TV ads reflect the culture we come from, but sometimes they don’t make us look good. From the dangers of women driving to smoking Flintstones, here are four ads from past decades that would never be run today

A shroud has no pockets. (Scotland) No one is a blacksmith at birth. (Namibia) The absent always bears the blame. (Netherlands) One cannot make soup out of beauty.

Even the most fundamental change rarely happens overnight – indeed the biggest changes are often irreversible because they have crept up announced.

Some of your prices are too low. Some customers would pay more, and there are times and places where you could charge more.

I listened to a mature marketing consultant on Radio 4 the other day, a man keen to insist he was as fit as anyone half his age, so there.

For any executive, the first 100 days (F100D) of a new role are fraught with anxiety.

The greatest businessmen throughout history understood – almost instinctively – what people would value and why, and then delivered it as simply and as easily as possible.

Even great companies lose their way. Consider Procter & Gamble. By the late 1990s, P&G was one of the best known, most successful and most admired companies in the world.

From the vision of Apple to the insight of Zara, the passion of Nike and the customisation of Dell, today's leading brands think and act differently.

In may 2005, Coldplay's single 'Speed of Sound' went straight into the top ten of the US charts – the first time a British group had achieved this feat since the Beatles with 'Hey Jude' 37 years before.