Friday 16th January 2009, 14:31Green Shoots? Leadership?It’s nice to be able to catch the news anywhere in the world, any time of day. The downside to a 24/7 news cycle is that we get locked into some pretty daft discussions. I was struck by the hammering Baroness Vadera got for daring to talk about green shoots of recovery. This was then picked up and turned into a story around whether business people can make effective politicians or not.
I see green shoots of recovery. I’m not being insensitive to the many thousands of businesses and client I work with at A4e who are still reeling from the impact of the economic downturn ..View Complete Post Wednesday 14th January 2009, 14:05It’s Liquidity – but not as we know it!One of the most important issues we have needed to tackle to minimize the impact of the recession and support those organizations that can create jobs and grow during a recession, is liquidity for business. There have been some scary deals done prior to the credit crunch and over-gearing which has led to businesses being in difficulty. Some will be poorly run. The majority however are businesses which are fine, dealing with a challenging economic environment and need sensible working capital in place to sustain and create jobs.
My job takes me into the financial community and my ro..View Complete Post Tuesday 13th January 2009, 10:31Vision into Reality: Financial AdviceThe FSA announced their regional pilots recently to provide generic financial advice (Money Guidance) to support people to manage their financial situation. For me, it is the beginning of a large scale new part of our business. We have been running a smaller prototype for a while, having put considerable effort into a review by a chap called Thoresen which set out a government strategy for supporting people in the UK to make the most of the money they have.
Before that we had helped vulnerable DWP clients open bank accounts to receive their benefit and state pension payments electr..View Complete Post Tuesday 13th January 2009, 08:40The Principle of FiveA lot of people have asked me recently on my view of the announcements from the government to tackle recession and unemployment in particular. I’ve run A4e through downturns and recession, seen different drivers and different consequences. I talk about the ‘Principle of 5’ with the customer groups I work with.
In ‘normal’ economic conditions, the principle of 5 for our clients and services goes something like this: 5 people made redundant, one will find work themselves, one will get support from the Jobcentre and find work, one will likely be out of wo..View Complete Post Monday 5th January 2009, 14:48Gordon Brown’s Jobs PledgeIt’s easy to be cynical about the PM’s announcement on creating jobs, announced over the weekend. Although the economic circumstances are difficult, there are many jobs still being created, vacancies unfilled and this will continue as will job losses over coming months. The opportunity and focus needs to be on matching people into suitable opportunities as quickly as possible.
Confidence is an important part of business. As a Non-Exec on the RDA in Yorkshire, along with other Board members, I have been looking at ways to support businesses and jobs. Developing a sense o..View Complete Post |
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