We wish you…..

Wandering around the shops on Saturday morning it didn’t feel like a last Saturday before Christmas. Then of course I realised that next Saturday was Christmas Eve, and that this weekend was merely the busiest day at our airports for people looking to escape the UK, something that implies that for many the Christmas break has already started.

This year we do have quite a long run up to Christmas which may be just as well (especially for our hard pressed retailers). However that also increases the time available for contemplation, either as to what strategy is right for our businesses in the year ahead, or achieving the targets that we may have already set ourselves for 2012.

At Orchard Growth Partners we have always tried to have a little fun during December by offering business tips with a seasonal theme. We originally called it our advent calendar, inviting people to open up a new tip every day on our website. Last year we decided to use that great Christmas tradition pantomime as the basis for our tips (who do you think we cast as the big bad wolf in Little Red Riding Hood?).

This year we have based our tips around our own top ten of classic Christmas pop hits. These songs have enabled us to pass on information on topics such as the loneliness of leadership, the importance of cultural awareness, the opportunities available through being a green business, and the idea behind one of the world’s best known pension funds.

I hope you have all had time to have a little fun this Christmas. We certainly need it after the barrage of economic gloom that hit us in the second half 2011. However many entrepreneurs and business owners are a breed apart displaying a degree of optimism that is often infectious.

Those of us who work with such people, particularly as their Finance Directors, view this approach with a strange mixture of hope and experience. Experience tells us that not everybody will succeed, but deep down we hope that everybody does.

In spite of everything there is much to look forward to in 2012 and well run businesses with great people who know their market and customers and keep tight control of their finances will find opportunities to develop and prosper.

For those you who celebrate Christmas, I wish you a Merry Christmas, for those of you who don’t I hope you enjoy the festive season in your own particular way. Above all, here is to working together to make 2012 a year that confounds the gloom merchants and typifies the indomitable spirit that is Enterprise Britain.

Christmas Crackers…..

A heartwarming story? A young lad got onto a bus but could only offer a £10 note for his £2.40 fare. As the bus driver did not have enough change he would not allow the lad onto the bus. Fortunately one of the passengers was prepared to dip into her own pocket and stump up the fare, thus allowing said lad to travel on the bus after all.

I think this is a nice story that restores faith in human nature. It is good to know that there are people prepared to help out because they believe it is the right thing to do rather than because there is some benefit for them in doing so. Yet we live in a cynical world and I guess many of you out there will be saying that the youth was probably indulging in a spot of subtle fare dodging by offering a £10 note that he knew could not be changed, therefore hoping to get a free ride.

What of course you should be saying is how incompetent the bus company involved is and how contemptible their treatment of their customer was. I can just about understand a £50 note being a problem as regards change. A £10 note surely should not be. I firmly believe that in such circumstances bus companies should be compelled to take passengers. They should not be allowed to bar passengers because of their own failure to carry sufficient change.

No doubt the bus company will say that it is impractical or dangerous to the driver to carry too much change on a bus. Maybe but I am sure that with the security and other technology that is now available it is not an insoluble problem.

Actually what they will probably say is that the passenger should bring the correct fare with them when looking to travel on their buses. Of course, it’s the customer’s fault, stupid! It always is when you are dealing with big businesses with little competition and absolutely no common sense.

------

Another heartwarming story then. Last Saturday I had to take a relative to a walk-in centre at our local hospital so that their swollen ankle could be looked at. The centre was moderately busy when we arrived yet following two consultations and an x-ray, we were out of the hospital in 45 minutes flat.

We like to moan about the NHS. It is probably wasteful and overstaffed in places. There are too many highly paid and highly pensioned bureaucrats who have no idea how to manage resources effectively. However at its best it delivers a wonderful service with efficiency and care, something that is worth remembering. 

------

Just over a week to go. Panicking yet? Just checking….

Not just for Christmas…..

I read at the weekend that post office workers have been given guidance as to whether they should accept tips this Christmas. The excuse given for this is compliance with the Bribery Act although one can’t help but think once again that the HR department have spent too much time attending employment law update courses.

Add this to the news that over half of SMEs are planning to cancel or downsize their Christmas parties and it seems that many employers are doing their best to ensure that their workers have anything but a merry Christmas.

Christmas is a time of year that regularly taxes Finance Directors. Being expected to act like Scrooge throughout the year means that when we actually reach the season of goodwill the words “Bah Humbug” naturally trip off of our tongues. Christmas parties, staff tips and company gifts often provoke heated discussions that leave us tearing our hair our and desperate to get on with more value added activities like keeping the business afloat.

Actually I am fully in favour of Christmas parties (although on cost grounds I may occasionally advance the argument that they should be held at a time other than Christmas) although probably for negative reasons rather than positive ones. The impact on staff morale of not having one far outweighs the cost savings.

I am of course aware of all the HR issues that surround such events such as unacceptable behaviour and inclusivity, but I believe that if a business has proper codes as to how employees should conduct themselves at Christmas, or indeed any other time, it should be possible to ensure that the benefits outweigh any risks.

I am less in favour of corporate gifts. Active discussions take place as to which customers (always customers never suppliers – funny that) should receive Christmas gifts, what form they should take, how much should they cost, who should give them etc. etc. If the only consequence of the Bribery Act is that we can finally dispense with this annual ritual it will almost be justification for introducing it in the first place.

In this case I don’t think I am being Scrooge like in my dislike of forced Christmas bonhomie. In the same way that I believe that everyday should be Mother’s Day, customer (and supplier) care should be an ongoing daily process. Good business relationships are not just for Christmas you know.

An autumn statement of the obvious….

I don’t know if George Osborne is on the right track. I am sure that there are things that he could and should be doing that he is not. However I don’t have access to all the information that he has, or have to deal with his pressures and responsibilities, so maybe I am not best placed to criticise.

Taking decisions based on available information and resources. The stark reality of management. The true test of mettle. The real definition of loneliness. A situation that the 4.8 million business owners and managers making up Enterprise Britain find themselves in time after time.

Not so our friends in the fourth estate. As I was following the statement online I was struck by the constant carping, criticising and point scoring that accompanied each announcement. No contemplation, no reflection, just instant negativity.

If ever the phrase “power without authority” had any meaning this would be a prime example of how it works. The media chatterers and twitterers have the power to mock, to criticise, to nit-pick. What we never hear is what would they do if they were in a position to change things. I suspect that put in that position most would run away from such a prospect.

Yes they say but we have a duty to report the news and to question and hold those in power to account. True, but in business it is drilled into us that criticism should be considered and constructive. And the line between reporting news and creating it is growing ever thinner.

Sympathy for George is somewhat tempered by the fact that he himself is guilty of the sin of soundbite criticism. However for those of us at the coal face attempting to create the wealth necessary to get the economy moving, the constant self-aggrandising negativity of financial and business commentators is annoying. We are under no illusions as regards how tough it is out there. We don’t need it shoved down our throat day after day.

Having said that what was there for businesses in yesterday’s Autumn statement? Probably not a lot, but let’s face it, whoever stood up in parliament this week was going to struggle. Easier finance for SMEs and incentives to start up entrepreneurs are helpful. The challenge for all involved will be to direct it where it is needed most and where it can be productive. The announcements on fuel duty, infrastructure projects and red tape seem to be moves in the right direction.  

The stark truth though is that the one thing business needs at present is confidence. The confidence to invest in the future. The confidence to lend. The confidence to spend. And that is clearly something that the Chancellor cannot deliver on his own….   

One rule for them….

For everyone’s information the 2nd world war ended 66 years ago. Angela Merkel was born in 1954 which by my calculations is 57 years ago. I only say that because I sense that some of the hysterical comments concerning Germany’s recent EU pronouncements owe more to events that happened in the last century than those that are taking place in the current one. 

If your father/mother/aunt/uncle or whoever were to help you to sort out your finances I suspect they would not then allow you to continue to live the lifestyle that led you to seek out their help in the first place. They would probably want to place a few restrictions on how you lived your life to ensure that the same problems did not recur in a few years’ time, even if you did not particularly like the idea. The German reluctance to write a blank cheque without conditions does not seem unreasonable in this context.   

Modern populaces want all the good things but believe that other people, better known as “the rich”, should pay for them. Politicians know this. Equally they know that “the rich” are much harder to tax than the not so rich. Therefore when borrowing was cheap and plentiful surprise, surprise that is what they did. Now it is all coming back to haunt the future generations that will have to suffer for it. 

Or maybe all along it was an elaborate new way to redistribute wealth. Fleecing “the rich” through loans that would never get paid back. Except of course it wasn’t just “the rich” that wouldn’t get their cash back. It would be all of us, via our pension funds or withdrawn essential public services that we reasonably believed we had paid for through our taxes.

We can of course once again blame the bankers. Given that there still seems to be little holding to account of those who’s reckless gambling and connivance in concocting the financial packages for both the public and private sectors that have subsequently unravelled that is an understandable reaction. However we all know that there was more to all this than the “greed is good” brigade.

The sad accountant in me is still trying to get my head around how the various debtor countries will ever pay back what they owe. All are still running annual deficits, and will be doing so for some years to come, which to my mind implies that they need more cash to fund these as well as refinance all the borrowings that need to be refinanced. Simple mathematics dictates that unless something drastic happens, sovereign debt crises will persist for the foreseeable future.

In our world of course businesses in this position would simply go bust, and given such a spectacular insolvency, those involved would find themselves at the very least banned from being company directors for a considerably long time if not facing more serious consequences. Maybe it is not possible for countries to manage their finances like Enterprise Britain has to, but hey we can dream can’t we?