Arcadia to close 250+ shops – and next?
Philip Green announced this morning that between 250 and 260 of Arcadia’s stores – which includes BHS, Top Shop, Wallis, Burtons etc. – will close. Arcadia own numerous stores, but this is going to be a big impact on the high street.
What are the potential consequences? Have you noticed how, in your own local shopping centre, when stores close they stay empty for longer? A couple of years ago, when a shop closed, the store re-opened within days as something else. Now, a store closes and no-one wants to rent the space. One key reason for this is our increase in shopping on-line and the other is the economic downturn.
Now imagine that you own one of these shopping malls. How long could you survive without the rent these empty stores should be bringing in? I don’t know the exact answer, but my prophecy is that it will not be much longer before one ‘goes pop’ – and then others will follow, similar to the banks did in 2008.
Watch this space……
Because we care…. I don’t think so!
Apparently Morrison’s supermarket chain are willing to share their poor performance with the world. I have been a customer of theirs for about three years, since they became the closest supermarket to where I live, so I have been looking to see what packaging I can recycle, when it’s empty.
There have been two or three items I buy regularly, which have this wording on the packaging
.
If they care so much, why has it taken them three years to do nothing about it? Either they don’t care and aren’t doing anything about it or they have an inability to influence their suppliers; both of which are indicators of their poor performance.
The lesson here? If you say you’re going to do something then do it, as your customers will notice.
No ‘no-fly’ zone here, then?
It’s nice to see that the UN is threatening sanctions against President Assad of Syria for killing more than 450 civilians.
At least this protest warrants media coverage. Bahrain’s Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa has ‘withdrawn’ his acceptance to Friday’s Royal Wedding, in response to criticism of alleged shooting of peaceful demonstrators by government troops. Have you noticed how many times the disturbances in Bahrain have been mentioned on the news?
We are, allegedly enforcing a ‘no-fly’ zone in Libya to prevent the killing of innocent civilians. And the enforced no-fly zone and military intervention to protect civilians in Syria and Bahrain is …..?
Have we done it again?
Never mind the rights or wrongs 
of becoming involved in Libya, the question for me is, ‘what happens after the military have achieved their objectives?’ I am hoping that the western world has not entered yet another conflict without an exit strategy.
Having done some work for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to develop a programme for a joint police / military strategic steering group, I feel that I can speak with some authority on this issue.
It’s a difficult decision to enter into another country’s internal conflict, but it’s not one that should be made without a clear understanding of the strategic objectives and a ‘return to normality’ strategy. We didn’t have one in Bosnia, either of the Iraq wars or Afghanistan and I just have a fear that we could leave another nation struggling to recover after our ‘assistance’ has ended.
Hopefully I will be proved wrong – I hope so!
This WILL NOT affect front line services.!!!
20% cutbacks for public services – ‘But the this will not affect the front line delivery’. Wooah I think I am hallucinating as a pink pig just winked at me as it passed the bedroom window. Did we really think those running our public services would look across the boardroom and ask each other which one of them was going to be part of the cutbacks?
I think not – imagine the scenario “Okay we have a situation and many in our team have got to go due to the government cuts, any ideas?” Would a single one suggest they and their department were surplus to requirements?
The filtration effect now kicks in as names and roles are put forward as favourites for the chop, the reasoning seems a little hazy – umm no Senior Officers or Executives leaving then? “Well my desk helps steer a steady ship and without it the organisation would be rudderless”. “Ah yes, of course you are right” answers the government official “What about those guys who cause all that trouble ‘kettling’ the students? Maybe they will not be missed”.
Read Alan’s informed thoughts on this here.. and see how we think the cuts should look.
HMS Ark Royal – last days!!!!
There are times that objective performance decisions don’t reflect the mood of the masses. A classic example of this is the decommissioning of HMS Ark Royal, which I am sure makes sense to accountants.
However, there is a pride element of a country having such an iconic ship that is not able to be costed. If you don’t believe me then try watching Grahame’s video about his visit without emotion.
You couldn’t make it up……
Surrey Council has announced new ways to measure the performance of Surrey Fire and Rescue Service. They intend to measure the response time to a fire from the time an engine is deployed, rather than when the call is made.
Perhaps this is part of their strategy for it’s fire service to ‘be in the top 25% for performance and the bottom 25% for cost’. The Council say that this performance criteria will bring them in line with most other councils. What is clear is that councils can put in their own performance measurement and this has been the case since 2006, when the government discontinued shared standards. Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG) figures showed Surrey Fire and Rescue Service in the bottom 25% of fire and rescue services in the UK between 1996 and 2006, so it was clear they needed to do something.
Now they have done what is typical of most civil services; instead of improving performance they change the criteria to make their current performance look better whilst actually changing nothing! Just consider the nonsense of the following scenario: You have a fire in your house and telephone the fire service. The fire service arrive after twenty minutes, by which time most of your property has been destroyed. The figures released by Surrey Council may show a different response time – say seven minutes – and you will never know where the other thirteen minutes went. Was there a delay in putting your emergency call through to the fire service or was there a delay in the control room?
Whilst you as the consumer have been duped I’m sure Surrey Council will be applauding themselves for improving performance! At what cost?
Another winter of discontent
It’s not often I regret being correct, but this is one of them. In March I wrote the Summer of Discontent revisited outlining the need for all organisations to have a business continuity plan.
The events of 9th December have, unfortunately, proved me correct. The ‘student protest’ proved that it is not only the police who need a strategy for unrest, so do all the owners of public buildings and every commercial organisation. Could your organisation be the next Top-Shop?
Strange as it may seem, I would also
advocate that every group that wants to make a protest should also have a clear strategy for being ‘hijacked’ by extremists. Will the 9th December 2010 be remembered for the day students protested against increased fees? No, it will be remembered for the day that a royal car was attacked and the day when rioters attacked government buildings and shops in Oxford Street, such as Top-Shop. Would the majority of students want it remembered for that? No, they would want their point to make the headlines, which makes this type of protest useless unless the organisers can keep the focus where they want it.
I do not profess to have any crystal ball to realise what may happen in the future. Good leadership is about learning from the past, dealing with the present and planning for the future. In previous downturns and when Governments propose unpopular decisions there is a backlash by way of industrial disputes or protests. In recent years a number of these have been hijacked by a minority intent on using the occasion as an excuse to cause unrest and damage property.
The United Kingdom cannot afford the current level of spending on public services and has made a series of difficult decisions that will be unpopular. At the same time many organisations are still announcing job cuts, so you do not need a crystal ball to realise that these kinds of incidents are going to increase.
Therefore, at the moment ‘dealing with the present’ means planning for the future and having robust business continuity plans that are communicated to all of your staff. If you choose not to then, when it all goes wrong, don’t be too quick telephoning the police. They may well be occupied dealing with other industrial disputes and protests.
Just released! Programme based on the ‘Animals of the Serengeti’
I know that I have a passion for the animals of the Serengeti and we have just released our latest presentation and workshop on our Performance Landscape programme. Whilst you are looking at these also watch the choir for one of the most amazing performances I’ve seen!
8 Great Performance Tips from the Animals of the Serengeti
8 Tips from the animals of the Serengeti on how to navigate the Performance Landscape
Through their performance the animals of the Serengeti have survived their ever changing landscape for thousands of years, which is why we use the analogy of these animals to learn from in our Performance Landscape programme. The following are some tips from them as to how you can best navigate your organization’s landscape in these uncertain times.
- Be prepared to migrate to greener pastures and ensure that you have a giraffe seeing over the landscape and identifying the direction for the other animals – together with any threats.
- Encourage all of your staff to be elephants, not by feeding them junk-food, but by communicating with them. Tell them the journey they are going on and trust them to use their intelligence to help you along the way – and encourage them to communicate with you too.
- Then use your large elephant ears and listen. If you ask your staff to communicate with you and then ignore them it won’t be long before they stop communicating.
- Be honest – the migration is not going to be easy and you need everyone contributing if you are to succeed, but be realistic. If it is possible that they may not all survive the journey, tell them. If you lose their trust then you will not regain it.
- Get all of your departments to imitate the wildebeest, by joining together as a super-herd and all going with you on the same journey.
- Learn from the lions; use the competencies of your staff and do not become internally focused.
- Like the zebras, know what performance you are going to measure and make sure that all of your ‘elephants’ know it too.
- Identify your rhinos to implement any changes you need to make. They will have to be thick skinned and resilient – and the giraffe will need to make sure that they are going in the right direction.
To help you to communicate with your staff and turn them into intelligent elephants we have developed a workshop and a presentation, dependent upon the size of the audience, for your own training staff to deliver. These packages are designed to use your resources to best effect, as it is cheaper to download either of these than it is to use three days of time for a member of your staff to research and develop a programme of your own. This is based on you paying your trainers the minimum wage and you probably pay them more than that, making your savings even greater.
Find out more at the Performance Landscape website
