadic relationship with every follower. If the manager has too many direct reports his or her leadership will weaken while too reports with too much time on each few stifles. So what's the ideal reporting structure?

Managers can find it extremely attractive to ‘employ’ foreign staff resident abroad. Engaging workers in foreign countries is complex. In many cases it is better to trade at arms length through business to business agreements, paying against invoice. But that won't suit many firms, particularly where they have constraining upstream contracts. They must employ workers locally. Here are all the issues.

At some stage it will be right for those who start the firm to stop, close it or transfer it to someone else. It will be time to Turn! Turn! Turn! But how should this be done and over what timescale? The answer to this conundrum is to develop an exit plan, and the sooner the better after start-up. At least if a plan exists, it can be revised year by year.