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Ross Smith, Head of Policy and Research at the North-East Chamber of Commerce »
Julian Christopher from Footprint Public Relations, on media and marketing »
Norma Foster from the North East Regional Portal writes about e-business »
Accessibilty Champion Steve Wilkinson on the importance of inclusion »
Andrea Wilkinson of Shared Interest is visiting Rwanda to deliver business training »
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Paul Williamson from Deloitte »Ian Brown
A white flag waved is not always surrender!
Posted by Ian Brown on June 20, 2008 7:53 AM
Communications.....is an essential tool, as a Barclaycard advert pointed out more than a decade ago, "Both fluent .....sadly in different languages". I shall come on to talk about this in more detail later on and indeed to link to Mathew Rippon's blog a few days ago about 'outcomes'.
First though a family tale of country folk working together to make hay while the sun shines - before it had become a metaphor. The 30 second explanation is grass grows with soft refreshing rain until it is at a maximum sweetness when you then cut it and wilt it, the sun dries out the grass on one side you turn it a few times to get all the moisture out and then collect it in to stooks - in the old days - balers now but it into convenient rectangles weighing up to a tonne.
Now that is the text book version - reality/sods law is that you get it just right and then as you are about to collect it in it P**...Pours with soft refreshing rain at the wrong moment, and for the next week.... until the golden hay is a black soggy non-nutritious mess.
Stay with me, our Brown family had cousins who farmed at The Fawns around the time of the second world war, and they used to hang a white sheet flapping out of the upstairs window when they needed extra labourers to get the hay baled, this could be seen instantly for several miles...yes indeed speed was of the essence ....before it PPPPrecipitated down again!
So are we getting the modern day communication right within the business world in the north east in 2008?
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Oil, like land....they just aren't making it any more!
Posted by Ian Brown on June 13, 2008 9:18 PM
There is a saying in the farming community that one of the reasons to buy land is that they don't make it any more! To that extent the same is true - perhaps even more so for oil. I am usually a down to earth man who is inclined to ignore conspiracy theories but six months ago the trade was quoting such silly forward prices for diesel that some farming co-operatives refused to buy....but those prices for August may now be in line with where they're now heading.
Interestingly many land prices are rising along with soft commodity values but alarmingly input costs, based on oil based ingredients, are matching the same pace leading to profit margins being nipped.
So back to oil prices, are we seeing a change of behaviours forever? or is it as short lived as our collective memories?
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World Environment Day
Posted by Ian Brown on June 5, 2008 11:04 PM
How did you spend world environment day?
Well unfortunately I did not attend the fun things that I would have liked to have attended today and in a twist of fate my Peugot 307 turn from 99,999 to 100,000 miles. A moment that leaves me blushing!
The defence is robust and is focused around me being an essential user, living well off the beatan track. I have though this week been on a bus, in a taxi and on three trains....most journeys though fall to the car! Meanwhile what did my 7 year old daughter attend on my behalf in Wooler?
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Eat up and speak up...and sit back down!
Posted by Ian Brown on May 30, 2008 8:35 PM
EAT is now over for another year, it goes from success to success and has continued to provoke all the senses.
One week ago I had the honour of announcing the North East Chef of the Year 2008 results - the awards came at the end of a long day of cook offs and being in catering I know the pressure to perform and indeed the rivalry that exisits between the top chefs in the north east, as Wendy Gibson said on the night it is also great that a woman won through in a world that can seem male dominated. My brief was to either give a speech or not...I read the audience and given the time of night kept to reading the names out.....but since I'd given it a bit of thought here is the speech that was never uttered...............
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Governance and Government....a good thing?
Posted by Ian Brown on May 27, 2008 8:27 PM
We'll do the easily digestable one first... Governance is a good thing and now contains less calories than motherhood and apple pie, I was trained in it this week.
I'm just a simple country lad and frankly a big fan of horse or what you may know of as common sense, for litigious reasons you need to have proof that you are leading your organisation properly. In life it is best to stay on the moral high ground, indeed it would be fair to say nobody ever drowned on the moral highground. Now the link to Government comes from my attendance at the Government Office North East stakeholders day....for a definition read on!
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Food and Fuel too expensive?
- Tags:
- Fiona Hall
- food
- fuel
- ONE NorthEast
- waste
Posted by Ian Brown on May 16, 2008 7:07 PM
I have business interests in food and fuel and I take offence at HMG (the country's management) somehow blaming the downturn in the economy on food and fuel prices rising.
This in a society that wastes a third of its resources i.e. this weeks announcement that the UK puts £10billion worth of food straight from the fridge to the pedal bin....crazy when you think about it.
This week I attended an event organised by Fiona Hall one of the north easts three MEPs ...... for me it focused my mind on the need to act now to survive oil prices in advance of $125.
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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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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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The birth of bouncing baby businesses
Posted by Ian Brown on April 15, 2008 9:55 PM
I am pleased to have been at the inception and indeed birth of many businesses. In rural areas there now is as broad a spectrum of business as in urban areas, indeed with the north east having broadband access second only to London we are well placed to start new business here and indeed encourage entrepreneurs to the area with their families to start and grow businesses. It was thus great to see the new incubator space in Berwick The Workspace is fantastic and I think farmers should be thinking about how they can diversify off the farm into such sites.
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King Canute .... The Great!
Posted by Ian Brown on April 5, 2008 9:07 PM
King Canute was indeed Great and like most anecdotal stories about historic characters there is a lot more to him than meets the eye. I will talk about managed realignment later but have been reassured that - due to climate change - by 2050 Northumberland will be the most pleasant part of Europe in which to live. My certainty comes from having a role with the Environment Agency which helps me understand the potential shape and climatic conditions of the north east in the future
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Following the Leader
Posted by Ian Brown on March 30, 2008 9:30 AM
There is a long running method of giving mainly European money to communities called Leader indeed I have been involved with Leader I, Leader II, Leader + and the leader approach.Given they last over 5 years each I'm getting older.
Talking about my mid-life crisis I was interviewed in London for the second series of Alan Sugar's The Apprentice a few years ago and I am glad to say I failed to get short-listed - it is as close as you get to a certificate of sanity!!
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Yes Minister to yes minister....short week then?
Posted by Ian Brown on March 21, 2008 5:31 PM
As a self employed bod I'm less effected by poor bank holiday weather but I have to say even by my standards we've had a crazy week. Putting in 56 hours in 4 days and then working through the bank holiday comes with the territory - so why would I? Well,my energy comes from the fact that I'm doing good things with great people and I'm at the age where I can resolve most problems that come my way
So if you want to know which ministers I've been working with read on, needless to say I've been backing church and state this Easter Week
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Views to and from Lindisfarne
Posted by Ian Brown on March 12, 2008 10:40 PM
The Barn at Beal is open for business and I am impressed.....it has a view of Lindisfarne or if you prefer Holy Island that takes your breath away.
The second event I went to was last Sunday at St Mary's Church in Morpeth where the New Archdeacon of Lindisfarne was 'collated', licensed or if you prefer inaugurated.
The common theme is that the special landscape and visionary leaders can create one of the most special environments anywhere in the UK....and it is on our doorstep!!!!
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No rhyme, no reason?
Posted by Ian Brown on March 6, 2008 8:27 PM
Dear Defra
I've had to write you a letter because like 15% of farmers in the region you have not sent the payment that is due to us! Now before you hide behind the "we don't have to pay you before the 30th June" may I remind you it was the 8th of August last year....no interest yet!
You know the crazy thing about grant funding on farms - or indeed anything else - it is the risk of distortion of the market and the forces of capitalism taking advantage and not paying a fair price at the farmgate!
So what is the answer.....my wife has written Defra a poem, the friendly man at RPA asked if it was a nice poem....I looked at my metaphoric wellies and said I thought not!
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fi.fie.fo.fum
Posted by Ian Brown on March 1, 2008 10:53 PM
The innovators deserve the rewards. I was at the launch of the Society of Wildlife artists at the unusually named fi.fie.fo.fum in the Tyne Valley in Northumberland. These artists rarely display outside of London and the region is lucky to have this display on until 30th March. The wider point from the night is about innovation in farming....why are some farming families better at it?
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