Interesting debate today. I sat on a round table debating the pros and cons of devoluting power to City regions. There is a lot to unpick, it’s not clear cut and it’s complicated. Nevertheless, from a business perspective it’s pretty clear. Business isn’t bothered how the system of governance is run as long as it’s effective. Business doesn’t need any further layers of public sector employees or quangoes, if all it is doing is putting a plaster on existing ineffective political leadership. Business wants simplification, not red tape. There is a lot to say for the idea, particularly around synchronising public sector funding with the specific economic development objectives of a City region. Whether the Civil servants will truly give up power, we’ll see. The economic cake in the UK needs to be bigger, not just cutting bigger slices of an existing cake, so any initiatives to drive GVA will no doubt be welcomed by Westminster.
Debating the issue on an
Institute of Directors Young Directors Forum panel in Mancheser last night, Scott Fletcher – Chairman of IT reseller
ANS Group - claimed that that bad businesses have been “exposed” in the recession. He added that opportunities for acquisition and picking off some great people, had never been better. A likeable chap, sparky, outspoken and clearly very bright, Scott has built a successful IT business here in the North West which is going from strengh to strength. Go see him speak if you get the chance. You can find him
here on Twitter .
Joined by female entrepreneur Debbie Pearce who runs the Bury black pudding company along with panellists from RPS (water) and HSBC, the panel shared their challenges and lessons learned. Key points I captured to share with you were: – 1). Don’t be afraid to fail. 2). Don’t take no for an answer (all good salespeople should know that one). 3). Invest, Invest, Invest (in people, marketing, PR). 4). Keep it lean in the good times (not just the bad). 5). Innovation comes in difference sizes and shapes (sometimes small stuff is as good as big stuff). What’s evident is, if you remain positive, you’ll continue to find opportunity.
Spring is here and it’s time to put ourselves back on the front foot. Thankfully, stories of doom and gloom are slowing and more positive stories are appearing to inspire us all to greatness. Following a challenging eight months or so, most of the difficult major decisions businesses have had to make have been made and actioned. So what now? How do we now all set our sails for the journey to recovery, with untold riches ahead of us? Here’s a few tips to stir your imagination: -
Innovation. What have you done recently to challenge, change or dump elements from your business model? Anything? Do you step away from your business to be creative and generate ideas? I bet you could pull 100 ideas from a staff of 10 people in 10 mins if you just asked. The trick is then prioritising these ideas into the easy to do, high impact things and getting on with it. No creativity = no innovation. No action plan = waste of time.
Meet Someone New. Are you meeting new people and increasing your personal learning? It’s amazing how many great ideas exist in non-competing sectors, you can learn these by getting out and networking, either on-line or in person, or just simply reading books or blogs. I use
Twitter and
Linkedin to sustain relationships and trigger new ones; however you can’t beat a personal introduction. Don’t be tricked into thinking social media is the absolute answer though, go retro, meet someone in person and add value! Chamber
networking events are an excellent way of doing this.
No customers, no business. Get out more. It’s invigorating and inspiring. Question and listen to your customers, understand their problems and how they are reacting to the economic climate. You’ll quickly be stimulated to see if there are any new products or services that you could provide or develop for them. Remember, the ratio of talking to listening should be at least 2:1 in their favour.
Change your habits. As human beings, we can easily fall into routines. Break them. Take a look at all the meetings you might hold regularly, have a review, do you still really need them? How can you release your diary to spend more time with customers? Ask yourself, why have we always done it that way?
Talk to your people. Be available, answer questions, ask questions! Some of the best ideas ever implemented came from internal staff in organisations. Fire them up, get some ideas flowing and get some rubber on the road. Finally.
Be positive. Your subconscious is programmed by your thoughts. The more good stuff you put in, the more positive you will be. You can still be positive and realistic. Life is far more interesting on the upside.
“Casino Banking”, that’s how Lib Dem Deputy Leader
Vince Cable described some of the practices undertaken by the banking fraternity during his visit to Manchester today. Speaking to a small audience of
Chamber of Commerce members, Cable gave his view about the economy.
Cable is an interesting figure. There’s no glamour, little spin, but plenty of really intelligent comment put in common sense words. Not the typical politican, he came across as the voice of reason and few people had much to say in disagreement to the comments he made. A quick summary of his comments, “Why are we surprised about the economy when everyone knows it goes in boom and bust cycles?”. “Britain is very badly exposed when it comes to the credit crunch” and “over exuberant lending” is at the root cause of it all. His solutions, “Sort the banks, review the budget and implement public sector reforms”.
A few other comments he made hit home, “We were all enjoying the party”, making reference to the increase in property prices and the bankers returns given to shareholders at the height of the boom, in other words we all looked the other way when things were going so well (although you could argue there was no transparency in the off balance sheet investment vehicles the bank used). The role of auditors and the systemic failure of non-execs and rating agencies in the crisis and the fact that three of the five largest global banks are here in the UK, thereby leaving us wide open to the credit crunch fallout. He also made some great one liners I liked, such as “money illusion”, “selling bombs” and markets being “spooked”.
Cable is a very intelligent guy, his speech today didn’t have many political overtones atall, more of an honest assessment of where things have gone wrong and what he would do about it, much of which made perfect sense (and also made for a more interesting interaction). Thinking back to the comments I made in yesterdays posting, if the LibDems really got their act together and re-packaged/branded themselves into the party for business, I think they could have a good shot at winning more businesses to their way of thinking, but they must be more strategic in their approach.
Cable is releasing a book in the next couple of weeks about his view, might be worth a read. If you want to read a book about the credit crunch in the meantime, I’ve just read
this one and thought it was pretty good.
Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg visited Manchester today and gave a talk to a group of business leaders at the IoD hub, I was in the audience, here’s my take. Nick comes across as a nice guy, intelligent, articulate and talking sense on an number of issues, I warmed towards him. He covered lots of issues including re-balancing the tax system, closing loopholes in tax avoidance, and how the LibDems would stop certain government initiatives and invest in other “shovel ready” projects. Overall, a good performance from a political leader, as you would expect.
I asked Nick what his proposition to business was? The standard stock reply came, “cutting taxes, getting the banks lending and less regulation. I was hoping for a bit more inspiration, as you could argue, all the political parties would roll out those same statements. Using Alistair Campbells OST (Objective, Strategy, Tactics) technique I would have preferred to hear: -
“Our objective is to be the party for business. Our strategy to achieve that is to win business leaders over the the LibDem philosophy through our credible, simple, well thought out, fully costed policies developed by a front bench team that know their stuff. The tactics we are going to use are cutting taxes, reducing regulation, getting the banks lending, pinpointing the expertise in our shadow cabinet and having meaningful interactions with business, we are out talking far more than others. We’re going to wrap that all up in plain speaking, no nonsense politics”.
Now, doesn’t that sound better? if Nick had delivered that to me today, he’d of really won me over with his no-nonsense style, excellent delivery and highly relevant “brand positioning” for the LibDems and he could have really captured the business audience. OK, he was there to talk about the big picture, but given an opportunity to make things relevant to my audience, I think it was an opportunity missed.
I’m meeting Vince Cable tomorrow, he’s earned a good reputation as a economic brainiac, let’s see how he does.
I’ve been at the IoD NW conference today. The keynote speaker was Alistair Campbell, former spin doctor to Tony Blair. His speech today covered his 10 rules of leadership, I took them down to share with you.
- 1. OST. Define your Objectives, strategy and Tactics.
- The best leaders are always team players.
- Be adaptable
- Be bold.
- Stay calm in a crisis.
- Leadership should be prioritised over listening.
- Patience can be a virtue.
- The media has irrevocably changed, be aware.
- Take the hits when you need too.
- Empower your people.
We have to remember that the comments above primarily relate to political leadership, however I particularly liked points 1), 4) and 9) in the current economic crisis. Prior to Alistair a very entertaining speaker was on called Ellis Watson, he had a great energy about him and he gave a real injection of pace to the post lunch spot, I’ll look out for him again.
More examples of how business communications are really speeding up. Today
, I moved office. I’ve been in it for a good five years and have managed to hoard all manner of items in a very large cupboard behind me, primarily as I wanted to keep the office looking clean and tidy. The moment in time came today when I needed to clear it out. I sent a couple of Twitter messages out offering items from the cupboard and hey presto within a few minutes, I’d found new homes for them, nothing being wasted, ever so simple to do.
That’s powerful. Here’s another. Next week I’ll be attending the
IoD NW 2009 Conference. I e-mailed the regional director and asked him to set up a discussion group on
Linkedin so that people who are attending could easily review the profiles of other attendees and also connect/pre-network on-line. It was set up in five minutes, people are already joining the group and two people have already asked to meet up.
Speed, convenience and new contacts as a result. A direct business benefit for a limited time investment which is what businesspeople want. So, don’t sit on the sidelines and think that social networking isn’t relevant to business,
make it relevant.
Another day of cuts. The Bank of England have cut interest rates by a further 0.5%, great if you’ve got no money and a big mortgage, displeasure if you’ve got money and expect an income from it.
Like all economic levers, there are winners and losers. The winners will be those people with more money in their pocket, who will hopefully rush out and spend it, generating sales for retailers and other businesses supplying the consumer sector. The losers in business will be those businesses that have a decent amount of money in the bank and rely on the interest income as part of their profit. Will this cut get the banks lending again? Cash flow remains a key issue for many businesses with late payment and access to finance, beyond the headlines businesses are still choking as the hands of finance still tighten around their necks.
The cut comes on the same day PricewaterhouseCoopers unveiled their forecast for the North West economy. Predicting falls in GDP and house prices, their downbeat projection reflects everything from rising unemployment, reduced credit and slowing global growth. Don’t pack your suitcases yet, there is plenty going on in the North West and a thriving business community wide eyed about the future. A forecast is a forecast, don’t be the negative number within it, be the positive one.
Business Link North West today reported that they had experienced a surge in businesses contacting them for advice around managing finance and increasing sales.
Inbound enquiries were up around 30% and it’s no surprise. The important principle here is that without sales, you don’t need any fancy finance as you haven’t got a business. You need to sell, to then be owed something.
Sales is the engine room of any business and all of the available resources should be being channelled into business development and demand generation. Do the obvious things first such as looking at your existing customer base. Is there another good or service that you supply that your top customers don’t buy from you, if not why not? Who used to buy from you, but doesn’t anymore (lapsed customers)? Who might be ready for an upgrade? Are your customers trying to reduce their own costs, if so, how can you position your goods or services to help them achieve that goal?
Remember the golden rule though. When times are tough, stop selling and start helping. What I mean by that, is that you have to collaborate, understand problems and offer meaningful solutions. Just knocking the door down with your latest product may not win you any friends or increase long term loyalty.
Manchester’s newest boutique hotel, today shut its doors after only eight months trading. The Yang Sing Oriental, opened by Gerry Yeung OBE, has been a casualty of the credit crunch, laying off 30 staff in the process.
It’s a real tragedy, the hotel itself was beautiful, with stunning rooms, super comfortable furniture and real attention to detail.
Gerry Yeung should be applauded for the time, effort and sheer guts he’s displayed in opening this place, setting his standards uncompromisingly high and opening a hotel that Mancheser City centre could truly call its Oriental Jewel in the Crown.
Entrepreneurship is about calculated risk. In the time it took for the building to be refurbished and opened, the economy went into recession at a rapid speed. We all continue to carry the burden of the toxic debt mountain, the bankers have left for us. Here’s another example of a great business, that has folded unnecessarily and Mancheser City centre is poorer for it.
