Cidre?

Did Stella Artois really think their ad campaign through? Basically, a very French man is addressing a nation famously anti-French and explaining to them that he is introducing to Britain a drink made with continental apples and is called Cidre not Cider (said with a sneer).

The French are not known for Cider, but Britain is and we tend to think of ourselves as a great apple producing country. Attacking all of this seems a fairly crazy way to go about things.

I personally quite like some of the French arty films, so the ad did convey that sense of style well, but unwittingly I fear gave the whole its proper theme. The French are style without substance. (Except Kronenbourg 1664, which is a favourite of mine. And red wine, they have been quite good at that for a while).

Government Inquiries

Anybody else a little cynical about the inquiries announced by the government into the phone hacking scandal? It seems that it will investigate the actualities, the police involvement and that of politicians, all under oath. Why this sudden 'no limits' approach to investigation? The last time we had such noble openness was when Blair launched an inquiry, as soon as he came to power in 1997, into events that only involved the previous, Tory, government. Well, I think that with all the parties agreeing at the moment we can be fairly sure no political shenanigans will find their way into the spotlight.

Of course, there could be the odd wild card. They may have overlooked the media's ability to drag others into their world. And then there is Gordon Brown. His deranged statement in the House yesterday, lapped up by the dimwit Speaker is probably a sign of things to come. Brown claims not least, to be speaking for those 'without a voice', victims of phone hacking, but not for himself. When did Brown think past his own concerns? If he had any actual moral fibre, he would have turned up a few more times in the House, for which he is paid. He is the best loose cannon we could hope for in all this. Though I dream of the moment someone says, 'yes but we did this on behalf/at the behest of the Prime Minister or his Director of Communications'. You know I don't mean Andy Coulson....

Time To Step Up DSGi, For The Sake Of The Share Price

In the world of retail, there have been a couple of real world examples of what not to do. Firstly, there is a big favourite of mine, Marks and Spencer. When I say favourite, whilst I admire the shop, I refer rather to the self inflicted wound of a few years back.

M&S in my youth was a legendary shop, that even a child appreciated was a cut above the others mother dragged us in and out of. The staff were well presented , friendly and very helpful, nothing was too much trouble. But as we rattled into the ‘sophistication’ of modern retailing the management at M&S sought higher profits. The path they chose was to maintain price and decrease quality. Cutbacks in staff benefits, once lavish were enacted as well.

I first encountered this, as a shock when the changes were young. I had become a devotee of M&S shoes for work. Smart, all leather and well priced, they covered all the bases. But on this day, I couldn’t find any in my size on the shelf. Surprised, I stopped a member of staff hastening by and enquired if they had any ‘out the back’ and received the reply ‘if there aren’t any on the shelf, we haven’t got any’ and she was gone.

I had already noticed that the shoes were now of an indifferent quality but had a morsel of trust in M&S left, until this encounter with its staff. I have never bought shoes in M&S since. In fact I am very cautious about any purchase, now unable to trust the company to look after the quality angle for me.

The other high street casualty that was no real surprise was Woolworths. At its demise it was selling everything you could imagine, produced at the lowest cost and stacked, unattractively and unimaginatively to the ceiling. It had lost its way and it lost its life.

What of Dixons Stores Group though? Well, in a highly populated and competitive sector it is little surprise that it has difficulties. But, back to executive decisions; why oh why does it not leverage its strengths?

We are currently in recessionary times which puts poorly financed companies under pressure. Whether for this reason or not competitors are falling by the wayside and others such as Comet and Best Buy don’t look long for this world. But actually they are competitors for Currys, not the PC World part of the business. Think about it. When home computers first came about, there were shops everywhere springing up to sell them. Whilst Tesco, John Lewis and others still sell them, only PC World is able to claim it as a speciality. So why don’t DSGi make something of that?

What were home computers then are now more properly described as technology, fitting in with a range of other products including music, film, photography and communications. In today’s parlance these are all ‘lifestyle’ attributes.

When DSGi sell a laptop to someone, are they even aware what else goes on in that person’s house? His router, his streamed films and music. Does he have servers for these? Nope, apart from a desire to mug people for security software and insurance the customer is left to buy what he wants.

Many people are savvy these days, but technology moves on very quickly. A great deal of advice is available in magazines, which really are the modern day catalogues, but PC World stores should be addressing the ‘lifestyle’ choices and making customers aware. Information and informative displays should lead customers to browse. The store has to be a destination as much as a place to simply pick stuff up straight away.

And what the hell is the policy of the endless sale achieving? By constantly shouting about low price you focus the customer on that rather than buying products that he wants. Generate need guys! Of course, this policy of having a waving sea of gaudy banners shouting ‘sale’, ‘money off’, ‘great deal’ constantly above your head, does present an image of a store trying to emulate Woolworths in its appeal.  Not what I would do and not a store that suggests you will be well served if you enter.

More ‘what the hell’ is attached to the chaotic online arm. The website is an absolute mess, unattractive and not easy to use (but did you notice that there is a sale on?). A small incident will suffice. My brother told me that he went in search of a product and the PC World website said it was not in stock, but suggested an alternative that was much more expensive. That just breeds cynicism. He certainly wasn’t impressed.

Then there is the online only Dixons brand, competing with other DSGi arms. What? Why? This is such a no-brainer it is difficult to know where to start, so I’ll just give a summary; don’t.

There are many low price products in technology as in any field and there is no harm honestly stocking them, but generally PC World should be looking up-market and addressing ‘lifestyle’ decisions. The stores look should reflect it, the stock and range should reflect it and the staff need to be retrained to meet the challenge. PC World should be a specialist and should look and act like it too. This is the route to survive the recession. PC World should be an aspiration store.

The website, whilst requiring some work to make it usable, should just be an online arm of the stores, again rich with information on technologies and products, but supporting store pricing. If you want to order online, for delivery or to collect in-store fine, the facility should be available, but at store prices.

A separate website should be established with no obvious link to DSGi (so not called Dixons for instance) to sell kit more cheaply and thus offering opportunities to compete with the likes of Amazon.

Ultimately, stores will be most attractive to those who spend more as they are not so price conscious that they migrate instantly to the web to purchase. The more expensive, the more likely there will be a need to see, feel and touch. The staff complete the picture and give the reassurance to buy from the store.

Here is a summary of the general principles I have espoused and as knowledge is often referred to as ‘gen’ I have called them the Gen Ten.

1.       Rationalise what you sell and why

2.       Every aspect of ‘lifestyle’ should be considered and needs and aspirations met.

3.       Price for profit but not greed

4.       Staff should be educated and selected with care

5.       Store design and layout should be stylish and informative. It should encourage browsing

6.       Stocking ‘high end’ brings people in. They look at the Rolls Royce even if they only buy a Mini

7.       Separate store and online

8.       Develop more ‘in-house’ products, with an eye on quality and looking for niches

9.       Targets should always be tested against this: measure what is important; do not make important that which you measure.

10.   Have a clear company ethos and incentivise staff to do their job properly.

All this has a cost of course, but money wisely spent is money well spent. And most of the cost is remedial, putting right past mistakes, so watch out they are not repeated. To me, so much of this is self evident and yet we see the dreary ‘same old, same old’ from DSGi, with tinkering around the edges. It’s the way to survive and it’s the way to shove up the share price. (I’m available if DSGi believe I’m on to something, for a fee. Not least because I bet their internal systems and departments don’t talk to each other as partners, but competitors. Another common source of problems in large companies).

Brown 'In Tears'

More mysterious mutterings about what people know (touch side of nose) of the hacking scandal at News International (now that the Sun and Sunday Times have had fingers pointed at them we can no longer call it the NotW scandal). Policemen knew they were hacked but felt churlish about mentioning it before apparently and Gordon Brown knows about his son's medical records being hacked, his own bank accounts and that this was done by criminals. The police investigation continues in slow motion it seems and Robert Peston (who should have been imprisoned previously) may be 'too close' to a NI person.

In fact the investigation has all the makings of a Jarndyce and Jarndyce. The politicians will hope so no doubt. And with rumours as to who is to look into police conduct it is like asking a paedophile to run a school. Proof if ever you needed it that the politicians never, ever learn anything. They are persisting with moving inappropriate people around, into inappropriate jobs, just to repay old debts and keep in with the right people. Remember, there are allegations of murder floating around regarding the very strange death of Dr David Kelly and yet we mustn't have an inquest, with all its legal powers and responsibilities. What hope that the smoke canisters are not as yet being deployed around this unholy and entirely self inflicted mess from News International and politicians and favours.

More

Just hearing the recording of Rebekah Brooks addressing the sacked staff at News of the World, she appeared to be saying 'if you knew what I know, you'd understand why the title had to be closed down'. Which not only sounds a bit childish, sort of 'my dad is bigger than your dad', but rather suggests that she has information that presumably the police don't have yet (or do?) The arrogance attached to this is monstrous. News Int. has already said that it lied to a parliamentary committee and now that they will tell people only what they feel they have to. I would be quite keen to see these people disabused of that notion.

The bottom line with this much admired, though seemingly not for her intellect, woman Rebekah Brooks is that she feels a roomful of, at least mainly guiltless individuals can be sacked, but that someone at the centre of the storm, her, should be untouched. If her assertions to these people were not just an attempt to dodge face to face opprobrium, but based on truths she knows, that is absolutely incredible. As a senior executive of a major organisation she feels it right and proper  to bring up information about criminal activity only when she feels she has to. Or didn't she mean that?

News of the World

We had the News of the World when I was a kid. I remember being vaguely embarrassed and bemused by the nature of the publication, recognising I suppose that all the other papers we had (morning and evening) only contained 'news'. I didn't really understand why my parents took it. There was a story once, about a man recalling being caned at school for telling the careers master that he wanted to be the person who painted women's bodies for stage shows. The rub of the story being that, amazingly, that was the job he went on to hold!

Today, we live it seems in a less innocent world, where there is no morality whatsoever at the paper. Well, I say that, but the revelations about phone hacking do all seem to carry the past tense. So the seemingly dim James Murdoch has decided to shut the paper down because it's name now has such terrible associations and put out of work journalists who had nothing to do with the emerging scandal and probably didn't work there at the time. One clearly involved though, Rebekah Brooks, is to stay in her post. She is currently running with the line that she is paid the big bucks (at the time as editor) to not know what is going on, not set the tone and the standards expected nor to take any responsibility. She must have had a lot of spare time. Otherwise, these extensive and long running phone hacking episodes were something that at the very least those actually involved knew those above would not criticise, or perhaps turn a blind eye. Maybe taking convenient and well-timed holidays.

The questions for me are; who knew what and when, why is Cameron so pally with too many of the executives involved, why did the initial police investigation not reveal these stories coming out now and how do we prevent it happening again?

The amazing thing though is that Blair and Campbell's names haven't cropped up, this is surely right up their street, the sort of thing they would normally be involved in.

No Taxation Without Representation

I would like to start a new wave. In the UK we are mainly governed by laws promulgated in the EU by unelected and unaccountable bureaucrats. The parliament at Westminster has elected MP's but they merely fall in line with their party leadership, so all policy is based on a small group at No10. Hardly democracy.

Additionally we see privilege everywhere; tax avoidance by large companies, assisted quite often by HMRC, policy run by 'consultants' who recommend options that they then make millions from, right down to politicians on the take with their expenses fiddles, directorships and 'sweeteners' from companies seeking advantage. This is similar to the corruption in Greece that has grown to an extent that is unsupportable. And we are powerless to stop it because of the lack of accountability.

This lack of actual, working representation in parliament is unsustainable in itself as it will lead to the same breakdown and chaos as in Greece (and still hidden in the likes of Spain) and the EU structure itself. We the people, have allowed this to happen by becoming apathetic about our democracy and the political class have taken advantage, most spectacularly in the form of New Labour. This band of brigands spotted the flaws in our system of government that allowed large scale corruption, not just financial but of principles.

If we want democracy back (and apparently it's worth fighting for elsewhere) we must demand that there is no taxation without representation.