e-melTM

Home About us Services Publications Case studies Research Contact us Accessibility

This blog is brought to you by M.A.T.

 

Please end this lame duck (house) Parliament!

 

I don't know what is worse: The gluttony and shameless nature of MPs gorging at the Taxpayer trough, or the weasel words used in justification..."I followed the rules"..."It's my right"..."It's part of my salary"... Well, unless the expense was incurred wholly and solely for the benefit of Parliamentary duties, it is wrong and a child of 10 would know that. So, the weasels have taken over Toad Hall - we've known it for years, but now we have the evidence. What do we do about it? It is clear that we need a revolution to permanently change the political system in the UK; but we would like a British revolution - clean, quick (but considered) and bloodless.

 

For what it's worth, here are my suggestions:

 

1. Prosecute the thieves and tax dodgers;

2. Deselect all trough feeders;

3. No more second home allowances. Adjust Parliament's hours to be those of a normal working day, set minimum attendance requirements (attendance in the chamber, that is) and make MPs commute like the rest of us;

4. Reform the House of Lords to be wholly elected;

5. Address the "West Lothian question": Devolve more power to Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, then make the rule that those MPs cannot vote in the Westminster Parliament on anything except those issue affecting the whole of the UK (Defence, budget, constitution and a few others). The business relevant to the whole of the UK can be condensed into specific days and they only attend for those days. They can claim flights and hotels to a maximum limit only.

6. Allow free voting at constituency level to select / deselect candidates;

7. Dissolve Parliament and call an election for October 2009.

 

Now SUMO and JFDI!

 

What a shambles!

 

You know what they say..... "Fact is stranger than fiction". Well, even the worst fiction Novel could not be as bad as the reality of this year's budget. We are well and truly up the creek without a means of propulsion. There is often criticism of the UK education system and of our (lack of) history teaching in particular; but just what is Mr Darling's excuse? Or, is he going for the Dennis Healy impersonation prize?  Come on man! - don't you know that history tells us that when you put up taxes, the overall tax haul goes DOWN and when you reduce taxes it goes UP!

 

The Americans learned this in the 1980's - by reducing taxes, the top 1% of earners' contribution to the tax haul rose from 17.5% to 27.5% and overall tax revenue increased.

 

Well, we've dumped the next generation in the Kak so we'd better be prepared for a very impoverished retirement (unless we are lucky enough to be in the public sector) as companies and young people flee the UK. In fact, we may end up with the Chinese system of only having a pension if you are a party member - now there's a thought.....

 

 

Rumble in the jungle

 

The great banking scandal rumbles on with Parliamentary committees vs the bankers and FSA. Who will win? Will the bankers save their bonuses? Have we missed the point? I think we all now understand pretty much how this all happened; that it was not an overnight event and that the seeds had been sown many years before - and even encouraged by politicians who saw the financial sector as a great replacement for our decayed manufacturing industries. We now know just how stupid that was.

 

If this country is to crawl out of its hole (the very deep one dug by ignorance, complacency and misplaced trust) we need a vision: A vision for the whole country to buy into and to unify us all before we descend into villifying and imaginary enemy and the hatred that follows. So who's got the vision? UK politicians - not a chance! President Obama - yes, to some extent. How about we change our world and go for something really big - let's make it a goal to not rely on oil or gas or nuclear fission for energy by 2050? Stimulate research, science and engineering as a result and start getting our manufacturing industry back in the UK and creating wealth and jobs.

 

Congratulations Evan...

 

For the best TV or Radio programme so far on the Crunch and the whole financial crisis!

 

Happy(?) new year!

 

1.5% eh! Will it do any good? Not unless the rate cut is passed on and cash becomes available! It's like one of those infuriating sales, where the shop says everything is 50% off, so you go in and find that they either haven't got any stock or that the 50% off items are long gone...you can't have what they ain't got.

 

The only questions for '09 are: "What will it take to get cash flowing?" and "Do we have the balls to stop feeling sorry for ourselves and get things moving?"

 

PBR '08

 

So, what should we make of the PBR? Tinkering or transforming? I'm inclined towards the former; after all, a 2.5% cut in VAT is not likely to have people rushing out to spend their money, especially if the spectre of large Tax hikes in the future are looming. In addition, the fuel Tax hike has annoyed just about everyone and probably cancels out any benefit of the VAT cut.

 

So who wins? On balance, the public sector...why? Well, despite the talk of huge efficiencies being realised the facts are:

All in all, little joy today and a slap in the face with a dead Cod tomorrow.

 

Happy spending....

 

November 2008: Bad jive and paralysis by analysis

 

What times we live in! Who'd have thought it possible: - the head honchos of the big US car makers arriving by private jet in DC to beg for money - and being rejected because they didn't have a business plan!!! - bank chiefs apologizing for their incompetence and a BBC political reporter hitting the headlines for his "resignation" from a reality TV dance show!!

 

Meanwhile, the UK government is having a spend-fest, the opposition parties have no clue (such things never happen in Eton!) and bank managers sit on the fence hoping they will not have to make difficult decisions (go to SVP (UK) - decisions become easy!). Could these be the last days of the capitalist empire? Or, are we seeing the result of the work of chief executives whose egos got too large, who took too much money (and credit) for poor quality "hands off" management and who, now the chips are down, have been exposed as clueless? Where was the vision and where is the leadership?

 

What better time than now to take control of your ships and successfully steer them through the Pirate ridden waters of recession and credit crunch? Now is the time to live your visions for prosperity for all employees in a company and to inspire them to pull together as a team - we heard enough cr*p in the past about sporting analogies and teamwork; we went to more than enough "motivational" talks from the great sports men and women on endurance and teamwork - what happened to it all?

 

The are still opportunities by the bag-load for those who have the courage to look outward and not inward. LEAD, DON'T BLEAT!

 

October 2008: WOW!!

 

Well, who'd have thought it - meltdown! Just when you were feeling good about squirreling a few quid away in that esoteric Icelandic bank that paid over-the-odds interest, whammooo! I hope, dear readers, none of you were planning to retire on a cash purchase pension scheme in the next few years.

 

So, where do we go from here? There is some sort of co-ordinated action by governments that might limit some damage in the short-term but thereafter, once the bickering and blaming has started and finished (and the second Cod war) we'll have a semi-nationalised banking system and who knows - local bank managers with Bowler hats? Will we have to save for three years with the bank before being allowed a Mortgage? Will we see Indian call centres repatriated and a return of the round of Golf with the bank manager to discuss our account requirements? Would it be such a bad thing?

 

There has been much mention of "the moral hazard" over the last month (cripes! seems more like a year!) but what does it mean? It's supposed to mean that if you take high risks, you must expect to take the consequences if things go wrong; but of course, when the whole world's banking system is taking a high risk it is just not possible to allow the whole sector to take the consequences - or we'll all go bust. So, there are those that are made an example of - Equitable Life, Lehman Bros - and then the realisation that the financial sector is, like a little bunny in the road, panic stricken and clueless. Left to their own devices they would disappear down their own spiral of ignominy. So, big Bro. has to step in and hold their hands, tickle their ears and tell them not to worry; but there can be no return to the stupidity of the past, where inventing complex financial instruments to offload high risk assets was seen as a "good wheeze" and damn the consequences. What's more, we need regulatory bodies that understand the larger picture and have some (pardon the expression) balls.

 

What can the SME community (which represents most of UK business) do? Admittedly, some things are now out of our control - who knows what the backlash from scolded bankers will be on the SME sector - except a reduction in risk taking. Are there any easy wins? - probably not, just some hard grunt work ahead. What we can do includes:

 

In short: Be aware of your business' risks and exposures, be nice to the bank, research options for new markets, products etc. and get on with it.

 

 

June 2008: The self-fulfilling prophecy...

 

Now that the world is coming to accept that there is a real crunch and the ship of fools takes to the water, the occupants feeling satisfied that property prices are falling and smug because the "withouts" have nothing to lose as they watch the middle-classes suffer, little knowing that it means no mortgage for them to buy anything and probably higher rents as well; it's time to consider the further consequences of our actions:

 

We, as a society, have frequently talked ourselves into recession. The press love a story and bad news generates so much more angst and speculation than the good. We now have pundits predicting a global meltdown and a depression worse than the '20s and '30s. How could that happen? Fear and greed is the answer. Fear of doing anything in case it results in a worse situation and greed because we all want to hang on to our wealth. That's not to say that it couldn't happen - consider:

 

- Record and biting oil prices

- Stagnant property market

- Fearful financial sector

- Worried consumers who are feeling the pain

- Increasing food prices and overall inflation

- Fear of unemployment and public sector / private sector wage inflationary pressure

- Forecasts of large numbers of business failures and property repossessions

 

In response, our politicians mutter vague promises about green things and getting away from oil and that it's the global economy and not their fault (funny how they take the credit when the global economy delivers good things...). However, what's lacking is any sign of courage! We don't need fair-weather politicians, they're two a penny and deliver nothing (except large salaries and expense accounts for themselves). What we need are politicians who can paint a vision; a way out of the mess we've got ourselves into and a route to the promised land. How about a real statement of how we're going to get out of an oil-based economy, like a statement of intent to move to a Hydrogen economy? Something bold, courageous and inspiring! Something this country can champion and that will make a positive difference to all of us - after all why not Hydrogen? It can be made by the electrolysis of water (powered by the Sun?) and we are an island, surrounded by water! The output from burning Hydrogen is....water, so a fuel that generates fuel! The Holy Grail, surely!

 

Come on guys - lead with courage, not woolly, tepid, mealy mouthed words! Your country needs you!

 

 

May 2008: It bites!

Well, I missed a month - so why was that? Have I been on an exotic holiday out in the tropics? Sipping rum punch on the beach? No, actually I was really busy with clients who are finding that the credit crunch does have teeth after all. We've all had a stomach full of manic reporters waxing lyrical about how everything's going to the dogs and of complacent politicians denying that there's a crisis or that they had anything to do with it....funny that!

So here it is - property values not doing too well, buy-to-let mortgages drying up, banks not willing to extend terms and capital injections like a golden egg to find. The city boys are downsizing and the starlets of yesterday who were ever so clever to invent packaged debt products becoming Trout farmers or heading for the hills. The green lobby and their biofuels are causing a global food shortage and the Hedge fund boys have pushed Oil through the roof, which will lead to inflation in all sectors of the economy. Well done guys! I guess it's up to the rest of us to sweep up the proverbial, but how?

Here are a few things all small and medium sized companies can do:

1. Check your resilience. How? Do a bit of planning - prepare two or three forecasts with different scenarios (eg interest rates go up, not down; inflation doubles; your bank refuses any extension of credit; your main customer goes bust).

2. Plan for a sales increase. Sounds daft? Develop a sales and marketing plan to attack every opportunity you have (eg New products into old markets and old products into new markets).

3. Costs: Review each and every cost - is it necessary? Bizarrely enough, it's probably worth paying someone to do this for you if they are prepared to be paid on results.

4. People. Get your people to act as a high performing team - that is the way to out-perform your competitors and hang tough through this muck.

OK, enough talking - let's get on with it. Gone are the Bolly and Gucci; it's hello to boiler suits and shovels...start shovelling!!

 

March 2008: Budgets and t'ings

Enough paper to create a forest has been spent on analysing the budget (you can download a copy of the Chancellor's statement from the home page of this site). Let us focus on outcomes:

Not only do the changes announced on 12th come into effect, but also all of those little gems from last year's budget that we had forgotten. So, what's the impact on SMEs? As is usual, more work for the small and medium sized business in terms of administration, finding out what it all means and taking action to avoid the worst impacts and mitigate the impact where it cannot be avoided. All of this is valuable time that could be spend selling of making or delivering - how unproductive is that! Just think - one more sale at the current Gross Margin or time spent reducing costs by 1% may be achieved in the same time it takes just to read through the long-winded, uninspiring 'stuff' generated by the budget.

My view is that it is worth spending a bit of money to get someone in to work on mitigating the impact of this and the previous budget rather than spend my valuable time trying to figure out what on earth it all means! Right now, we are being bombarded with challenges from all directions: Talk of recession, a tough credit environment, worried customers, desperate suppliers and dullard politicians. If you can get an advisor in who will deliver a return of even twice their cost, it is money well spent because you can get on with business as usual & win those sales / reduce costs and get good advice.

Time to do it!

 

February 2008: Clarity of thought!

So, you're in business: Why?

Doubtless you have heard that question ad nauseum, but it is pertinent. We all go into business with some sort of vision or idea - whether we have inherited the business from family or become an employee or have set it up ourselves. Rarely are we just trying to pay the Mortgage - there is something else as well: A legacy or a competition to win or a deep rooted passion concerning the product or service. Somewhere, there was a spark or a flame.

After years of running the business / working in it, the passion cools and we lose touch with the reason we got into it in the first place. The business may come to be seen as a Millstone dragging us down, restricting our personal freedom: The worry, the stress, the loneliness. How often do you take a dispassionate look at the situation and try to rekindle the enthusiasm and get the business back on the path to success? Never? Once?

Since being back on the road after Christmas, it has been interesting to see what business people are thinking in the current environment - are things better / worse / the same? Are business people being more cautious? Quite honestly, I've been very surprised: Few small / medium business people seem to have woken up to the fact that the game is changing and that they need to take a long hard look at their situation. Many are just blinkered and have no thought to their current circumstances or what lies ahead - there is a reluctance to even acknowledge that they must seriously revisit their strategy (if they have one) and protect their businesses from rough waters around the corner. Instead, many are ploughing on doing the same things in the same way regardless. Now is the time to take that cold look at what you are doing and how - talk to someone who is neutral and can give you good advice.

 

January 2008: Let's talk recession...

We've had the news media having a bit of a feeding frenzy this week. After all, they love nothing better than some juicy bad news that allows them to speculate, put up some presenter who has adopted the Andrew Marr / Evan Davies model of pulling strange faces and speaking breathlessly about bizarre analogies to the economy. Even better, they can confidently predict that we are heading for a recession due to the US sub-prime situation. That may, or may not, be the case; however, one thing we (collectively) should have learned is that it is quite possible to talk ourselves into a recession. Sure, we shouldn't go around with a big grin saying that everything is rosy and cute, but we should be looking for solutions to ease any crash landing instead of sitting on the sidelines chucking rocks like a Baboon.

Look at it this way: Inflation will rise, oil prices and duty have seen to that (by the way, what ever happened to fuel protests? - it's now well over £1.00/litre!). This will ensure more expensive food. Energy prices have leapt up by something like 17% (if you live in the south of England) and the cost of borrowing has increased regardless of BoE base rates due to the credit crunch. Stock markets are volatile -  a combo between fear and hedge fund activity (also impacting Oil). So what are we to do? There are a number of options:

1. Revolt. Yes, we could rise up and overthrow the government (and all politicians) who have become ineffective, too comfortable and have their noses firmly in the trough - but we're British and haven't done that sort of thing for over 300 years.

2. Wring our hands. We could sit in our chairs and say it's all too difficult and causes us stress, so can we have a hand out.

3. The demon drink. We could down a bottle of Whiskey a day to help us forget and then die.

4. Find a cave. We could find a nice quiet cave and become Hermits. Live with nature and the bats - not a bad one?

5. Come out fighting! We can prepare for battle - get our companies fit for purpose and go on the offensive. Mobilise the sales force and get out there - after all there are some great opportunities in 2008: The Olympics, Euro 2008, Liverpool 2008 - creating a feel good factor.

Let's not become victims - we need to show leadership and create opportunities for our businesses - go get 'em!

 

 

January 2008: Happy new year!

It's good to be back in the driving seat - hope you all had a great Christmas / new year break. The economic forecast for 2008 remains dull and not terribly encouraging: Interest rates may be forecast to be on a downward curve, but the continuing fall-out from the US Credit Crunch ensures that small businesses will probably not benefit from lower rates. Instead, they will find cash harder to come by and interest rates on an upward curve! So, what (if anything) can be done to counteract the worst of the crunch? The honest answer to that question is an obvious one: Make sure you are running a tight ship - know the strengths and weaknesses of your business and take whatever actions you can to plug holes. That does not mean you should retreat inside your shells and adopt a siege mentality. Keep pushing to expand and gain new customers; innovate new products and services, but make sure you do not neglect the "back office" - all the admin and, especially, finance. That is, don't ignore the bits that aren't fun to do!

Sounds a bit like armchair preaching? Well, no: My business faces exactly the same challenges as any other, so what am I doing in preparation for what could be a tougher year? Here are a few of the things:

1. Debtors - ensure they are chased and money collected. Anything that reduces working capital requirements is worth doing.

2. Cost of capital - working out exactly how much it costs to finance the business and taking an early look at all the options available to reduce the cost of capital.

3. Sales - initiating a sales campaign to gain new clients.

4. Services - innovating new services to take to clients. In our case, we are introducing business research services (see Home page), where we know we can add value and deliver work of the highest quality.

None of this makes us immune to the crunch, but I thoroughly recommend a new year health check of your business. Let's make 2008 a great one!

 

December 2007: Week 8 - It's Chrimble!

Yes, it's arrived! It is that end of year feeling: The bonus pots are declared and we go away with a feeling of a job well done (?) for the year. We've made our contribution and decisions and, for better or worse, the results are there for all to see. We all go away having drawn a line under 2007 as if there is nothing further to say and we start with a completely fresh piece of paper in 2008. Wait a minute - the residue from 2007 will surely still be present in 2008, won't it? Well, yes but for some reason we just try to ignore that as if it were someone else's problem. Well, here's to 2008, honesty, integrity and a sense of responsibility. Keep it tight folks and "eat a Mango whole". M.A.T. is off on hols for a week or two and will return in 2008. Cheers!!

 

December 2007: Week 7 - ...and they say it's puppy love!

Another hectic week in the marketplace. Central banks are making a gesture to reduce the inter-bank borrowing rate & free up the log-jam (nice to know they care). Will it work? I think the Germans have a saying: "Jein" - meaning yes and no. It may work if the confidence levels concerning what further horrors are locked away in some of the investments banks have improves. Why? - Because most banks are unsure about the levels of sub-prime debt wrapped up in some of the shiny new investment vehicles they bought - and until they start getting a handle on that, things won't change very much! It's a bit like someone spilling something nasty into a bottle of drink - but the only way of finding out how much and whether or not it was a lethal dose is to drink it all!

I read that after the 14th December firms should expect productivity to fall by about 25%. This, it seems, is due to employees spending more time gossiping (undoubtedly about who photocopied their genitalia / used the same with whom etc), shopping and having long lunches (whatever happened to those???). I feel disconnection of coffee machines coming on! I have to smile though, as I see the remnants of people after the firm Xmas do: Pale, dishevelled and sheepish as they try to remember the night's misdemeanours ("Did I make a pass at the bosses' wife? Did I grope so and so, or was that someone else? Oh, god I hope they don't complain to HR" etc. etc).

So, as we grit out teeth for the final charge for the end of 2007, what words of wisdom can I bring? None that I can think of immediately, but how about just playing the Stone's "Gimme Shelter" very loud? There's still work to be done and business to be had. Christmas and a credit crunch is not the end of the world - it's another challenge to overcome.

Hey, I hear George W's made a video of his dogs for Christmas - I hear it has Tony in it too (no, seriously). That sort of confirms most people's suspicions! Excuse me, I feel quite ill at that thought.

 

November 2007: Week 6 - We're doomed!

Well, the doom-mongers are having a field day: Not only is there a crunch from the US sub-prime mortgage crisis, but now the first evidence of property prices falling and the embryo of our own sub-prime crisis as pundits estimate the number of UK fixed rate mortgages that are due to expire in 2008, the news people are happy: Lots of bad things to report. Does that mean that all of the mortgage holders are "sub-prime" or that they will not be able to keep up repayments? No, but they are predicting that mortgages will be harder to come by and therefore, many of those people will have to go onto the (punitive) variable rates offered. However, with interest rates now reducing, isn't it up to the banks to bring down the rate of inter-bank borrowing and avoid this potential disaster? After all, the Bank of England can reduce rates all it likes, but if the inter-bank rates remain high, so will mortgages, loans and overdrafts. Or will it again be necessary to legislate and force banks to develop only transparent financial instruments that do not contain potential time bombs? Because part of the crisis is due to clever FI developers creating and then their institutions selling instruments of such complexity / obscurity that buyers were not entirely clear about what they were getting and, therefore, how to calculate the risk associated with the product.

All of this aside, it is the start of the "season to be jolly" etc. and therefore the company Xmas do: If the press and anecdotal stories are to be believed, that is a season of photocopied nether parts, excessive booze and embarrassing liaisons! - shortly followed by video uploads onto Youtube and e-mails about lost items. Ouch! How did yours go? Mine isn't for another week, but promises to be interesting - I envision games of "submarine" and "fish twitch" abounding. Wait! It's barely December - why so early? To get some work out of people before the shutdown? Probably - or to try and discourage excess knowing that you have to face the music before the week/two week break - and that's cringe-worthy!

So, what am I seeing out in the SME world ahead of the festive season? In a nutshell: The same issues, but in abundance:

The good news is that it can be done. It's not always easy, but it is possible. So, whilst the headlines might be miserable (as is the weather) there is light for 2008. And the year has the number 8 in it - lucky number in China!

 

November 2007: Week 5 - Fallout!

It's a remarkable thing - when the crunch bites, banks seem to suffer from a severe case of memory loss! Only the other day I was talking to a company who had gone through an application for a bank loan and had the application accepted (no problem there, then). Except, having paid the arrangement fee etc. shortly thereafter the loan facility disappeared. Following discussion and the usual toing and froing, it seems that as part of the credit crunch response, the bank had withdrawn the facility on the basis that the company didn't have a long enough credit history - even though they had signed a binding agreement.

Interesting, but "so what?" What this appears to demonstrate (other than keep an eye on your bank) is the need to plan. We all attempt forecasting and some companies have become pretty adept at it, but rarely take into account the possibility of the unexpected. Companies (whether small, medium or large) need to plan - it's an effective way to survive. It's about risk management; we all take risks, just by being in business, but we don't often step back and look at where the real risks to our business' survival are coming from. In the example above, it was an unavoidable change in the global economic environment resulting in an out of hand change in a financial institution's procedures. Could it have been predicted and avoided? Perhaps not the global crunch, but maybe the local impact could have been.

It is true that leaders of small businesses don't have lots of spare time and so don't believe that there are enough hours in the day to devote to this kind of "non-productive" stuff. However, I would argue that half a day spent with a decent advisor on this is far better and more productive than being caught with your pants down and a resulting cash panic!

 

November 2007: Week 4 - When the Crunch bites...

In the city, the headlines are about large losses by Investment Banks (IBs) due to complex investment products that contain elements of sold on sub-prime US Mortgages. The resulting write-downs and job losses are bad news, both because it is money not coming into the UK economy and because such announcements (particularly when sensationalised by the press) send out messages that diminish confidence in the economy as a whole. So, what are the practical consequences for SME businesses? It all sounds very remote and high powered, but there are real consequences: The so called "Credit Crunch".

Because of the worries over people in the US defaulting on their (sub-prime) mortgages, the investment products bought and sold by banks would become worthless if, as happened, the consequence was a glut of repossessed properties that drove prices down below the value of the Mortgage. As a result, the cost of a bank borrowing money from another (a normally very liquid market) rose - regardless of national / central bank interest rates. Therefore, money has become harder to get hold of and certainly more expensive. The direct result is that the banks that deal with SME business accounts are looking longer and harder at requests for overdraft extensions, loans etc. This manifests itself either in them being harder to get or the interest rates being substantially higher.

One area that has felt this "crunch" significantly is the "buy to let" property market. In the UK, many mortgage companies have been burned by large off-plan developments in cities that have large regeneration areas (eg Leeds, Liverpool and Manchester) that have not delivered the rental values or sale prices expected. Therefore, the easy to obtain buy-to-let mortgages (often at low rates, but with big arrangement fees) could not be met through the achievable rents for these large developments. Owners, realising they were not going to be able to meet Mortgage payments, tried to offload the properties, driving prices downward - sound familiar? The fear is that this could replicate the effect of the US market and make the crunch worse. The significance of this to SMEs? It may make getting funds, overdrafts, loans etc. much harder.

Is there a solution? Not an easy one. The most effective solution is prudent cash management and excellent planning!

 

November 2007: Week 3 - Trail blazing

A lot of the time, I am visiting clients and prospective clients - discussing the challenges of running businesses in the current environment. In doing so, I end up discussing a whole array of business problems ranging from financial, selling stock, operations to HR etc. That requires access to a broad range of specialist skills; skills that often seem to be lacking in the general market place. Being able to bring those skills to SME clients is a tremendous help to them - expert knowledge that delivers practical help at a reasonable cost.

One of the great challenges of working in the SME sector is finding out where the client's offices/factory is. It can led to some amusing situations, like wondering around a street looking for an office when it is actually round the back of a shop. Or finding the building, but not being able to find an entrance. Another fun part is using Satnav to find clients' premises: Directing me out into the middle of nowhere or to a vague proximity that makes me get out and walk to find the location. So what is the point of a Satnav that doesn't find the location? I suppose the most you can say is that at least it comes close...takes some of the work out of it!

The Government frequently tells us how concerned they are for small businesses and how they are striving to help make doing business in the UK (and outside of it) that much easier. However, in reality it seems that the amount of documentation needed to operate a business is increasing - albeit online instead of paper (but that bring issues of information security and identity fraud). We are told that education is a priority and that everyone should stay at school until they are 18 - why? What is the point of keeping someone at school who doesn't want to be there and who will leave with a pointless piece of paper? "Well", we are told, "the less academic will learn vocational skills." Like what? Green keeping? Litter collection? Where are the apprenticeships that led to real jobs in manufacturing & engineering? Colleges don't have the funds or equipment anymore to do the day-release schemes they used to. Even if they did, there is a lack of skilled teachers & a lack of jobs for the people who finish the courses! So, are we consigned to be a country of services and servants, having lost the hard skills of science? Have we outsourced and offshored our future?

What our SME businesses need are encouragement & incentives to invest and to keep manufacturing and technology jobs here in the UK.

 

October 2007: Week 2 - Things start getting hectic

There are always things to do and, in general, time to do them in. However, there are real challenges to finding the time to ensure things are done as quickly as one would like. Technology is a great asset and life without many of the core business tools (such as Laptop, Blackberry, Mobile Phone, e-mail etc) would be unimaginable. However, just getting bits of technology up and running can prove to be a major challenge: Getting the right software loaded, going through the registration process several times and then debugging all takes time - and that's without getting devices to recognise each other and wireless networks.

So, having sorted out the technology and running a pretty tight diary, why do things still get hectic? It's prioritisation. The need to reschedule and constantly prioritise to try and meet everyone's needs and expectations. This is where technology is great - being able to synchronise different machines to have the same version of my diary helps enormously - it allows me to make quick decisions and document than as well as inform all concerned in a matter of minutes.

More meetings with interesting and talented people this week and quite a lot of travelling to London to experience the joys of the Jubilee Line during rush-hour. Also, trying to tie up loose ends from a previous life - dealing with HR Shared Service Centres is always fun! Guaranteed to make you feel like a number - it must be something to do with the standard computerised introduction that invariably gives you all the options except the one you want.

October 2007: Week 1 - Life on the road

Having started with e-mel and coming from the relative comfort of a "big somewhere between 4 and 6" consultancy (sorry, "business advisory services") organisation, going back on the road meeting Directors of SME companies I had no previous relationship with was likely to be a massive challenge. To be honest, it was quite a frightening prospect! After all, there are no creature comforts such as an air-conditioned office, on-tap "Regular skinny lattes to go" or excuses for underperformance (it's his/her/the cat's fault).

So, in my first week of burning rubber & meeting Managing Directors of small & medium sized companies, what was it like? To be honest, it was a breath of fresh air! Not only have I left the pointless, unproductive political bull***t behind, but I met some of the most inspiring people ever. Real people, whose passion led them to start companies in the most diverse fields. Companies they have grown, developed and nurtured. Companies, the like of which I never thought existed. It has been a real inspiration to see what is possible.

Sure, waiting to go into the next company is always challenging - the Adrenalin is flowing, because you never know what's going to happen - but that's the excitement. I really do believe in SME organisations as the life-blood of UK Plc. Anything I and my colleagues can do to deliver real improvement that helps them on their journey must be worthwhile. Yet the funny thing is that despite the huge diversity of the companies & MDs themselves, many face the same sort of challenges:

1. Getting hold of reliable, hard working people (skilled or unskilled). It seems that recruiting the right people is a massive challenge - and retaining them is just as difficult.

2. Debtors - regardless of the "credit crunch", there always seem to be challenges concerning customers paying on time. Often, the larger customers are the worst offenders.

3. Time: No surprise there - MDs are often juggling a whole basket full of tasks. The challenge is to get the base operations into shape to allow time to plan ahead - whether new markets, new products or extensions of the existing businesses.

So, what's my conclusion about life on the road after a week? Diverse, exciting, interesting, educational and challenging physically & mentally - but overall: Great fun!

Webmaster: Webmaster@e-mel.co.uk                                                    Click to download our toolbar                                     ll rights reserved. Copyright © e-mel  2007-2009