Work/Business

Below you will find a selection of the most recent entries from bloggers in our Work/Business section.

To view the entries from individual bloggers, click on the links below:

Claire Doole - Claire Doole Communications

Claire is a former BBC correspondent and international spokeswoman who is passionate about helping people communicate with confidence. Since 2006, she has successfully trained hundreds of professionals in the art of presenting and public speaking, talking to the media, managing communications in a crisis, and writing for the web. In addition, she has coached C-level executives and public figures to give powerful TEDx and TED style talks in Europe and the Middle East. A Swiss and UK national, Claire trains and coaches in French and English.
Elizabeth Ballin - Life Coach

As a long time member of the international community in Geneva, Elizabeth Ballin has been coaching adults and students from all parts of the world. She has coached business professionals, musicians/artists, couples, families and adolescents. She is a fully accredited Life Coach by the International Coaching Federation. Elizabeth Ballin, Life Coach
Patrick Hoza - US Tax & Financial Services

Since 1990, Patrick has many years of experience with US individual expatriate taxation under his belt, including High Net Worth Individuals, streamline/voluntary disclosure filings and tax consulting, as well as working with large multinationals like Novartis, BP, Hewlett Packard and General Electric. He has extensive knowledge in serving both US expatriates and resident and non-resident aliens with their US tax-related issues. Patrick Hoza is a Tax Director at US Tax & Financial Services, with extensive experience in all aspects of Individual US tax and Expatriation, including Hight Net Worth Individuals and large multinationals.

Patrick started his career in 1990 in California, with Westpro Ltd., as a Senior Tax Consultant, then spent the middle part of his career working at KPMG and Ernst & Young. During his time with Ernst & Young, he worked and lived in Russia, France and finally Switzerland. He has gained a valuable working knowledge of the respective income tax regulations in all of these countries.

Patrick holds a B.A. in International Relations from the University of Colorado, is a member of the National Association of Enrolled Agents and is a Certified Acceptance Agent.

Melitta Campbell - Business Coach
Business Coach and Mentor with nearly 3 decades of business experience and a passion for helping women confidently build a business they love. She is also the founder of the Swiss Entrepreneurs Club and president of the Swiss Riviera Toastmasters Club in Montreux. Originally from Wales, she now lives in Montreux in a chalet she has renovated with her husband overlooking the Swiss Alps.
Sunita Sehmi - Walk The Talk
Founder of Walk The Talk, Sunita has been training, developing and now coaching Business Communication skills in both companies and educational establishments for over twenty years. She has a passion for helping people to maximise their potential and created Walk The Talk with the sole aim to drive each and every client to perform their best.

Robert Harris- Forth Capital
With over 25 years experience working for some of the major financial institutions in the City of London, Robert is a founding partner of Forth Capital, the leading expat financial advisory company in Switzerland. Regulary quoted in newspaper articles and magazines, he is well placed to advise expats on a variety of financial issues that may arise during their time living in Switzerland.

Debbie Croft - Croft Coaching
As the founder of Croft Coaching, Debbie has a passion for helping people overcome challenges, embrace change and live life to the full; with an ethos of “work hard, play hard”.
Sarah Santacroce, https://humane.marketing/coaching

Areas of Expertise: Conscious Business Coaching, Humane Marketing, LinkedIn

Sarah Santacroce is a Conscious Business Coach for Coaches and service-based solopreneurs, founder of Humane Marketing and author of Marketing Like We’re Human, Selling Like We’re Human, and Business Like We’re Human. Since 2006 in marketing, entrepreneurship, and conscious business coaching, she’s supporting changemakers worldwide through workshops, programs, and her signature Conscious Business Coaching. Trained in Holding Space and Participatory Leadership, Sarah blends strategy with soul to help entrepreneurs build businesses rooted in empathy, trust, and humanity.

Sarah has been a guest on nearly 100 podcasts and has been podcasting since 2016. Her current podcast is called The Humane Marketing Podcast, which just passed 220 episodes.

Diana Ritchie - SSC Sàrl
A Director at Swiss Career Connections, Diana will provide you with some useful tips for job hunting.

: Published: 11 September 2025

By Claire Doole, www.doolecommunications.com

Geneva brands itself as the humanitarian capital of the world. Its ecosystem of UN agencies, international organisations and NGOs contribute to what is known as “International Geneva”. Yet since the arrival of President Trump in the Oval Office, international Geneva has been facing an existential crisis.

Many of these organisations depend heavily on US funding – in some cases it accounts for up to 25% of their budget. On top of this European donors are shifting development budgets to military spending and the UN has itself launched an initiative - UN80 - to downsize in order to be more efficient.

In these uncertain times, leadership communication is more important than ever.

Heads of organisations are having to make tough decisions on the programmes they cut, the contracts they don’t renew and the people they fire. According to local media 30,000 jobs are expected to go.

In times of crisis the ways leaders communicate can determine whether people feel trust, clarity and resilience or confusion and fear. More generally if done well it can drive change and enhance performance. Successful leaders influence guide and inspire others towards a share goal.

: Published: 13 July 2025

By Claire Doole, www.doolecommunications.com

In last month’s post, I shared some tips and techniques on the art of handling audience questions - whether you’re online, in-person, or in front of a tough crowd.

Now let’s take things a step further. What happens when the question is messy, hostile, or downright confusing? How do you respond when you're caught off guard—or worse, when no one asks anything at all?

Below are some tips and techniques:

Reframe convoluted questions: If a question is overly long, vague, or hard to follow, help your audience by tightening it up.
“I am sorry I can’t quite grasp every detail of your question, but I would like to respond to your part about X”
Be clear when you don’t know the answer: You can’t have all the answers. Here are three options on what to say when you don’t have the answer:
i. Say ‘I don’t know’ – you’ll get back to them. Never, ever, guess.
ii. Ask someone in the audience to respond who is an expert on the subject.
iii. ‘I’m not 100% sure’ When you say this you’re not saying ‘I don’t know’, you’re saying ‘I’m not completely sure’, which is a totally different thing.
Answering challenging questions: When faced with a challenging question from that angry staff member, board member or at an official hearing – you need to employ the ABC technique I teach in media training - acknowledge the question, potentially reframing it before you bridge to a broader point you want to make – moving from the specific to the general.
Read more ...

: Published: 29 June 2025

By Claire Doole, www.doolecommunications.com

For some presenters, the Q&A is the best part of any speaking engagement. They are more at ease, enjoy the exchange and sharing knowledge.

But for others, the question-and-answer segment can be extremely testing even for the most seasoned presenter. Here are a few challenges:

Online events: Questions pour in via the chat, leaving the presenter frantically scrolling up and down to find the pertinent questions.
External events or conferences: When audience members seize the opportunity to talk about their organization or experience, rather than ask a question to the presenter. (As a panel moderator, a comment rather than a question from audiences is an occupational hazard!).
Town halls: When the presenter/speaker is faced with a challenging staff member, keen to ask that killer question.
Formal meetings or hearings: The presenter is required to answer many questions in a fixed amount of time, often from members who ask multiple questions on a wide variety of subjects.

: Published: 13 March 2025

By Claire Doole, www.doolecommunications.com

“Organising an event can be a lot of work for little return” is increasingly the refrain I hear from communication and marketing teams.

They take up a lot of time and resources to prepare and publicize but fail to attract commensurate audiences.

For some, there are just too many side events in competition with each other for audiences and even for speakers. This was certainly the case at the World Economic Forum in Davos this year, and at the AI summit in Paris – where I am told some events attracted as few as 15 attendees.

In Europe budgets are tight, and cuts in US funding are making international and non-governmental organizations reassess their priorities.

Some events previously considered a nice to have but not essential may now be shelved. Others, such as annual congresses, assemblies or UN World Days marking the goals of the organization, may have to statutorily go ahead.

So how do you get more bang for your buck in these economically challenging times?

This month I was asked to give a talk in London to members of the Global Communications Development Network about the secret of engaging events.

: Published: 09 January 2025

By Claire Doole, www.doolecommunications.com

At the end of last year, I coached the finalists for the Geneva Challenge – an annual global contest under the patronage of the late UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan organized by the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies.

Five teams, each representing a continent, had to convince a jury of high-level policymakers that their project offered the best solutions to the challenges of youth empowerment.

They were master’s students from some of the world’s most prestigious universities.

But their task went beyond explaining their ideas. They had to persuade the jury that their proposal would effect change. Not an easy task given that they were not development policy experts.

Each five-member team delivered the first draft of their 15-minute presentation for me to review and propose changes to make it more impactful.