New info added!

As promised and in case you haven't noticed - the information about Dealing with Redundancy has now been added to the website. Simply click on the link and find out how I can help you handle what is always a tricky situation. Maybe there are alternatives to redundancy - if there are I'll certainly help you find them. If you have to cut back your work force how are you going to go about it? Is voluntary redundancy the easy way round the problem? (Not always - not by a long chalk.) Is 'last in first out' the answer? (Again - whilst being a popular view of redundancy procedures, it isn't always the right way to go about things.)

There is no shortage of information about statutory rights concerning redundancies, HOWEVER, handling the situation is a potential minefield.

So click on the link, see how I can help and if you want to find out more, either email me at
info@thesouthwestbusinessdoctor.co.uk or ring me on 01805 804645. I not only prescribe better business, I help you make it happen!

Redundancy - two sides of the coin

In spite of my comments in my last blog, decrying the doom merchants in the current economic climate, it is a sad reality that redundancy is a fact of life in business and is likely to be playing a more prominent role in many companies over the next few months. It is crucially important for everyone concerned, that the process is handled with a degree of sensitivity and to ensure that it is transparent, fair and that due respect is afforded to those involved. It is also helpful if staff in the unenviable position (trust me I know from experience, it is not pleasant!) of acquiring the P45 ahead of expectations, can be given information and advice about what they can expect once let loose again in the jungle that is the employment market.

This is a subject that is very close to my heart and so much so that I am soon adding a new page to the website expanding on the theme and outlining practical assistance that I can give to companies and individuals involved in such scenarios. How am I qualified to do this?

When I started establishing a Personnel and Training Department for a major fashion retail chain during the 80's, one of the first jobs I had was to savagely prune staff from shops all over the country where the term 'staff structure' had clearly escaped any notice whatsoever. It was a baptism of fire where commercial necessity had to be tempered with a sensitive though professional approach. I was also, comparatively recently, very closely involved with several redundancy scenarios (they called them 'events' which I always found bizarre!) within Esso Petroleum and although in the latter case, there was some effort to provide a measure of support to the P45 brigade post Esso, nowhere in the process was there any preparation for the realities and practicalities which need to be faced up to. Given the potential scale of redundancies across the region, my belief is that this is ever more important. I went through a learning curve that resembled vertical take off and I can assure you that it is not to be recommended.

So look out for the new page! In the meantime, if it is an issue for you or a potential issue and you would like an informal discussion, please get in touch - I am always pleased to hear from any business in the South West!

Recession! Doom and Gloom! Not!!

A Client of mine asked me a little while ago how I felt about all the talk of recession. He was in the middle of implementing bold expansion plans involving significant investment. Easy to appreciate his concerns. he was a little surprised, I think, at my response! Whilst it is important in any business to keep a firm grasp on reality, I do believe that the gloom mongerers are making bad matters worse. To me, the flip side of the undeniably worrying times we are currently experiencing, is opportunity. It is a sad fact that when things are going well, we are inclined to take certain things for granted and complacency creeps in. It is perhaps no bad thing, then, that concerns over future economic stability are forcing so many companies to address this.

Carefully considered strategies need to be worked out to ensure any potential crisis is survived and the business emerges on the other side. This means some tough questions have to be asked - and answered. This doesn't just mean knee-jerk reactions such as cutting back the workforce or making other false economies. It is a well worn cliche and I have referred to it before on this blog, but there is a need to 'work smarter not harder.' Reducing staff numbers is an option but so is improving effectiveness and productivity through staff training and development. Too often management in companies are too close to the day to day minutiae and the fire fighting so often required to be able to step back and take an objective view of their business - hence the need for people like me.

Sales & Marketing activities are crucial at any time but especially when companies are competing for increasingly elusive business. Don't slash your advertising budget; explore alternative promotional activities (of which, there will be more news here soon - watch this space!) And what of your core business? Can you diversify? Can you expand your market - have you considered exporting? Are you fully exploiting internet opportunities?

There are no quick and easy sure fire solutions and many of the issues are outside of our control anyway - take the price of fuel for example, and its impact on most of our bottom lines. However, whilst we can't control the price of fuel, we can certainly handle the impact of it and take steps to mitigate it.

Flip the coin, I say; ask questions, explore options and turn the doom and gloom of recession into positive opportunity. And if you aren't sure what questions you need to be asking or don't have the time to review your situation, give me a call and we'll take it from there!

A Eureka! Moment

It's been a while since my last update but there is a good reason for that. I (rashly, perhaps!) made a promise that the next time I updated my blog, it would be with the news that my website was up and running. I am delighted to say that it is and provides a direct link to the blog to simplify matters. Hopefully. The address is www.thesouthwestbusinessdoctor.co.uk so please click away and see what you think. I asked a guinea pig to 'click on the links' and the immortal response was that they could not get past 'the Link' - having clicked on the 'Link' page instead of the other links like 'About Me' What I Do' as well as the Marketing and Staff Development pages. So much for Captains of Industry! The Link page is work in progress - the rest has been let loose upon the ether.

The whole exercise proved to be a very interesting experience in more ways than one. Plan A was to try and build the thing myself. I found out that there was help and assistance available via some pretty nifty looking software and having a clear idea of what I wanted to put on the site I ploughed on with verbage feeling very proud of myself for daring to embrace technology again and stretch myself.

However, when it came to the techie stuff, despite software inviting me to click on this and import that, allocate domain name, et al, I found that having invested a ludicrous amount of time to the project, the result was patently amateurish.

The moral of the story being that whilst it is good to broaden your horizons, it is equally important to recognise your personal limitations and be prepared to delegate the task to someone with the appropriate experience and skills. You cannot quantify the savings of stress, frustration, time (so much better directed at one's own particular area of expertise) and then in the quality of the finished product.

And in terms of the learning process, I was quickly reminded of the difference between learning how things are done and learning how to do them properly so a big thank you to Ron, my techie genius whose link will soon figure on the 'Links' page but in the meantime, you can always click here on www.doronron.com .

Heaven only knows what Benjamin Franklyn would have made of the internet but his wise words can be interpreted in a myriad of different ways:

'An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.'

Try investing in mine!

Customer Service: RIP

I have just submitted a magasine article with the above title and it prompted me to continue the theme on the blog. I do feel sometimes that I inhabit some kind of parallel universe.
Without exception, every business Principal I have ever dealt with always, at some point, tells me that they pride themselves on high standards of customer service. But ask some of these people how much time and, (God forbid, I mention the word,) money they actually spend on training their staff and sadly, it is a question that is often met with much shrugging of shoulders, shuffling of feet and obvious acute discomfort.

As a consumer, I find standards of customer service vary hugely. Interestingly, sometimes, the more important the item, the bigger the issue, the more appalling the service encountered and sadly, it seems we are just expected to accept this. Call centres are guilty of this all too often. There is a prescribed script not to be deviated from at any cost and hey - once they've got you off the line, they just move onto the next one. And on again.

I was significantly shocked recently when trying to sort out an important financial issue. Far from the deference I naively anticipated, I was made to feel as if I was a real pain. 'We're busy' I was informed. 'When can I expect to hear from you?' I asked - an eminently fair question in the circumstances. 'As soon as we can.' I was told. 'What does that mean exactly?' I asked, clearly pushing the boundaries of tolerance to the limit. 'What it says.' I was told. 'As in a week? Two weeks? A month?' I pressed. Deep thought. 'Phone us in two weeks if you don't hear anything.' I was told. I was not happy.

Years ago there was a wonderful ad on TV for biscuits in which a clock repairer is having a tea break enjoying said biscuits. A lady puts her head round the door and says that the vicar wants to know when his clock will be ready. 'Thursday,' says the clock repairer and away she goes. Safely out of earshot, he adds to his apprentice with a knowing wink, 'but don't tell him which Thursday.' It was a brilliant ad but an appalling ethos yet increasingly one which we as customers are expected to tolerate. In the course of another telephone conversation recently when customer service was significantly lacking, I was told that 'what you will have to do is'. I pointed out that I had done that three times to no effect and asked if perhaps the individual could actually check things out with the relevant colleague and ring me back. There was palpable horror vibrating down the phone line. 'Certainly not.' was the reply. 'That's not my job.' Trying to point out that anyone working for a company that sells product to customers has a share in customer care which means it is everyone's job was a futile exercise. The sad thing is these days that where we as customers actually enjoy a buying experience (aside from the sheer joy of acquisition as any dedicated shopper such as myself will tell you), it is a real pleasure enhanced significantly by the fact that it is by no means the norm.

It is not good enough for employers to throw new members of staff into the deep end left to pick up what they can from those around them. There should be a very clear commitment to customer service from the top of the tree and properly structured training and assessment undertaken so that new staff are properly initiated into their positions and longer serving staff updated and given an opportunity to develop.

Training is not a 'one size fits all' commodity. I feel very strongly that programmes of training and assessment should be tailored to each business and individual companies within a sector; no two are the same. I rebelled against being made to sit through training scenarios that bore no relevance to the job I was doing, and so should anyone who is serious about what they do.

There follows a bold statement. Before I post the next blog, the South West Business Doctor's website should be up and running and more details of training available will be shown there. A direct email address will also be available which will hopefully provide for two way communication. That's quite a challenge, but watch this space!

Work Smarter not Harder

I am not a particular fan of slogans like the title of this piece, but very often, they do have a point. I had intended, when starting this blog, for instance, that I would be updating it at least a couple of times a week. Hello?! So where does the time go? It is a question I frequently ask myself around 4.00am as I toss about sleeplessly. It would be nice, I often think, to make use of this time and creep along to the office, but disturbing husband and two terriers, one of whom has particularly strong views on undisturbed sleep (I refer, of course to a terrier, not the husband) - well let's just say it won't ever happen.

We do tend to be entrenched in the 9.00 - 5.00 syndrome though and that is not all bad news. It would not be healthy to spend every waking hour working; not only is it unhealthy for an individual, the quality of work produced is likely to be at best lacklustre. So how do we make the very best of these allotted working hours? Accepting that many jobs incorporate a good deal of travelling time in amongst it which I always relished as being thinking time, there are nonetheless tasks that need to be seen to be addressed.

Email, for example. The bliss of this communication medium is its immediacy; just one click of the mouse and your thoughts, responses, requests for information - whatever the content - land in the recipient's inbox. Trouble is, email has to be one of the worst temptations in any office. You've got a job you have been putting off for a while? You are going to get stuck into it right now aren't you........? Well of course you are. Just as soon as you have checked your email which might just have some vital or urgent message that needs to be dealt with.
Oh yes and the fact that you checked your email less than half an hour ago (before you went for that cup of coffee that was going to set you up to deal with the unsavoury task you can put off no longer) - it matters not. I will hold my hands up and admit to being guilty of this - email to me is like a mythological siren I find difficult to resist. The fact that I lived without even knowing what it was for the first twenty or so working years of my life might have given me the cerebral wherewithal to keep it at a healthy distance but sadly, if anything, it has had the opposite effect. And I am by no means alone. I try very hard to discipline myself to accessing email no more than two or three times a day if I am working in the office. I don't 'do' wireless which does help when I am out on the road. It isn't easy but I do try. I know some very disciplined people who access first thing in the morning then leave it alone until the next morning. If it works for them, fine but personally, I feel morning and evenings are minimal in a business environment. Within that of course, you have the strictly business emails and the non-business emails and be honest, everyone has those. It should be everyone's discipline in an ideal world, to leave those unopened until the business of the day is complete. How many of us do?

Another discipline much heralded from the rooftops these days is the OHIO principal. Only Handle It Once. Now I for one would love to get my head around this one and make it work for me. I can obviously see the benefits and of course it does take discipline. But as I gaze at the piles of papers scattered around my office, I think I might have more chance of running a marathon. (In my indigenous stillettos, obviously.) You get the picture. The thought of opening an envelope or printing off an email/document, dealing with the contents and (here's the real challenge,) filing the thing - before moving on to the next item is, frankly, alien to me but some people work that way and jolly efficient they are too.

Blogs are supposed to be sharing things so please post your comments. What disciplines have you introduced to your working day that have enabled you to work smarter but not harder?

I look forward to hearing from you.

Communication! Communication! Communication!

Communication! Possibly the most important word in the business language - and, sadly, most often neglected.

I began my management career training with Marks & Spencer and it was a very thorough grounding. I worked for weeks or months at a time in every area within a store including opening up at crack of dawn during my warehouse attachment so that food deliveries could be taken in (not my favourite job, me not being a morning person but imagine the shame of oversleeping on the day! Thankfully it never happened.) I also worked in the kitchen in the staff restaurant as well as the more obvious stints as department supervisor and office and stockroom assistant. I then progressed up my chosen career path which at that time was Staff Management and Training. All of this was supplemented by courses outside the store and these covered a wide range of subjects. The one that always stuck in my mind, however, was the one on communication and its importance and it is a huge subject because communication is so vitally important at all levels.

It's a favourite hobbyhorse of mine but I make no apology for that because it is so very important. The area I want to explore today is the use of newsletters. Let me be very upfront and say I am a great fan of newsletters. They are a good way of communicating with staff especially if you have a business with lots of sites scattered about and they are also a good way of keeping your company in your customers' sights. They don't have to be flashy or cost a lot but they are effective.

Whilst setting up a new personnel and training department for a national fashion chain when I moved on from M&S, I was asked by the Board of Directors to create a company magasine for the staff. This was my first experience of the medium. We produced quite a substantial magasine every quarter and it was distributed to all the branches and all Head Office departments. It was a great success. We would put articles in on the forthcoming season's range or the end of season sale according to the timing of issue. We had a 'Hatched, Matched and Dispatched' page. If we were opening new branches it was a good opportunity for a good news story and a nice way to welcome a new team of staff. If we had to close a store, it was a good way to say a public thank you. Where we ran sales competitions it was also a handy way to recap on the progress of the particular sales drive, encouraging everyone to do even better and when we invited staff to send in items to be included it was amazing what response we elicited. The whole thing made people realise that they actually belonged to something and that was important because it is easy for people either working in a branch or alone from home to feel isolated at times.

I also used the technique effectively when running an area for a major oil company but this time it was with the emphasis very much on business matters. Each month I would write out to all my business principals and it worked very well.

For one thing, I could not physically get round to see each of them every month but they always had that contact from me aside from phone calls in the normal day to day business.
Secondly, it was a very useful way to remind everyone about topical issues.
Thirdly, I found it a useful way of flagging up forthcoming events/promotions/issues that I would be talking to them individually about so they had the opportunity to give consideration to them prior to my visits.

Then there are the newsletters sent out to your customers. How often you send them and how you slant the content obviously depend on the nature of your business. Hotels, for example, can provide information about forthcoming seasonal offers, changes in key members of staff and perhaps give details of refurbishment being carried out or completed. The scope is tremendous and it is a very valuable marketing tool.

If you haven't considered utilising this before, perhaps now is a good time to think about trying. This is also one area that I can provide experience and expertise at low cost.
Give it a try! I hope to hear from you.

What's it All About?

It's the obvious question after all. When I advertise, I say 'Book your Company's Health Check with the South West Business Doctor. It could make a difference to your bottom line in 2008.'

People ring me up and so very often they are pretty cagey. 'How much is this going to cost me?' is often foremost on their minds. There is a limit to what can be achieved on the telephone; I do believe that it is very important to see who you are dealing with whether or not you pursue the matter. So I will arrange a brief introductory meeting (for which there is no charge) the purpose of which is to give Business Principals the opportunity to assess me and decide whether I am a person with whom they wish to do business and for me to get an initial feel for the business in question and assess firstly whether or not it is a business that I feel I can work successfully with and then, to assess how much work will be needed to complete a proper assessment.

I can then outline a proposal which will include my fee.

If a company decides to proceed, we set a schedule and agree a time for me to return to present my findings. A full written report is provided.

Where we go from there depends entirely on the business concerned.

Naturally in some cases it is a case of thank you very much and goodbye. Some, all or none of my recommendations might be implemented. However, there are often areas that businesses feel are worthwhile being followed up on and where I am qualified to help them implement them we work out a plan and my fees are calculated accordingly.

I'll enlarge on some examples in future blogs but to give you an idea, I have considerable experience of handling advertising and marketing campaigns and I also devised and implemented staff appraisal systems for a national fashion retailer with over 200 branches nationwide. This was supplemented by the introduction staff training programmes which resulted in the company winning training awards.

My main concerns are for small to medium sized companies in the South West. Whilst I have worked for major corporations, I can tell you that living and working in this area for over twenty years, I am acutely aware of the particular challenges facing businesses here. It makes economic sense to handle some issues on a project by project basis. You don't want a Sales and Marketing Manager or a Training Manager or an Advertising Manager - but a piece of one might be of benefit!

As to how I define 'the South West' - to me this is primarily Devon, Cornwall and Somerset but I do also have a working knowledge of Avon, Dorset and Wales where I worked for a time.
However, if you fall outside of this area, don't feel that you can't contact me or participate in feedback (once I have set up this facility aside from my private email address!). Many business issues are universal and all contributions will be welcomed.

And We're Off!

This being my inaugural blog, I feel that perhaps I should have a glass of champagne to hand. Anyone who knows me will be very surprised to learn that I haven't! People who know me well will also be somewhat surprised to see that I have launched myself into the ether or cyberspace or whatever the correct term is. I don't mind admitting that I have surprised myself. I have always said that I was to IT what pigs were to flying but clearly that isn't entirely true. And doesn't that tell you something that everyone should relate to? Namely that the only limits to our progress, as individuals or in business, are the ones we impose on ourselves.

I'm not sure quite how true this is but it is a story I heard a long time ago and it really struck a chord. Apparently, the aerodynamics of a bee are such that it can't fly, however, nobody has told the bee yet so because it assumes it can fly - it does.

In business it is very easy to dismiss new ideas. 'That might be O.K. for other companies but not for us.' 'We haven't got the time or the money to throw at that.' Excuses abound. But actually, we can all embrace new ideas scary though they may be.

Maybe this would be a good time for you to rethink ideas that have been dismissed previously. Maybe you have a pet project that has been sitting on the back burner just waiting for 'the right time to do it.' Maybe it is a project that I can help you with. Maybe not.

There does come a time, though, when it is not enough to think about things, you have to grab the proverbial bull by the horns and dive in. I can tell you that for me, doing business analysis and offering advice and where appropriate, helping implement recommendations, comes entirely naturally. Creating and launching this blog? It feels like I've grabbed a whole herd full of bulls!