TOO BIG TO BLAME?

When something goes very wrong the biggest companies seem to hang on, not so much by their fingertips as by one finger whilst cocking a snoot with the other hand. It’s amazing that the Costa cruise brand, VW and Boeing all seem to be in such rude health after their respective calamities.

The Costa Concordia foundered with 32 deaths, the Costa brand being now emblazoned on 17 skyscraper ships. The share price of owner, Carnival, dipped by 20% after the accident but was followed by a swift and sustained recovery. VW under assault following their emissions scandal is being sued in the US together with CEO Martin Winterkorn and four other executives but “shock-horror” has been largely followed by “yawn-so-what”. Their share price down to €132 after the scandal broke is now at €164. Boeing’s calamities, two planes crashing with allegedly similar causes and 347 fatalities is remarkable in a world where, first of all, air disasters are increasingly unusual and, secondly, because no other commercial aircraft has been implicated in so many fatalities in so short a period since 1966. Their share price is only down 15% despite a monthly cost in grounding the 737 MAX of around $1billion. “Could they go bust?” I asked a friend to a derisory snort of “of course not; follow the share price”.

There are too many rich, dispassionate interests in all these companies to be overly fussed by a few deaths. The 72 poor, lost souls in the Grenfell tragedy were faced with more anger, outrage and animation to allocate blame. The same will happen in the death-free Notre Dame fire. Blame is a cheap commodity except when mega companies are involved. Do we really believe Facebook would have survived as unscathed as it is it had been a small company?

Ruth Rochelle, mentor and consultant, said about scale-ups in business that at the moment of raising funds to go to the next stage “idealism takes a kicking.” I think that she’s right and I think it’s a pity. It’s idealism that’s inspiring the Climate Change demonstrations (and about time) but they are spending more time dreaming than making a big difference. When they stuck themselves to Jeremy Corbyn’s fence I wondered if they’d gone mad but when he refused to engage them in conversation I realised he’d completely lost the common touch that got him where he is today. This beautiful summer Bank Holiday – it’s far too good for Spring – has restored our faith in ourselves. We are just not a big company country, we only have 4 in the top 100 global companies and two of those are petroleum companies (one 50% Dutch) one’s a bank and one’s another 50% Dutch business. We simply do small better. We are more like Waitrose than Asda; more like Bill’s than Burger King.

As the sun gives those climate change protesters “this-isn’t right-in-April” suntanned faces, applaud the fact that so many care about something other than money.

SQUEEZING OUT ALL THE JUICE

Beware old people lamenting the decline in values especially when despite their nostalgic lamentations things just get better and better. Beware me saying the era of the Beatles, Who and Cat Stevens surpass the musical efforts of Katy Perry, Ed Sheeran or White Stripes.

Just listen to “Bon Appetit” from Katy and discover originality or “Seven Nation Army” from White Stripes where a refrain has been commandeered by Jeremy Corbyn’s supporters “Oh Jer…emy Cor…byn,”….it’s a far left/Marxist political- earworm and it’s stuck in my head.  Things get different and move on but there’s still a lot of naked invention and it’s mostly wonderful… (oh shut up JC it’s still playing in my brain:-….”oh terribly boring…”)

But (always beware BUT) there’s been a perceptible downwards shift in originality, punctiliousness and love of quality that has been allowed to happen through cost-cutting  procurement experts settling for quick, cheap good-enoughness.

The benchmark for “good” is hard to find now. In a world where all presentations are competent no-one stands out. There are few bad cars so OK is a norm (no Allegros or Dolomites).  A sophistication/weariness of our palates means edible is a ubiquitous standard. Fashion falls apart yet quality is insanely expensive.

Two of the most overused derogatory expressions are “it isn’t rocket science” and “it isn’t art you know.” The answers to both of these, respectively, are “yes it is” and “well it should be”.

In a world where production efficiency and cost are the most important things we manage to restructure a premium brand like BA to a new commodity-low but on paper a more profitable business  but (big BUT) with the juice squeezed out. No more trolley services on our commuter trains - remember that spirit-lifting glass of wine on the way home after a terrible day? It’s all gone; too much cost focus; too little love.

The current furore with the Kensington Council over Grenfell is beginning to focus on cost reductions and the saving of around £300,000 by their moving from non-combustible zinc insulation to partly combustible aluminium. The Council employees presumably thought they were doing their job (save money) and hadn’t thought of the consequences. If they had they’d have gone over budget and got into terrible trouble.

We’re all spending too much time thinking about margins rather than quality of experience, taste or performance. And that’s where small businesses with their love of what they do and their customers’ reactions to it come in.

It’s time to reflect on making better, buying better quality and trying to be exceptional. This sounds unfashionable in an age of efficiency and engineered consistency but we’re spending too much time on the peripherals.

Brexit has made this worse. Having a great or a bad trade deal is irrelevant if what you are seeking to sell isn’t exceptional. Germany, after all, got great in cars by being better.

Get better. Stop squeezing out the juice. It’s the juice that gets us going not the orange.

SOMETHING'S COMING (I'M NOT SURE WHAT)

I admit to being an incurable optimist. Whilst I constantly hear mutterings about this “broken society” or “the entitlement class” I reflect on a high electoral turnout, the end of youthful apathy and the prospect of cross-party collaboration in Brexit discussions. Democracy flexing its collaborative muscles as opposed to the self-interested hegemony that political parties adore.

Yet some see it differently and more pessimistically  - here was one response I saw recently:
“Mayhem rules. Democracy teeters. Mobocracy right upper cuts. Millennials stir.”

I suspect this is from a disgruntled Tory because there seems a general sense that the allure of strong and stable leadership has been betrayed in favour of a rather feeble nil-all draw.

The “teetering, stirring and mayhem” of the malcontent above reflect the lines of WB Yeats’ “Second Coming” I’ve been reciting in my mind this week:

“Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
  Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.”

Yet are things really falling apart? If you’re a right wing Tory they may seem to be but for most the liberal centre created by people like Blair, Cameron and Clegg seems to be in reasonable shape. What was missing until now has been a Plan B, a bit of angry debate about inequality, about incompetence and opposition to antiquated thinking. But picking up from last week there is a rustling in the undergrowth, a sense of change and a feeling that there has to be a better and a fairer way.

If like me you feel ashamed and dismayed every time you see someone who’s homeless in the street, you want it changed. If like me your horror about the Grenfell Tower tragedy is despair about this having been an accident waiting to happen, you want a radical review of all suspect supported housing and the way we help all disadvantaged people.

Ken Clarke, usually the most sensible of spokesmen, said on Any Questions that party politics was being made out of Grenfell. Yet the victims, homeless, hopeless, in grief and sitting together in misery are generating understandable and increasing rage about the iniquity, inequality and hopelessness of their plight.  You’d better believe this is a political problem not just a tragedy.

Mine is not a complacent optimism. Rather it’s a wrathful optimism, wrathful that this wealthy country with improving health, intelligence and nice socially-minded people manages so readily to screw things up.

I’m optimistic because human beings are a resourceful and tolerant bunch capable of unravelling the threads that need unravelling. The problem is the politicians who are currently in hiding or plotting or in fear of their political lives and don’t know what to do, are not going to easily be part of the solution.

We need to put together the best we have from all parties and beyond those parties and create a platform for action - not left, nor right just right-minded and optimistic.

It also seems like a good time to start listening.