Trombone player wanted

Intrigued by the title me to it’s the name of a Short Film Series from Marcus Buckingham, best-selling author, expert on outstanding leadership and management practices.

So what is it all about The odds are that you – like most people – are not playing to your strengths at work most of the time. Recent polls reveal that less than two out of ten people – the actual figure is 17% – say they spend the majority of their day "playing to their strengths". Even if you devote 25% of each day to all those things you don't like to do, or that bore you, or frustrate you – your non-negotiables – this still leave 75% of your time at work to fill with activities that call upon your strengths. And yet so few of us do.

I am half way through the series so far and really enjoying it and have been surprised by some of the simple techniques there are to help recognise my weaknesses and improve on strengthens and made me think that I do not have to be great at something for it to strengthen me.

If you want to find out more why not visit http://www.marcusbuckingham.com/Film/

Happy watching.

Don’t turn off the lights

NUCLEAR power stations have been given the nod by our Government as it wrestles to tackle the challenges of securing our energy supplies in the coming decades.

It’s understandable that the nuclear option has been so widely and fiercely debated in recent months. Sanctioning the design and building of I new nuclear power plants does after all amount to a fundamental shift in UK energy policy. And going nuclear is a big step for many Labour Party members too.

Putting aside the admittedly huge and important questions about how our future energy supplies are to be generated, there are some pretty important issues facing the SME sector in terms of energy provision too.

According to the Federation of Small Businesses, the needs of small firms have for too long been overlooked when decisions are taken over the future of UK power supplies.

To date, says the Federation, the debate has tended to focus on larger users of energy and domestic consumers. Outside this loop lie the UK’s SME sector and its 13 million employees.

By anyone’s reckoning that is a significant number of people. Certainly, too many to be written off or left to feel disengaged from such a critical debate and process.

The FSB says it broadly supports the Government’s recently published Energy Review. Note the word “broadly” there. Support may be forthcoming, but the Government would be unwise to bank on getting it for nothing.

It’s interesting to see and hear, via the FSB, where their members feel the hardest handicap in the energy stakes.

They are campaigning for recognition of the special position of small firms in the energy market. These firms, it’s said, are under particular strain in a volatile energy market, Adding to the gravity of the situation are unclear pricing policies for small firms (without the buying power clout of a bigger businesses, especially in the manufacturing sector) and poor standards of service from some gas and electricity suppliers.

Interestingly, small firms say they do not enjoy the regulatory safeguards that domestic users receive. Nor can such smaller businesses afford or justify retaining n house energy experts in the same way as major consumers can. Although an expert who can identify and implement energy efficiencies may soon turn out to be worth his or her weight in savings.

For those 13 million people working in the SME sector, these are important issues. It would be reassuring to think the Government would take note of what is being said from this quarter. In other words, broaden the debate so that small firms and their representatives are included along with strong consumer lobbies and the big guns of British industry.

If Ministers choose not to listen they may find energy use dropping for all the wrong reasons. After all, firms driven out of business don’t use gas and electricity. Let’s not hear a chorus of last one out switch the lights off.

Every Little Helps…

Tescos announced yesterday that it would be incentivising customers to re-use their carry bags by offering one club card point per re-used carry bag.

Many people are cynical towards Tesco and think this is a very small gesture, but listening to Sir Terry Leahy Tesco Chief Executive explain that incentives do change customer behaviour and surely if they reduce environmental impact then why not I can’t help but agree.

The first major retailer to really get smart about re-use of packaging and their environmental impact I believe will be the one who will be the leader in the years to come.

One fascinating company who are on the rise in UK are http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/ a US based Founded in 1980 as one small store in Austin, Texas, Whole Foods Market® they are now the world's leading retailer of natural and organic foods, with 184 stores in North America and the United Kingdom. To date Whole Foods Market remains uniquely mission driven: they are highly selective about what they sell, dedicated to stringent Quality Standards, and committed to sustainable agriculture.
They are a brand to watch in UK retailing.

The Dragons Return

How good can things be second, third or even fourth time round?
In the coming weeks thousands of people will be packing their bags and heading for their holidays.
Many will be returning to previously discovered locations hoping for a repeat dose of relaxation in slightly familiar surroundings.

Image Source

www.bbc.co.uk

It’s a strange phenomenon that, in an age when we have more opportunity to chose from more holiday destinations than ever before, so many or us decide to return to old haunts.
Until, that is, things change or we return home with anticipation and expectation unfulfilled and high hopes dashed.
Then the misgivings set in and holiday planning is never so simple again.
Similar thoughts came to my mind at the weekend when the week’s TV guides trumpeted the return of Dragons’ Den to the BBC schedules.
Like many others, I was gripped by the first series – fascinated and horrified in about equal measure by the quality of the entrepreneurs parading their wares before the Dragons, and the reaction of those same, sometimes snarling beasts.

The programme has many attributes. It provides an insight into the minds of the contestants (lest we forget that that is what they are) and, of course, it allows the Dragons pretty wide scope to display themselves as nasty, intimidating bosses.
Whether viewers find the programme captivating this time round will depend to a very large extent on the calibre of individuals on both sides of the Den.

The entrepreneurs need to display bucket loads of innovation, flair and determination.
The Dragons need to be tough, uncompromising and ruthless if the programme is to be a ratings hit.
And that, in some respects, is the rub.
Nurturing entrepreneurship throughout the country is a serious business with serious opportunities and equally serious rewards.

Ask anyone who is struggling to gain recognition and support for their business idea whether a series like this will help or hinder their chances.
I’d guess some may be encouraged, others disheartened by the fall out from Dragons’ Den.
According to the publicity handouts, viewers are in for an entertaining time, with Dragons apparently sniping at each other as well as their helpless interviewees.
If you are watching when that happens, remember, it’s prime time TV entertainment. And that can be a world away from the cut and thrust of everyday business in the SME sector.
Whatever else the new series of Dragons’ Den does it must not undermine the efforts of our next generation of entrepreneurs.