Happy Birthday to Wrexham F.C.

Wrexham F.C., as I’m sure most of the readers of this newspaper will know, recently celebrated its 150th birthday.

Fantastic – sounds like something to celebrate and definitely an achievement. In this day and age, when we routinely replace things rather than make them last another few months, never mind years, surely it’s impressive for any institution to last 150 years.

I wouldn’t argue with that line personally but as usual I’m wondering what are the reasons behind our admiration – can we learn anything by probing behind the headline and making a comparison with the world of business.

There’s a very useful test in business that asks if a company or individual’s actions respond well to the query – so what? As usual with simple statements, if you respond honestly to the question you might find out something useful that you can build on.

In Wrexham FC’s case the answer might be something like this: for 150 years sporting excellence has been striven for and a whole town has been united behind the team as they strove to improve their standing in the league by competing week in week out. Many people have identified with the team and found a sense of purpose in a shared endeavour and also relaxation and an escape from the drudgery of the 9-5 routine. Fitness has been held up as something worthy and an ideal to pursue for youngsters who may have that sort of talent within their grasp.

So, yes Wrexham FC is a socially useful phenomenon without which the town would most definitely be the poorer but what of your business or enterprise. What would you answer to the “so what” question on your 10th anniversary, for example? I suspect that one may be more difficult to answer but hopefully worth the effort.

If you genuinely struggle to find reasons for why you were so keen to announce to all your business contacts that you had just crossed the 10 year milestone – think again. It may point to a lack of balance. Perhaps you have been one-dimensional in your pursuit of profit or never given a second thought to gender diversity or your position as an employer in the community.

Sounding off about a record just for its own sake clearly leaves you open to the charge of being lightweight or lacking in depth. Worse still, perhaps you lack objectives with which your wider customer base can identify. To grow a business requires shared goals and vision – no-one can achieve truly great heights alone and even what appears to be a cause for celebration might offer a good opportunity to reflect on that.

I like a celebration as much as the next person but don’t let the answer to “so what” be disappointing because your 10 years in business equates to the same year repeated 10 times over. Like Wrexham FC, aim for 150 years and aim for the pride that will come when your business community genuinely has good reasons to celebrate with you, even before you remind them to do so!

The power of the written word

There’s an old adage in business that says something to this effect - anything that doesn’t get written down is bound to get forgotten. For me that’s a good maxim and one that I have personally lived my business life to for many years now. In my humble opinion it’s even more valuable in today’s tech-savvy age than in it ever was.

Why? Because writing things down is way more valuable than serving as a mere memory-jogger. Putting pen to paper is one of life’s pleasures and it is a grave mistake to dismiss it as simply a chore or something to avoid at all costs. Sure, writing in a business context can mean a little dullness when it comes to content but no-one should underestimate the feeling of control and creative flow that any writing can give.

For sheer enthusiasm and commitment to the task it would be hard to find a better example of this than Andrew Marr. I know most of us don’t write on the scale he does but the feeling he describes as the act of creative writing gives another dimension to his knowledge is undeniably true for us all. Try it sometime and I guarantee you will be surprised at the results.

We are all of us better than we often give ourselves credit for and writing can reveal the true depth of what we know. It is as if another part of the writer takes over for as long as the writing is taking place.
“Getting in the zone” is probably how this phenomenon would be described in business-speak and that’s not a bad description. It conveys the sense of “somewhere-elseness” and it implies you are now in a special place where serious business will start to happen and happen fast. It engenders a very useful feeling of purposefulness, control and added dimensions that might mean the edge in business we are all looking for.

Be bold – express yourself with considered thought and it will give you a USP. This is especially so nowadays when the majority of business people run a mile from writing things down preferring to take comfort in the fact that we can talk hundreds of times faster than we can write.

I hope you enjoy this column – if you think it’s below par in any way that’s probably because I didn’t trouble to write a written draft before I produced it

Glad to be of service…

In the North West we have a thriving knowledge economy where service industries continue today to play a massive part in sustaining our futures. This is not to downplay the importance of other strands of pour economy such as manufacturing, engineering or exporting but it’s a fact that professional services continue to be one of the mainstays of our regional prosperity.

This link to knowledge, especially scientific knowledge, is of particular interest in the North West as we head towards 2016 when Manchester will become the European City of Science. The North West has been in the news quite often in recent months with the go-ahead for the new £235m science research centre at Manchester University to build on successes like the development of Graphene.

But I wanted to concentrate here on what is perhaps a lesser known but vitally important link of worldwide significance. Namely the link the North West has to Alan Turing who of course is only now starting to get the recognition he so richly deserves.

Most people know Turing was a fellow of King’s College Cambridge but how many of us knew he was also Reader in Mathematics at the University of Manchester from 1948 to 1954?

We’re closely linked to the man who helped to bring about a speedier end to the war, developed the mathematical theory that underpins modern computing and significantly advanced our progress in the use of artificial intelligence.

But, as is often the case with such geniuses, there is more to this than meets the eye and many more useful parallels with business than just the simple fact that knowledge and innovation are crucial to our sustained growth.

Turing was probably on the Asperger’s spectrum and no doubt written off by many as an eccentric. In the social atmosphere of the 1950’s there was no room for tolerance and a frightening readiness to ignore even valuable contributions of those who were different. This is summed up nicely by the catchphrase of the film made to commemorate the role of Turing in Bletchley Park: “sometimes it is the people no one imagines anything of who do the things that no one can imagine”

Less commendable is the way he was dealt with but I feel it’s important that that story is also told if we are to learn from our mistakes. We must all play our part if we are to continue to advance as a region– use your intellect if you are gifted, encourage others if that’s your role as a parent or teacher, engage and collaborate if you’re a business to help UK plc maximise the scientific innovation skills we have undoubtedly got in the North West.

There turned out to be more strands to this column than I anticipated but I hope it will add another feather to the balance in favour of a knowledge-based economy where all contributions are genuinely valued.

The January effect…

I believe I’m right in saying that Janus was a Roman God famed for his ability to look in two different directions at once. In my view, that is a very neat trick and one worth copying at this time of year whatever business you may be in.

Use the January effect to simultaneously look back on 2014 whilst focusing intently on what’s coming down the track for you in the New Year too. It’s probably an obvious thing to say but the benefits of doing it may not be so readily appreciated until you have tried it for yourself.

Because of the symmetry created around the end of one year and the start of the next, it’s possible and indeed very easy to make meaningful comparisons. For most of us the obvious one to make is between the final quarter of the year just gone and the first quarter of the year you are just entering. If your tax year coincides with the fiscal year, you have a final quarter left to either make up ground or press on and reach some loftier target.

Whatever state your business is in, this extra degree of focus is very useful and shouldn’t be ignored. I look on it as a great opportunity to increase motivation, remind everyone of where we are trying to get to and redouble efforts where some slippage may have occurred.

But there’s a second compelling reason why this is a good time of year to review progress of business against objectives. That is of course the chance to harness some of the optimism that always flies around at the start of a New Year. Don’t fall into the trap of those who take out gym subscriptions in January and give them up by the end of February! Make sure your plans are grounded and realistic – viewed against the backdrop of the calendar year just ended, are they achievable?

Use your comparisons proactively and put some real effort in now. That equivalent of a gym subscription for your business must earn its keep.  What do you aim to get from the outlay – be specific and realistic against the track record and then nail down some specific outcomes.

When the going gets tough, as it usually does, your objectives will bear comparison with what you know is achievable but will get an extra boost from the seasonal lift we all get from starting afresh. When you friends and colleagues start drifting away from their new regimes you will stick the course. Emboldened by additional knowledge and a doubly magnified fresh perspective, you can lead the way as if you had the strength of a God.

Get your facts right!

This is the response of the Governor of the Bank of England recently when a journalist dared to suggest his thinking on forward guidance was muddled:

“Muddled? You’re muddled I’m afraid. We’ve had two phases of forward guidance that we’ve given. The first phase is exactly as you described – 7 percent threshold at a point where we thought there was considerable excess supply in the economy. In February we put in place the next phase of forward guidance and that next phase, as we said in our last minutes, as we said in our previous minutes, as we said in the April minutes, as we said in the March minutes, as we said in the February inflation report and the February minutes, that guidance is entirely consistent.”

I suspect that journalist may think again before challenging Mark Carney to explain his “muddled” thinking!

What interests me about this exchange is not how the Governor responded but how he got into the position to be able to fire off a memorable response like that in the first place. All the evidence points to the fact that the Governor had his facts very much at his fingertips. He was completely relaxed, in command, and as a result, was able to fashion a stinging reply with detail, repetition and a crescendo effect. He would certainly not have been able to do that had he been scratching around for relevant facts to fire back at the unfortunate hack.

Of course, we can’t all be as articulate as the Governor of the Bank of England. Luckily, by the same token, we don’t all have to soak up the kind of pressure he is subjected to. However, I would suggest we can all apply some of the principles at play here and use them to good effect in any business.

In today’s business world it sometimes seems we value speed and appearance of response over accuracy and quality of content. It might feel terribly out of date now but who can deny the continuing validity of that old expression – failing to prepare is preparing to fail.

Subject matter expertise (SME) is not something anyone in business can afford to ignore but a little practice and a few hours homework can make it a lot easier to grasp than you might have thought.

There are few things more impressive or memorable in the world of business than someone who really knows their stuff and can manipulate content to achieve their goals. It’s motivating of course in itself and there is a great deal of satisfaction to be had from mastering a brief and operating seemingly on automatic pilot. With the confidence that comes from knowledge, it’s possible to relax, get into a controlling position and drive your business to where you want it to go.

As in the words of the well-known advert – don’t you just love being in control!

Get yourself noticed!

My eye was drawn recently to a story in the paper about the famous North West business Daisy Group. No. I’d never heard of Daisy either but the name of the entrepreneurial founder Matthew Riley did ring a bell somewhere. As I read on I realised where I’d heard the name Matthew Riley before – he enjoyed a bit of fame via Dragon’s Den. Or perhaps the word should be notoriety as hid job was to shatter the dreams of some young hopefuls by pouring a great deal of cold water over them and their dodgy CV’s.

Great TV, if you like that sort of thing, but also great marketing by Matthew Riley. What he did on the show by using edgy language – one candidate was told his business plan made the reader feel sick and their growth strategy smelled suspiciously like bulls**t – was to establish himself as someone with a personality and the chutzpah to show it off. Now that’s not rocket science but it established Mr Riley as confident, knowledgeable enough to criticise firmly and probably having a good sense of humour as he was clearly using hyperbole for dramatic effect.

By this simple means and getting himself on TV via his pal Lord Sugar, Riley has ensured that I was hooked enough to read on when I next came across his name in the media. In best Californian tradition, his business was launched from the garage and he is now aiming to become a Northern telecoms champion with all the job creation opportunities that no doubt brings in its wake.

We don’t all have the possibility of getting on national TV but we do have the means to work on our business persona and get it noticed. That really tired old expression about people buying people is coming to mind as I write these words.

Take some risks; get some PR out there even if you do it yourself. As the world gets busier and messages proliferate at a rate of knots it still makes perfect sense that standing out is a good idea if you need promote your business.

Mr Riley is a good example to follow in many other ways too. He left school at sixteen, prefers hard work to a flash lifestyle and professes to “like all the boring and mundane stuff like cost cutting” which he carries out from his base in Nelson. This is not really a celebrity image – rather someone who knows how to use publicity methods often favoured by celebs but in this case to drive an acquisitive business empire founded on solid growth plans.

Don’t give up!

As a rallying call to business, they probably don’t get much more relevant than this and yet it would be hard to imagine a simpler phrase. So how come something so simple can profoundly alter the course of a business and often yield success when disaster appeared to be looming?

The uncomfortable truth, I think, is that this line of thinking relies heavily on gut instinct and a deep-seated conviction which is impossible to put into words. For that reason, not giving up often looks like an illogical course of action and who likes to be thought of as someone who acts without proper thought and consideration of all the issues?

 Over the years I have been fortunate enough to witness past masters in the art of not giving up and I like to think a little of that experience has rubbed off on me. Think of the animated cartoon character that runs off the edge of a cliff and still tries to get back by spinning his feet fast enough to somehow defy gravity – in the same way, business people who just don’t give up appear to be able to perform magic and bend the rules of nature.

This may sound a little fanciful but I believe there’s more than a grain of truth in the theory. Why not harness that feeling of pushing the boundaries and achieving something extraordinary – I think it’s what I’ve been doing for years, if only by instinct.

Of course, this is all tied up with the concept of risk and any business needs to take risks in order to grow. So why not think of adopting this strategy for a small part of your business and see what can be achieved before scaling up fully?

As well as the downside of appearing out of control or deluded there are many upsides to weigh in the balance:

The fear factor itself is liberating and energising. The success is going to taste all the sweeter for having been won against the odds. You will gain infinitely more respect from all the parties involved for demonstrating unswerving faith and perseverance in pursuit of your goals. What’s more, the benefits for that action will be multiple and probably come from all manner of unexpected and very welcome sources to help you grow in new and exciting areas.

You may also appear to be something of a magician as you pull a rabbit out of the hat when all around had given up on you. Who in business doesn’t need a trick or two in their repertoire to keep the target audience coming back for more!