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Kevin Horne on ‘Solutions for Business’

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Kevin Horne is CEO of one of the UK most successful enterprise agencies.  He has been in the game for a long time now and understands, as well as anyone, how it works, both in terms of policy and operations.  So when he writes a blog post about the new ‘Solutions for Business‘ we should listen to him.  Carefully.  We should listen between the lines too.

The government has recently launched its “Solutions for Businesses” product portfolio which is the result of much consultation under the Business Support Simplification Programme. On reading the proposals it is difficult to see much to argue with; the product range is rationalised, it hits the main elements of support that a new, growing and maturing business will need and it is simple to understand. So why is it that I still retain some element of doubt that we will see real change?

Is it just me that reads ‘plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose‘? (The more it changes, the more it is the same thing).

I wanted to post a comment of my own thoughts.  Kevin’s analysis says essentially that the bureacrats and policy wonks have once again provided a framework in which things can change and yet WILL remain the same.  I agree with him.  However I do think the entrepreneur can find another option.  Here is the jist of what I would have commented (had I been smart enough to find the comment buttton!):

Kevin, over the last 20 years I have witnessed a number of such re-births of business support – as have you.  None have been transformational, either for us as suppliers or for our customers.

It is easy for us to blame the policy makers for this.  They are culpable.  This is a classic bureaucratic mindset.  ‘Sorry our services remains so far beneath their potential to transform and inspire.  Our managers/funders won’t let us deliver on such lofty ambitions.’

What would an entrepreneurial mindset think?  ‘We can and must transform and inspire.  How can we do this within the existing rules of the game?  How can we effectively engage the guardians of the rules of the game so that they are changed?  Substantially?

Once you engage advisers and other service providers on the challenge of transforming and inspiring they become liberated, imaginative and creative.  They get fired up.  They form more honest and powerful relationships with clients.  They no longer turn the handle on the sausage machine.  They engage.

Instead of pointing the finger at the bureaucrats (which is one of my favourite past-times too) we have to find the wriggle room to do something exceptional.  Because if we believe we are to preside over yet another re-arrangement of the deck chairs then that is ALL we will do.

As an aside I suspect that Kevin’s comments and my reactions will hardly be noticed.  The business support industry has still not discovered the web.  Where it does use the web it uses it as an extension of its push marketing stratgey.  It certainly does not get web 2.0.

That in itself tells us why so often business support still fails to engage.


Training for the Chamber

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Yesterday I trained a group of around 20 managers all of whom were members of the Chamber of Commerce.

It was a free ‘taster’ session – a 2 hour glimpse into the power of real management development to improve performance and relationships at work.

Feedback from the group was VERY positive!  There was consensus that if we used the ideas discussed consistently and courageously we could probably expect productivity gains in the region of 25 – 40%.

Yet some of those who attended felt they could never put these ideas into practice:

‘Our directors want us to spend less time managing and more time working.  They want to see nothing get in the way of production’.

‘Our directors have cut budgets for training and development – we even had a hard time getting away for free training sessions like this one.’

‘I have a member of staff who always hits targets, but she does it at the expense of her colleagues.  She lies and cheats and upsets everybody.  I have tried to give her feedback and would like to fire her – but because she sell so well my boss won’t hear of it.’

‘In my job customers ring up and often shout and swear at me.  My boss says I just need to be more assertive’.

This is the reality of working life for many in SMEs in the UK.  This is why so many SMEs erode quality of life and wellbeing rather than contribute to it for their employees.

This reflects the somewhat sorry state of management and enterprise education in the UK today. Why don’t we do a better job of helping more SME entrepreneurs to manage more effectively?

Why do so many businesses avoid learning how to manage constructively?  Why do people choose to work for such poor bosses?

Are we turning into The Apprentice on a national scale?  Rude, brutish, short-sighted and backstabbing?

Conscious Capitalism

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I have been watching a movement develop over recent years called ‘conscious capitalism’ or ‘conscious business’.  It provides a different take on what it means to be a ‘social enterprise’.  The idea is being pioneered by amongst others, John Mackey, CEO of Wholefoods Supermarket.  In a recent speech he says:

A Conscious Business is one which has two major attributes that define it:

  1. It has a deeper purpose beyond only making profits. Just like individual people by following their hearts can discover their own sense of deeper purpose, so can the business enterprise. I believe that great businesses have great purposes that inspire them to higher levels of success. Think for a moment about some of the greatest businesses in the world and ask yourself whether they exist to fulfill a greater purpose beyond only maximizing profits. Certainly Apple does, driven by its intense desire to create “insanely great” technology which transforms our lives in positive ways. Clearly Google does too with its passion for discovery and desire to operate an ethical company. One of the best examples in the world is Grameen Bank in Bangladesh founded by 2006 Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammed Yunus, which exists to end poverty in Bangladesh and throughout the world. Every business has the potential to discover and actualize its higher purpose—it has the potential to become more conscious.
  2. The Conscious Business also understands the interdependency of all of the major stakeholder groups—customers, employees, investors, suppliers, communities, and the environment—and the business is managed to consciously create value for all of these major stakeholders. Instead of viewing the stakeholders in terms of win-lose relationships with conflicts of interest dominating their interactions, the Conscious Business understands that there is a harmony of interests between the stakeholder groups and that by working together greater value can be created for all of them. At Whole Foods we understand that management’s most important job is to make sure the team members are well trained and happy at their work. The team members in turn understand that their job is to satisfy and delight the customers and happy customers result in happy investors through the prosperity of the business. A virtuous circle is created with all of the stakeholders flourishing together.

Who will create the Conscious Businesses of the 21st century—businesses that have deeper purpose and are managed consciously to create value on behalf of all of the stakeholders?

John Mackey, May 2008

This feels to me like a much more coherent, honest and powerful approach to making business work for the planet than cleaving it along  ‘social enterprise = good; for profit = bad’ divide.

Of course words are relatively easy (although John Mackey has found that words have got him into lots of how water in the past.  We have to judge the movement by its achievements.  But I am hopeful.

You can read a much fuller paper by John Mackey called ‘Conscious Capitalism’ here.

Enterprise and Entrepreneurship

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It seems like I am being taken seriously, by some at least, when I say that enterprise and entrepreneurship are not the same.  If we want a more enterprising culture we need to start with enterprise and (in most cases) not entrepreneurship.

Enterprising individuals and communities understand their current position and have a good idea of what ‘better’ looks like.

They also have the courage, confidence, skills, organisation and support to take action to narrow the gap.

If we want to encourage communities to be more enterprising our starting point should not be:

  • Have you got a great business idea? but,
  • What does better look like to you? and
  • What is stopping you making things better? and
  • How can I help?

This way we might get a much larger stock of constructively enterprising people, some of whom might just go on to entrepreneurship.

Industry Day Dawns in North Leeds

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Today is Year 10 industry day for my daughter.

We had a wonderful discussion last night about ‘what to wear’.  Seems that school guidance of black trousers or skirt with a white blouse leaves lots of room for self expression.  My daughter intends to see just how far the ‘business like’ dress code can be pushed.  Just like real work then!

This morning she gets an extra half hour in bed as Industry day starts later than normal.  And she gets to be home by lunch-time.  Anyone for an ‘Industry half day’?

She has been told that she needs to behave in a ‘business like manner’.  I have force fed her on ‘The Apprentice’ and ‘Dragons Den’, with a smattering of ‘Secret Millionaire’, ‘Last Millionaire Standing’ .  To leanr what ‘business like behaviour’ means.

I have taught her some of the best business cliches.

Last night I picked up a new one – “I can taste success in my spit“.  Some last minute cramming should get that into her vocabulary for the day.  Screw – ‘winning friends and influencing people’. Bah!

  • Backstab
  • Blameshift
  • Slip under the radar
  • Avoid failure (“losses are inconcievable” – Alan Sugar),
  • Eschew creativity (we will serve canapes in togas!),
  • Look for suckers to fleece with a hit and run operation (start at £60 a head and drop to £15 without changing the service specification).
  • Wrap honesty and dishonesty under a shield of rudeness.
  • look out for number one – exploit the weak and the poor – this IS the real world – learn the rules and play by them – HARD

Oh yes.  Industry day.

We enterprise educators can be proud!