Archive
A man can stand anything except a succession of ordinary days
This is a quote from Goethe, and it seems very apt at the moment for my days are anything but ordinary for which I am very grateful. Read more…
You don’t agree? Make my day and tell me
I was probably about 10 when I last did a cartwheel and, as a painfully thin child, I wasn’t too bad at them. To try one now at my current age, heigh and weight would not be a good idea for myself or my surroundings, but last week I was almost tempted to try. The reason for this juvenile excitement was news that someone had disagreed with some of my thinking as expressed in the FM World Diary column. I was delighted, because it is discussion and debate that moves things forward and helps ourselves, our profession and industry move forward. Read more…
customer service is an attitude of mind
I usually end up writing about customer service when I am over in the USA and this time I had barely arrived before a striking comparison between how things work in the US and the UK arose. Read more…
acting unethically does not make good business sense
One of the topics I try to deal with in this column is ethical behaviour. Apart from my need to maintain such standards in order to comply with the code of ethics for each of the three professional bodies of which I hold membership it reflects a basic principle that I was brought up to observe. Read more…
returning to Auld Reekie
This week I will be flying up to Edinburgh to enjoy the BIFM Scotland conference and I’m looking forward to catching up with some old friends as well as making some new ones. There is some synchronicity in this trip in that when I arrive at the airport there on Wednesday evening it will be twenty seven years to the day, almost to the minute, since I first arrived there. On that occasion I arrived by road, being driven down from Aberdeen where were had run a training workshop that day. Edinburgh was the second stop on that tour with Glasgow on the third day before flying back South. Read more…
we need long term thinking, not short term populism
At a seminar last week one of my fellow speakers explained to the audience the true state of our energy production which brought into sharp focus the empty promises that one of our political leaders, and I use that term loosely here, had made a couple of day earlier. Now this is not an attack on any one party, but it is one on the premise that people can really be led by populist talk. Read more…
Whether you think you can or think you can’t, you’re right
The quote is attributed to Henry Ford, a man who is both hero and villain depending on how you view him (or both from where I sit). And there you have not just one paradox, but two. Read more…
more on myths and panacea solutions
Last week I gave my thoughts on the myths around centralised procurement. I picked that activity just because it had been in the media in the preceding days, but it was just one example of panacea solutions. Read more…
What’s your business all about? Do your people know?
Those who delve into the deeper corners f my social media output will be aware that recently I have been working on developing one of my various ventures into the retail arena. So why am I taking on a project like this? Read more…
use what time you have well to try and make a difference
News over the weekend that Mel Smith had died came as a shock, not least because he was two months younger than me. A reminder of my own mortality was hardly necessary as a year ago I was in hospital having just had a narrow escape from ending my innings, but we all have to accept that our time here is limited. Read more…
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