Had the UK Corporate Governance Code applied to UK plc in the run-up to the credit crunch, then perhaps we might have enjoyed more effective risk management, financial control, leadership and accountability
The Government has made no secret of its commitment to start cutting the country’s budget deficit this year. Even with these cuts our eye-wateringly big national debt will continue to rise for several years – see previous posting on this. The impact of these cuts on a fragile economy will be profound and could well …
The UK national debt is fast approaching one trillion pounds and will exceed that number next year, according to the Office for Budget Responsibility. For most people, big numbers like this are pretty meaningless. So how can we really understand the scale of a trillion – one thousand, thousand million?
It really does seem that the UK is coming out of recession. Today’s PMI (Purchasing Managers Index) figures show a robust January for the manufacturing sector with the strongest figures since 1994. Since manufacturing forms a significant part of GDP, this implies that business conditions generally are improving. That is very welcome news but concerns …
At the risk of sounding like Doctor Doom, 2010 is going to be a very tough year, but I do believe that there will be opportunities for resilient organisations (see previous blog on resilience. UK plc is in much worse economic state than the US and quite a bit worse than most major European nations. …
We have supposedly seen some more “green shoots” of recovery over the last few weeks. It’s true that many companies have exceeded analysts’ expectations but their accounts reveal that, in most cases, this has been achieved by cutting costs rather than growing revenues. Microsoft, for example, announced its first ever sales drop this week, but …
It is easy for firms to become overwhelmed by recessionary doom and gloom at times like these. The reality is that most firms survive; it’s just that some survive better than others and emerge much stronger. This recession will almost certainly bite harder and deeper than the eighties or nineties recessions as a consequence of …
Thunderbirds are go! The world seems to have stepped back from the brink, for now, with an international rescue package designed to unlock the world’s financial markets. The cataclysmic meltdown did not happen as the IMF warned and the markets seem to be responding favourably. But a week is a long time in the financial …
Perhaps a better title for this blog would be making the case for change management in uncertain times. I cannot recall such uncertain times during the last 35 years. Sure, we’ve had market crashes, major conflicts and tragedies such as 911. But we’ve never experienced them on a daily basis before. Yesterday we saw the …
Rummaging through my in tray, I came across some interesting research by the Hay Group. It claimed that poor working climates are costing the UK financial services industry a staggering £8.5bn every year in lost profits. It went on to say that as much as a third of an organisation’s business performance is dependent on …