Ross Smith, Head of Policy and Research at the North-East Chamber of Commerce »
Julian Christopher from Footprint Public Relations, on media and marketing »
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Ian Wilkin, Accountant, is spending a month in Malawi to help a charity hospital »
Accessibilty Champion Steve Wilkinson on the importance of inclusion »
Big brother is watching
Posted by Andrew Mernin on May 9, 2008 9:35 AM
With every year that passes, our working lives seem to creep closer and closer to the pages of 1984.
From the monitoring of email and internet usage to the recording of phone calls "for training purposes" an increasing number of bosses seem more focused on the surveillance of their staff than watching what their customers are doing.
But now a piece of legislation is about to come in that is so Orwellian it would make even the thought police proud - welcome to the regime of the National Staff Dismissal Register.
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Qualified opinions
Posted by Katie Pringle on May 7, 2008 8:24 PM
Tommorow myself and my business partner are off to a meeting with a buyer at a large museum who may hopefully, possibly, maybe, want us to create a product specifically for them. This would be our first commission and we are pretty nervous about the meeting.
We don't have any experience in this area and so we have absolutely nothing on which to base our expectations. So what do you do when you don't know what to do? Well, if you're anything like me, you go ask someone, anyone what they might do in that situation.
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How's this for a cod piece?
Posted by Ian Brown on May 3, 2008 10:56 AM
With my fellow members of LEAF, I spent last Tuesday in the Lincoln area on a training day which included Grimsby Fish Market.
I now know a lot more about fish, sea fishing and the politics around bringing it ashore. None of this is a fisherman's tale other than in a very literal sense. I also can tell you there is something very fishy about celebrity chef recommended alternatives to cod and haddock which they say are from a more sustainable fish....pollocks indeed!
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The revolution
Posted by Andrew Mernin on May 1, 2008 9:29 AM
When I was in short trousers I remember watching a sketch on The Two Ronnies called the worm has turned. The skit was set in a world in complete parallel to 1970s Britain where women ruled supreme and a small band of men tried desperately to cling on to their rights.
What does this have to do with business? I hear you ask.
Well it seems to me that, just as the worm turned on men in The Two Ronnies sketch, the worm is beginning to turn on the corporate giants, as the customer launches its fight back.
Last week a High Court judge confirmed what bank customers have been arguing for years - that bank charges are unfair and we no longer deserve to be hit in the pocket for going over our overdraft limit.
It is still up to the Office of Fair Trading to assess the situation, but it looks as though last week's ruling will pave the way for customers to win back the fees they have paid.
Meanwhile, as two oil giants posted record-breaking profits this week, truck drivers staged a protest in London's Park Lane, blaring their horns to protest a 30% climb in the price of diesel over the past year.
Shell and BP may have shrugged off any criticism they received, but at least the customer is finding its voice and it could only be a matter of time before the fuel firms are forced to listen.
Anyone looking to join the customer revolution, but needs inspiration on where to start, need look no further than comedian Dom Joly's new TV show The Complainers.
The show consists of various big businesses and institutions getting it in the neck by Mr Joly and friends largely by giving them a taste of their own medicine.
One campaign involves the traffic warden’s warden – armed with an in-depth parking rule book he stops wardens in their tracks by uncovering illegally marked parking spots which, by law, can not be used to enforce fines.
Train operators and call centre companies are also among Joly’s other numerous targets.
To join the revolution watch Channel Five, Monday night at 10pm.
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Hands up those who can feed themselves?
Posted by Ian Brown on April 27, 2008 2:09 PM
I have had a food policy theme running in my diary this week. Society generally moves along almost without us noticing but it seems the very slick energy and food juggernaut is easily brought to a halt and since most of us can not produce food or energy directly it leaves us vulnerable to disruption - whatever the cause. Taste and Eat are two northern initiatives worth supporting here in the north east so that people outside of the industry appreciate the difference between the best and the rest.
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What a load of Rubbish?
Posted by Ian Brown on April 21, 2008 12:47 PM
On the land I look after I have a zero tolerance to rubbish, so since we are not able to stop people chucking stuff out of their windows I'd better give some time to picking it up myself?
I rent my farm and we have a long drive of some three quarters of a mile, this is to maintain, keep pothole, ice and litter free.
So what is to be found in a kilometre of hedgerow in the backwoods of North Northumberland?
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Meeting expectations
Posted by Katie Pringle on April 20, 2008 10:25 AM
Two weeks ago myself and the business partner attended the British Craft Trade Fair in Harrogate. Since that time it's been a bit crazy at RPS towers. You see for us, orders are like buses, you wait for ages for one to come along and then three turn up at once.
No complaints on that front, I love "buses", but it has meant a slight re-evaluation of our production methods. Telling stockists that they will have to wait 4-5 weeks to receive their products is not something we think is acceptable, but at the moment, to tell them them anything else would mean dissapointing them come delivery day.
So we find ourselves having to do something we have as yet managed to avoid as a small business.
Forward plan.
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