Welcome to Straight Talk, a weekly blog on the subject of business in its widest sense written by David Callam. A new posting appears here every Monday. David is a freelance journalist,
copywriter and general wordsmith, and director of Callamedia Ltd, an
editorial services consultancy dedicated to driving more traffic to its clients' web-sites.
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New paragraph
Straight Talk 24/09 - Monday, June 29, 2009.
CRIME and the fear of crime is making big business think
twice about investing in Croydon, south London, according to one possible investor.
Jeremy Collins, head of retail development at the John Lewis
Partnership, believes the town’s image is an issue.
The partnership has been blowing hot and cold about coming
to Croydon for the past decade – and in all that time I don't remember it raising this
particular matter before.
Indeed, as I recall, it has previously concerned itself with the size of
the store it was offered – initially too big for its liking – and the access to
the rest of the town’s shopping area afforded by the design of Park Place, the
town’s third shopping mall.
Nevertheless, Mr Collins has a point and, as a senior
executive of one of the most respected retailers in the country, he knows a
thing or two about cultivating and protecting an image.
Croydon, by contrast, knows nothing about doing so. It has
consistently failed to make a positive impact on Greater London, the south-east
or the rest of the country.
The great and the good of the town are too busy grinning
inanely at each other while they plot and scheme behind the scenes.
Publicly, they refuse to admit there are any problems, let alone to look for
solutions.
Yet Croydon has credible plans in place to reinvent itself.
It wants to correct the development mistakes of the 1950s and 1960s, and it has
recruited some very talented people to help – architect Will Alsop is a good
example.
But before it can attract the necessary inward investment to
turn Mr Alsop’s vision into reality, it needs to improve its existing image.
And that begins with the creation of a quick response unit,
whose job is to find and challenge the Croydon stereotype wherever it is employed
by lazy journalists.
It continues with the empowerment of a town centre manager to
spend some of the area’s BID money organising a programme of high-quality entertainment
that will attract the maximum number of visitors every week of the year.
We must convince others that Croydon is the place to be –
only then will inward investors be prepared to contribute to our future and
make it part of theirs.
ENDS
New paragraph
Straight Talk 23/09 - Monday, June 22, 2009.
OPEN government is as much a contradiction in terms as
police intelligence or civil service.
But I confidently predict we are about to learn more about financial
shortcomings in the public sector, thanks to a new business model created by the
Daily Telegraph.
I’m not referring to any money the newspaper may have paid
for the unexpurgated list of MPs expenses; in the best traditions of journalism,
the editor is rightly keeping quiet about that.
Rather I am thinking of the commercial success the paper has
enjoyed by publishing extracts of the information over the past seven weeks.
Other editors, many with falling circulations, have watched with
growing envy as the Telegraph garnered additional sales and extra publicity
with every passing day.
There is now an enthusiasm among the fourth estate to talk
to anyone with equally titillating examples of sloppy public administration.
As a result, there are apparatchiks quaking in their boots
at the prospect that some e-mail instruction to a subordinate will soon be the
basis of a national hue and cry.
It is unfortunate that we need to do things this way, but
the wilful determination of Whitehall warriors to keep us in the dark leaves us
with no alternative.
Consider the travesty of openness that was last week’s
publication by Parliament of MPs expenses.
We were told it would render
Telegraph revelations unnecessary – in fact the swathes of black ink show just
how little our once trusted public servants are prepared to share with us.
If our elected representatives dislike the lack of control
they have over this emerging market, there is an easy solution. They have only
to tell us themselves – as long as they are totally candid, it will disappear
like a morning mist.
But I think it unlikely they will confide easily or quickly,
so prepare yourself for more ridicule as a further succession of wrong-footed public
figures is dragged before television cameras to explain apparent wrong-doing.
Meanwhile, as a token of our appreciation, I suggest we ask
The Queen to confer a knighthood on the editor of the Daily Telegraph.
ENDS
New paragraph
Straight Talk 22/09 - Monday, June 15, 2009.
PARKING charges are back on the agenda in Croydon, with the
main political parties using them as a stick with which to beat each other. The opposition party is crying crocodile tears for small
traders in district centres, demanding free parking, while the governing party
says it has frozen charges for three years, incurring a loss to council coffers
of £250,000.
The argument then descends into the inevitable ya-boo
nonsense about who has increased charges more over the years and which party is
the truer friend to small business and to the motorist.
Call me sceptical, but I think this old chestnut has more to
do with a looming General Election than it has with recession-blighted shopkeepers.
Unfortunately, there is a serious problem lerking beneath this party
political twaddle – Croydon needs to address it as part of its medium-term plan.
The borough already has an unenviable reputation as a
congestion hot-spot – I’ve lost count of the number of people who’ve told me
they avoid the place like the plague for that reason.
Finding a way to change that image will do more for the
borough’s economy in the medium- and long- term than a childish spat about
parking charges.
It’s all a matter of balance, and as a non-driver I see things
weighted in favour of the motorist. We need less traffic in Croydon’s town and
district centres – and that means fewer cars.
Architect Will Alsop’s much maligned vision for central Croydon
includes the narrowing of one six-lane highway and the burying of a second in a
tunnel – that sounds like a good start to me. At the same time we want to encourage more visitors to enjoy
a more pleasant atmosphere, to stay longer and to spend more money.
We know the range of options available to us in that respect
– they include increased public transport, better provision for cyclists and
more encouragement to walk more regularly. And for longer-distance travellers
they also include ‘park and ride’.
Adopting any of these policies is likely to be unpopular in
some quarters, at least initially, which is presumably why Croydon politicians
of both major parties have sat on their hands for so long.
Remember the fuss we made about the introduction of a tram system
and look how beneficial it has become. That was the brainchild of a borough
politician – his successors need to raise their game.
ENDS
New paragraph
Straight Talk 21/09 - Monday, June 1 2009.
RECESSION in Britain is a thing of the past; the property market has stabilised
with plenty of would be home-owners ready to buy – or so it would seem.
I make my assertions on the basis of the number of letters I
receive from nearby estate agents who apparently have hoards of clients waiting
to buy my home.
The letters arrive almost daily, imploring me to contact
this or that agent if I am even half inclined to sell.
On closer inspection these carefully worded missives remind
me that the usual fees apply, by which I assume they mean one per cent or more of
the selling price.
In Croydon a one per cent fee, even in the present depressed
market, is not likely to be less than £1,500.
No wonder estate agents are less
popular than journalists – or even members of parliament.
And like MPs, there must be some question about what estate
agents do for their money.
Of course, there are agents who handle the complicated
negotiations surrounding the viewing and sale of baronial properties, replete with
moats and duck houses. But their work has little in common with that of those
in a nearby shopping parade.
The last time I sold a house the agent’s principal
contribution was to line up a series of time-wasters who either didn’t have the
finance in place to buy a property or who wanted to make silly offers for it.
Over the past few years many forms of selling have migrated
to the Internet and property seems to be a prime example of another that would
be better suited to the medium.
It must be cheaper to employ a virtual sales person than to contribute
towards the overheads of a network of slick shops and the lavish lifestyles of their
directors – and that should reflect in the fees that sellers have to
pay.
I understand Britain’s most popular retailer was on the
verge of launching an on-line estate agency a few years ago, but decided
against it at the time.
Just as supermarkets rescued us from the restricted trading tyranny
imposed by neighbourhood grocers, it is surely time for someone to make a
comfortable profit by saving us from overpriced estate agents.
Come on Tesco –
every little helps.
ENDS
New paragraph
Straight Talk 20/09 - Monday, May 25, 2009.
SOUTH London’s businesses came together last week to
celebrate their successes.
Amid the deepest recession in living memory, even the cupidity
of those elected to run the British economy couldn’t dampen spirits.
A record number of firms converged on Selhurst Park, home of
Crystal Palace Football Club, to celebrate success in the annual South London
Business Awards.
Over dinner and in the spaces between the courses they mixed
and mingled in the biggest and, for many, the most rewarding networking event
of the year.
Eagles’ fans may balk at the notion of people meeting on
their hallowed turf, but the idea of putting a marquee on the pitch as a
temporary venue for a series of spring celebrations has proved popular with
participants as well as lucrative for the club.
This year’s business event was deftly conducted by broadcaster
and self-confessed Palace fan, David Jensen.
He persuaded diners to part with hard-earned
cash for a good cause before the meal and hosted the awards ceremony afterwards.
Even those at a distance from the stage in this super-sized,
air-cooled tent were able to follow proceedings on a series of strategically
placed screens.
The enthusiasm of the finalists – let alone that of the
winners – was a joy to see, as was the encouragement given by those who were
only there to enjoy the evening.
Sir Bob Scott, chairman of South London Business, organiser
of the awards, told the assembled company how impressed he was by the area’s
ability to rise above the presently difficult commercial situation and how well
that bodes for the economic future of south London as things improve.
Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has retained its sponsorship of the awards, despite its
own financial problems, and will hopefully agree to do so again next year.
Some might say this is not a proper use of what is now
public money by a bank that is, in effect, nationalised.
I would argue that the excitement and inspiration generated
by the awards is a fillip for the whole south London business community and as
such represents very good value indeed for taxpayers’ cash.
Congratulations to all – the winners; the organisers and the
sponsors – and here’s to next year.
ENDS
New paragraph
Straight Talk 19/09 - Monday, May 18, 2009.
SHOCK, horror – Croydon Council has terminated its development
agreement with Minerva, a property company.
Is this the end of Park Place, the town’s third shopping
mall, an initiative once touted as Croydon’s answer to Bond Street and the
natural home for a John Lewis store?
I doubt it: in fact, I’m not sure the council’s decision
makes much difference.
Minerva still owns most of the land between Katharine Street
and Allders Square in the heart of the Whitgift Centre, and it still has
planning permission to redevelop it.
Croydon Council has little or no financial interest in the
land and therefore, having granted planning permission, no further role beyond
enforcing building regulations.
Galling as it may be for some councillors and senior council
executives, there are limits and rights-of-appeal built into the Town and
Country Planning Acts.
In practice, if Minerva or any successor puts forward a
revised plan for the site and the council rejects it, precedent suggests that
any resulting appeal by the developer to a higher authority is likely to succeed.
And if the council decides to invoke compulsory purchase
procedures it will be bound by strict rules covering the prompt re-sale of the
land.
So, what’s occurring pussy cat? Well, not a lot actually.
In common with almost every other developer in Britain,
Minerva is having difficulty raising money in a market where commercial
property rents are still in freefall.
There are prime sites in The City of London and the West End
where building has stopped mid-hod: petrifaction has spread like waves from a millstone
cast into a lake.
Croydon Council will certainly have no greater success than
a commercial developer in finding necessary funds – logic suggests the
developer’s experience would allow it to do a better deal more quickly.
The local authority can produce pretty pictures of how it
would like the site to look and it can appoint another developer as its preferred
partner, but any such plan will need to be commercially viable before anyone
opens a cheque book.
And there’s still no guarantee that any council proposals
will be looked on favourably by regional government or a planning inspector.
We’ve been here before – with the Gateway site adjacent to
East Croydon station. We can ill afford to repeat that costly shambles.
ENDS
New paragraph
Straight Talk 17/09 - Monday, May 4, 2009.
A NEW hotel in Coulsdon could be good news for this southern
gateway to Greater London.
The town has a fast and frequent train service to central
Croydon and onward to central London.
It could be an attractive base for people wanting to visit
the capital for business or pleasure and might even provide additional accommodation
for London’s Olympics.
But Travelodge, the company that seeks to build the 100-bedroom
hotel, will need to overcome a high degree of inertia that has afflicted
Coulsdon for many years.
The town is saddled with a vociferous but apparently
influential minority that has so far frustrated all attempts to drag it into
the 20th century – let alone the 21st.
The site of the former Cane Hill Hospital in Brighton Road
is a case in point. This scandalous waste of space in an area of chronic shortage
has been lying idle for more than a decade.
Circumstances have long since overtaken an original plan to
build a science park on the site. Backward-looking locals decided this was code
for an industrial estate and set their faces firmly against it, despite the
best efforts of Croydon Council to show them what an asset such a facility would
be.
Development of the Cane Hill site is also
frustrated by bureaucrats who have swapped ownership of the land between various
Whitehall departments without ever making a serious decision about its future. It remains ensnared by the Green Belt, despite miles of open
country to the south and the wonderful Farthing Downs to the east, available to
everyone in perpetuity.
Movement of a line on a map could bring much-needed redevelopment to the site, including a hotel; all of which would benefit the town’s
retailers who are constantly complaining that there is not enough trade to
survive.
There are other sites in Coulsdon – principally those of the
former Red Lion pub and the capacious Lion Green Road car park – but each is
earmarked for other ventures; a supermarket and a swimming pool respectively. The
chance of either being built in the foreseeable future is remote, given the
present economic situation.
I wish you luck Travelodge. I think your proposals would greatly
benefit Coulsdon. But this is a town with a reputation for looking gift horses
in the mouth.
ENDS
New paragraph
Straight Talk 16/09 - Monday, April 27, 2009.
AUSTERITY begins at home and politicians should lead by
example.
Britain’s Chancellor of the Exchequer will collect billions more
in taxes over the next few years.
In order to guarantee value for money, he should first
institute a root and branch reform of the gravy train that serves all corners
of the Palace of Westminster.
There is no reason why we couldn’t cut the number of MPs by
half. They will tell you they are desperately busy people, but to quote Mandy
Rice-Davies: ‘they would say that, wouldn’t they’.
In fact, over the past few decades, the lower house at Westminster
has ceded many responsibilities to the European Parliament – where much of today’s
legislation rightly has its origins – and to the Scotland, Wales and Northern
Ireland assemblies.
If MPs weren’t so determined to duplicate other people’s
work – the ultimate job creation scheme – they could spend less time at
Westminster and more dealing with the needs of their constituents.
At £65,000 a year MPs are already well paid and they should be
required to work full-time for their money – 220 days a year, instead of the
present 165, divided evenly between Westminster and their constituencies.
Every MP’s principal home must be in his or her constituency
– it should be a condition of the job.
Only those with constituencies
beyond commuting distance of central London should receive an overnight
accommodation allowance, which should be tied to the cost of bed and breakfast
in a three-star hotel.
I am happy to give MPs railway warrants and Oyster cards, so
they can experience the commuting misery that faces the rest of us – as a result
I suspect they would find additional money for public transport faster than you
can say ‘bank bailout’.
And what are the chances of any of these long-overdue
reforms coming to pass? Absolutely zero; these self-serving egotists are
blissfully unaware of the concerns of those they claim to serve.
They bemoan the increasing disinterest in politics, but prefer
to blame poor press coverage rather than face the fact that their own
anachronistic practices are the principle cause of the problem.
If businesses were run like the House of Commons the vast
majority would long since have ceased to trade.
ENDS
New paragraph
Straight Talk 15/09 - Monday, April 20, 2009.
OUR children need to understand where they fit within the
wider world as part of their formal education.
As they return to school today after the Easter holidays, I’m
not sure the present system is best suited to learning those important lessons.
They will be under the care and influence of a profession
that regularly demonstrates only a passing flirtation with reality.
I refer to teachers, whose trade union conferences take
place over Easter and some of the crackpot demands that come out of them.
In previous years these are the guardians of young minds who
have mounted a silent protest, waving placards during an address by the then education
secretary, David Blunkett – you couldn’t make it up.
And this year they asked, among other things, for a ban on
independent testing of children before they leave primary school and a ten per
cent salary increase.
I’m told that colleges of further education are spending
large amounts of their budget teaching basic literacy and numeracy to students
aged 16 and above.
Those are surely skills most of them should have mastered before
they left primary school. No wonder we are concerned about how our children
will compete for the best jobs in coming years – including against students
from developing countries.
Of course our children need to be independently tested
before they embark on their secondary education and if their primary teachers
are found wanting they should be told to find another way to make their living.
As for a pay rise; are teachers' leaders totally out of touch? Many
of them already earn well in excess of the average wage, particularly if you
divide their salary by the 38 weeks a year they are contracted to work.
They have secure jobs – sacking teachers is hellishly
difficult, even when they deserve it – and they enjoy a public-sector,
index-linked pension.
Certainly teachers need greater support from school
governors and local politicians when dealing with delinquent parents and their
obnoxious offspring.
In return, we have a right to demand that they apply a more
realistic approach to their responsibilities – starting, perhaps, by replacing
the delegates who do them such disservice at their annual conferences.
ENDS
New paragraph
Straight Talk 14/09 - Monday, April 13, 2009.
A SMALL business man who rose to be one of the most
influential people in the country will lend his name to a new commercial initiative
in Croydon.
And to add to the aptness, the initiative will be run by an
organisation that this former tailor helped to establish in the town over 25
years ago.
The man in question is the late Bernard Weatherill, known to
his many friends as Jack, a former Member of Parliament for Croydon North East,
Speaker of The House of Commons and latterly a crossbench peer.
It was during his time as a constituency MP that Jack Weatherill
became a prime mover behind a venture to support small businesses in Croydon.
He helped to gather together a group of larger and better-established
companies in the town – including accountancy practices and banks, larger retailers and the town’s then thriving local newspaper – to
persuade them it was in their enlightened self-interest to support smaller enterprises.
Croydon Business Venture, the group he helped to found,
convinced Croydon Council to grant it a lease at a peppercorn rent of a former
television factory in Cherry Orchard Road where it could accommodate and advise some of
the town’s newest entrepreneurs.
CBV quickly ran out of room; the units are keenly priced and
the general level of support is first class. So it is particularly satisfying
that the organisation will soon have an additional selection of units to let –
this time, purpose-built as part of a mixed development taking shape on the Purley
Way.
This is a prime example of the private sector helping itself
with minimal, though welcome support from the public realm. CBV will not be
required to tick lots of tedious boxes to satisfy small-minded paymasters,
which is just as well, since it has far more important things to do in the
present economic climate.
Instead, it will be able to go on fulfilling the promises
made by its founders to emerging businesses in Croydon – to offer them the best
possible advice and support from people who have the practical experience to do
so.
Jack would be proud of them – as I know they are of him.
ENDS
New paragraph
Straight Talk 13/09 - Monday, March 30 2009.
DEFINE private sector: that’s the first job for Croydon’s
new Economic Development Company, and the one that will determine its future
success.
In my view it all comes down to money, or rather who’s paying
the piper and therefore, quite reasonably, calling the tune.
Predecessor bodies have claimed private-sector leadership,
in the sense that they have had a majority of business people on their boards,
but they were funded from the public purse.
I recall the chairman of a predecessor company – an astute
business man with a track record to prove it – saying he was driven to
distraction by political interference.
I also recall a former chief executive of the same
predecessor company saying he was required to attend Croydon Council chief
officers’ meetings, where he was treated ‘like an extension of the press office’.
Croydon already has a number of independent private sector bodies
that represent business interests, of which the Federation of Small Businesses
and the Chamber of Commerce are probably the best known.
Both are privately funded, predominantly through membership
fees, and therefore able to take a truly impartial view of any situation.
Will Croydon’s new EDC be similarly privately funded and, if
so, how soon? Its predecessors have a poor record in this respect.
Some started out with the intention of attracting fee-paying
members, but failed to do so in sufficient numbers to make themselves
independently viable.
The interests of the business community and those of the
local authority do not always coincide – nor should they.
But the degree of comfort felt by a business body in making
its views known is a good test of its real independence. I wonder how easy it
will be for the EDC to champion business causes with a member of the council as
its joint chair.
I readily admit that I approach yet another re-organisation
of Croydon’s business representation with considerable scepticism – even cynicism.
I sincerely hope to be proved wrong on this occasion.
If Croydon is ever to realise its full commercial potential there
will be times when it needs positive but vigorous debate between council and business
community.
This time let’s hope for the best.
ENDS
New paragraph
Straight Talk 12/09- Monday, March 23, 2009.
A DECENT education is one of the few gifts we can give our
children to help them pay off the huge debts we will be leaving them.
That is the view of political pundit and broadcaster Andrew
Neil, as expressed to an attentive audience last week at the annual conference
of the Federation of Small Businesses.
He said that in his international travels he meets young
people from China and India who receive a broader education than British
children and in many cases speak better English.
And he reminded his audience that these are the young people
against whom our children will have to compete for the best-paid jobs in the
coming decades.
Education is one of the few areas where money is not an
obstacle – according to Mr Neil we spend almost as much per head on state students
as we do on day students in the private sector.
And yet the effectiveness, as measured by examination
results, is very poor – Mr Neil says the seven per cent of students in the
private sector produce more quality certificates than the 93 per cent educated
by the state.
What are we to do? Maybe the market has the answers.
At the moment the shape of the curriculum is decided by politicians
in association with battalions of so-called experts. Some of these people have
never had a job outside politics or academia – they have little idea of the
realities of life for the vast majority of us.
Local authorities offer a limited choice of secondary
schools, so there are never enough places to satisfy the demand for the better
ones and there is always shoe-horning of children into the rest to avoid the
political repercussions of closure.
The private sector would have none of this: good schools
would have the money to expand to meet demand, while bad ones would go to the
wall.
All we have to do is give parents the means to decide – in
the form of a voucher – and leave them and the forward-looking trusts they
would encourage to create a flexible education market that responds to children’s
needs.
Of course, it would mean a lesser role for national and
local politicians – and that, I suspect, is why it hasn’t happened yet and is
unlikely to do so anytime soon.
ENDS
New paragraph
Straight Talk 11/09 - Monday, March 16, 2009.
CONSENSUS has broken out among the main political parties in
south London over the extension of the tram network.
Labour sees it as a stick with which to beat the
Conservative mayoralty, while the Tories are past masters at spotting a rolling
band-wagon and jumping on it.
No matter the politicians’ tawdry reasons, in this case they
coincide with common sense.
The tram is popular with passengers because it is reliable
and fast – untroubled by the degree of traffic congestion at any particular
time.
And it should be popular with politicians too, because it’s
much cheaper to build than a new railway line – particularly an underground one
– and more reliable on busy roads than a bus service.
But London Mayor Boris Johnson, like his predecessor, is closely surrounded
by a fervent bus lobby unable or unwilling to see the advantages of moving
large numbers of passengers on trains or trams.
Fortunately, a tram extension to Crystal Palace is back on
the agenda now and that is certainly a step in the right direction, but a north
south route linking the Victoria Line at Brixton with Coulsdon through the
central Croydon loop is the real prize.
The A23/A235 has long exceeded its capacity and there is no
easy way to increase it, even if there was any enthusiasm to do so – which there
is not.
But there might be scope for the minor realignment of the
road in places to produce a central reservation wide enough to take a pair of
tram tracks.
I saw such a system working in Warsaw a few years ago – I had
a bird’s eye view of a busy intersection from my hotel room and I was impressed
by its efficiency.
A similar arrangement through the heart of south London
would surely induce many motorists to leave their cars at home or in a
convenient and reasonably-priced car park and continue their journey by tram.
In my view there is also a case for looking at some of the suburban
railway lines that cross south London with a view to converting them to tram
routes too – it proved a life-saver for the West Croydon to Wimbledon line and
could be equally successful elsewhere.
New paragraph
Straight Talk 10/09 - Monday, March 9, 2009.
THIS IS the age of the train. But it’s being sabotaged by
the attitude of railway managers.
I needed to travel from East Croydon to Victoria yesterday
(Sunday). I anticipated a relatively comfortable journey, but I was sadly
mistaken – forced to stand in the gangway all the way.
I found a seat on the way back, but there were others
standing throughout the train.
The problem, as far as I could see, was a combination of a
busy line – Sundays are not a day of rest for airlines using Gatwick Airport –
and an Arsenal home match with a 1.30 kick off.
Clearly the north London football club has a lot of followers south
of the river, as I suspect do the capital’s other Premiership teams – let’s be
honest, there’s nothing to excite serious football fans between the Thames and
the south coast.
Railway operators must know when these games are being
played. Is it beyond the whit of management to lengthen trains from eight cars
to 12 and increase their frequency in the couple of hours before and after a game?
Such a gesture would certainly inspire greater customer
loyalty, but that doesn’t seem to be an issue with train operating
companies, or those who run our bus services.
The days when sports matches all started at 3pm on Saturdays
have long gone. There are dozens of leisure events taking place every week-end,
not to mention that Sunday is the second most popular shopping day of the week.
The idea of restricting week-end services is an anachronism,
only relevant to vacillating public transport managers in hock to
backward-looking trades unions.
And yet, I spy the sticky fingerprints of civil servants all
over this problem too. People who know nothing about business or public
transport have imposed rigid contracts that suit their purposes but not those
of the travelling public.
We have privatised the operating aspects of railways and buses,
allowing companies to paint rolling stock in all manner of garish colours, but apparatchiks
have imposed bad habits they picked up during decades of nationalisation.
In truth, government doesn’t want more people travelling on
public transport – the investment is too costly.
Remember Thameslink 2000? It may be completed by 2020, if
we’re lucky.
New paragraph
Straight Talk 09/09 - Monday, March 2, 2009.
RECESSION is beginning to bite in Croydon’s district centres
– or is it?
It would be so easy to blame the lacklustre performance of
retail businesses in places like Coulsdon or South Norwood on the present
financial downturn.
But in doing so we may be making the same mistake we have
been making since the end of the last recession – or even the one before that.
I think it’s time to face a few facts.
Long before the banking bubble burst, economists came to the
conclusion that Greater London was substantially over-endowed with retail
premises.
Many of our secondary shopping areas were built at a time
when society was very differently organised – when each community valued and
supported its own baker, butcher and greengrocer. And much as many may say they yearn for the return of those
times, basic economics will not allow it.
Neighbourhood retailers have blithely ignored the rise of
the supermarket, the shopping mall, the out-of-town retail park and the
Internet.
They have soldiered on, watching their takings fall in
relation to the cost of living and seeing the whole parade become steadily less
viable as others move away or close down to be replaced by charity shops, fast
food outlets and estate agents.
I remember being told 20 years ago by the owner of a
hardware store that he knew the writing was on the wall when he found items on
sale in an edge-of-town superstore cheaper than he could buy them wholesale.
The recession is merely the means by which we will impose these
changes in a tangible way – I suspect each shopping parade will disappear, to
be replaced by a purpose-built convenience store, open 24/7, probably run by
one of the supermarket chains and with its own off-street parking.
The rest of the parade will be replaced with low-rise
housing – end of story.
Some will see this as a regressive step, others will be more
philosophical, accepting that the vast majority of us have chosen to abandon
neighbourhood shops and in the process set off a chain of events that the
current recession will merely complete.
New paragraph
Straight Talk 08/09 - Monday, February 23, 2009.
CROYDON will become the site of a unique exhibition later this
year – an excellent ploy for projecting the town in a positive light.
But once again this cack-handed south London suburb has contrived
to make much less of an important event than it otherwise might.
The exhibition, which will run from April to August,
features 200 artefacts from the Mary Rose, a Tudor warship lost in battle with
the French off Southsea in 1545 and lifted from the English Channel in 1982.
Many of the treasures coming to Croydon have never been on
public display before, making this an event on the scale of the Picasso Bestiary
exhibition that launched the Clocktower arts centre in 1995.
Croydon Council has rightly spent public money to bring the Mary Rose exhibition to the borough, but the artefacts will not be displayed in the
Clocktower art gallery, or anywhere else in the town centre. Instead, the exhibition will be staged in the relative obscurity
of Whitgift School at South Croydon.
Picasso conferred kudos on Croydon and the forthcoming exhibition
has already attracted national media coverage on the BBC Radio 4 arts programme
Front Row.
But instead of drawing visitors’ attention to the many and
varied delights of the town centre – while you’re here, why not shop and/or eat
in Croydon – the exhibition is serving merely as a publicity vehicle for the
school.
How many more blunders of this kind will it take before
Croydon Council realises it needs to market the town centre professionally if
it is to shepherd the ailing borough economy competently through the present
recession?
Were Croydon Business and the town centre’s Business
Improvement District lobbying for a town centre location for this impressive exhibition?
If not, why not?
Does either organisation actually understand the commercial
significance of an exhibition of this kind?
Any other town, particularly one with pretentions to be a
city, would have seized on an opportunity of this kind as the vehicle for national
and international promotion it most certainly represents.
Wake up Croydon.
New paragraph
Straight Talk 07/09 - Monday, February 16, 2009.
GREAT news: in the midst of recession someone in authority
is thinking long-term.
Despite the insatiable demands of bankers for further
bale-outs to fund their multi-million pound bonuses, we have a decision that will
benefit the real economy.
Government has found the cash for a second East London Line
extension that will serve south Londoners living in an arc from New Cross to
Clapham Junction.
The line will give improved access to other parts of London
and the rest of the country making it easier for residents to compete for jobs
further afield.
The need for far-sighted decisions about public transport
was brought home to me last Thursday as I sat on a bus in a queue of vehicles slowly
approaching central Croydon from Thornton Heath.
The road at Broad Green is inadequate for the volume of
traffic it carries – a situation exacerbated by a high degree of illegal parking
and a job creation scheme for pipe-layers which has been running for months.
If we are serious about persuading people to leave their
cars at home we need extra permanent bus lanes and they need to be a continuous
network rather than the occasional daubing of red paint amid sections of severe
congestion.
In fact, we need the same approach to bus lanes that the
designers of the Croydon-centred tram system adopted a decade ago and which has
proved so popular with steadily increasing numbers of passengers.
On busy stretches of road, buses must be separated from the
rest of the traffic by the addition of extra lanes solely for their use.
And it would be better if bus lanes were in operation
permanently, rather than being used as linear car parks at week-ends – the idea
that there are significantly fewer people travelling on Saturday or Sunday is quaint.
Motorists will inevitably complain vociferously about this
discrimination, but our political leaders must have the courage of their
convictions.
We need to move the greatest number of people in the most
convenient way possible and in a city as crowded as Greater London, that means
public transport.
If you are only using your car to drive from home to work or
to your favourite sports stadium and back, please consider leaving it in the
garage – you will find the journey by public transport is quicker and cheaper.
New paragraph
Straight Talk 06/09 - Monday, February 9, 2009.
THE WHITE stuff raises some interesting questions about our sense
of values.
As Croydon and the rest of south London lay blanketed in
snow last week, much of our ailing transport infrastructure ground to an ignominious
halt.
Within hours of the first flurries, train and bus companies ceased
to function – points froze and depots were isolated.
Some saw non-existent public transport or unsalted roads as an
invitation to take time off – others added to the chaos by venturing out, in
many cases woefully ill-prepared for the elements.
Health and safety legislation took the blame for the closure
of schools, while hospital accident and emergency departments were inundated
with fractures and sprains.
Stories began to emerge of 30-minute journeys that took three
hours and brave souls who struggled to work to find they were the only ones
there.
The media wheeled out business pundits to tell us how much more
these extreme weather ‘events’ were costing an already beleaguered economy.
And in that respect ‘humbug of the week’ award goes to
Stephen Alambritis of the Federation of Small Businesses who complained about
how local authorities’ ill-preparedness was costing his members bank-breaking
sums of money.
This is the same Stephen Alambritis who will be touring
television studios in a few weeks complaining about equally bank-breaking
increases in business rates.
In truth, we were suffering the consequences of an unusually
severe fall of snow – it has been 18 years since south London saw anything
similar – and there is a good commercial argument for being less well-prepared than
some would like.
Excited news reporters drew comparisons between London’s
poor performance last week and that of cities in Canada or Russia, where winter
weather conditions are regularly a lot worse.
But they didn’t tell us how much it might cost borough councils
to buy and maintain acres of specialist kit against a once in two decades
possibility of heavy snow.
Personally, I would prefer to put up with the occasional
inconvenience and see my rates and taxes spent more cost-effectively – extending
the south London tram network offers far better value for money than making public
transport snow proof.
New paragraph
Straight Talk 05/09 - Monday, February 2, 2009.
RECESSION has prompted a plethora of business support
organisations to offer a wide range of training initiatives.
Sadly they are all offering the same range, most of which were
dreamed up by government apparatchiks with little or no reference to business.
The system is to blame for this frustrating, costly and now potentially
disastrous situation, but it would be very difficult to change it
At the moment business support organisations are customer
facing, but in almost every case that customer is central government.
And it is superannuated civil servants with little idea and even
less interest in small business who dream up the initiatives.
Once they have done so it is equally out-of-touch, publicly-funded
business support organisations who attempt to tick the boxes.
The end product is a series of measures that miss the point
and give the impression that business doesn’t want support if it ignores them.
The simple ploy needed is to make business support
organisations face in a different direction – and we could do that by putting
the money in the hands of small business instead of government departments and
quangos.
We could offer every business a sum of money, in the form of
an entitlement, to be spent on any legitimate aspect of business support in a
particular year.
Suddenly we would see business support organisations really
listening to small firms because their very existence would depend on selling relevant
services.
Many of these quangos would go to the wall – and frankly,
good riddance to a waste of taxpayers’ money. But those that remained would be responding
to need in a way that really would make Britain a natural place to do business.
Such a system would mean redundancy for a large number of
quasi-public servants who presently enjoy well paid sinecures at the taxpayers’
expense. And that’s the stumbling block.
These people have too much influence over central government
– “that is a brave move minister” – for craven politicians ever to contemplate
their demise.
I remember a former chief executive of a large local
authority telling me some years ago: “Politicians come and go, but I run the
council.” He did too.
New paragraph
Straight Talk 04/09 - Monday, January 26, 2009.
THERE’S one born every minute– or so it would seem, even in streetwise
Croydon.
Last week a bunch of low-lives pulled off a classic ‘bait
and switch’ routine in a pub in the Thornton Heath district, one of the oldest con
tricks in the book.
They persuaded a group of unsuspecting punters to allow
themselves to be locked in a room where they were invited to pay unbelievably
low sums of money for electrical and other household items.
Descriptions were kept vague and the pace of the auction was
furious, both ploys are a deliberate part of the con, so punters don’t have
time to think about what they’re buying until some time after they’ve bought
it.
The goods fit the general description, which keeps the sale
legal, but they are less valuable than punters have been led to believe – often
available on Internet sites for much less than punters have paid.
The success of this and every other con depends upon a seller’s
ability to convince a buyer that he is getting a bargain – and the techniques
are not confined to low-lives like those who invaded Croydon.
Some of the country’s best established retailers are at it
too – they call it double pricing and there’s plenty of evidence to show that
if we don’t think we’re getting a bargain many of us won’t buy something, even
if the price is keen.
So we get the rather dubious trading climate we deserve: no
wonder sellers of sub-prime mortgages were able to relieve respectable but
greedy bankers of billions of pounds of our money.
Surely we can all learn a few lessons from some of these
dodgy deals.
If it looks too good to be true, it probably is – walk away. If
the reduction seems genuine – end of a line, maybe, or frustrated export order –
do you need the item? It isn’t a bargain at any price unless you do.
If you do, is the sale price value for money, regardless of
the discount? Ignore any nonsense about the seller doing you a favour, unless
he owes you one.
And if the item has ‘inadvertently’ fallen from a passing
pantechnicon, remember you too could be seriously damaged if you buy it. A charge
of receiving stolen goods will not enhance your personal or business reputation.
New paragraph
Straight Talk 03/09 - Monday, January 19, 2009.
HEADS up south London – you’re about to see a potential
economic asset disappear, as if by magic.
The prestidigitation is being perpetrated by senior civil
servants and the managers of two multi-national companies, with the willing
consent of government ministers.
I refer to last week’s announcement of a third runway and
sixth terminal at the 60-year-old planning mistake we are pleased to call London
Heathrow.
The people of west London are up in arms, but they should
not be alone in their concerns.
Those of us in the south should be equally
aggrieved, since the announcement makes a second runway at Gatwick less likely.
A lack of expansion in rural Sussex will not only perpetuate
our need to make the gruesome trek from here to Heathrow, it will also damage south
London’s economy.
Imagine the boost the area would receive from having an
airport the size of the present Heathrow on its doorstep: a direct increase in
employment; the added major airlines that would operate from such a convenient
location; the inward investment that would follow in their wake, with jobs
galore for local people.
We are in danger of losing all that as we stand idly by
while BAA, BA and the government present their wafer-thin arguments for
shoe-horning extra capacity into an airport that has distinguished itself only
as a worldwide embarrassment.
And what plans has the government made for south Londoners
to travel more easily to its envisaged super-sized airport? The answer is none.
There is a proposal for something called Airtrack that would
link Heathrow Terminal 4 with Waterloo, via Richmond and Clapham Junction. But
there is no funding for this proposal and it is not expected to materialise for
at least ten years.
Crossrail and Thameslink combined will offer south Londoners
a one-change service to Heathrow via Farringdon, but that too is more than a
decade hence.
Gatwick offers south Londoners the prospect of more convenient
travel the moment the dead hand of BAA is removed from its management.
We should be making it clear through our MPs, local
authorities and business support organisations that we wish to use Heathrow as
little as possible; that we want the sale of Gatwick to proceed as a matter of
urgency; and that we then want the closest possible engagement with the new
owners.
ENDS
Straight Talk 02/09 - Monday, January 12, 2009.
CONFERENCE Croydon is the latest bright idea to be touted as
the town’s answer to the economic downturn.
It comes from the publicity-hungry Croydon Business, an
organisation which, despite its name, is still largely funded by public money
from one purse or another.
The idea that the town should play host to the Society of
Saddle Tappers Bottom Knockers or the Union of Treacle Benders, and in so doing
fill a few empty hotel rooms has much to commend it.
But as usual Croydon can’t leave it there – hubris forces the
pretentious south London borough to compare itself with places like Blackpool and
Brighton.
As someone who has been to conferences in both places I have
to say that Croydon lacks the necessary basic facilities to compete with either.
In Blackpool my conference hotel, a barn of a place,
included the main meeting hall on its ground floor; in Brighton I stayed next
door to the purpose-built conference centre.
Croydon is offering the wholly inappropriate Fairfield
complex as its equivalent, where the nearest hotels suitable as a base – Croydon
Park or Jurys Inn – are ten draughty minutes walk away.
The Fairfield was designed as a concert hall and theatre in
the early 1960s, when the demand for commercial flexibility was not an issue – concerts,
plays and municipal dinners were the extent of the building’s envisaged uses.
Anyone who has run an exhibition there will tell you how
hard it is for the staff to fulfil even the most basic layout requests, given
that everything still revolves around the concert hall and theatre.
In the years when Croydon Chamber of Commerce ran an annual
exhibition it was forced to construct a temporary building for lack of an
appropriate space in the town. There is still no appropriate space – it is the
first glaring inadequacy to be addressed before we make grandiose comparisons
with established conference venues.
On the other hand, if we replaced Fairfield with a modern,
flexible arena to include all the electronic bells and whistles demanded by
today’s organisers – and added a substantial new hotel – maybe on the site of
the existing Nestle building – we might have the basis of a credible mid-market
conference sector.
Dream on Croydon Business.
ENDS
New paragraph
Straight Talk 01/09 - Monday, January 5, 2009.
HAPPY New Year.
And I’m sure it will be for most of us if we keep the
financial situation in perspective.
The man from insolvency practitioner Begbies Traynor says
there could be a further five or more high street multiples going bust in the
near future.
The media will have a field day when it happens, but they won’t
comment on new retail businesses that are even now being created.
In the past few years there has been a fundamental change in
the economics of the high street, which is only being brought to light by
the present financial turmoil.
Retailers have reacted as they always do, by
sacrificing profit for turnover and cutting prices. But their real enemy is
nothing as simple as a downturn – it is a change in the very nature of
retailing.
In the past, conventional retailers all had similar overheads,
so they needed to sell goods at comparable prices.
Gradually supermarkets broadened their ranges
and added additional aisles of non-food goods to larger stores.
As they did so the sector's tectonic plates shifted – supermarkets
trade from edge-of-town or out-of-town sites where rateable values are lower. And
it costs little or nothing in additional overheads to rearrange floor space and
add extra stock.
So supermarkets can afford to slash prices without reducing
profits – traditional high street traders have not yet found a way to respond,
but you can be certain they are working on it.
In the meantime, the downturn has made consumers more price
conscious than ever and they are finding the bargains they seek in supermarkets
or on the Internet.
The good news for Croydon is that the town centre has long
been valued by the retail sector as a testing ground for new formats – it has city-centre
footfall without eye-watering rents.
Expect the town centre to retain its attraction for retailers
and shoppers alike, despite a downturn that will surely turn into recession.
But don’t be surprised if district centres and ribbon retail parades on main roads fall into further – in some cases, terminal
– decline.
ENDS
New paragraph
Straight Talk 51/08 - Monday, December 22, 2008
HO, ho, ho – merry Christmas.
That might seem a strange sentiment, given the year most of
us have had, but I think it incumbent on every one of us to take a proper break
from our businesses if we are to give them our best shot in 2009.
I’m not suggesting we drink to forget – that does nothing but
leave us with yet another headache. But I do believe we should become seriously
relaxed – a combination of a glass or two of something festive and the company
of people in whom we can confide.
If you have any serious worries try to share them before the
festivities, and then put them aside so you can return to them refreshed on a
later day and work out a solution while you are cool, calm and collected.
Cancel the newspapers – they will be full of dreadful
analyses of the year gone by and terrifying predictions for the one ahead – remember,
there will be no business news in the next couple of weeks, so print journalists we be even more eager than usual to make mountains
out of molehills.
For those of you staying in Britain for the holiday, the
same advice applies in relation to those miserable wretches on Radio 4s Today
Programme.
You don’t need to know, so go for some music instead.
Or if
you want to realise just how fortunate you are try the superb coverage on the
BBC World Service – imagine spending Christmas in Zimbabwe and not knowing
where you will find a meal of any description, let alone turkey and all the
trimmings.
We have some serious work to do next year. It will not be
the best of times, of that we can be sure. But when the going gets tough, the
tough get thinking and then they get doing.
I hear Woolworths will close its last store on Saturday,
January 5 – but Woolies’ dire straits are not the result of this or any other
downturn – they were created by a series of senior management teams who refused
to read the writing on the wall.
The simple lesson you and I can learn from this sad
situation is not to stick our heads in the sand and pretend problems will solve
themselves – they won’t.
See you next year.
ENDS
Straight Talk 50/08 - Monday, December 15, 2008.
THE SEASON of good cheer is almost upon us, despite the best
efforts of many of my media colleagues to convince us otherwise.
I spent last Friday lunchtime spying on our business
counterparts in west London and being very impressed with their annual yuletide
get together.
West London Business is a kind of jumbo chamber of commerce,
covering a sub-region rather than a single borough and being very active in the
process.
Its chief executive told us it ran 40 events this calendar
year, covering all manner of commercial topics including the all-important
networking.
He also said the organisation was girding its loins for the anticipated
fight over a third runway for Heathrow – you will not be surprised to learn it
is strongly in favour.
But the organisation is equally well aware of the more
immediate problems that are likely to beset the sub-region as downturn becomes
recession.
It is reaching out to smaller firms across west London with
a discount membership scheme, starting early in the New Year, so newer firms
can benefit from the experience of more seasoned ones.
The idea was warmly received in the banqueting room, as I’m
sure it would be in south London, if anyone here was making a similar offer.
The meal was a well-judged mix of business formality and festive
cheer, with a free draw after lunch for some very acceptable prizes, followed
by a Frank Sinatra tribute act singing some of old blue eyes’ best-known songs.
I didn’t expect to do business that far outside my usual
manor, but I was pleasantly surprised by the interest shown in my jottings by a
number of west Londoners.
On the way back, as we drove under the final approach to one
of Heathrow’s existing runways, I couldn’t help thinking that bringing even
more low-level aircraft into close proximity with such tightly packed
residential and industrial development is a recipe for potential disaster.
In everyone’s interest, particularly those who live and work
in west London, we should be campaigning for expansion elsewhere and an
absolute limit on any further development of this 60-year-old planning mistake.
But we will have to be much better organised if we want to
prize BAA and British Airways’ hands off a reward they consider to be rightly
theirs.
A similarly active sub-regional business organisation would
be a big step in the right direction.
ENDS
Straight Talk 49/08 - Monday, December 8, 2008.
THE Commission for Outer London will offer Croydon a huge
opportunity to expand its economy, despite the dire prospects that prevail more
generally.
This new body is an initiative of London Mayor Boris Johnson
– a wheeze to make outlying boroughs feel more included in the life of the
capital.
And in Croydon’s case such an initiative is long overdue.
A
former leader of the council used to say that the Greater London Council – forerunner
of the GLA – believed London extended only as far as the south bank of the
River Thames.
It was this kind of sentiment – still prevalent among the outer
London boroughs – that led to the abolition of regional government in the
capital in 1986, with no replacement for well over a decade.
In last year’s Mayoral election Mr Johnson accused the
incumbent, Ken Livingstone, a former leader of the GLC, of having a similar
central London bias.
Mr Johnson promised a more inclusive Mayoralty with a bigger
say for (Conservative dominated) outer London – this is the first manifestation
of it.
Among other things, the commission will be looking for five suburban
towns that can develop as growth hubs, with huge potential for commerce.
I’m told Croydon is very likely to be one of them, which is
wonderful, providing there are a few strings attached – ones designed to discourage
the local authority from acting like a parish council.
Over the past 40 years Croydon has managed just one major
development in every economic cycle – that’s one per decade, approximately –
but none in the ten-year boom period that’s about to bust.
The borough has dutifully sent ambassadors to the south of
France every year to woo property developers by extolling the virtues of
investment in central Croydon.
But it has also blundered about, throwing spanners in the works,
particularly on the Gateway site beside East Croydon station.
The continued existence of drab, mostly empty, office blocks
opposite the Town Hall; the embarrassment that is St George’s Walk; and the impoverished
reality of a once proud Fairfield arts complex are all monuments to municipal
dithering.
Mr Johnson doesn’t strike me as a man who will allow his suburban
initiative to limp along at the borough’s usual pace.
I doubt he will say anything publicly, but I hope he will
make it as clear to Croydon Council as he apparently did to the former Commissioner
of the Metropolitan Police that present levels of performance are not
acceptable.
ENDS
Straight Talk 48/08 - Monday, December 1, 2008
RETAILING covers a multitude of disciplines and each will be
fairing differently in the present economic downturn.
Comparing high street multiples with owner-managed outlets
is more likely to confuse than to make matters clearer.
In Croydon we have a variety of micro-economies, many
existing cheek by jowl, and the performance of retailers within them will be
affected more by immediate circumstances than any national trend.
So a retailer in the Whitgift Centre will always do better
than one in Church Street or St George’s Walk – the district centres will each
have a different dynamic again, as will the parades of shops that line the main
roads connecting high streets across the borough.
Individual traders will react differently too, depending on
how well prepared or otherwise they are for the downturn – the impending loss of
Woolworth has much more to do with a change of shopping fashion than this
particular downturn.
By the same token, the arrival of Clas Ohlson and Costco in Croydon,
while much to be welcomed, is entirely the result of the borough’s ability to
attract large numbers of people to its major shopping areas. Both businesses
will succeed or otherwise accordingly.
My point is that you should take all prophecies of economic
doom based on the state of retailing with a very large pinch of salt.
They are mostly made either by retailers that want to part
you from as much of your money as possible at this time of goodwill, or by
newspapers that have their own axes to grind – they too are finding it harder
to sell their wares and know that a scare story guarantees a few extra copies.
Retailing is a dynamic sector of the economy – there are
always some businesses that read the public mind better than others and are
therefore making more profit than their rivals – look at the relative positions
of Sainsbury and Tesco over the past decade.
In a recession – which is where we are surely headed – firms
large and small will go to the wall, but others will arrive to take their place.
See the vultures already circling above Woolworth’s prime retail estate across
the country.
So don’t be hoodwinked by clever marketing or sensation
seeking – sound retailers will still be here next year and for many years to
come. They will not suffer substantially if you choose to spend within your
means this festive season.
ENDS
Straight Talk 47/08 - Monday, November 24, 2008.
OH how the mighty have fallen.
The once authoritative Today Programme on BBC Radio 4 is now
grovelling around in the media midden favoured by our more sensationalist
tabloid newspapers.
In particular, I refer to the programme’s treatment of last
Thursday’s retail figures. It offered us the same hysterical doom-mongering as
the national press.
It told us gleefully that major shops were being forced to
start pre-Christmas sales; the high street was in a state of financial
melt-down; and household names would soon be going out of business.
In fact, when the retail figures were published, about an
hour after the programme finished, there had been a 0.1 per cent fall in sales
month-on-month, but a two per cent rise year-on-year.
Cynical old hacks like me have become used to the rubbish
foisted on us by the newspaper trade – any nonsense will do as long as it
satisfies the political whims of the owner and excites enough curiosity to
maintain sales.
But the BBC is different – or it was. Funding is secure,
guaranteed by the license-payer, leaving the corporation to tell the
unvarnished truth as a valued point of reference amid the spin-laden babble of
the rest of the media.
To be fair, Radio 4’s other news programmes still do that:
PM and The World Tonight are particularly good at cutting through the twaddle.
Even The World at One does a passable job, though the sad loss of Nick Clarke
is still much in evidence.
Today is a victim of timing – there is little
real news to report in the early morning, unless something disastrous happens.
It is also a victim of having too much time on its hands – a cut of 60 minutes
would improve quality immensely.
And the programme itself, or BBC News, needs to put a stop
to the editors’ preoccupation with agenda-setting – Today is there to report
news, not create it.
I hate to admit it, but in many ways Five Live has a more
focused approach to delivering early morning information.
And from Radio 4’s point of view that is surely a waste of
human resources, given the obvious talent of such Today regulars as Evan
Davies, John Humphries and Edward Sturton.
ENDS
Straight Talk 46/08 - Monday, November 17, 2008.
FIRSTLY let me apologise for the lack of a column last week –
due to an unexpected spell as an in-patient in Croydon’s excellent Mayday
University Hospital.
Duly restored, let me turn my attentions to the happy task
of adding to the praise being heaped on Croydon Business Venture as it celebrates
its 25th anniversary.
I have been aware of the organisation for most of its life,
but it wasn’t until last year that I truly appreciated its worth.
Having become self-employed I quickly realised there were
numerous crucial skills I needed to acquire if I were to maximise my chances of
success.
I joined one of CBV’s regular three-day courses and began to
unravel the mysteries of running a business.
I was most impressed by the practicality of the course – essential
information imparted by people who have been there and done it themselves.
There were searching questions asked of all of us – how exactly
were we going to turn our bright ideas into profits; why would people buy our
products or services as opposed to those of others?
I watched the light of recognition dawn in the eyes of my
fellow students and knew exactly how it felt as I experienced the same range of
feelings.
I went to Acorn House believing I had many of the answers –
I came away knowing I did not and that there were fundamental areas where I
needed to think again.
That was singularly the most valuable lesson I learnt from
my course and the one that has helped me most in putting together proposals for
potential clients, many of which have proved highly successful.
Thank you to the team at CBV for the invaluable help you
have given me and the thousands of others who have benefited from sharing your
knowledge over the past quarter of a century.
And now for the future and the delightful news that you will
be able to support even more fledgling businesses through an additional
supported workshop project on the Purley Way.
In the present economic situation I can’t think of any
initiative that is more likely to provide the basic advice and support needed
to nurture Croydon’s stock of small firms.
Congratulations on your past achievements, CBV, and here’s
to even more of them in the coming years.
ENDS
Straight Talk 44/08 - Monday, November 3, 2008.
SEGMENTATION is a marketing technique well known to every
successful small business in Croydon and beyond.
It’s equally well know to and practiced by larger firms and consists
of refining your appeal to a particular area of the market – selected
by age, gender, location or other criteria – and addressing your product or
service specifically to that group.
The alternative strategy – trying to be all things to all
people – is usually disastrous, leaving the hapless practitioner appealing to
nobody.
We have seen a prime example of this basic error in the past
ten days with the much publicised downfall of rude boys Brand and Ross.
I will leave it to others to fulminate about the incident
and to debate whether it was the result of so-called edgy humour or merely boorishness as a cover for lack of talent.
I’m more interested by the presence of either of these broadcasters
on Radio Two in the first place. I’m told they were there to attract a younger
audience.
The BBC has eight UK domestic radio stations – four of which
(Three, Four, Five Live and Seven) offer specialist services of various kinds
and are therefore not in direct competition.
That leaves a further three that already vie for all or part
of the youth market (One, One Extra and Six Music).
Now it seems that Radio Two, the former Light Programme, is
also trying to attract the nation’s youngsters. So who exactly is looking after
the rest of us; the vast majority of BBC license-payers?
If the BBC is truly intent on providing something for
everyone, surely it would be more sensible to create two mainstream music
stations – one catering for people up to 45 and the other for those aged 35 and
over.
The editor of the Daily Telegraph does not aim to attract
regular readers under the age of 40. The BBC should adopt a similar policy for
Radio Two – and it should make a virtue of it.
Brand and Ross are likely to return to BBC radio at some
future date – please could it be on a station dedicated to youth entertainment.
ENDS
Straight Talk 43/08 - Monday, October 27, 2008.
IMAGE is important at the best of times – as we prepare for
recession it becomes an essential shot in the marketing locker.
I am reminded of this by disparaging remarks about Croydon in
south London made on two of the BBC’s most popular comedy shows over the
week-end.
Jeremy Hardy, on Radio 4’s News Quiz, talked about Croydon
having some of the largest car parks in the world and Alexander Armstrong,
chairing BBC1’s Have I Got News for You, referred to the bus to hell as the 159
to Croydon.
It would be good to be able to say that these are outdated
images of the town and the broadcasters concerned were just looking for cheap
laughs – but that isn’t true.
Mr Hardy lives in Streatham and knows of what he speaks, he
included a reference to the car parks being part of Croydon’s argument to be
considered as a city, which may be absurd, but no more so that the case Croydon
Council continues to advance.
As a borough we need to work even harder in the present
economic climate to encourage entrepreneurs to start new businesses here or to persuade
the already successful to consider inward investment.
We have plenty of negative publicity to counter, but I see
no evidence of anyone in an official capacity attempting to do so.
We need a series of positive initiatives in the arts and
sport – possibly supported with public money in the first instance – aimed at
making people think again about the borough and what it has to offer.
My mind goes back to the Picasso exhibition we mounted in
1995 to celebrate the opening of the Clocktower arts centre. We advertised it across
Greater London in a campaign that played up to the apparent incongruity of
culture in Croydon.
And in terms of the positive coverage we received from radio
and television arts programmes and the magazine sections of the quality press
it was very effective – more so than anything we have done since.
We won’t change people’s minds about Croydon overnight – but
we won’t do so at all unless we make a start.
We should replace all the big talk about multi-billion pound
commercial investment – most of which is now on hold for the duration of the
recession – with the simple but effective promotion of a programme of events
designed to make people think again about what the borough has to offer.
Who knows how many big fish we might catch in the process?
ENDS
Straight Talk 42/08 - Monday, October 20, 2008.
SMALL
business is more optimistic about the length and depth of the anticipated
recession than media reports would have you believe. And
that’s good news for the Croydon economy, where the sector accounts for the
vast majority of firms and a clear majority of jobs.
The
optimism comes from Jeremy Frost, chairman of the Croydon branch of the
Federation of Small Business.
And
he should know – as an insolvency practitioner he is a lynchpin in the business
rescue services, on the front line in any economic downturn.
In
addition, he can call on the collective experience of the FSB, the largest business membership
organisation in the borough, obtained from frequent sampling in e-mail surveys.
It
is reassuring to hear views that accord with what visitors to Croydon can see for
themselves. The jostle factor in North End and the two shopping precincts is
still as high as ever – albeit that people may not be spending as much as they once
were. Some
media reports would have you believe that high streets are deserted, with
retailers at their doors desperately seeking shoppers.
In
truth, the biggest problem facing small firms is the willful refusal of banks
to lend them the money they need to oil the wheels of commerce.
As
the truth begins to emerge from the United States of just how deceitful some
well-known financial names became in an attempt to hide their sub-prime skullduggery
it’s hardly surprising that bankers trust nobody, least of all each other.
But
small firms offering a tangible product or service are a much safer bet and it
would be unjust if the money men’s paranoia was allowed to make life even more
difficult – particularly as banks have benefited from very generous hand-outs of
public money.
In
truth, today’s (Monday) figures from the highly respected Ernst & Young are
probably the best indication of future economic performance in Croydon as
elsewhere: they predict a relatively shallow recession (one per cent) compared
with those of the 1970s, 80s and 90s – albeit with some loss of employment and
a further lowering of house prices.
Most well-run firms can live with that.
ENDS
Straight Talk 41/08: Monday, October 13, 2008.
NOW its official: Park Place is to undergo a complete
rethink
Croydon’s
third shopping complex is to look substantially different from either the
Whitgift Centre or Centrale - a reflection of changing fashion, but also of the
new economic reality.
Gone
are the three levels of malls at lower-ground, ground and first floors; gone too
are the bridge and tunnel links between Park Place and the Whitgift. Centre.
But
what will replace the long-standing and much delayed plan to bridge the town
centre gap between the Victorian splendor of the Town Hall and the main shopping
precincts east and west of North End?
Minerva,
the developer, says it will reveal all next year, but my guess is that the
present proposal for a retail dominated low-rise sprawl will give way to a development
where a mixed-use tower or two will help to balance the books.
Restaurants,
coffee houses and boutique-style shops will dominate the ground floors, with
offices and/or apartments above in configurations ranging from four of five
floors to maybe ten times as many.
A
replacement for St George’s House, the Nestle building, would fit well into
this new plan, if the Swiss-based food giant decides to move its British
headquarters to the Ruskin Square site beside the railway at East Croydon.
We
already know the developers will retain a stand-alone department store -
probably with a two-storey rooftop car park. And they have talked about a series
of squares. I think they might even add a water feature with rustic bridges and
boardwalks along the bank.
I
am drawn to this idea because it’s very similar to the one the developer has submitted
to Wandsworth Council in respect of the town centre site of the former Ram
Brewery.
In
its Wandsworth submission the company makes the point that the area is ideally
situated as a residential haven for people working in central London.
That’s
equally true of Croydon, where we are about to see substantial improvements in
the rail connections brought about by the opening of the East London Railway at
West Croydon and expansion of Thameslink services from East Croydon to The City
and beyond.
But
we need to get our skates on because it won’t take the financial services
sector long to recover from its present travails.
We’re
already in the right place, but we need to make sure we can offer the right
product at the right time
ENDS
Straight Talk 40/08: Monday, October 6, 2008.
SHOPKEEPERS in central Croydon are still being short-changed
by the local authority.
At a time when retail sales are in decline and retailers are
looking toward the Christmas season with trepidation, the lack of a
co-ordinated public transport network is making Croydon increasingly
unattractive to shoppers.
I’m thinking particularly of the council’s continued refusal
to introduce park and ride, despite long-standing requests from Croydon
Tramlink among others.
I was forcefully reminded of this shortcoming on Saturday
morning, when I made the mistake of accepting a well-intentioned offer of a
lift into town from my home in South Croydon.
Even at the busiest times the journey normally takes me no
more than ten minutes door-to-door by public transport – a short walk to the
bus stop and any of five services to Katharine Street or Wellesley Road.
On Saturday it took three times as long just to get to Old Town,
thanks to a badly sequenced set of traffic lights on Roman Way.
It then took a further 15 minutes to park the car – our
first choice, Centrale, was queuing sedately, so we settled for Surrey Street
and a walk to the shops.
This ad hoc parking arrangement is chaotic and the fees are high.
Together they must be adding to the general unattractiveness of the town centre.
And that must also be reducing the amount of money passing
through retailers’ tills relative to those in neighbouring Bromley and Kingston
– where there is park and ride at the busiest times of the year.
We could easily set up park and ride in Croydon, using trams
to the east and west of the town and trains to the south – secure parking at
Addington Village and Ampere Way tram stops and Coulsdon South or Reedham
stations, none of which is more than a few minutes ride by rail from the town
centre.
My first experience of park and ride was in Oxford more than
15 years ago; we left the car in a secure car park on the outskirts of the city
and were chauffeured into the centre by a helpful bus driver who told us which
were the most convenient stops for the various colleges and shops.
Surely it cannot be beyond the wit of Croydon Council – itself
an aspirant city – to organise something similar?
ENDS
Straight Talk 39/08: Monday, September 29, 2008.
HOW many organisations does it take to support small
business?
There seems to be a plethora of them, all offering seminars
and fact-finding interviews designed to deliver a service tailored to meet
specific needs.
I’m all in favour of support – it makes a pleasant change
from allowing Britain’s businesses to bumble along on their own and then asking
why so many fail.
The emphasis on marketing plans with formal timetables to
achieve agreed goals is something from which my business has benefited hugely –
and I’m not the only one.
But do we need large numbers of organisations, each with its
own expensive administrative structure, to promote and deliver them?
Certainly there’s a strong argument for local delivery if we
are to encourage the maximum number of smaller firms to take part.
And make no mistake: it will be smaller firms rather than
multi-nationals that will save us from the worst excesses of any imminent
recession.
But it is not beyond the wit of sub-regional or even national
support specialists to organise activities in a particular town or at a mutually
convenient location for two or more centres of business, if that is more
appropriate.
The specialists contracted to deliver the training should be
those with a record for attracting interest and a reputation for exceeding the
expectations they raise.
All this may seem blindingly obvious, but my own experiences
lead me to believe that the civil servants who distribute tax-payers’ money are
still more influenced by political considerations than commercial ones.
I am plagued by phone calls and e-mails from organisations
offering me the same opportunities that I know are available from more
experienced agencies elsewhere.
There seems to be a political determination at the highest levels to keep certain
local authorities happy, despite how bad a delivery job they do or how
much they get in the way of others who provide a better service.
When it comes to trimming budgets, central government could
and should make a virtue out of necessity and withdraw its support from mediocre
delivery agencies long before it cuts the programmes themselves.
ENDS
Straight Talk 38/08: Monday, September 22, 2008.
CROYDON watchers will be filled with a distinct sense of déjà
vu this week. It follows reports that Croydon Business, a quango, is to introduce
a commercial ambassadors’ initiative in the New Year.
Those of us from the south London borough who travel abroad
or meet visiting international executives here are to be issued with
information that will help us promote the area as a suitable place for inward
investment.
I seem to recall that a previous chief executive of what was
then called Croydon Marketing and Development launched a similar scheme some
years ago.
On that occasion businesses were issued with booklets
listing 100 essential facts about the borough, which they were encouraged to distribute
freely.
The problem now, as then, is one of credibility. If you
accept the definition of an ambassador as ‘someone sent abroad to lie for his
country’ you can certainly tell tall tales about the borough with impunity.
But you may wish to think twice if you value your own standing.
Croydon has a reputation for talking big, but failing to
deliver – some years ago it embarrassed itself severely when it
claimed a lifestyle and shopping choice to rival London’s West End.
It got away with this piece of bombast initially, until the
London Evening Standard sent a reporter to investigate. The resulting two-page
feature – hilarious but intensely damaging – dealt Croydon’s external image a
blow from which it has yet to recover.
At the time, we united to lambast the Standard for what we
called ‘biased coverage’, but we only had ourselves to blame for making such
silly claims.
This time, what are we to tell potential inward investors –
bearing in mind they will certainly come and see for themselves before they
spend any money here?
Can we tell them with confidence about the fate of the
Gateway site at East Croydon; or the redevelopment of West Croydon station in
time for the arrival of the East London Railway?
Can we wax lyrical about a third shopping centre we are
about to commission; or the future of Fairfield?
This is the ideal time to sort out these problems: once the work is actually in-hand, let’s go out and tell the world. Until then, I suggest
we maintain a dignified silence.
ENDS
Straight Talk 37/08 - Monday, September 15, 2008.
VIOLENT death returned to the streets of the south London borough of Croydon on Saturday
night.
An entirely innocent young man paid the ultimate price for
being in the wrong place at the wrong time. It is a tragedy for his family, to whom my heart
goes out.
And it is a disaster for the town too. - How many shoppers will hear of this murder
and decide to spend their money somewhere safer? - How many would-be or existing employees of Croydon
firms will look for jobs elsewhere instead? - How many established businesses will be unable to attract the right calibre of staff? - How many of those will decide to downsize
in a
town with such a violent reputation? - How long will it be before a major employer leaves
the borough, taking hundreds of jobs with it? - How many would-be inward investors have rejected
Croydon in favour of more peaceful locations?
And what is Croydon Council doing about it? Where is the
flow of positive stories about the town that would help to put even Saturday’s
tragic events into perspective?
Some years ago the council set up an organisation called Croydon
Marketing and Development – on which it has subsequently spent substantial sums
of tax-payers’ money – to develop and place a steady stream of positive stories
in regional and national media.
CMD metamorphosed into Croydon Business, but in neither guise
has the organisation succeeded in this important aspect of its work.
In truth, Croydon is no more dangerous today than it was
before the dreadful events of Saturday night or similar fatal attacks in the
weeks and months previously.
The town centre is an unsavoury place, best avoided after
dark, particularly at week-ends – but that has been true since Croydon Council
adopted its ‘Dodge City’ policy in relation to vertical drinking establishments.
And sadly it will remain so until someone in a position of
authority has the balls to do something to restrict the lethal mixture of testosterone
and alcohol that is proving so destructive of lives and reputations.
ENDS
Straight Talk 36/08 - Monday, September 8, 2008.
AT a stroke, the Mayor of London has added millions of pounds to
the cost of doing business in the capital.
Mr Johnson's decision to raise bus and tube fares from the start of
2009 will increase congestion on Greater London's already inadequate roads.
In so doing it will also reduce the reliability and
viability of the existing bus network.
The bright young things at Conservative Central Office who run
London on Boris’s behalf may not realise it, but these things are predictable
because we’ve been here before.
An increase in fares will cause significant numbers of
people to switch back to using their cars.
That will add to congestion, making it even harder for bus
companies to maintain regular services.
It will also reduce the revenue they
can raise from fares, which will prompt a demand for higher subsidies.
When the demand is refused, the companies will be forced to
reduce the frequency of services – making public transport even less attractive
and inducing even more passengers to return to using their cars.
The bus companies will also find it necessary to make their
fleets last longer by replacing buses less often – that will lead to a higher percentage
of buses off the road at any one time due to maintenance delays.
This downward spiral will mean later arrival at work for
thousands of commuters and increased congestion for delivery vehicles, reducing
the capital’s productivity.
And all of that adds up to millions of pounds extra being
added to the cost of doing business in London, making the city progressively
less attractive commercially.
In
fact; there is a strong argument for making public transport free at the point
of use – we already do so for those aged under 18 and over 60.
If we
extended those initiatives to everyone else we could introduce a number of
measures that would make bus journeys faster and services more reliable – we could
delight business executives, commuters and environmentalists simultaneously.
The
added cost would need to come from taxation in some form. Maybe we could persuade
central government to let the capital keep more of the money it already raises
for the public purse – after all, there are a significant number of voters in
Greater London.
ENDS
Straight Talk 35/08 - Monday, September 1, 2008.
MY BOYS go back to school this week.
So, like many parents, I’ve spent the past few days checking
uniforms to make sure everything still fits and is in good condition.
And that has lead me to wonder why we still insist on compelling
our children to wear a uniform based on the casual attire of the 1940s.
Blazers, formal shirts and ties are not common items in my
sons’ wardrobes – indeed; they only appear as part of their school uniforms.
And they are singularly impractical in that respect.
Is this a conspiracy to prop-up old-fashioned clothes shops,
an artificial way to line the coffers of the nation’s schools, or just a
refusal to move with the times?
Don’t misunderstand me, I’m in favour of school uniforms –
they are the ultimate defence against parents with more money than sense who
indulge their offspring with ludicrously over-priced designer clothes.
My concern is with the high cost of the uniform that my boys
and most of the country’s children are forced to wear.
What would be wrong with a more casual approach? Will students
learn less well if they are more comfortable?
Why can’t we dress our children in machine-washable,
non-iron chinos and piques? We could certainly prescribe school colours, but
allow credit-crunched parents to buy the clothes at reasonable prices from any number
of high street outlets.
When the weather turns colder we can simply add a sweatshirt
of fleece – again in school colours – possibly with a logo emblazoned on it.
At the moment schools are waxing lyrical about the work they
do to prepare students for the world of work – and yet, in offices, shops and
factories, ambulance, fire and police stations, the tie has been largely abandoned.
My boys are censured if their ties are not securely knotted and
they are forbidden to remove their jackets too, regardless of the weather – quaint
distinctions they share mainly with perennially out-of-touch politicians in the
Houses of Parliament.
The start of a new school year is a good time to reconsider
the question of what constitutes a uniform in the 21st century – a few
forward-looking institutions have already made the change, it’s about time the
rest followed suit.
ENDS
Straight Talk 34/08 - Monday, August 25, 2008.
THE CLOCK is ticking: there are about 205 weeks before London
plays host to the Games of the 30th Olympiad.
This is a fantastic opportunity for my home city to impress
the world and to use the next four years as a public relations springboard for
international trade.
So how are we doing thus far?
Well, the captain and the coach have already dropped the
baton a couple of times, but they seem to be playing the same game, albeit by subtly
different rules.
Before the spectacular close of the Beijing games, Tessa
Jowell, Britain’s Olympics minister, was busy talking down expectations: -
the budget is set; -
there can be no increase in funding; - if we want
to spend more on one aspect, we will have to spend less on another; -
there may not be room for all the athletes in
the Olympic village.
Then there was the Mayor of London, shambling down the red
carpet in the Birds Nest stadium. He looked like a personification of Tracey
Emin’s unmade bed by comparison with the immaculately dressed Mayor of Beijing.
Later, Boris Johnson talked about sport coming home to
London in four years time – he said table tennis had been invented on the
dining tables of the British – but he didn’t mention the legacy aspect of the
London Olympics.
And finally there was the normally dour Gordon Brown,
grinning inanely and shaking hands vigorously with the British medal-winners.
No doubt he is genuinely as pleased as the rest of us with their outstanding
performance, but this seasoned politician is also hoping surely that some of
their popularity will rub off.
If London is to distinguish itself as the legacy games we
need to start making decisions now about post-2012 uses for the Olympic Park.
We need ingenuity to design buildings with a dual purpose
and political will to spend the extra money required to build them that way.
Jacques Rogge, president of the International Olympic
Committee, is right to suggest that costs associated with legacy should not be
included in the budget for the London games. But can we persuade our slippery politicians
to agree?
ENDS
Straight Talk 33/08 - Monday, August 18, 2008.
ATTITUDE is everything in sport.
The superb performances by many of Britain’s Olympic
athletes in Beijing are partly due to the National Lottery money spent on elite
sport in the past few years.
But they are also about the conviction of the country’s top
cyclists, rowers, sailors and swimmers that they are simply the best and their determination
not to be beaten.
Compare their heart-warming success with the lacklustre performance
of England’s national cricket and football squads – clearly, money isn’t
everything.
As it is in sport, so it is in trade: the British Chambers of
Commerce is the first major business organisation to predict a recession –
albeit a short one – in what it believes will be a very difficult two years ahead.
If the BCC is right: what can business in general and small firms
in particular do about it? In my view we can broaden our commercial horizons to
encompass parts of the world where rates of economic growth are higher than the
one per cent or less we are expecting in Britain.
Over the next six months there are opportunities for
subsidised trade visits to the Caribbean, eastern Europe and South Africa – in the company of highly experienced international traders who will lead the
visits and provide practical help and support.
All the destinations
– from Bridgetown in Barbados, through Sofia in Bulgaria, Prague in the Czech
Republic and Krakow in Poland, to Johannesburg in South Africa – have been
fully researched.
Each is enjoying a higher growth rate than the United
Kingdom and all are keen to do business with British firms in a wide range of professions
and trades.
If you want to know more I suggest you visit my good friends
at South London Export Club – www.slec.biz – who
are intimately involved in all these initiatives.
ENDS
Straight Talk 32/08 - Monday, August 11, 2008.
THOSE who pay the piper will inevitably call the tune. Cliche? Absolutely, but it also happens to be true and any
attempt to circumvent it leads to an uncomfortable
reckoning.
Let me offer two topical examples: the first is London’s
Olympic preparations; the second is Croydon’s Gateway development.
The cost to the public purse of transforming large parts of
east London into an Olympic Park has been rising steadily since the city won
the bid to host the 2012 games.
Planners have blithely assured us that business will pick up
a significant proportion of the tab.
Now we are told the credit crunch has reduced the amount of
private sector money available to support the games, so the taxpayer will have
to take up the slack.
In truth, the credit crunch is a convenient excuse – the private
sector has not been consulted in detail or offered any meaningful role in the
games preparations.
It has merely been expected to meet an arbitrary proportion
of a bill determined by the grandiose ideas of government apparatchiks
A similar situation, though on a much smaller scale, has
left the people of Croydon in the mire once more. Their elected representatives
tried to exert undue influence on the Gateway development at East Croydon by
manipulating the planning system.
But those efforts have now been successfully thwarted by the
company that owns the site and Croydon Council has been left with egg on its
face.
In both cases, these lessons in common sense are tinged with
sadness for me – I want us to embrace the next Olympics wholeheartedly by
setting a realistic budget; not necessarily one that will equal the amount being
spent by the Chinese in Beijing.
And I want us to assume that we will have to pay for
everything from taxation and treat any private-sector contribution as a welcome
bonus.
In Croydon, I want to see a commercially viable arena built close
to East Croydon station – probably the best and certainly the most
environmentally friendly site for such a development anywhere in south London.
And I want to see far greater honesty from Croydon Council –
either it puts our money where its mouth is and finances a suitable successor
to the Fairfield from the public purse or it creates conditions in which the
private sector finds it attractive to do so.
ENDS
Straight Talk 31/08 - Monday, August 4, 2008.
WISPS of economic reality are slowly drifting across the
development landscape of central Croydon.
Insofar as any of us can predict the commercial demands of
the coming decade, Minerva seems to be responding with its revised proposals
for Park Place.
Gone is the plan for retail units on lower ground and first
floor levels – already seen as unrealistic by many retail experts.
Gone too is the bus station – part of the developers'
Section 106 agreement with Croydon Council – reflecting perhaps the diminished cash
return expected from the complex in these straightened times.
But the department store stays – maybe a long-coveted branch
of John Lewis – and that reminds me of a possibly apocryphal tale of retailing.
Lend Lease bought into Bluewater in the wake of John Lewis's
withdrawal from the project. So the globe-trotting Australian developer asked
the archetypal British retailer what might tempt it to return.
The department store is said to have replied: "You
could start by tearing up the existing plan and working with us to devise a new
one."
And the rest, as they say, is history – the most carefully
researched and now one of the most successful retail environments in Europe.
Having watched the development of Bluewater from its early
stages, I am hopeful, if John Lewis is really involved in Park Place, that Croydon
will be presented with something esthetically attractive as well as
commercially viable.
Now, as we contemplate the prospect of a public park and a new fringe
theatre on the former coal yard adjoining East Croydon station, we must turn our attention
to the Fairfield.
The time has come to jettison the political humbug; set
aside the sentiment and start facing a few facts. Is there still a market for a
2000-seat auditorium in south London?
If so, how much will the Fairfield Trust need to spend to bring
the complex up to a standard where it can address that market? I warn you now, a
coat of paint and some new carpet is not enough – we are talking about tens of
millions of pounds.
If, as I suspect, the market has changed irrevocably, do we
want a 21st century entertainment complex in central Croydon?
Are we ready to bite the bullet and replace our beloved Fairfield
with a flexible performance space – possibly an arena?
And in the new economic climate, who will pay for it?
ENDS
Straight Talk 30/08 - Monday, July 28, 2008.
A BAR-B-CUE in the garden of one of Croydon’s most impressive
hotels was the ideal place to gauge the mood of business in the real economy.
Last week’s networking event, jointly organised by Croydon
Chamber of Commerce and The Best of Croydon, brought together a wide
cross-section of small and medium-sized firms, most of whom do most of their
trade in south London.
While we munched on burgers and salad and sipped Pimms, I
took the opportunity to ask a number of those present about the state of their businesses.
This was hardly the place for intimate confessions, but the
level responses – look-you-in-the-eye answers to direct questions – left me
with the strong impression that business is generally in reasonable health.
Indeed The Aerodrome Hotel, where we enjoyed our delightful sojourn,
was eager to show us around the plush new floor it has just added – all superior
rooms and £300-a-night suites – and to tell us of additional improvements
already under way.
So why the disparity between what we see at such a gathering
and what we hear from my journalist colleagues in the national media?
National journalists are as much part of the village as our
politicians: their contact lists don’t venture far beyond central London, where
they talk mostly to people in financial services, property and retailing.
All three sectors have been badly affected in the past year: ·
financial services as a direct result of risky
investments brought about by its own greed; ·
property by the lack of eye-watering bonuses for
people who work in financial services; and ·
retailing because internet shopping is seriously starting to rival high street shopping
There are also lobbyists from both major political parties
with a vested interest in making the downturn look as dire as possible for the present
administration.
But beyond the wine bars of the square mile and the West End,
smaller and more agile firms who make up the majority of the British economy
are foreseeing and dealing with threats to their livelihood as part of everyday
business.
It would take a braver – or more foolhardy – man than me to insist
that the British economy is not heading for recession: I would only say that
reports of it have so far been wildly exaggerated.
ENDS
Straight Talk 29/08 - Monday, July 21, 2008.
HOSPITALS, schools and public transport across Britain will
have to make do for the time being.
So says the deeply underwhelming Alistair Darling, Chancellor
of the Exchequer and Archie Andrews to Gordon Brown’s Peter Brough.
Mr Darling made public his stringent strictures to fellow
cabinet ministers in an interview published in The Times on Saturday.
He believes the general public would see any more tax
increases as unfair, so he is contemplating additional borrowing to see us
through the downturn.
But Mr Darling’s notion of fairness does not extend to increasing
income by requiring higher earners to shoulder a more proportionate share of
the tax take and he makes no mention of initiatives to reduce overheads in the
business of running government.
A recent study by the Treasury reveals that a 50p tax rate imposed
on those earning more than £250,000 a year would generate about £3.5 billion
annually – enough to give every household a £200 reduction in Council Tax.
Surely it would not be too iniquitous to impose a 50p rate on incomes over £100,000 – that would raise even more revenue
without burdening most of us.
On the other side of the balance sheet, this government has created
a huge administration in the 11 years since it was first elected – there are
departments writing contracts for a bewildering array of quangos, each of which
is taking a commission for its oversight before passing the work on to someone
else.
There are plenty of other examples of government profligacy
too – from obscene bonuses paid to ineffectual executives, through unnecessary
occupation of costly central London offices, to ministers’ continuing
reluctance to outsource those things that the private sector does more
efficiently.
And then there are the salary additions for MPs that are thinly
disguised as expenses and therefore exempt from income tax.
If the downturn lasts as long as Mr Darling now thinks it
might, there could come a time when he or his successor will need to raise
general taxes once again – the rest of us are likely to be less resentful if we
are sure he has put the government’s house in order first.
ENDS
Straight Talk 28/08 - Monday, July 14, 2008.
PETROL prices are encouraging many drivers to look again at
alternatives to travelling by car: this should be a golden opportunity for London’s
public transport.
Here is a chance for contractors to expand their individual
fleets to meet a welcome increase in demand.
The international oil market is succeeding where a
procession of hand-wringing environmentalists and pusillanimous politicians
have failed dismally.
But just when the circumstances are aligned for a sea change
in the way Londoners negotiate their city, along comes Boris Johnson’s
transport Tsar, Tim Parker, with a king-sized spanner to jam in the works.
The woefully unimpressive Mr Parker, who spent 20 minutes saying
nothing at the recent Passport to Export awards, tells us TfL must be properly
funded – in English, I think that means a rise in fares, a reduction in
service, or both.
But London’s public transport is not like the AA or Clark’s
Shoes, Mr Parker’s previous fiefdoms, where he apparently cut a swath through
the workforces.
I thought we had finally learnt the lesson that neither
London nor any other major city can run its public transport network purely as
a business.
I also thought we had disposed of the idea that public
transport must be demand led: offer a
poor service at a high price, and those who have a choice will go elsewhere;
offer a reasonable service, keep costs down, and more people will find it
attractive.
Even the existing bus network – far from perfect in my part
of London – has been carrying increasing numbers of passengers; largely because
it is relatively cheap.
The justification for a subsidised public transport network is
the overwhelming contribution it makes to our quality of life.
It is an attractive prospect for inward investors, whose employees
will use it every day; and for tourists, who contribute so much to the capital’s
commercial success.
Rival world cities like New York are investing in public
transport, as are would-be world cities like Johannesburg.
With the Olympic spotlight swinging in our direction, after
next month’s Beijing Games, we need to be seen as a city where travel is
becoming easier.
And that means increased investment in public transport.
ENDS
Straight Talk 27/08 - Monday, July 7, 2008.
RECESSION: what recession?
I exaggerate to make the point that it would be dangerous to
presume the British economy is in free-fall.
Some sections of the media would have you believe that the
end is nigh; that we are about to face financial Armageddon.
Of course it would be foolish to deny that some
sectors of the economy have bleak prospects for the coming months - even over
the next year or two.
But there is no evidence as yet that we Brits are about to
sink into the Slough of Despond - indeed, the forecast for this financial year
is for one per cent growth.
Britain still has the fifth largest economy in the world and
nobody is seriously predicting that we will tumble down the rankings.
The most recent causes for concern have been the poor
performances of Taylor Wimpey, Britain’s biggest homebuilder, and of Marks and
Spencer, the bellwether of the retail sector.
But the gloom-mongers neglect to mention that both are
special cases.
Taylor Wimpey is a direct casualty of the collective
rashness of the banks that lent mortgage money to all and sundry at low rates
of interest, in the process fuelling a housing price bubble.
Their decision to retreat to more responsible lending
positions has burst that bubble, leaving builders and others in the property
sector floundering like so many beached whales.
In the past, building companies have overcome such problems
by leasing unsold properties to housing associations – if the present economic downturn
continues, no doubt the builders will do something similar again.
M&S sells quality clothes, food and furniture at premium
prices - it is hardly surprising that the media's false but remorseless cries
of fire in a crowded high street have caused the rest of us to stampede in the
direction of cheaper shops.
But Marks is a well-run company that will quickly adjust its
prices to meet its customers’ needs and thus restore the dip in its sales
figures.
Inevitably some firms will cease trading in the coming
months, but their failure will be as much to do with their own management as
with the economic climate – whether or not they are honest enough to admit it.
ENDS
Straight Talk 26/08 - Monday, June 30, 2008.
PEOPLE in New Addington finally have a supermarket - or
rather, they will, once it's built. But it has taken nearly 60 years for this
town on the outskirts of Croydon, south London to achieve this modest feat.
New Addington began life as a London overspill housing
estate after World War Two – it has grown to become a small town of more than
30,000 people, but the original master plan for the area has stayed firmly in
place.
That called for a parade of small shops - the norm at the
time, but an increasing anachronism as retail habits have changed.
Major supermarkets have been casting envious eyes on the town for
decades - in the early 1990s one offered to build a multi-storey car park at
the transport interchange in Lodge Lane in return for an outlet next door.
The proposal was turned down because politicians and
planners were worried about the plight of shopkeepers in Central Parade.
In reality, residents
were already voting with their feet - or rather, their cars - and shopping
outside the district, making this commercial cocoon ultimately unsustainable.
At long last the free market has arrived in New Addington, but the
new Tesco supermarket will not materialise like Dr Who's Tardis – smaller traders
have at least two years to plan and implement a retail strategy.
They should not expect existing customers to remain loyal -
whatever they say now. In the past 40 years Britain’s shoppers have migrated to
superstores in huge numbers because they like the convenience and the prices.
A wily trader will be making regular visits to other branches of his nascent
competitor; comparing the range of stock and the price. He will be asking himself
whether he can offer an alternative - maybe by carrying a wider range, albeit
at a higher price.
He will also be asking existing customers if there is a market for such
a range. If they say yes, he will try stocking it now and seeing how it sells.
He may even be thinking about opening a second outlet further away from
the superstore and developing new trade there. When the time comes he could then use the
existing premises to start a non-competing business that would benefit from the
increased footfall generated by the superstore.
None of this is easy – but it’s not impossible either. It’s
a challenge, not a disaster.
ENDS
Straight Talk 25/08 - Monday, June 23, 2008.
OIL exporting countries will never invest in the development
of alternative forms of energy, so Gordon Brown’s week-end trip was a waste of
time.
That seems to be the view of a number of business
commentators.
I disagree. When the oil finally does run out most of the world’s
producers will be left with nothing but sand unless they diversify.
And alternative forms of energy are an infinitely better
investment than international banks or city-centre property.
The last few months have shown that we can shun particular
financial institutions very quickly and that expensive real-estate only retains
its value while there are an excessive number of people clamouring for it.
Energy, on the other hand, is always in demand and even in
an austere economic climate it will continue so to be.
The company that finds a way to harvest wave power in commercial
quantities from around the British Isles can look forward to steadily
increasing profits for the foreseeable future.
Long after oil is a distant memory far-sighted investors in sensible
alternatives will be rightly lauded as leading business lights.
And in the meantime I hope Mr Brown will remind national and
regional transport authorities that electrical energy is the one with a future:
that means electrifying all main line railway services; putting lorries on
trains similar to the Anglo-French shuttle; favouring trams over buses; and
offering cash incentives to taxi firms who invest in dual fuel vehicles.
We have already revived the tram, with great success in
places like Croydon – we could do worse than bring back the trolley-bus too.
And for those who see trolley-buses as the lumbering presence
they were in the 1950s I recommend a visit to Croydon’s twin town Arnhem in
Holland, where sleek modern electrically-powered vehicles deliver the same
performance as their diesel-engined equivalents without the noxious exhaust
fumes.
Was there ever a better example of necessity being the
mother of invention than the revitalised search for alternative sources of
cheaper energy? I look forward to a cleaner, greener environment as a direct
result.
ENDS
Straight Talk 24/08 - Monday, June 16, 2008.
PLANS are finally afoot to replace Taberner House, the
borough council offices in Croydon, south London.
The existing building, named after a former long-serving
town clerk, is a product of the early 1960s.
It has never been entirely fit for purpose; intended to be
the tallest tower in town at 20 storeys it 'lost' two floors during
construction. It was also intended to replace the Victorian Town Hall, but it
was designed and built without a council chamber.
Originally, the local authority planned to cover the running
costs of its new high-rise headquarters by letting out the top floors
commercially, but somehow there were always too many staff to make that a
reality.
The next generation civic offices will also replace what the
council calls the Fell Road building, once home to a huge computer and an
equally capacious senior executive dining room – this squat featureless box is probably
best known to Croydon residents as the Register Office.
If the computer-generated image is an accurate guide, the 21st
century building will be a featureless box too, albeit somewhat taller.
I find it sad that a local authority with pretentions to be London’s
third city has given so little consideration to the hub of its empire.
Just around the corner, in Mint Walk, is a Town Hall
extension that houses the central library.
A former administration took the trouble to blend the styles
to great effect. The 1990s extension is not a copy of the Victorian original,
but it has enough similarities to make it visually pleasing.
The new building will share its Fell Road and Mint Walk elevations
with the Town Hall, but apparently none of that splendid old building's
architectural features.
Is this a deliberate decision, to opt for contrast, or just
a cheap option, designed to maximise profit for a cash-strapped local authority’s
commercial partner?
I fear the council is taking what it is given rather than using
its commercial muscle. Even in the present economic climate, land in central
Croydon is a valuable asset, which means the council can afford to choose what
it builds and with whom.
ENDS
Straight Talk 23/08 - Monday, June 9, 2008.
A BANQUET in central London for businesses from its southern
boroughs is an ideal place to contemplate the sub region’s entity – or lack of
it.
Between dessert and coffee in the elegant surroundings of
the Mountbatten Room at the RAC Club, Sir Bob Scott, in whose honour the dinner
was held, made a lively speech on the subject.
In it he told a few home truths about the under-performance
of some of the bigger towns in the sub-region, Croydon included.
Sir Bob, chairman of South London Business, is a wily
campaigner – the man who brought the Commonwealth Games to Manchester and
helped Liverpool become this year’s European City of Culture – so he knows
something about spotting winners and inspiring them to raise their performance.
But there are none as deaf as those who will not hear and I
fear his wise words may be ignored by some who most need to heed them.
A few of south London’s borough councils remain besotted with
the idea of being a special case in their dealings with regional and central
government – harking back to a time more than 40 years ago when they were
semi-autonomous County Boroughs.
They recognise themselves, quite rightly, as a jewel of
great worth, but persistently ignore their wonderful setting.
During business trips abroad, I have found repeatedly that
the mention of south London brings more interest than that of an individual
borough. It is easier to identify south London on a map and overseas entrepreneurs
readily recognise the diversity of the sub-region with its three million residents
and 110,000 businesses.
Sir Bob is not the first to complain about a lack of
sub-regional awareness – I can remember the chief executive of the former South
London Training and Enterprise Council (SOLOTEC) being equally frustrated by it.
But maybe this is a good time to think about it more
carefully: firstly because – in the present economic climate – we need all the
help we can get to boost trade; and secondly because – with the London Olympics
on the horizon – the eyes of the world are upon us and south London is an
easier sell in an international market than any particular borough.
ENDS
Straight Talk 22/08 - Monday, June 2, 2008.
PLANNING laws are a serious headache for British business. They
are incredibly time-consuming and – as time is money – that makes them
expensive too.
The problem is political: a proposal to build a new
development – like the planned arena in the centre of Croydon, south London –
is inevitably controversial.
Politicians’ first instinct is to reconcile the opposing
views by spending huge amounts of time and tax-payers’ money on public
inquiries.
These quasi-judicial proceedings have only proved effective for
the lawyers involved, who use their eye-watering fees to buy second homes and
educate their children.
Sizewell B nuclear power station and Terminal 5 at Heathrow
are perhaps the best-known examples of planning inquiries that have dragged on
for years, causing us to slip ever further behind our continental European
cousins, who have no such lengthy deliberations before embarking on major
projects.
Today (Monday), the House of Commons is again considering a
Bill that would take these decisions away from politicians and put them in the
hands of a committee of experts. Objectors would have the chance to present
their arguments, but once a decision was made work could start.
This is surely the kind of system we need if we are to
respond to situations like the expansion of renewable energy or the provision
of a high-speed rail network that will meet anticipated needs as they arise
rather than ten years later.
When the French ran out of capacity at their existing Paris
airports they built a new one on the other side of the city complete with
high-speed rail and road connections.
Our best answer to a similar problem is a half-length third
runway in a densely populated part of west London at an airport that is fast
becoming the most unpopular in the world.
We briefly considered building a new airport on an
artificial island in the Thames Estuary, but abandoned the idea when we
realised how long it might take and how much it might cost, just to obtain
planning permission.
Nobody wants a new airport or shopping centre or arena on
their doorstep, but if everyone is allowed to reject such proposals, Britain will
rapidly degenerate into a giant historical theme park only accessible by boat
from France or Ireland.
ENDS
Straight Talk 21/08 - Monday, May 26, 2008.
THE END of the English soccer season is marked in Croydon, south
London by feasting and merriment.
The celebrations are made possible by the materialisation,
Tardis-like, of a marquee on the pitch at Selhurst Park, home of Championship
club, Crystal Palace.
In a week-long extravaganza of award ceremonies and charity bashes
this big tent offers a high-quality, high-capacity entertainment facility,
unavailable in the area at other times of the year.
Those of us fortunate enough to be invited to a selection of
events are required to unearth the glad rags from the back of the wardrobe more
than once in a week.
This year I attended two successive dinners, eating the same
meal on both nights, but experiencing very different atmospheres.
I understand every diner in the marquee this year – apart
from the vegetarians – was served duck as the main course. It was very
good, but I was disappointed by this lack of variety.
Service was impeccable and caterers from more permanent
establishments in the area could learn from the relaxed efficiency
that delivered hot food simultaneously to every guest on each table of ten.
My two causes for celebration were the South London Business
Awards and the Croydon Charity Ball.
The first was hosted by James Max, a former contestant in
The Apprentice and now a presenter with LBC Radio – experiences that have
sadly left Mr Max addicted to the sound of his own voice.
The second was hosted by David Jensen, an infinitely more
experienced radio presenter, who understands that his job is to stand up, speak
up and shut up – a superbly judged performance from David added considerably to
my overall enjoyment of the Charity Ball.
The South London Business Awards have established themselves
very quickly as a highlight of the sub-regional business calendar. What we now
need is a much lower-key series of borough awards – each presented at an annual
lunch, perhaps – run in conjunction with these sub-regional awards and acting
as qualifying rounds.
The overall success of the marquee suggests there is a
market for a permanent facility in the area – a home for these and other events
spread across the year – a possible additional roll for an arena in central
Croydon.
ENDS
Straight Talk 20/08 - Monday, May 19, 2008.
DINERS are being served meat described as British that
actually comes from elsewhere – shock, horror.
An investigation undertaken by Trading Standards officers in
the West Country has uncovered this dastardly foreign plot, but only after DNA
analysis.
It seems out taste buds alone are unable to tell the
difference, but the ‘British’ tag is clearly a selling point, so Devon’s
Del-boys have been adding it to boost sales.
Supermarkets in my hometown of Croydon in south London all
have signs above the meat aisles assuring customers that the beef and pork are
home grown.
But, if you want to know how the animal was produced you will
have to look more closely for terms like ‘free range’, ‘outdoor reared’, or ‘organic’.
And yet, that is surely the main determinant of taste – slow
grown, well hung beef doesn’t need DNA testing to tell you how much more succulent
it is, providing of course it is competently cooked.
A good cook can make the most of a mediocre piece of meat,
but a bad one can easily reduce a superior cut to so much shoe leather.
Does it seriously matter where the food was produced, unless
of course, you are the person producing it? Apparently not, since we are enthusiastic
consumers of Danish bacon and New Zealand lamb.
Back in the late 1960s Bruce Forsyth was the public voice of
an ill-fated Buy British campaign with a song called I’m backing Britain –
unfortunately many of the T-shirts designed to support the song were made in
Portugal.
All the bally-hoo at the time did nothing to change our
buying habits; the motor car, motor cycle and white goods factories it was
intended to protect have largely gone and the gap has been filled by better
quality products from overseas.
I still remember with fondness a series of steaks I ate
during my last visit to South Africa. I suspect it was a combination of breed, feed
and careful cooking that gave the meat such a wonderful flavour.
Personally, I’m not bothered where my food is grown as long
as it’s not laced with too many growth hormones, antibiotics and artificial fertilisers
in the process.
ENDS
Straight Talk 19/08 - Monday, May 12, 2008.
CAR parking is a major aspect of any economy - particularly
one that is heavily reliant on retail as a provider of jobs. So any increase in charges is sensitive, especially at the
moment when shoppers are turning in their droves to the internet as a source of
cheaper goods.
In my hometown of Croydon in south London the previous
administration sold a number of centrally-sited car parks – the new owner has
announced yet another increase; the third in two years.
The present council has tried to make representations, but
the owner – a national company – has chosen to ignore its telephone calls asking
for a meeting.
So the council has taken to wringing its hands instead and
blaming its political opponents for the present unsatisfactory state of
affairs.
To me that seems like a wasted opportunity. The electorate
already knows the shortcomings of the previous administration – that's why voters
ousted it at the last election.
What can the present bunch do? Well, quite a lot, if it is prepared
to stop political grandstanding and roll up its sleeves.
In the short term, the council could grant temporary
planning permission to owners of development land in the town centre to use as
car parking, providing they agreed to limit their charges – that would increase
the competition, which should force higher charges down.
In the longer term, the council could co-operate with Transport
for London and town-centre retailers to create a state-of-the-art park-and-ride initiative based
around Croydon's first-class train and tram services.
Since there is no chance of expanding the borough’s already
overcrowded road network, park-and-ride will become a necessity sooner or later
- many would say it is already essential and some would even argue that Croydon
is a prime candidate for congestion charging.
The council might reasonably want to replace the
town centre’s more inadequate car parks – for example, it might suggest that a 2,000-space car
park planned for the roof of the new Park Place shopping development is a replacement for the Allders and Whitgift car parks.
Adding permanent parking capacity in central Croydon is likely
to meet stiff opposition from the GLA, even allowing for the recent change of
incumbent at City Hall.
ENDS
Straight Talk 18/2008 - Monday, May 5, 2008.
YOU are a quango looking for a sub-contractor to tick a list
of boxes on a lucrative government contract.
You need to put bums on seats for a series of workshops on international
trade.
But you are mindful that your paymasters require you to meet
certain social quotas in terms of age, gender, ethnicity, marital status and physical
ability - so you write them into a three-page invitation to quote.
However, there is no requirement that the people your
sub-contractor gathers from the highways and byways have the slightest interest
in overseas trade – so you don't mention it.
Does this sound like a script outline for 'Yes Minister'? Sadly
it’s a fact, and I have a copy of a recent ‘invitation to quote’ to prove it.
Overseas trade is an aspect of business in which I have a particular
interest. I have crossed continents with trade visits as both an observer and a
participant and I know they offer huge potential for smaller and newer firms –
indeed, I can quote examples.
And I believe south London has the expertise to deliver
first-class support to those who are prepared to take the plunge – again, I can
quote examples.
I can also assure you that political correctness and bureaucratic
box-ticking have no part to play in the success of international business.
In my experience the people who sign up for trade visits
come quite naturally in similar numbers from both genders and in a wide variety
of ages and ethnic origins. Some are single parents and others probably have
disabilities
Indeed, it is one of the delights of international trade visits
that you can learn so much about other ways of life – not only from the places
you visit, but also from your fellow travellers.
There are just two qualifications you need for international
trade: *
a product or service for which there is an
overseas market; and *
an interest in visiting that market in order to
test it.
Government apparatchiks need ask only three questions of
potential exporters: Do you have a viable business? Where in the world do you want to take it? And why?
ENDS
Straight Talk 17/2008 - Monday, April 28, 2008.
ANGELINA PURCELL leaves Croydon Business this week – which is
good for enterprise, but not for my hometown.
Once free of the administrative and political restrictions that
surround Croydon Council and its dependant organisations she will again be able
to offer the quality of business support that won her such a well-deserved MBE.
When I first met Angelina she was doing a superb job, encouraging
Croydon’s less obvious entrepreneurs to set up their own businesses – she was enthusiastic
about her work, with an intensely practical approach to it that singled her out
as a ‘doer’ rather than a talker.
She was equally outstanding as a member of Croydon Council’s
economic and strategic development unit, where she pioneered overseas trade
missions; first to the Caribbean and later to eastern Europe and South Africa.
It was no surprise when she changed employers to run the
borough’s chamber of commerce and equally predictable that she should be chosen
as the person most likely to revive the fortunes of the lacklustre Croydon
Marketing and Development under a new guise as Croydon Business.
She was well rewarded for her work, but she was bound hand
and foot by a local authority – elected members and officers alike – with a
long-standing penchant for control.
She was instrumental in Croydon’s success in the Local
Enterprise Growth Initiative (LEGI) – galvanising essential private sector
support for the borough’s bid. But she was bitterly disappointed by the way the
council implemented the process and how little influence she and the private
sector had in subsequent decision-making.
Now I’m told she is taking up the challenge of establishing
a chamber of commerce in Lambeth – a daunting but necessary task in which her
understanding of the needs of smaller firms will stand her and her new employer
in good stead.
Her departure from Croydon is a loss to the economic
development of a borough that has many advantages – not least £70m of
government LEGI money – but has so far failed to make best use of them.
Croydon needs people like Angelina with get-up-and-go if it
is ever to fulfil its full economic potential, but as long as its establishment
continues to smother their initiative, they will follow her lead and go
somewhere else.
ENDS
Straight Talk 16/2008 - Monday, April 21 2008.
RETAIL sales are going
through the roof: but not in the high street.
Figures released
by the Interactive Media in Retail Group (IMRG) today, reveal that Internet retail sales for the first quarter of 2008
passed the £13bn mark for the first time – a 50 per cent increase on the same
period last year.
And that’s not good news for
high streets across the country, particularly those – like my hometown of
Croydon in Greater London – that are trying to promote large-scale retail
development.
The John Lewis Partnership, a
store Croydon still hopes to attract into town, says internet trade remained
strong throughout March, despite tougher trading conditions in the market at
large.
IMRG says it has seen this
trend before – when the going gets tough, shoppers go online – so it confidently
predicts that e-retailing will buck the trend and continue to grow strongly
during the year ahead.
Against this background it is
hardly surprising that Croydon has increased numbers of empty retail units in
its two existing shopping malls and no progress to report on the one it wants
to develop.
The surprise is that there
has been no public discussion of plan B – assuming one exists. Croydon Council
seems more concerned about presenting itself as London’s third city; a diversion
that will not, of itself, bring a single extra penny of inward investment or
one new private-sector job into the borough.
Croydon needs to be ahead of
the game rather than always bringing up the rear. There are three major sites
in the town centre that remain in need of development.
Schemes involving offices are
less attractive now as there is about to be lots of grade A space available in
The City at bargain prices.
And high street retail faces
ever-growing competition from the internet, making a shop in the town centre an
expensive alternative – even in the good times – to a well-designed website and
a warehouse on the bypass.
Croydon’s existing
aspirations are decades out-of-date, despite tinkering by the likes of Will
Alsop. Perhaps the present economic downturn is the impetus the town needs for
a fundamental change – the council’s new chief executive could do worse than
open and lead a wide-ranging discussion on the subject.
ENDS
Straight Talk 15/2008 - Monday, April 14, 2008.
A FARMER with an eye for business is a rare breed. But I came
across one recently, developing a new enterprise in the wilds of Kent.
Thanet Earth is turning a large tract of ‘the garden of
England’ into a giant farming operation, with seven arena-sized glasshouses
designed to meet the increasing demand of shoppers for fresh Mediterranean vegetables
all year round.
The company knows the demand exists, it says, because it carried
out a series of market research studies: it also knows it needs to supply vegetables
in bulk because those same studies confirm that most of us buy our supplies
from supermarkets.
Once the company is fully operational it will employ 500
people – a significant number in any local economy, but an agricultural
revolution for rural Kent.
The company impresses me, in part because it has adopted
such a business-like approach to its initiative.
It also impresses me because it is such a positive contrast
to the collection of world-class whingers featured on Farming Today, Radio 4’s procession
of the demotivated and over-subsidised.
Their complaints fall into three broad categories: we need
more government money; health and welfare regulations are too strictly enforced;
and supermarkets are conspiring to deprive us of our living.
I know nothing of agriculture: as a rambler I see farms as open-air
factories from which farmers do their best to exclude me, despite my having
made a substantial contribution to their livelihood. But I can’t imagine how huge reliance on public money and an
antediluvian approach to business can possibly encourage innovation.
I’m in
favour of lifestyle businesses – I run one – but they must be truly commercial and
therefore capable of standing on their own feet financially.
Would it seriously matter if Britain withdrew farming subsidies,
as New Zealand did some decades ago? It would certainly lead to consolidation
of agriculture into bulk suppliers and those smaller ones that cultivated niche
markets.
And it would mean that those who couldn’t find a market
would go out of business.
You may think that’s merely the way things work in the real
world of commerce – I suspect you would have great difficulty convincing many farmers
of that.
ENDS
Straight Talk 14/2008 - Monday, April 7, 2008.
THE TRAM is something that makes my home town unique.
Croydon is the only district in London to be served
by light-rail, which the capital otherwise prematurely pensioned off in the
early 1950s.
Now this reliable and popular service is to be fully
integrated into London’s public transport system, which could be a good move,
if it’s done properly.
The people of Croydon conceived the tram network at a time
when there was no regional government in Greater London and each of the 32
boroughs was expected to fend for itself.
So Croydon Council championed the tram for Croydon people and
introduced it, despite the misgivings of other transport operators,
particularly bus companies.
There have been occasional spats ever since, with Transport
for London and the bus operators hurling the odd brickbat at Croydon’s semi-autonomous
tram company.
London’s mayor makes no secret of his affection for buses –
he never ceases to praise them for the improved service they offer.
As a regular bus traveller I have searched in vain for these
improvements. I can only conclude they must be statistical.
And I am concerned that the improvements now being promised
as part of tram integration will be equally statistical.
Transport for London is a traditional public service operator
– it puts the convenience of its trade unions before that of its passengers.
It seems to believe it can solve the capital’s public
transport problems with buses alone, despite the fact that they share the same
crowded roads as other traffic and are therefore subject to the same delays.
It rejects the idea of a multi-modal approach that would see
buses used in outer suburban areas to ferry passengers to trams running
parallel to major roads.
The trams would offer interchange with park and ride
facilities and with suburban and national rail networks.
The biggest single improvement wanted by most Croydon tram
travellers is an extension to the existing network, so they can travel further
on it.
A link with a proposed new tram line from Streatham to the
West End seems an obvious example, but at the time of writing Transport for
London is not in favour.
ENDS
Straight Talk 13/08 - Monday, March 31 2008.
POLITICS is certainly a career: is it also a business? If
so, is it keeping its customers, the electorate, satisfied?
I see it as a service industry, but because it is also a self-regulated
monopoly – you can vote for a different party, but not an alternative system – it
has a responsibility to impose rigorous checks and balances.
Politicians in Britain are constantly complaining about a lack of public
interest in what they do. Are they really surprised? If so they must be more
cocooned in the Westminster bubble than many of us suspect.
In the brief glimpse of their rituals that most of us see on
television they are little more than a baying mob – is this any way to conduct
the business of government?
They cling on to elaborate rules of language and dress that the
rest of us have long since consigned to history and they wonder why we laugh at
them.
They insist on responding to bells and trouping through
lobbies to vote, eschewing the pager or the mobile phone that would allow them
to register their opinion, or that of their party, at a distance. They buy and furnish second homes at the tax-payers’ expense
and they employ relatives to do non-existent jobs.
If politicians want us to take them seriously they will have
to earn our respect by introducing root and branch reform of their own working
practices.
Any MP whose constituents commute daily to work should do so
himself, at his own expense, so he can truly represent their frustration and
press for a better service.
Those whose constituencies are beyond daily commuting should
have the use of a modest furnished flat in suburban London – the kind of
accommodation they would probably choose if they had to pay for it themselves.
MPs should be employed and paid as civil servants, receiving
the same salary increases they award to others: their secretarial support staff,
family or otherwise, should be employed and graded in the same way.
I agree with Winston Churchill that democracy is the least
worst form of government: that does not preclude it from being run in a
cost-effective way that makes best use of 21st century business practice.
ENDS
Straight Talk 12/08 - Monday, March 24, 2008.
THE EUROPEAN Union is the common market in which most of us will ultimately
do business.
Within the working lifetime of today’s students it will be
as unremarkable to buy and sell in another state as it is to do so now in a
neighbouring town.
A combination of cross-border takeovers and the
rationalisation of regulations make pan-European trading easier by the year.
I was reminded of this wholly desirable development a couple
of weeks ago by the staff and students of Titus College in Arnhem who came on
one of their regular visits to my home town of Croydon in south London.
On this occasion, I agreed to field a question and answer
session with the Dutch students.
I knew they would be asking about my job, the
town, London or the United Kingdom.
But I didn’t have advance knowledge of the individual
questions – it seemed to me that the session would be more spontaneous that
way.
In fact, many of the students wanted to ask about journalism
and some of the questions were very searching – I found it an enriching
experience.
The self-confidence of these young people was inspiring –
here they were on foreign soil conducting an in-depth discussion superbly well in
a language other than their own.
I fear that our own students of the same age would not do as
well.
And yet, if they are to compete in the world of work with their Dutch
counterparts, or those from any other European state, they will need the same
degree of self-confidence.
The present generation of British teachers must embrace the
prospect positively if they are to guide tomorrow’s workforce in the right
direction.
Britain may have lost an empire, but not the attitudes that
go with it. Because English is a universal language we expect others to speak
it – we also expect them to adapt their customs and practices to suit ours.
We are mistaken in those outdated notions and we will lose
significant amounts of business unless we face up to reality – I will believe
we have started to do so when I see a group of Croydon students going to Arnhem
to ask questions in Dutch.
ENDS
Straight Talk 11/08 - Monday, March 17, 2008.
DEVELOP a new product or service and sell it overseas – that’s
the demand being made of businesses in today’s global market.
And in many cases the businesses themselves are new to the
home market, let alone the international one. But this raising of the barrier is the price we pay for free
trade and while it’s tough, it is surely better than the alternative.
There is a temptation, in economically troubled times, to
retreat behind trade barriers and let the rest of the world go by.
The problem is that the rest of the world retaliates – we impose
sanctions: it does the same. The result is decades of lost opportunity for everyone.
We have everything to gain from free trade and nothing to
lose, even in the short term. If someone overseas can make a product or provide
a service more cheaply, our response must be to innovate.
Motor manufacturing and electronics are sectors where it
took a long time and a great deal of unnecessary pain to learn that lesson.
Today our successful motor manufacturers make niche products
of high quality with the most advanced technical specifications using imported production
techniques.
Our electronics firms do the same. One Dutch company that
once made televisions in south London still designs them in Europe, but builds
them under licence in the Far East.
Small firms must follow suit. The days have gone when you
developed a domestic market first and then looked further afield. Every business is a potential international
trader – some seize the opportunity faster than others.
There are many compelling economic reasons for selling
overseas, but as a number of seasoned exporters will tell you: ‘it’s fun too’. And we have an abundance of expertise in innovation and
international trading in south London – friendly people ready to help – so why hesitate?
Croydon Chamber of Commerce and UK Trade & Investment are running a
free afternoon of seminars on selling bright ideas abroad on Monday, March 31
in central Croydon. For details call the chamber’s events team on 020 8916
2345.
Straight Talk 10/08 - Monday, March 10, 2008.
CLOSE and be damned – the British Post Office is an
anachronism and the quicker we stop wasting tax-payers money on it, the better. But we are awash with sentimental nonsense about Post
Offices being the heart and soul of their respective communities.
As a nation can we really be serious about this? How can anyone
possibly become dewy-eyed about queuing up to buy stamps or send a parcel?
Are some people’s lives really so dull that a visit to the
Post Office offers them a social lifeline? If so, we certainly need to do something about community
development, but not by continuing to subsidise what is supposed to be a
commercial enterprise.
In truth, even the government has been taking work away from
Post Offices because it can find less-expensive ways of doing it.
Now Essex County Council wants to take on the subsidy that government
has at last had the courage to withdraw – there’s another reason for not living
in Essex. I can’t think of a transaction done in a Post Office that couldn’t
be carried out as easily in a bank, a supermarket or on line. I don’t remember
the last time I went into a Post Office; I suspect there are millions like me –
and that’s the problem.
It’s beguiling to see the issue through a nostalgic haze as
part of a golden past that never actually existed. The Post Office belongs to a
time when few of us had bank accounts, let alone debit cards or the Internet; so
postal orders, giro cheques and benefit books were important.
The Post Office had an unquestioned monopoly of all official
means of payment and we had no choice but to queue – I don’t remember thinking
of it as a socially defining experience. Retirement pensions were a mainstay of the network, but the
steady stream of cash-encumbered elderly became easy pickings for any toe-rag
who considered it cool to grab a granny’s purse.
Before local authorities go squandering tax-payers’ money on
yesterday’s ways of doing things they should remember why Post Offices find
themselves in difficulty – the lack of a discernible market. Most of their former customers have moved on –they should
now do the same.
ENDS
Straight Talk 09/08 - Monday, March 3, 2008.
THE
IDENTITY of the next president of the United States has become an obsession for
the British media. And yet those same journalists devote little or no time to
the creation of a presidency for the European Union.
That
seems perverse to me, when our experience of the World Trade Organisation suggests
that a united Europe can exert a strong influence on the United States – far stronger
than any single European state regardless of its perceived special
relationship.
We
Europeans have no influence over the American presidency, but we do over the
one in Europe, even if we are not yet being asked to vote directly for a
president.
Of
course the battle between the Clinton and Obama camps for the Democratic Party
nomination is fascinating.
But neither of them – nor John McCain, if he becomes
the Republican Party candidate – would be better or worse for Europeans.
The
future President of the United States will rightly look first and always to the
interests of his or her fellow Americans.
History
suggests that a strong European president – one with the support of all 27
states of the union – might have had more influence over United States strategy
in Afghanistan or Iraq than a supine Tony Blair.
And
that might have saved the lives of gallant British service people, as well as
leaving us with more money to spend at a time of economic difficulty; and more
overseas friends with whom to do business.
The
American people must judge the actions of their current president and his
political supporters – by all accounts they intend to do so unequivocally later
this year.
We
need to concentrating on finding an equal and independent voice in international
affairs – political or commercial – and we can best do that by being first
among equals in the world's largest trading bloc.
ENDS
Straight Talk 08/08 - Monday, February 25, 2008.
CONGESTION is the enemy of commerce. Clogged roads mean deliveries take longer and as time is money, that’s expensive.
Parking restrictions are the obvious answer, but when they are applied in a cavalier way they can damage the businesses they are intended to protect.
As a non-driver I have no sympathy with people who take a vehicle into a crowded town or city centre without good reason. Public transport may not be perfect, but it is usually quicker and always less selfish than wasting limited road space for the convenience of one person and the inconvenience of everyone else.
But we need to make proper provision for those who must use the capital’s inadequate road network for business.
Consider the plight of a contact of mine whose business is supplying pre-prepared food for West End restaurants. He has a production kitchen in south London where he employs a team to pick frozen foods or wash, slice and dice vegetables.
His work saves his customers staff time and, more crucially, space in an area where both are at a premium. But he is being increasingly harried by private-sector contractors who enforce parking restrictions on behalf of the local authorities.
He tells horror stories about improperly served notices that are allowed to accrue additional costs of many times their face value and one particular tale of being ticketed in Soho’s Greek Street by ‘someone from the bottom of the gene pool’ while he waited in standing traffic.
He says there are many streets where there are no loading bays within a reasonable distance of his customers’ premises, forcing his drivers to risk a ticket. But he has been brought to boiling point by a recent series of incidents that have resulted in one of his most valued drivers resigning.
He believes the time is long overdue for local authorities to compel their contractors to distinguish between those who are driving in central London for their own selfish reasons and those who are doing so as an essential part of their business.
I wonder what our London mayoral candidates think?
ENDS
Straight Talk 07/08 - Monday, February 18, 2008.
ENTERTAINMENT is a business – show business – and sometimes very
lucrative.
Just ask Lord Lloyd-Webber and friends why they are smiling
all the way from the stage door to the bank. But like any other business an
artistic one needs to follow the stricture of Simon and Garfunkel and ‘Keep the
Customer Satisfied’.
So what’s all the fuss about the loss of grants from Britain’s
Arts Council? A company that is properly
focused on its customers (it’s not a dirty word) will replace the income with
money from other sources.
Let me cite the example of the London Mozart Players, based –
despite its name – in perpetually unfashionable downtown Croydon.
This is a chamber orchestra of considerable talent that
enjoys, or has enjoyed, the patronage of major international businesses –
Nestle is perhaps the best known.
The last of its concerts that I attended – and thoroughly enjoyed
– was sponsored by HSBC bank and featured the world-renown musical skills of
flautist Sir James Galway. He had some kind things to say about the band on
stage and he was equally complimentary when he visited the bank’s guests during
the interval.
It is surely ludicrous to suggest that such a well-connected
and esteemed group of musicians can’t replace a grant of £160,000 a year once
they put their minds to it.
In essence, it will be more important than ever to follow
the Simon and Garfunkel stricture – like any other successful performance, it’s
all about bums on seats.
But the LMP has a loyal following who will happily act
as a focus group, allowing it to weave less well-known material into its repertoire
without losing ticket sales.
There is transitional funding on offer from the Arts Council,
which the band should take – but for six months rather than a year.
It should
use that time to shake the quango’s dust from its patent leather shoes and accept
the added challenges that being a fully commercial operation will undoubtedly
bring.
I suspect the LMP’s new status will enliven its performances
even further, which can only serve to widen its appeal – and just think of all
those mind-numbing government forms it will no longer need to complete.
ENDS
Straight Talk 06/08 - Monday, February 11, 2008.
HEATHROW was the subject of a survey that dropped into my
inbox last week.
But the short questionnaire was just a box-ticking exercise that didn’t begin to
address the matter of whether south Londoners should put yet more eggs into a
west London basket.
According to BAA, the company that manages the airport, we now
need a third runway at Heathrow if we are to keep pace with the Dutch and the
French.
Would that be instead of or in addition to the proposed
extra runways at Gatwick and Stansted?
The BAA Heathrow website promises continuing construction
until at least 2012 – completion of Terminal Five will be followed by a tart up
for Terminal One, substantial refurbishment of Terminal Four and then demolition
of Terminals One and Two to make way for Heathrow East.
At that point, sometime in 2013, the company will consider AirTrack,
a rail link between the airport and Waterloo. So, allowing for construction of the rail link, those of us who travel to Heathrow from south London by public transport will have to endure the present truly dreadful
connections for at least another seven years.
By contrast, we already have a fast rail connection to
Gatwick – just 35 minutes from Victoria, 30 from Clapham Junction or 20 from
East Croydon.
I have travelled on intercontinental flights from both
airports and Gatwick is infinitely superior, both in terms of the travelling to
and from the airport and the quality of service while you’re there.
I’m in favour of introducing the necessary market mechanisms
to divide London’s air traffic more or less equally between its three major
airports – that would include breaking up the BAA monopoly.
The three-site solution is better for most of us than adding ever
more capacity at Heathrow and I expect government ministers to face up to the
comparatively small number of vociferous individuals and vested interests that will
inevitably oppose it.
Meanwhile, government can reduce growing demand for
short-haul flights by looking at ways to speed up inter-city trains – making
tracks for the new 330kph AGV from French manufacturer Alsthom would encourage more
of us to travel further into Europe, or to Scotland, by rail.
ENDS
Straight Talk 05/08 - Monday, February 4, 2008.
THE FOREIGN exchange market in London is a truly awesome
operation; the largest of its kind in the world and one on which we are all
dependant to some extent.
But I was staggered to learn from an experienced trader that
over 98 per cent of the $US25 trillion that moves across the London market
every day (more than £200,000 each for every man woman and child in Britain)
has nothing to do with businesses needing currency for international deals.
It is speculation by major banks and others, which
contributes substantially to their eye-watering annual profits: in this case, the
others include insurance companies that use the money they make to boost the
performance of pension funds.
However, there are more immediate ways in which the market
affects those of us who are not directly involved with it: supermarkets buy on
credit – at least 30 days – and sell in cash, so they speculate in the interim.
The additional profit they make helps them to compete as vigorously as they do
on the retail prices they charge. Without the money markets we would all be
paying more for our groceries.
And yet, the whole foreign exchange market is in a permanent
state of flux: it moves from second to second, 24 hours a day, six days a week.
It is influenced by events around the globe over which nobody has much control, without any one trader – no matter how affluent – being able to
dominate it for more than a few hours.
Maybe I’m being naive, but I find it disconcerting that both
my short-term and long-term financial well-being and that of my family are
substantially dependent on a monetary mechanism that runs on little more than traders’
reactions to situations they don’t fully understand.
So what can I do about it? Nothing, just cross my
fingers,whistle and get on with my life.
ENDS
Straight Talk 04/08 - Monday, January 28, 2008.
INWARD INVESTMENT is a vital ingredient of any dynamic
economy.
So it comes as a disappointment to learn that my home
town of Croydon in Greater London has only managed to attract three substantive
businesses in the past nine months. I assume the council has not been spending
much on this aspect of its work, since it is fairly strapped for cash. And the poor
result would also suggest that it lacks the necessary expertise.
In Greater London inward investment should be handled at
sub-regional level. The idea of 32 boroughs vying with each other in this
endeavour is silly – they will cause such confusion that nobody outside the capital,
and very few people within it, will have the slightest idea who is offering
what to whom.
But the borough councils still have an important role to
play in two respects. Firstly, they need to set and maintain a far higher
standard of welcome for visitors to their towns – through such things as improved
cleanliness and helpful sign-posting.
Last year, when I visited the diminutive
city of Gagny in the suburbs of Paris, I was delighted by the show of civic
pride demonstrated by clean streets and colourful arrangements of flowers
festooned at every lamppost and road junction.
Sadly most of south London’s town centres look anything
but loved – and in the case of boroughs like Croydon there is no financial
excuse. The council collects a levy of £1m a year from larger companies in the
central area for precisely this purpose as part of a Whitehall initiative called Business Improvement
Districts (BIDs).
Secondly, borough councils need to monitor inward
investment performance at sub-regional level and, if it doesn’t reach the required
standard, they need to make the strongest representations at the highest levels
of central government.
South London has a stronger story to tell – especially to
an overseas audience – than any of its 12 individual boroughs. They will all
benefit more from a collective approach than from trying to do it themselves
and in the process undermining each other.
ENDS
Straight Talk 03/08 - Monday, January 21, 2008.
I’M BOTHERED about a
predicted slump in Britain’s commercial property market.
Not that I have any
personal investment in offices and shops, but I am concerned that plummeting prices
could wreak havoc in my home town – Croydon, Greater London. According to CB
Richard Ellis, the world’s biggest property consultant, the country’s commercial
market is facing its worst year since it crashed in the early 1990s.
Forecasters predict
that values will drop by ten per cent in 2008, compounding the free-fall that
has taken place in the wake of last summer’s credit crunch. Against that
background Croydon is still trying to close deals that are crucial to the
development of three major sites in the town centre.
There are proposals
for an arena or an urban park on one site; and the town’s third shopping mall
on another. A mixed development is
planned for the third site, but coupled with an expensive refurbishment of a
much-loved but anachronistic concert hall and theatre. At the moment,
offices play a major funding role in two of the developments and retail is integral
to the other.
One of the sites has
lain fallow for nearly 50 years; while a second has been largely vacant and a
blight on the town centre for more than a decade. At regular intervals over the past three years we have
been promised an imminent resolution of each site – in fact, nothing tangible
has happened in that time. Now it appears that investors will be more reluctant than
ever to buy into schemes that have progressively less chance of finding
tenants.
Perhaps the town needs a fundamental change of aspiration. Before the office boom of the 1960s central Croydon was predominantly
residential – maybe we should be looking in that direction again. With a series of high quality apartment blocks the town
could be offering directors and senior executives a convenient weekday home
just 20 minutes by fast train from The City or the West End.
Croydon could be the new Wimbledon – and if that sounds presumptuous
to those who know both places, maybe my home town needs to work harder at projecting
a positive image.
ENDS
Straight Talk 02/08 - Monday, January 14, 2008.
HOW delighted I am to see some long-awaited recognition
for a man who so richly deserves it.
I refer to the award of an MBE to Bryan Treherne in the British
New Year’s Honours List. I have known Bryan for a number of years, but I have
gotten to know him better in the past 12 months.
It was about this time last year that I told him I was
going freelance and I asked for his advice about the business aspects of my
decision. Commercially, that proved to be my most astute move so
far – he didn’t weigh me down with reams of well-meaning theory, or direct me
to a useful web-site. Instead he started referring me to people who could help
in the most practical way – by offering me work - and he has gone on doing so
regularly over the past year.
I have been on a series of trade visits with him in 2007,
to Holland, France and Hungary, and I have watched him extend the same level of
courtesy and care to others. He is always the last in a group to go through passport
control – in case someone has a problem – and he is the first to share a
contact in a foreign city, if he thinks that could be helpful.
Bryan has introduced me to a number of people who are now
on my own contact list and those to whom
I have spoken in the past fortnight have been as pleased as I am to see Bryan recognised
in this way.
I’m sure he and his wife Betty will enjoy their day at
Buckingham Palace later in the year and that they will treasure the medal
itself.
But I suspect the greatest reward for Bryan is to know
how highly his friends and colleagues regard him.
There are two kinds of business advisor: those who talk-
and they are ten a penny – and those, like Bryan, who do – and they’re as rare
as hens’ teeth. The people who work with Bryan, me included, are privileged
to have someone of his calibre in our midst.
*For
more details of Bryan’s award and his reaction to it visit the South London
Export Club website at www.slec.biz
ENDS
Straight Talk 01/08 - Monday, January 7, 2008.
A WARM welcome to the first of a weekly series of missives
on a wide variety of business topics.
Some of you will recall my monthly columns in the south
London centred Business News publication, others will even remember those on
the business pages of the Croydon Advertiser.
Since I left the newspaper group at the end of 2006 I
have seen some of my former readers at networking events. A number have been kind enough to say how much they miss
the columns.
And since I miss writing them, it seems reasonable to reintroduce
them, but in a form more suited to the 21st century.
In the past 12 months I have broadened my sphere of
activities substantially, both in terms of the work I do and the area I cover,
so the new column – a weekly blog here on my own website – will reflect that
wider perspective. But I continue to live in the Croydon area, so it is
inevitable that I will draw some examples from my experiences locally.
I will publish a new edition every Monday and I will write
to a wide cross-section of contacts from the Americas and Europe to southern
Africa with an abstract of the text in the hope of whetting appetites.
If you prefer not to receive the newsletter you will
always have the opportunity to unsubscribe. Naturally, I hope you will choose to accept it, maybe to
respond on occasions and even to pass it on to contacts of your own – the more
the merrier.