Business Diary: Blame Beale for Britain's woes

We know the Government and the BBC do not always see eye-to-eye, but this is getting bit silly – apparently, the corporation is to blame for the fact that Britain is short of the entrepreneurs it so badly needs. Research commissioned by the Small Business minister, Mark Prisk, reveals that Ian Beale – he's a rather unsavoury character in EastEnders in case you're not familiar with the soap opera – is the best-known small businessman on telly and that his negative image is giving entrepreneurs a bad name. More positive role models are needed to encourage people, Mr Prisk adds.

Microsoft in Japan bungle

Here's a quick lesson from Microsoft in how to shoot yourself in the foot. The technology giant's offer at the weekend of a $100,000 donation to a fund for victims of the Japanese earthquake was a generous one. A shame, however, that the donation was initially conditional on Twitter users re-tweeting the hash-tag of Bing, its internet search engine (the company offered $1 for every re-tweet up to a maximum of $100,000). Microsoft eventually worked out that using this tragedy as a marketing opportunity might not have been the best idea it had ever had.

Another triumph for Jordan

Our congratulations to Katie Price, who – according to the business intelligence specialist Creditsafe – is the UK's most searched-for company director. For the record, her two companies, Jordan Trading and KDC Trading, both have strong credit scores and are seen as being of "good creditworthiness". Feel free to supply your own punchline about their assets.

JPMorgan is cleansed at last

JPMorgan Chase emerged from the credit crisis in better shape than most other banks and is certainly less in need of divine intervention than certain rivals we could mention. But that didn't prevent a religious group turning up on the steps of the bank's headquarters in order to perform an exorcism. "We are asking the almighty gods to chase the demons out of Chase," explained one member of the group. So which demons would they be, then? The "demons of selfishness and avarice", of course.

businessdiary@independent.co.uk