LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Tuesday June 14 2022, 12.01am, The Times

Sir,

In his article (“Over-50s are retiring in droves but will they be forced back to work?”, Jun 13) Ian King considers why 493,000 people aged over 50 and left the workforce at the end of last year. The ONS figures don’t tell the whole story: anecdotal evidence suggests a significant number have not retired but have simply left lousy bosses who insisted on forcing them into poorly designed employment packages, and have instead chosen an independent life as consultants and contractors.

The boom in solo and boutique advisory work is such that the European private equity industry, among other sectors, last month reported a near seven-fold increase in contract awards since 2019. Why pay McKinsey £1 million when you can hire smarter talent on far more attractive terms and a customised basis? The flipside is that employers, large and small, have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to hire stronger leadership, more productive talent on packages designed around the needs of the individual and not the business, and access to a deeper pool of flexible external expertise.”

James Berkeley, Managing Director, Ellice Consulting Ltd

We routinely under-estimate the courage of an entrepreneur’s conviction and over-estimate the courage of a large corporate manager’s conviction.

Courage is the impact and rational ability to deal with the consequences both positive and negative of the problems that need solving, the decisions that need taking, the plans that need creating and the innovation that needs pursuing in an organisation.

It is not be conflated with the size and access to the “means” and resources at their disposal. The personal “hit” for Martin Sullivan (AIG), Bob Nardelli (Home Depot) or Dick Fuld (Lehman) is not in the same league as a $700,000 potential “hit” to the personal savings of a middle-income fortysomething ex partner, who is now a failed entrepreneur with a fintech startup on life support while funding his kids education and the mortgage.

The former elicits a brief media explosion, the inconvenience of stepping away in Fuld’s case briefly from the gilded squash and golf clubs, and the pivot to managing friends and the family’s wealth. The latter, a highly probable demand from the spouse to “get a job” fast, and quizzical looks nightly across the dinner table, as the family’s downward social mobility becomes a stark reality (private school, holidays, nights out).

In periods of high ambiguity, keeping our promises is more important than making predictions. Where we cannot keep our promise for foreseen or unforeseen reasons, what we say and when is more important than the promise broken. Respect is hard earned, and easily gifted away.

What would you do if I handed you a $1million today?

The answer begs the question, what has stopped you getting around to doing that before?

Sure available funds might be a factor but for a great many responses, it is “fear” dressed up as procrastination. Dealing with the causes of your fear, in these complex and highly ambiguous times, lies at the heart of you making real progress. If you are still in “neutral” after a month of self-help, the harsh reality is, you won’t progress without finding and engaging expert help.

In the midst of this pandemic, entrepreneurs have a choice: we can listen to people, who conform to our fears and biases (doom and desperation) or we can search for facts and make informed risk/reward choices.

I am not going to convince you otherwise if you simply seek solace in apoplectic media stories, and burrowing deeper into the ground.

What I can say is while you are going in that direction, there are others actively seeking greater awareness of the environment in which you now operate and will operate, and the gamut of appropriate and effective actions available to you. When the inevitable recovery comes, I can guarantee they will emerge quicker and in better shape than you.

Why? They have begun taking action earlier, and they have in place preventative and contingent actions for midcourse changes of direction (incorrect assumptions). Fear is their friend, not their foe.

Time will be against you (hurried and untested re-emergence plans) and the risks exponentially greater (no Plans B and C) in simply hunkering down now and waiting for an official “all clear” to shift gears.

Do you really think that is a safer choice today for the health and welfare of your investors, employees, business partners and so on?

That governments including the UK have moved swiftly to protect individuals’ livelihoods is admirable, and wise. That the financing of corporate furlough schemes has fallen on the taxpayer when some of the wealthiest business owners, and their portfolio company managers, have shown little, if any, aptitude to dive into their own plentiful pools of cash, credit and investment, leaves a sour taste. That those very same owners have chosen to “game” the system (furloughing mid and senior managers) because “everyone else is doing it”, really raises serious questions about their societal values and how we responsibly distribute wealth.

For ultra high net worth individuals, particularly “non-doms”, already under intense scrutiny, to be on the wrong side of public opinion when this is all cleared up, may well prove to be penny wise, and millions of pounds foolish.

That train has already left the station, let’s see what welcome lies ahead for them on “arrival”.

Are you walking into your next meeting seeking confirmation of your fears or confirmation that everyone was smart to set the meeting up? My strong anecdotal evidence is less than 30% of business meetings I have attended in my career have a majority of attendees with the latter mindset.

24 years ago I worked for Jay, an EVP of an international financial services company in Kansas City. He’d host a weekly meeting and then call me in immediately afterwards to his office. While tweaking his moustache, his Midwestern US words would roll off his tongue with vitriol. “Did you hear what Dora said? She is constantly screwing my plans. I am going to fire her!” This same meeting would take place every week, accept for the holidays. I was there to listen to his venting. When I’d calmly point out, she has certain issues, he’d retort, “screw her issues.”

Listening is important but fresh air cannot come in, if you insist on keeping the doors closed or cease to be mindful of others in the room.

If you are a Meeting Host, be honest with me, are you routinely overlooking the predisposition of those sitting around the table? If so, your agenda and the meeting “mechanics” are irrelevant. Zero plan to address the attendees’ emotional and psychological issues, zero commitment.

For every client or prospect, what three powerful ideas can you create now that obviously are in their immediate self-interest to pursue and offer irresistible value? What will you do now to bring them fast to their attention (make the call, book the meeting, schedule follow up)? How can you best establish your credibility (trust) and articulate the tremendous value (huge ROI) for the other party when it is all over?

Since when did “fast fashion” equate to “fast fleecing”? When companies such as Zara insist on draconian returns policies, and render their shop floor associates powerless with their “no receipt, no credit or cash back”.

Warning: BS detection. This post may cause offence to some readers.

There is a lady, who runs an eminent global community for entrepreneurs and is a prolific publisher in my various social and business media communities. She represents a big advisory brand and is demonstrably keen to push her own personal values. A re-tweet here, a corporate announcement there, a press release and an “about last night” off angle shot of a not very glamorous night, all in the name of “diversity and inclusion”. It is overbearing, dull and counter-productive.

A daily, “look at me, how progressive am I? Let me point out, who the dinosaurs are?”

It is an important topic for entrepreneurs, their customers and their investors but her communication is daily diluting the impact and priority. When diversity and inclusion is made a separate issue articulated with zealotry zeal, not a foundation stone in a well-run organisation with clear and demonstrable accountabilities, results and value-created, it is just an “agenda”. Listeners, if they ever existed, switch off in their droves.

It is like screaming about debt collection without focusing on dramatic improvements in ALL aspects of financial management performance. Narrow, dumb and insular.