Happy Holidays……

This is a great month to be an employee. Maybe not such a great time to be an employer. Possibly disastrous if you are self employed. Two long weekends in quick succession mean that for some people taking three days annual leave will give themselves eleven days away from work.

Funny things holidays. The Germans love them. The Americans don’t. The Japanese do but don’t take them. It’s often argued that we don’t have enough in the UK and therefore one extra one to celebrate the nuptials of William and Kate should be welcomed.

I have read all the legal bumf about whether a holiday actually has to be given for the Royal Wedding or not but in reality you’d look a really mean employer if you did not give it with the consequent impact on staff morale it would have.

In a salaried office environment such as say a government department holidays can be absorbed and the impact of the extra day minimised. For an SME trying to stay afloat and dependent on every working hour the challenge of coping with that extra day is that much greater.

Fortunately most employees will take the holiday and then work doubly hard to ensure that the business does not suffer. It is this unwritten commitment that is the backbone of many businesses, which is the main reason why the raft of employment regulations tends to grate so much.

Ah well, like it or not, it’s there so make the most of it. For those of you who celebrate it, Happy Easter, for those who don’t have a good break.

You make your own news….

Inflation down. Unemployment down. There you go, this week there has been some good economic news. Last week it was probably bad. To be honest I can’t remember. And as for the week before…..

But then again does it matter? We live in a media age where 24 hour news outlets are desperate for a story. Online, TV, radio, hard copy, everywhere you look. Any snippet of news will be magnified and analysed to the nth degree. Bad news is inevitably given a higher priority than good news. Everything, however trivial, is important for at least a few minutes.  

I am often asked when preparing strategic plans how macroeconomic events should be taken into account. For example should GDP growth forecasts be factored into the numbers? How should inflation or unemployment predictions be accounted for? What should be made of interest or exchange rate trends?  

My answer is always be aware of them and consider them but don’t let them rule your plan. They should form part of your PEST (Political, Economic, Social, Technological) analysis certainly. But when I am dealing with an SME I tend to get them to focus on their SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats).I want them to think about what they can influence not about what they can’t.

Because smaller businesses have small market shares there are always opportunities to grow and be successful. It is about knowing your market and using your strengths to develop the right products and services to exploit your niche or expertise. Your strategic planning should focus on the resources and steps necessary to achieve this goal.

Alternatively it is about recognising the inevitable. If your offering is not right or your business is badly run no amount of positive economic news or GDP growth will lead to real success. Indeed positive economic news might lead you down a path that the fundamentals of your business are screaming at you not to follow.

External factors do come into play and it would be silly to pretend they don’t. But it is easy to be seduced by a stream of bad news into negative thinking. Many businesses are thriving at the moment. Concentrating on the basics of running a business well and on what you can control will give you your best chance of success and enable you to create your own headline. One you can control. At the end of the day it is up to you write your own news…..

Education! Education? Who is it that really needs Education……?

Last week I attended meetings at two of my local schools. One was a briefing session for sixth formers considering their future options, the other a business breakfast designed to showcase credentials as a business and enterprise college. Both schools created really positive impressions, leaving me to ponder as to why the UK education system and their products get such a bad press.

It is a frequent moan of employers large and small that the quality of new entrants into the workplace is not high. The CBI reports that companies are being forced to stage remedial lessons to deal with new recruits lacking basic employment skills. No lesser businessman than Sir Terry Leahy, who is no slouch when it comes to management, has bemoaned the fact that businesses have to pick up the pieces of "woefully low education standards.

And yet are we being fair to the young people who are being tarred with this very broad brush. As anybody involved in education will tell you, today’s children do not have an easy ride. They are set regular targets based on identified potential. They put up with a level and frequency of testing and assessment that puts workplace performance evaluations to shame. And they do work extremely hard to deliver the grades that are all too often dismissed.

OK if it is not down to the students then it must be down to the schools. Well, not on the evidence of last week’s meetings where stories of engagement with local businesses, and public/private initiatives in the face of some daunting fund raising challenges showed a real determination and resourcefulness to deliver improvements and results.

All right so there is clearly a general attitude problem. Really? Apparent lack of enthusiasm for basic tasks, cynicism, unreal expectations – are these traits only seen in school or college leavers? Indeed are over embellished CVs that don’t cut the mustard any different to so called inflated exam grades? Maybe it is just that the older generation have had years of practise in disguising this….

It is not enough for businesses to moan about the system (and voting clearly won’t change things either). What is needed is direct engagement between businesses and schools, a two way process that goes beyond telling schools what business thinks it wants. I think most schools would welcome this.

This is not to say that all in education is right. There are probably too many universities and too many poor quality and failing schools. There are definitely too many bureaucrats and directives. But on the ground, thousands of schools, students and teachers are working extremely hard to deliver results and rounded human beings. This needs to be remembered too.