So who are the real twits….?

A couple of Fridays ago I had a friendly spat on Twitter with Management Today magazine. Well that’s what Friday afternoons are for aren’t they? The issue that sparked our exchange was a gloomy forecast from advertising giant WPP and MT’s assertion that if WPP was having problems then what hope was there for the rest of us.

I admit I took exception to this. Perhaps the tone grated after another week of working with successful businesses. Perhaps it was the frustration of seeing yet another botched attempt by policymakers to resolve the Eurozone crises. Anyway I wasn’t very happy and I let MT know about it.

Of course it all ended amicably with MT retweeting my tongue in cheek reasons to be cheerful comment about the sun shining, the prospect of an extra hour in bed as a result of the clocks going back and news of an increased level of investment in the US. And I do understand that in today’s 24 hour online world, media organisations need regular news and angles to hook readers before this morning’s news becomes this afternoon’s web browsing history. But there is a real danger of a double dip recession becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy.

When asking people at networking events as to how things are going I invariably get a response of “It’s tough out there” coupled with “but we seem to be doing OK”, the latter being seen as a cause for embarrassment rather than a reason for celebration.

The daily flow of conflicting statistics does not help. Based on the first run 3rd quarter numbers GDP was up 0.5% although some commentators said that this was not actually good news and that the figure will be revised in due course anyway. Within this GDP number construction output fell. Bad news then? Well no, Caterpillar have announced that they are on track for a record year. JCB orders are apparently booming. Somebody out there clearly does think that construction in general is moving in the right direction and are investing accordingly.

It would be naïve of me not to recognise the threat to global economic recovery posed by the problems in the Eurozone. But there are many good things happening too which need to be recognised and highlighted. The majority of businesses in the UK and beyond are getting on with their lives and continuing to do their best to create wealth and jobs.

So there you have it. Two points of view for you to consider. False optimism versus unreasonable pessimism. Not facing up to the facts versus accentuating the negative. Who are the real twits in all of this? It is probably too close to call at present.

A shot into the dark……

The gun in my trembling hands felt cold and threatening. Not having indulged in country pursuits or auditioned for a Guy Ritchie movie it was a totally unfamiliar sensation. In short I was terrified.

No this is not the first line of a bad novel about a staid accountant turned underworld hitman. It is in fact the story of my recent corporate day out at the home of British shooting, Bisley in Surrey. Kindly invited by Menzies accountants, I, along with 40 or so other business people spent a morning attempting to shoot down clay pigeons propelled into the air at varying speeds and directions. Once the initial fears were overcome a great deal of fun was had by all and some useful connections made.

Hang on. Corporate entertaining? Hasn’t that just been outlawed by this new Bribery Act? Thanks to an excellent and imaginative presentation by Claus Anderson ,a partner at Royds LLP solicitors, which used actors to play out various scenarios which may or may not have fallen foul of the act, I am pleased to confirm that this is not the case. As long as it is proportionate and reasonable, activities such as jollies to Wimbledon, Lords and the Open, remain available to those lucky enough to be invited.

Sadly real bribery remains a serious business, if you’ll forgive the comparison. According to a recent article in Management Today a trillion dollars a year is paid out in bribes. The business and social impact of bribery on poorer countries is significant and is a cause of real economic deprivation and hardship.

Much of the awareness campaign as regards the Bribery Act has focussed on the compliance aspect and how you can protect yourself and your business. This is fine, but it should not be forgotten that this is as much an ethical and moral issue as a legal one.

Critics of the act have said that bribery is a way of life in some countries and that it is often impossible to get essential tasks done without some sort of facilitation payment. British business will be a loser as a result of the new act. That may be true in the short term but surely the long term winner will be the global economy. The only way that we will be able to change “the way business has always been done” is to stop doing it that way.

The one concern that I do have is that it is invariably the little guys that will get caught while bigger organisations will find more subtle ways to achieve their objectives.

Meanwhile I am proud to say that my honesty and integrity remain intact. As do most of the clay pigeons that I was shooting at unfortunately…

The long haul…..?

“Markets up on hopes of EU deal” screamed the headline on the BBC business news webpage earlier this week. Er no, not from what I could see. It seemed to be 3% down at present. Mind you that headline had probably been written an hour or so before and as we know at present an hour is an awfully long time in the stock market world.

Of course short termism has been a major criticism of Anglo Saxon capitalism. The focus on quarterly or half year earnings apparently meant that anything with a longer term benefit but immediate negative impact was often shelved. As a result we were seemingly left with a world dominating financial industry but not a lot else.

Back in the last century (oh how easily that trips off of the keyboard) we were constantly exhorted to follow the long term view taken by the Japanese and the Germans. Their industrial policies were based around such things as partnerships, local bank support and family businesses. As a result they made a lot of things and sold them around the world.

We have been hearing a lot recently above the drive to create Britain’s own “mittelstand” class, our equivalent of those primarily family owned SMEs that take a long term view of their business and have been the backbone of German economic development for decades.  I suspect that this has met with hollow laughter among Britain’s existing family owned businesses who have been ploughing their own furrow regardless, forgotten and unloved, some for many hundreds of years.

Most businesses that I am involved with manage to work with a variety of short, medium and long term goals. Contrary to popular opinion these goals are not mutually exclusive. The short term focus on cash and liquidity through profitable trading, the drive to find competitive advantage to move the business forward in the coming year, and the desire to exit for a considerable sum of money or hand over the business to their offspring are the core principles that underpin their business planning.

Of course long termism requires a supportive infrastructure and I suspect this is where the government will have most of its problems in its attempts to create the kinds of businesses that they see as the future. Planning, transport and finance, in particular our banks, will all need to be with the programme.

So what should you be trying to create with your business? A company that is targeted on quarterly earnings? An exit in three to five years’ time? A legacy that will last for generations? All of the above I would think. Let’s hope that a business climate develops which allows you to do so…..