Short term mentality - long term suffering.

This week we will learn how much profit (or loss) that our Banks will post. To the fore comes comment on bonuses paid to those traders "gambling" in a high risk - high reward environment. Howls of outrage are usually met with protests that it is too difficult to change the culture, that it will lead to an exodus of talent etc.

We have two issues here 1. Should Banks be allowed to gamble on the markets this way and 2. How should traders be rewarded.

On the first point then the answer should be yes however there has to be strict limits placed on the trading related to the strength of the Bank balance sheet and ability to meet obligations should losses be made. It was unlimited gambling on ever more obscure derivatives which caused the downfall of many institutions and yet we seem prepared to let the same mistakes be made. The argument that a bank is too large to be allowed to fail simply means that it is too large.

Reward for traders has a simple solution and yet no-one wants to break ranks. Traders can be paid bonuses according to how successful they are but the bonuses should be in shares and must be held for at least 5 years before they can be traded. In addition if losses are made then entitlement to shares reduces proportionally. This way there is an incentive to look at the long term rather than short term and each trader is tied to the performance of their parent company.

The bleats that this may affect the city in a negative way and drive away "talent" are foundless. Do we really want financial mercenaries gambling with our future? If they have no moral guidelines or sense of responsibility then quite frankly we are better off without them.

We talk about corporate responsibility and it is a real interest of mine but I have doubts if any of our top 250 companies pay anything other than lip service to this.

Reward exceptional work but tie it in to overall company performance and make any incentives long term - do this and we may just have a better society and stronger companies as a result!

So does an Enterprise Agency really make a difference?

When hosting the judges for the Enterprising Britain Awards we were asked a similar question which encouraged me to do some investigation. NWES was set up to combat the mass redundancies due to the closure of the Pye TV factory in Lowestoft back in 1982. Its successor Sanyo recently closed so where does Lowestoft stand now compared to then?

Looking at the figures for the last few years one can see how the town has performed in comparison to the region and country.

Economically Active – in employment – all people:

Date Number Waveney East England Great Britain

Mar 06 47400 70.6% 77.7% 74.3%

Sep 08 54000 78.3% 77.6% 74.5%

As you can see Waveney has substantially outperformed both the East of England and Great Britain rising from a laggard to being above the national average for economically active people in employment.

Economically Active – Unemployed – all people

Date Number Waveney East England Great Britain

Jan 06 3800 7.3% 4.6% 5.4%

Sep 08 2900 5.1% 4.3% 5.3%

Source: www.nomisweb.co.uk


There is a similar story with the latest unemployed figures; whilst there will always be seasonal fluctuations due to the nature of the area it can be seen that substantial progress has been made, bringing Waveney to below the national average from a position 35% above it some 33 months before.

The most recent figures for those people on Job Seekers Allowance, whilst showing an increase, demonstrate that our policy of job diversification is sheltering Lowestoft from the worst effects of the recession. In the period from January 2008 to May 2009 (latest figures available) Lowestoft has seen a 41% increase in JSA claimants. However in the same period the East of England has seen a 106% rise and Great Britain an 86% rise.

These are impressive results and whilst full employment is always the goal it shows how a policy of diversification and broadening the business base has paid substantial dividends over the years.

Lowestoft with NWES at the helm is now looking to the future positioning itself as the UK base for the rapidly emerging renewables industry - housed at the £10m NWES managed OrbisEnergy. Check out our website for great pictures from the top floor of the most easterly building in Britain!

I thought that I would post a blog entry by a judge for the "Enterprising Britain" competition who visited us in Lowestoft. As you can see he was impressed by what he saw and we will know how successful we have been at the national awards in October!

Enterprising Britain: A Judge's PerspectiveBy Maurice Helfgott, Founder of Amery Capital Ltd.Published Monday, 20 July, 2009 - 18:53

As founder of investment and advisory firm, Amery Capital , whose investments include Long Tall Sally, I was appointed a judge in this year’s Enterprising Britain competition has been a fantastic experience.
I have now completed both of my judging visits and each has highlighted how passion and dedication can transform lives and communities. It is great to see projects demonstrating how working in partnership can create new and exciting opportunities.
Each year, Enterprising Britain seeks out the most enterprising place in the UK, somewhere which has improved the local climate for business by creating opportunities for residents to be enterprising.
In these tough economic times, the dedication and vision of the people involved in these projects is a real inspiration. Entrepreneurship is key to our journey out of the recession and will be crucial in building a strong economy for the future.
The project I visited in the South West is run by The University of Plymouth, which is taking a leading role in the area’s social, economic and cultural development. It is fully engaged and working in partnership with a variety of organisations and agencies across the city to ensure the programmes developed are based on real need and are complimentary to partner activity. The university has developed a wide range of projects targeted to create an impact and raise levels of aspiration and quality of life.
Particularly interesting in Plymouth was a groundbreaking new partnership between the university and the Royal Government of Bahrain. It is a great example of private sector investment in the project and signals the creation of exciting international links and potential investment in Plymouth’s science and technology sectors. It is anticipated that the partnership will significantly boost the city’s financial and knowledge economies and its promotion of the vast opportunities available is definitely something I think others can learn from.

In the East of England NWES, a local enterprise agency in Lowestoft, was set up to reduce disadvantage by encouraging enterprising activity and self employment. Concentrating predominantly on people who are long term unemployed and facing barriers to work, its aim is to increase the number of business start-ups within the town by offering support, training, mentoring and provision of finance and flexible workspace.
The jewel in the crown in Lowestoft is the newly opened OrbisEnergy centre – an £8.7million investment designed to capitalise on the renewable energy sector. Amongst many other projects, the organisation gave £3million of its own money to fund the Lowestoft Enterprise Park, transforming a derelict industrial area into a thriving community of small businesses. NWES is about finding ways to give real benefits to both individuals and the community so that it is no longer dependant on just a few major employers, but offers a range of employment opportunities throughout the area.
Both projects I visited have successfully created jobs, reduced unemployment and attracted inward investment. The knowledge and experience they have will prove a vital aid for stimulating economic recovery and I wish them the best of luck in the competition.

NWES is proud to be the Eastern area representative in this years competition and are happy to share our experience with any other "enterprising place".

Who bears the brunt of the recession?

Over the last few weeks there appear to be an increased level in the number of stories about the private sector bearing the brunt of the recession whilst the public sector sails on regardless. It is an interesting concept and one which deserves significant time expended on it by the very best political brains for the good of the country.

Is it true? Looking at the facts it is clear that the cuts in jobs and expenditure is falling almost entirely on the private sector. Public sector employment has risen sharply over the last 10 years and shows little sign of contracting whilst the rise in unemployment can be attributed to private sector cutbacks. In general though it is fair to point out that the public sector often lags behind the private sector as it is difficult to implement change and is subject to political influence rather than economic reality.

We are entering a different climate, one which many people are too young to remember -austerity. The post war mentality of save, mend and make do lasted with us until the early 1980's and then an era of spending has changed the way that we live. I still live by a mantra that if I cannot buy it with my own money then I do not buy it. It may be out of favour as a philosophy and yet I have no money worries and live within my means! In corporate life however we need to learn the value of money once again. Political spin where all spending is "investment" needs to be stopped. Capital programmes are investment but current spending is exactly that - spending.

If we do not cut public expenditure sharply then we will return to an era more akin to "Life on Mars" with record unemployment, industrial unrest and appalling public services. We hear that cuts in public spending means a cut in services. This is untrue. Looking at productivity levels in the public and private sector over recent years we see a gap of about 20% - indeed in recent years public sector productivity has fallen!

The cuts do not need to be across the whole spectrum but the increase in productivity does. Thus if a department such as Health is protected from cuts then that is in return for an increase in productivity. In this department alone the waste is enormous and simple business techniques could save billions of pounds which could result in more being done for the sick and vulnerable.

I would like to see ALL public authorities conducting an exercise whereby every service is investigated and is contracted out to the private, social or voluntary sector unless it can be proven that to do so would be more expensive or result in a worse service. Waste would soon be stripped out, creativity and dynamism would result and I believe that we would get a better service for a lower cost. Eventually this would lead to more jobs, lower taxes and an improved social structure.

So will this happen? Maybe, but slowly, as it appears that politicians believe that to articulate this would lose votes. I am not sure that is true but we need a strong leader prepared to do the right thing rather than the vote winning appeasement.

A Brave new World

The world has changed. The pace and scale of the current recession has heralded a new way of thinking about the future of capitalism. Undoubtedly the current basis of our model will not radically change (at least no one sensible is suggesting that it will) but the way in which we do business will do. The settled and safe view of the economy has been shaken and corporate life in the future is unlikely to settle into its previous comfortable position. Industries that are "too big to fail" are simply too big and this opens up a wealth of opportunity for a new breed of entrepreneur.

An unprecedented number of people are looking at new ways to do business. This could be the model of business e.g. a social enterprise rather than solely for profit; or the way in which trade is carried on, with new ways of using existing resources or by consumers changing their buying methodology. All this will happen at a speed not previously seen and so it will take nimble and flexible businesses and individuals to provide solutions rather than the "supertankers" of multi national companies.

Great businesses emerge all the time and innovation, desire and enterprise are found as easily in a recession as in boom times. Barriers to entry are lowered; labour, materials and premises are cheaper. And the motivation is greater - why bother risking it all to be an entrepreneur when you can risk other peoples money as a trader and make enough to retire on by age 30? That is why most people would be hard pushed to name a true entrepreneur who has made it big in the last 15 years.

So the time is right to usher in the new capitalism with less reliance on a handful of banks, retailers and industrialists and more variety, innovation and choice. There will still be casualties but the next few years could herald an exciting new world - perhaps now is the time for governments to get firmly behind start up businesses rather than protecting the few or trying to pick winners.

In my opinion there has never been a better time to start up your own business.

Is it that hard to implement an expenses policy?

I have resisted the temptation so far to comment on the scandal of MPs expenses, however it does raise a much more important question - how are our taxes spent?

What I find difficult is the inexplicable refusal of anyone named to admit what we all know to be reality i.e. they have been caught "with their hands in the till". The answer......in line with the general mentality of the public sector is to have an inquiry, convene a panel, take ages and come up with a compromise.

Is business any different? I would split businesses into those that are owner run and those which are larger e.g. PLC. In the latter there is always an expenses policy and most people lower down in the organisation adhere to them under threat of dismissal if they falsify claims. Higher up some of these organisations are run as personal fiefdoms by individuals who have lost all sense of reality. Just look at the extravagant expenditure incurred by Fred Goodwin or the arrogance of the US car manufacturers flying around in private planes. It is not their money and so they regard it as a "perk" and there are too few people prepared to challenge them. Exploitation in my eyes.

In an owner run company there is a knowledge that every penny counts and so expenses are kept to an absolute minimum and have to be justified. No expense account lunches here - a sandwich during a meeting is the most that can be expected. In NWES expenses are minimal. Staff members understand that we can only spend what we earn and so if we increase mileage rates for example then there is less to pay on salaries.

We have heard so much about "moral compasses" from our politicians over the years but most have been shown to lack these. Forget the rules, common sense should dictate what can be justified and what cannot. There is a simple solution which can be implemented within a week. ALL employees in the public sector should adhere to a single set of rules which apply to all publicly funded organisations. Most businesses could supply a template to be adopted and then there would be no need to hold special committees etc. It would be transparent and those of us who pay taxes would know that our money was being used wisely.

I know that this will not happen because it employs common sense and a quick and workable solution. Also there are too many people with a vested interest in maintaining their perks. Still we can hope!

Do we value work placements?

As we get into the throes of the academic summer term the thoughts of teachers and students in Years 10 & 11 turn to the question of work placements. What should be one of the most important choices of the whole year for school and student alike is so often an afterthought and appears to be a "tick the box" exercise. There are some brilliant exceptions of course but my experience suggests that these are unfortunately in a minority.

One of the key tasks of a school is to prepare their students for a life of worthwhile work (although some teachers disagree with me!) and this - often first taste - of work experience is crucial. Chose correctly and it can be the catalyst for making important career choices; get it wrong and options can be cut or unfairly restricted.

So what makes a good work placement? I have a few simple thoughts which should be at the core of any decision:

1. The student and the placement have to be carefully matched to ensure that both parties benefit from the experience.
2. Pre and post placement reviews are a necessity to agree a learning programme and then assess what was achieved.
3. Placements with employers should all have a full and detailed work plan to ensure that the charge of "unpaid tea boy/girl" is unfounded.
4. Identify what motivates each student and use this in the matching process in 1 above - as any employer will tell you, a motivated employee is worth looking after.
5. The placement lasts for the normal working day whatever that may be. For a student to understand what work entails they need to experience the real thing not a truncated version.
6. Incorporate the work placement into the curriculum and use the experience gained in appropriate lessons e.g. Business Studies

Employers are delighted to help schools with rich work placements but find the bureaucracy and lack of real ongoing engagement to be deeply unfulfilling. Businesses understand the need to look after the workforce of the future but find it frustrating to come up against obstacles when offering to help. A lot of good work is going on but perhaps now is the time to have a radical rethink about how these placements are organised and what they should achieve. With the advent of the new diplomas a different tack needs to be taken so when better than now to think radical thoughts?

In Norfolk "The Exchange" is the place to go for advice on placements www.norfolk-exchange.org.uk and any company wanting to know how to participate should contact them as the first point of call. I know that The Exchange is looking at many exciting innovations to come in over the coming year so keep watching!

One final thought ......perhaps ALL teachers should also undertake a two week work placement EVERY year in the private sector - it would help them understand the importance of placements, provide material for lessons, re-invigorate "tired" teachers etc. Could it ever happen?