The furore over Philip Schofield’s interview with the Prime Minister where he handed David Cameron a list of suspected paedophiles he had collected in a couple of minutes came at the beginning of the day.

Yesterday was book-ended by the Guardian’s piece published late last night that the whirlwind of speculation about a senior Tory being at the heart of the North Wales abuse scandal might be a very simple but profound case of mistaken identity.

For what it’s worth I think Philip Schofield’s actions were a crude stunt and give succour and legitimacy to the amateur conspiracy theorists and trolls.

The Guardian’s story will have provoked a lot of soul searching at the BBC (again), especially at Newsnight whose interview just a week ago led directly to the two new inquiries announced by the Home Secretary this week.

If the Guardian is right, Newsnight will appear to have given undue weight and prominence to the information on which it based its decision to run its story last Friday. This editorial decision may well have been driven by a desire to recover some authority lost by its part in the Savile scandal, itself the subject of independent inquiries.

The various inquiries will run their course and hopefully will uncover the truth in their interlinked areas of governance and reporting.

But yesterday might turn out to be a key moment in the evolving relationship between journalism and social media.

Yesterday was the point where a flagship TV programme turned to web rumour to challenge a Prime Minister who uses an app which collates web and media sentiment to inform decisions.

For me the danger is that large sections of the community, who don’t use social media and who need mainstream media to question, investigate and filter information between fact, purported fact and downright lie are increasingly under-represented by media using less and less rigour to inform important editorial decisions.

Critical thinking and cool judgement are diminished and what replaces them is that elusive quality of sentiment, being fed straight to the Prime Minister’s ipad dashboard.

If anybody thinks that this is a good idea, please do let me know.

I have been busy in the last few weeks on a an interesting new project to create a new business out of the former Remploy Bolton factory, which closed in August.

I will acting as part-time marketing director for the company in the coming months and the challenge of being part of a new manufacturing business is incredibly exciting.

A new company, Ability Tec, has acquired the assets of Remploy Bolton, creating jobs for former employees at the factory which closed in August and has announced plans to create a training centre for companies who want to employ disabled people.

Ability Tec is thought to be the only new company to have been created following the closure of Remploy factories nationwide.

Ability Tec Ltd will run as a social enterprise, in contract electronics manufacture making high grade PCBs with a workforce of whom at least 75% are disabled.

The company is operating out of the former Remploy site before moving to new premises locally in January.

The factory will be managed day to day by former Remploy employees, with a board of directors overseen by independent trustees including Dr Brian Sloan, chief economist of Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce.

Ability Tec is the idea of entrepreneur Oli Randell who saw the potential for a sustainable business that reinvests profits for social good.

Randell says “The new company will operate on similar lines to John Lewis, with employees sharing the profits and reinvesting funds to create new jobs and new product lines. We have our first orders confirmed to get us off the ground but we need new customers who want to work with a business that makes quality products with a social benefit.”

Randell is the co-founder of Local Business Partners, which has a roster of experts who work as part-time directors of finance, HR and marketing and he has formed an experienced team to provide these services to Ability Tec at a discounted rate. Eventually the company will look to recruit these roles full time.

“We have been working closely with Remploy at the national level and we have presented them with a robust and lean business plan that allows us to operate without subsidy, make a small profit and then grow sustainably.

“Our job now is to seek new customers, pitching ourselves as a high quality supplier that happens to create social benefits for disabled employees. We believe that in a market where there is little to choose between suppliers we stand out for all the right reasons.”

“Our principal customer supplies energy saving devices to the social housing sector and we will be working closely with them to show to local authorities and social landlords that they can save their tenants money, reduce carbon emissions and provide secure employment to disabled workers who faced a difficult future after the closure of Remploy. Within Greater Manchester alone there are enough socially owned properties, to provide work to employ more than 30 disabled workers if they were fitted with the energy saving devices we make.”

The company plans to employ 30 disabled staff in the manufacture of printed circuit boards within three years, with about a dozen being employed during the start-up phase.

Part of the company’s plan is to create a skills centre to train other companies about employing disabled workers, using the knowledge acquired by former Remploy staff over the years.

“Disabled people bring special advantages to the workplace” says Oli Randell “There is growing evidence that disabled workers can be more productive and more motivated than their able-bodied counterparts. We will use that commercial edge to compete against ordinary rivals and build a sustainable business.”

Dr Brian Sloan, chief economist of Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce said, “This new venture demonstrates the strength and diversity of business opportunities that still exist in our region. The Chamber is pleased to welcome Ability Tec as a new member and my role as a trustee honours our commitment to promoting socially responsible business in Greater Manchester.”

Alan Hill, Remploy Director of Enterprise Businesses, said: “This is great news for our former employees at Bolton and I wish the new business all the very best for the future.”

There is an interesting blog over on the www.localbusinesspartners.co.uk site by my business partner arguing that whilst business coaching has clear merits, for many SME owners it cannot answer the practical challenges that they face because coaching has to end at the point where the work of changing things begins.

My partner Oli Randell who is a well established coach so can see the issuefrom several angles says:

“Owning and running a business is a real challenge, especially for owners evolving from being a manager to a leader.

This often happens around the £2m to £3m mark, when the business may have 10 to 15 employees and when the original customer base must be widened and diversified.  The owner finds they can no longer see and touch every part of the business and it feels like it is starting to get away from them.

Owners find they are wearing too many hats to the point where improved business performance actually impedes growth.

The value of coaching in this situation is beyond doubt, helping owners to prioritise and organise their thoughts on how the business needs to develop. But after the coaching ends, who is going to turn an ideal into reality?

Growth poses simultaneous challenges in three areas, managing cash and profits; developing staff and skills; and presenting the right mix of products to an ever changing market.

The business needs not a better generalist but a specialist to take on finance, HR or marketing responsibilities.

But with a full time director costing perhaps £10,000 a month, it’s a critical decision that will also have immediate effects on the owner’s way of doing business and is beyond the scope of coaching.

A director should bring the experience of working for high performing companies as well as the passion of the entrepreneur for results. They should also provide intangible qualities like perspective and insight to spot potential.

To be successful, a director joining the company needs to be ‘joined at the hip’ with the owner but what if the chemistry turns out to be not what was expected during the interview stage?

Hiring someone who probably knows more about their area of expertise than you do isn’t easy and is something you might do only once or twice in a decade.

The alternative is to turn to a specialist advisory company such as a marketing agency or accounting practice but overheads and their need to focus on higher spending clients means that SMEs can be second tier clients when what is needed is committed, partner level support.

Faced with these cost and teamwork risks, a growing number of businesses are turning to part-time directors of finance, HR or marketing who operate as independent professionals, but it is a market that is not highly developed.

It may be possible to seek them out on LinkedIn or through one’s own private network, but you need on luck on your side to find the right skills available at the right time.

It is also possible to hire such expertise through an intermediary firm who take the risk out of finding and retaining the right expert. Such advisory firms should provide a quality framework, a substitute director if required and a diverse network of specialist experts who bring their own valuable local contacts.

As the founder of Local Business Partners I’d offer the following advice to business owners to help understand what they should expect from taking on a part time director of finance, HR or marketing;

Leadership: your focus should be leading your business not problem solving. Your job is now to add value long term by only doing the things that you alone can do.

Finance: You should no longer have to fret about the VAT return, instead you should have access to the management information to make decisive changes.

HR: Your business should develop a performance management culture that is easily understood by everyone and which guides how people are recruited, developed and how they leave the business.

Marketing: The sign of a high performer is to choose your customers, not to let your customers choose you. With a part-time marketing director you can reduce your marketing spend, develop more profitable customers and compete on level terms with bigger rivals.”

“

This is a cross posting about part-time directors from my other business, Local Business Partners.

“Yo-Yo Confidence” is the real danger to growth

News from the BDO Employment Index that hiring intentions are down but optimism is rising highlights the “Yo-Yo Confidence” problem that is holding SMEs back.

Business Desk North West notes that

“The weakening index reflects recently published official figures, with unemployment rising to 8.1% and job vacancies falling back in August. BDO‘s index, part of its monthly Business Trends report, recorded a score of 90.7, a 28-month low.

However, the report also suggests optimism rebounded last month, continuing a pattern of ups and downs in confidence over the last four years.”

As indications from surveys and reports move and up and down the confidence scale, businesses find themselves forever at the crossroads of wanting to move forward with plans and steal a march on competitors but held back from hiring the kind of high performing individuals that can deliver growth.

“The risk of putting perhaps £80,000 and more on the salary line is a massive decision for an SME, but many business owners know that they will only develop their potential if the owner is freed up from wearing so many hats that the strategic work of growing a business gets lost in the fire fighting” says Oli Randell, founder of Local Business Partners.

“When faced with this endless uncertainty what SMEs need is a practical way of bringing high calibre people into the business at the lowest possible risk”

“Many businesses will have considered hiring a director of finance, HR or marketing to achieve high performance but baulked at the commitment risk and cost.

By using a part-time director on flexible terms, Local Business Partners can deliver the same results at about half the cost.

How? By putting in three controls.

1) Control how much senior input is needed each month to achieve the business’ goals.
2) Control how efficient a director needs to be. Think how much senior time is spent on non-essential tasks. Decide what’s needed and don’t pay for all the other things that end up being delegated upwards.
3) Control the term of engagement. Hiring a director is a big decision and what if the chemistry isn’t right after the honeymoon?

Nigel Sarbutts

Local Business Partners

”Our responsibility is to stage a great Games for the athletes of theworld – A Games that inspires young people and heralds a new era for community development linked to sport, and maximises the social, economic and environmental benefits of the 2012 Games for future generations”

This is LOCOG’s vision statement for legacy, summed up in the slogan “Inspire a Generation”

There cannot be anyone in Britain who witnessed the amazing scenes last night who does not want this vision to be realised and to see the magnificent combination of skill, dedication and humility shown by the athletes become a central statement of what defines a modern Britain.

Can there be a more powerful contrast in our celebrity obsessed world than authentic role models like Ennis, Wiggins, Rutherford and Farah (the list goes on) and the shoddy products of Big Brother, X-Factor, TOWIE, the Apprentice etc.? Dare I add certain Premiership footballers to that list?

The old saying ‘follow the money’ is the key.

Britain’s distorted version of talent exists because the media and brands have created it and, for them at least, it is lucrative. The audience figures tell us it’s popular and so we get more of it, to the exclusion of other forms of endeavour.

But is that the only thing that can ever be popular?

Last night’s audience figures were amazing, 17.1m watched Mo Farah win gold, and 16.3m saw Jess Ennis’ triumph.

Obviously these kind of audiences are as extraordinary as the events themselves and the Olympic comedown period will be horrible.

But how pale, how thin will the next contrived TV talent show seem after what the nation has experienced in just a few days?

This is the challenge and the opportunity for the media and for the brands that support and benefit from it.

It is now in their hands not LOCOG’s or the Government’s to inspire a generation and to find a way to channel that raw emotion of admiration and inspiration into genuine talent and achievement.

Whoever can turn the energy and passion of 17.1m people roaring at their TV last night into new programme formats and content that creates lasting audiences and revenue deserves to clean up. There must be a way to do it, I just hope that Simon Cowell isn’t involved.

The other player in this tripartite agreement is you and me. We are the audience for this stuff, we are the market that creates the revenue that pays for Sky’s sponsorship of British cycling.

So if you stood and cheered on our Olympians, stay standing for media and brands which celebrate and invest in achievement and give them the audience they need.

In the words of a tweet I saw earlier today, let’s make TOWIE now stand for The Only Way is Ennis.