October 2010 Archives

George Osborne will unveil his £83bn programme of cuts and revenue raising measures over the next four years on Wednesday in a comprehensive spending review. Osborne is cracking down hard on "welfare and waste" in order to carve out more money for healthcare, schools and key infrastructure projects, and to fuel economic growth. 35 business leaders, signatories to a letter pledging support of these reforms, are confident that private sector would generate new jobs for public sector staff who've lost theirs.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/oct/17/george-osborne-cuts-spending-review

The government is keen to draw attention to green lit projects such as £16bn Crossrail link, £230m to help 2m rural homes with faster broadband speeds by 2015 amongst others. Local authorities can now also spend government grants in ways that they see fit for their local residents, leading one official to remark that this is the "most radical decentralisation in recent times". Though still braced for cutbacks, the promise of abolishing 4,700 Whitehall performance targets for councils should allow more focus on frontline services. Oxford University is also pushing forward with the biggest building programme worth £1bn in its 800 year history which will provide major boost to local business and employment.

http://www.oxfordtimes.co.uk/news/yourtown/oxford/8450125.__1bn_vision_to_transform_area_of_city/

However there are still some serious tough times ahead. The NHS will shrink by "a fifth" as even a ring-fenced health budget cannot protect it from rising cost pressures. The government has announced a huge cull of quangos - 192 axed,118 merged with the future of other bodies still hanging in balance - and though improving accountability and cutting costs is definitely the need of the hour, will the cost of closing the quangos over-shadow the benefits if not executed efficiently?
 
Then there's the government's handling of how these cuts will be implemented as it will inevitably create a lot of confusion and anxiousness. "People are much more likely to accept tough messages if they are given the right information at the right time and feel that their views have at least been heard and taken into account before decisions are made." CIPD's latest findings show that the government has to tread softly as must also the trade unions. Many private sector employees are increasingly sensitive to further strike action in the face of pay freezes, job cuts or job losses and cuts to pension entitlement. 

http://www.peoplemanagement.co.uk/pm/articles/2010/10/striking-public-workers-may-lose-public-sympathy.htm
 
Head of Impact Executives' Public Sector Practice, Premila Puri, says,

"What the government needs are experts to show how transformation can be effected with minimal damage, maximium impact embedding experiences from their private sector incarnation and by understanding the nuances of public sector workings. Transforming cultures and mindsets at the front line where real change will involve and transform as a systemic change, rather than structural reform alone. Our Interim Managers are experts at leading transformational change and post CSR the public sector will need these experts delivering the Right solution, Right now and at the Right cost.

Understanding how business partnerships function and how you manage them more effectively is vital in this current economic climate - whether you are outsourcing, forming strategic alliances or co-manufacturing. The authors are 'old hands' at the realities of managing major partnerships. Their extended practical experience has encompassed supply chain partners and strategic alliances as well as marketing channels in the UK and globally. Both authors have held board roles in major international organisations.

Strategic Alliances & Marketing Partnerships, by Richard Gibbs, PhD, MBA and Andrew Humphries, PhD, MBA uses fascinating case studies and explores key topics including:

-          the strategic value of partnering

-          the evolution of supply chain networks, marketing channels and strategic alliances

-          the obstacles and drivers of successful partnerships

-          relationship marketing

-          understanding partnerships and alliance dynamics

-          evaluating partnership performances 


To read a review of this book, just click on the link: http://impactexecutives.com/pdf/book-reviews/Strategic-Alliances.pdf

 
 

The Independent Review of Higher Education & Student Finance in the UK by Lord Browne, the most radical reform of universities in 50 years, will suggest removing the cap that universities currently have in place on tuition fees although plans to increase costs will be accompanied by a major drive to improve the quality of university teaching.
 
http://hereview.independent.gov.uk/hereview/report/
 
Vince Cable, Business Secretary, will provide an early response to the report this afternoon when he makes a statement on it in the Commons. He is expected say that it is "on the right lines." The Browne Review is already provoking outrage among student leaders and academics and there's real concern that the outcome may not create the fairer society for all that the government has set its sights on.
 
Sally Hunt, University and College Union's General Secretary states that if these recommendations are enacted, they would "represent the final nail in the coffin for affordable higher education...pricing the next generation out of education."
 
Mary Bousted, General Secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, feels unlimited rise in tuition fees or any rise in the rate to repay them would “severely damage higher education in the UK, leave students burdened with huge debts, discourage poorer students from going to university, and discourage graduates from becoming teachers and other moderate-to-lower-paid professions."
 
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/8057646/University-tuition-costs-to-hit-36000.html
 
Change is imminent, whether some or all of Lord Browne's recommendations are adopted. However in the interim, the process of reviewing their processes, procedures and IT systems will have to very quickly be set into motion if universities are to ensure compliance with these changes when they are introduced in 2012. In times of crippling debt, reduced workforce and the looming spending review, how well positioned are the universities to manage this change?
 
Rolling coverage of the day's events can be followed on:  
 
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/blog/2010/oct/12/higher-education-education
 

For the first time, the Ryder Cup enters a historic fourth day. It is the first time it has been held in Wales and perhaps it is the first time the Americans found their waterproofs no match for the Welsh weather.

And so, ProQuip, a Scottish golf weather wear brand makes an entrance. They were supplying the European team and (perhaps even more importantly) their wives and girlfriends with wet weather gear. The US officials could not fail to notice they were a lot dryer than the US team and so purchases were swiftly made and the US team is dry once more. And so the playing field is once again levelled and with  everything to play for today.

But for ProQuip this is the culmination of a 16 month turnaround which originated when they became an acquisition by the Edinburgh Woollen Mill. Even without the US Ryder Cup team purchases, their sales are up 50% and as the golfers do their best to avoid the water ProQuip embrace it, with a possible new fishing range.

Another first for this Great British niche brand.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/swing-time-golfers-wags-keep-dry-under-british-rainwear-2096066.html

The tube strike today is not just inconvenient for workers and tourists across London it heralds a more significant national situation. Over the past decade we have seen relations between the unions and management operate as “partnerships”.

But with the current economic crisis, impending government spending cuts are we seeing a new era in industrial relations?

The RMT and TSSA unions are striking over 800 job losses. After the past few strikes we’ve had settlements quite quickly with both sides saying the other backed down. But as we approach the release of the “spending review” some people may be looking at these layoffs as indicators of how other public sector cuts will play out. http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/london/hi/people_and_places/newsid_8964000/8964788.stm

The CBI is calling for the government to update Britain’s outdated industrial relations laws to reflect changes in declining union membership, improved communication with between employers and their staff and that most of the current laws were created in the 1980’s and need modernising.

These changes would ensure that if strikes do happen, that disruption to the public and companies in minimised and the economic recovery kept on track. http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKTRE6922I120101004

But some would say that employers get the unions they deserve. So is there a case for employers’ to earnestly resist their employment relations policies and procedures. Or if Property is all about Location, Location, Location. Surely employee relations are all about Communication, Communication, Communication.