There is something special about Sunday Morning, The Sunday Times, hot croissants, with honey and butter rather special. I also bought a copy of the News of the World, mainly to examine the content of the first edition in October 1843. It is written in strange vernacular with words long lost to contemporary vocabulary. Priced at threepence, advertising retail premises in London returning annual revenues of 1,000 pounds, reporting the theft of gates in Gower Street, a riveting read it is not.
I cannot believe it is just seven days since my last weekly update. Highlight of the week was undoubtedly the Ed Pysden retirement dinner at the Midland Hotel. Sir Howard was bouncing as he recounted the many tales of his time with Ed. Ed was senior partner at Eversheds, has been chairman of pro.manchester, on the board of Marketing Manchester, Chairman of the Halle, Chairman of Manchester Airport. It is clear that Sir Howard placed great reliance on Ed parachuting him into many difficult situations. A sale and leaseback of a Halle violin the financial highlight. The dinner was a great chance to spend time with friends and to hear both Sir Howard and Ed talk of a great life and career was a privilege. It was nice to hear the City Chief Exec talk so well of Ed, pro.manchester and Marketing Manchester as part of the fabric of business in the city. Ed and I, first met in 1980 when I created a JV with the then family owners to put Unibond into retail.
Wednesday evening was the JMW summer barbecue in Spinningfields. It is only in recent months that Bill Jones and the JMW team joined pro.manchester. Nice event, despite the challenge of a July summer in the city.
Thursday the Marketing Manchester Board meeting, at the museum in Oxford Road. Andrew Stokes CEO and the team have such a heavy agenda in promoting the city and do a great job. We met at 9:45 and were allowed out three hours later. Good meeting chaired by Nick Johnson from Urban Splash. Councillor Pat Karney described me as the man who asks the difficult questions. Result.
Walked back from the board meeting with Clive Memmott also a director of MM and Chief Exec of the GM Chamber of Commerce. As Thatcher said of Gorbachev, I like Mr Memmott, we can do business together. Will meet shortly to hammer out the SME club agreement.
Left Clive, then straight into a meeting with Sir Richard, leader of the Manchester City Council. A good chance to brief the leader on the pro.manchester work with CENBAR, SME club, the e-team and the Business Conference in March 2012. Looking forward to the Sir Richard engagement with the Newstyle show with Kirsty Wark and Gavin Esler once again as anchors. Date for the diary on the 1st March 2012.
Great finish to the week with a lunch for 90 people at the Hilton. Warwick Ley gave an excellent presentation on the Endless Crown Paints acquisition, turn round and disposal. It is a great story
which we hope to turn into a case study and book as part of my work in Corporate Finance and Strategy. Warwick cautioned that for every Crown success, there are many more nightmares which just do not work. More failures than fanfares over the medium term. If we can get this message out as part of the pro.manchester programme, we will have achieved something.
Work continues in my endeavours to become a social media guru. Thirty minutes with Chris Cardell on Seventeen ways to improve conversion on a landing page yesterday and a three hour study session on Twitter and LinkedIn following conversations with Ian Brodie and Will Kintish. Getting there, final touches to the e-team in the week ahead.
Blogged on inflation and manufacturing yesterday. This talk of rebalancing the economy, a resurgence of manufacturing and export led growth just is more and more absurd. As for inflation, The MPC are
beginning to look like a bunch of economists huddled in a storm shelter in Kansas hoping the tornado will pass by. It really is time to face the storm, was the message. We really do have a good relationship with the BOE.
Really pleased to be joining the Business Leadership Council, the business advisory group to AGMA. Very good group of business leaders with a good agenda to push progress in the city. It is both an honour and privilege to join this group.
Have just started to read Afghantsy, the story of the Russians in Afghanistan. Apparently Cameron blamed many of the problems in Kabul on the British Empire, not sure why he started with the Ks, or left out the Ottoman, Persian and Russian empires in the blame process. Lessons from history, stay out of Afghanistan, don’t march on Moscow.
That is all from me this week, will play tennis this afternoon, then out for a light meal in the evening. Waiting for news from Pete and Kate on their imminent arrival. Hope all goes well for them and hope all is well with all,
John
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