Welcome to the Escape Blog

I am always intrigued by business and the way some companies manage to embrace change, while some moan and do nothing. You can guess which grow and which tend to fade away.

One that I have referenced in the past is the charity Oxfam - yes, charities are still businesses - and how they started using E-bay as people started to sell their second hand goods themselves, rather than donate them to their shops. They turned the threat into an opportunity.

Once again, their name popped up in the Sunday Times yesterday with the news that they now have their own web shop.

The launch is expected to revolutionise the way Oxfam raises money and sells to customers, almost 60 years after it first opened high-street shops. The charity, which is trying to cash in on the growing trend towards ethical shopping, hopes to become a key player in the online-shopping world.

It has 750 shops across Britain, staffed by 21,000 volunteers. In the last financial year, it sold goods worth £80m and made £25m profit.

Business challenges never go away, it is us that has to adapt to these changes. And, they are coming thicker and faster than ever before.

On an aside, even the design of the Oxfam site is fresh and very modern.