Right of Centre

OK, so let me put my cards on the table, I suspect that I am politically centrist. I was raised in the fertile Labour heartlands but like many people my early politics followed my wallet, and when I was a young Royal Marine, Margaret Thatcher was the architect of my first pay rises.

Thus, if I'm being honest with myself, I'm a Tory, but I would hardly describe myself as being right of Genghis Khan. So it was with some trepidation that I attended a post budget briefing organised by the Westminster Conservative Association. The panel of speakers had some real talent, Mark Fields MP, Michael Fallon Vice Chair of the Treasury Select Committee, Liam Halligan columnist at the Sunday Telegraph and Fraser Nelson political editor of The Spectator.

I took many notes during the evening, and I was impressed by the non political members of the panel. With no eye on their leader, Liam and Fraser laid into Cameron for not being vocal and clear about the extent of the financial crisis we face due to government borrowing.

The thing is, I thought that the audience, all pro Tory, would shout down these two panellists but I was surprised. The audience want to hear from Cameron and Osborne about what they intend to do about the extent of UK public sector borrowing. They do not want platitudes, sound bites or platitudes and are now seeking real answers.

Unless Cameron can really start to give real details we will think they have no answer.

Best soundbite heard today was Michael Fallon MP, and Vice Chairman of Treasury Select Committee calling this budget "Alastair in Wonderland".

Scariest figure I heard today, for every £4 spent by the government they only raise £3 in taxes. Consider this, if you earned £30,000 a year but spent £40,000 each year how sustainable is that?

Book Review - FLiP

I've just finished reading a great book with the catchy title of FLiP - "How to survive and thrive by turning your business on its head" written by Peter Sheahan, an Australian strategic thinker whose clients have included Google, Microsoft, BMW and many other global brands (and other smaller regional companies too I shouldn't wonder).

This was an easy book to read, yet despite its ease it was packed with insights and inspiration. The entire book seemed to be leading up to the final chapter, "To get control, give it up" which is very much in line with my own thinking these days. How to free up my own time to work on stuff I enjoy most, and I've concluded that I need to give control of much of my business to those who work with me. Yet the book challenged me to think even beyond that, to think about giving up control to people outside my company, now that is thinking outside the box.

I really am thinking about ways to do this, because this would also free up time within the firm for the team to also engage on the things they are best at, and give away control of other things that we actually do not need control of.

The book has challenged me to ask all kinds of questions, such as whether I should be looking at enabling clients to shape what it is we do, and how much we earn. Scary stuff.

Peter also makes reference to social media, Web 2.0 and all that, and brings home just how powerful social media will be for companies in the future. Recommended reading for any forward thinking person.