Business in Glasgow

The final BiG lunchtime meeting of 2009 will be a panel discussion where three members of Glasgow’s diverse society will offer insights and practical advice on the issues that are pertinent to surviving the recession.

The people involved are:

Gayle Cattanach – BiG Trustee, Chartered Surveyor and Director of a commercial construction company
Ruth Walker – former Customer Relationships Director for Scottish Enterprise, now an independent consultant
Andrew Low – Chief Executive of Glasgow City Mission

The panellists will offer insights on issues they are facing as a result of recession and how they are dealing with it. You should find the different perspectives enlightening.

New Venue: Glasgow City Mission’s new HQ in Crimea Street

Our final Business in Glasgow seminar provides all our supporters and participants a unique opportunity to visit the recently opened premises of the Glasgow City Mission, an organisation which began in 1826 through the vision and compassion of David Naismith its founder.

Once the first of its kind, now duplicated in the major cities of the planet, Glasgow City Mission continues to offer practical as well as spiritual support to the most vulnerable in the City of Glasgow.

With the recession continuing to make significant inroads into our city’s working population it is a good thing to remind ourselves that vulnerability is not just reserved for the poor of society. We are witnessing, if not experiencing, such vulnerability across the business scene too but as with many successful charitable organisations the Glasgow City Mission is a reminder that there is also hope and a future.

We are grateful to Glasgow City Mission for offering to host this event, and we welcome anyone from the business community in Glasgow to join us.

Glasgow City Mission, 20 Crimea Street, Glasgow G2 8PW
Map and Directions

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in the past

We regret to announce that due to a bereavement, Danny McGuigan will no longer be able to deliver his seminar on Ambition Issues at Work on Tuesday 3 November as planned.

We have therefore brought forward December’s seminar and Peter Gardner will discuss Spiritual Issues at Work.

There are lots of issues we face in our work, keeping work focus, maintaining motivation, finding a healthy work-life balance, sustaining self-confidence, setting goal and priorities. We have all heard of good ways to improve our work practice but most of us find it difficult to do things differently. Peter Gardner, who is minister at Renfield St. Stephen’s church, and has worked with Business in Glasgow over the last seven years will look at these issues from a different angle and, drawing from some of the traditions of Christian spirituality, suggest some practical ways of improving the way we work.

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in the past

Iain spoke about relationship issues.

BiG Event Report

The topic Iain was addressing was relationship issues and he covered these under four headings:

1. A helicopter view of what areas relationships cover
2. Things which subvert good relationships
3. Things which enhance good relationships
4. What we can do with respect to our relationships

Iain principally followed through each heading by using illustrations to make his points.

1. Helicopter view
The helicopter view he illustrated initially by highlighting recent articles in the newspapers with respect of relationships beginning from babies in the womb to love and economics, a wide range of issues which affect our lives.

The example of Les Miserables covered the trust that was broken between Jean Valjean, the prisoner who was released from prison taken in by Bishop Myriel. Despite the trust placed in him Valjean steals from the bishop and thus the relationship is tested but to his astonishment Myriel becomes complicit in the theft. What can we learn from relationships tested to the limit?

2. Subvert good relationships
Iain used the example of the enmity between France and Germany to highlight the effects of broken relationships between countries. He also discussed how relationships within our families can also be tenuous with respect to the mis-matched expectations between parents and children, and basic misunderstandings.

The area of differences within relationships at work was also discussed and Iain gave illustrations of how delicate these relationships can be. Between employers and unions, between two departments in one company, the bullies that affect other people’s lives and work, the bosses that either help or sometimes hinder.

It is easy to find the issues that subvert good relationships but what enhances them?

3. Enhance good relationships
Iain demonstrated that there are ways and means of overcoming the broken relationships that exist. He illustrated again from Les Miserables, the Bishop Myriel who protects Jean Valjean for his crime. He accepts him, he forgives him and he loves him, much to Jean Valjean’s astonishment.

Between France and Germany a small minority found another way other than always continually resorting to war. With extreme effort and the desire to understand and reconcile they forged a way through after the Second World War by fusing together heavy industry across the borders so that they could not war again without destroying their own economies. This led eventually to the Common Market and the European Union.

Within families the issue is slightly more varied but nevertheless the same kind of determination must exist, not to have more of the same but the determination to change behaviours. This can begin somewhere with one person on one side of the relationship being willing to make the change and being determined to persevere.

In the world of work there is the need to identify where the poor behaviour lies and sometimes it needs personal courage and wisdom in knowing how to tackle that and to persist.

Iain then gave examples of difficult relationships he had worked through in his own experiences.

That brings us down to the final conclusion in the four issues, to what can we do?

4. What can we do?
We have to acknowledge that we cannot be responsible for anyone else’s behaviour but our own. Iain referred to the Apostle Paul who said ‘as much as it lies within you, do good to all.’ So that takes a bit of getting to know ourselves, to be mature about how we see things, to reflect over issues, be open to others’ observations of us and willing to change if necessary.

It means we need to be prepared to develop further, to develop listening skills and find what enables us to be more empathetic towards other people. This may mean taking a course or finding someone in a professional capacity who can really enable us to be more open to ourselves.

All these things involve listening, listening and listening. In other words we want to respond to situations that are difficult rather than react to them, also to respond in a clear-headed and level way. We need to go on showing respect and courtesy and it is clear that our current generation is suffering more and more from the lack of conventions that protect us from entering into confrontation rather than enhancing relationships.

Conclusion
To conclude, Iain summarised by reminding us that human beings are relational beings and therefore there will always be issues with respect to their relationships. To develop trust and acceptance, to help and even to love our neighbour means effort will need to be put into those relationships.

These characteristics will demand courage, wisdom and determination to follow through a vision of what is possible. When you look at modern history and what has been achieved in the political scene in Europe it is clear that some of those things which seem impossible can be done. Always at the bottom of it all is the desire to respect others and to carry out what the best Teacher in the world said – the imperative to love our neighbour.

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in the past

David will speak to us about how work and family life can present challenges.

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in the past

Martin spoke about being an entrepreneur

BiG Event Report

Martin Johnstone delivered an inspirational talk beginning with three powerful stories:

1. When Martin was an assistant minister in Castlemilk and his car battery was broken, a local man heard of the problem and appeared at the door, asking if he needed a new one. Just 15 minutes later, a battery appeared at the front door. In many of the poorest communities, there is a spirit of entrepreneurism, albeit sometimes in the black market or grey economy.

2. At the Poverty Truth Commission recently in Glasgow City Chambers, one of the groups who talked about their struggle were 20 ‘kinship carers’, grandmothers who looked after their grandchildren because of a ‘missing generation’ caused by death or addiction. Jessie said, “I’ve already lost one generation to drugs and I’m not losing another – get it sorted!”

One week ago, the Director of Social Work called Martin asking for a meeting – this was unheard of previously. Jessie’s entrepreneurism is leading to a move for societal change.

3. In Royston, when Bolt FM is on air, crime levels drop. A young Royston man was asked what he would like to do most – the answer was to see an elephant in the wild. One year later, he was part of a group of young folk in Zambia, but was looking edgy. When asked what was wrong, he explained that he’d taken cannabis every night for years, but when he knew that he had the chance to see a real elephant, and had to go through customs, that was the chance to go drug free. Societal change – meeting need.

Martin Johnstone spends his life hoping to work alongside the poorest. He is employed by the Church of Scotland to support work in the poorest 60 neighbourhoods in Scotland where, in Martin’s view, there are greater levels of creativity and innovation than in the 10 richest, in order to survive. He also heads Faith in Community (Scotland), an ecumenical and multi-faith partnership aimed at tackling poverty together, all agreeing that it offends God.

George Bernard Shaw said “the reasonable person adapts themselves to the world. The unreasonable person insists on adapting the world to themself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable person”.

In the present world crisis, we cannot maintain the trajectory we have been on. The sudden ‘drop’ that we experienced in the world economy last October/November is something that is seen elsewhere in the HIV/AIDS pandemic, in poverty on unprecedented scales – we live in a planet where we recognise ‘the drop’. It is in ‘the drop’ that is the place for societal entrepreneurism.

We are living in a world where for the first time for a while the future looks much less certain than it did to our parents. What makes for a ‘good city’? Manuel Castells, a leading sociologist says it is a place where his grand-daughter can grow up healthy and safe – on that criteria, it seems to be less and less a ‘good city’.

Therefore, the challenge is how are we going to use our entrepreneurial skills to make the city and world a ‘good place’ for our grandchildren? Progress, in Martin’s view, depends on being ‘unreasonable people’ – not accepting that the current way is how things always need to be done.

Examples of ‘unreasonable people’ are:

* Mohammed Younis – ‘the banker of the poor’ – described recently as the world’s greatest entrepreneur through his brilliance in micro-credit. Tiny group loans to millions of people have enabled them to start small businesses and lifted them out of poverty. Thanks to the loans, Bangladesh no longer looks like the poorest part of the world.

* Desmond Tutu – recently presented to the General Assembly – a global voice against the injustice of apartheid, changing the world and society.

* Mary Miller – one of the co-founders of the ‘Jeely Piece’ club in Castlemilk, which over a generation has been making life better for young people in that community.

* Jean Forrester in Possilpark with the ‘Abigail Project’ – a café in church as a safe space for addicts and their families, and now supporting an organisation assisting grandparents caring as parents.

At their different levels, these four people share a common resilience, determination, trustworthiness, an absence of complacency, and are not content with the answer ‘no’. They are boundary crossers, but are aware of where their feet are planted. As Susan Price of Lloyds TSB recently said at an accountant awards dinner – “we cannot offer value without having values”.

Question areas

# Mutual support and encouragement – Martin talked of ‘Faithful Purpose’, a volunteer programme within Faith in Community Scotland which invites those from well-off churches to allow their skills to be used in the poorest communities For further information contact Margo Uprichard (margo@transformationteam.org tel: 0141 221 4576)

# Vision competing with finance – Martin talked of perseverance, of the millions of small acts of kindness that, for example, Pentecostalism is built upon – that’s what moves mountains in building communities (not just buildings!).

# Hope for this generation – if you tell kids they are rubbish, they’ll believe it. You must affirm them, and be prepared to accept that they might disappoint you. Very few media stories portray young people in a positive light, so it is important that we emphasise the positive.

# Recognition of faith at work, particularly in the public sector – in Martin’s view, society is spiritual but does not like organised religion. This is a fact which churches need to face up to. We need to recognise what the public sector should pay for – human flourishing – not evangelism, which is the church’s job. That being said, if you take an example like the Poverty Truth Commission, it demonstrates that faith communities have a clear role, not in banging our drum about how important we are, but in action alongside the most vulnerable. If we do so, people will have no choice but to take us and who we are seriously.

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in the past

We all know that to enjoy life we need to get the right balance between work, relaxation and relationships. However we can often unconsciously find ourselves stressed and struggling to cope with this great balancing act.

Stress is normal and even necessary for a healthy life. It is the tension created by external factors and/or pressures on the one hand and our reactions and feelings about our circumstances and ourselves on the other. It is only when we feel that we cannot deal or cope with it that stress has a negative effect on our lives.

Work-related stress is a major problem for businesses and organisations across the UK. According to research commissioned by the HSE, about half a million people in the UK experience work-related stress at a level that they believe is making them ill.

How can I ensure my stress levels are not destructive? Steve will help us consider some key life and work related stressors, their effects (both short and long term) and identify ways to enable a more balanced and ultimately more productive life.

BiG event report

Steven Watson of Stepwell Consultancy Ltd managed to squeeze a huge amount of fascinating information into his talk on stress issues. He was full of wisdom with lots of practical suggestions as to how to begin to tackle this universally experienced and sometimes crushing phenomenon.

He began by pointing out that stress has replaced backache as the number 1 reason for absence from work. This does not trivialise the problem but highlights how difficult and important it is to manage stress well.

He led the group in trying to define stress but we all had different answers, depending on our experiences and the situations that generate stress in each of us. Steven pointed out that stress itself, although it is perceived as negative, can be a vital motivator when it is within comfortable, managed limits. The real problems come with chronic stress – living for years with a constantly clenched fist, as our flight/fight response is continuously triggered.

He asked us to look at the factors that cause stress, helpfully categorising them as external factors (environmental, social, economic), pressures that come from around us, e.g. pressures from global competition, business slowdown, from family relationships or colleagues, or from the place we live or work. There are also internal factors (psychological, emotional, behavioural) that come from our make-up and grow from within us. These can be hidden but are no less real to the individual’s experience of stress.

Steven suggested that it is important to be aware of our personal thinking errors so that we can gain some sort of control over them. Our perception of difficult or unpleasant events can heighten our experience of stress when our thinking is negative. He gave some examples of ones that often are not only a response to stress but are contributing factors:

1. All or nothing thinking – “If I don’t get it right I’m a total failure”
2. Jumping to conclusions – with no real evidence “the boss has got it in for me!”
3. Mind reading – assuming what other people think without checking
4. ‘Should’ statements – “I should have … “ leads to unrealistic expectations and guilt
5. Labelling – “I am a complete failure”
6. Magnification – “It’s the worst thing that could happen to me”
7. Fortune telling – “She ignored me, we’re not friends anymore”
8. Generalisation – “No point in applying, I’ve already been turned down by five employers”

If we are experiencing chronic stress – it is important to take action now. He gave us eight points to help stimulate a re-balancing in life and work:

1. Recognise how the world of work has changed. We cannot just do what we used to do.
2. Evaluate our relationship to work. Fatigue, family, friends, expectations, what can be changed?
3. Assess our personal drivers. Our personal identity, value system, parental influences, our success criteria all need to be looked at on a regular basis.
4. Be aware of the impact of other people’s expectations. Peer pressure, herd mentality, hidden agenda and unrealistic goals are often other people’s heavy loads, which we do not have to carry.
5. Discover your boat. Create real space, learn to say no, fight the guilt, practice rest and learn to say, “No” Even Jesus made time to sleep in a boat!
6. Invest in your private world. Slowing, solitude, spirituality, soundproofing the heart all take time, effort and determination but they pay off hugely.
7. Look after yourself properly. Just because we all know this but rarely do it – doesn’t mean to say that it does not make a difference. Recreation, sleep/eat well, protect your days off, train ourselves to relax, write it out, trust a friend with your stuff, seek professional help.
8. Remain positive. Stop negative thought patterns – get off the tram lines, put things in perspective, re-frame your thinking, it’s OK to learn from mistakes, break up the monotony, laugh more, be thankful!

By now we were almost out of time but Steven had struck a rich vein of wisdom for us. He didn’t have had time to point us to ten growth areas, but hopefully he’ll come back and tell us about them another time. He finished with emphasising the importance of identifying key actions and doing them now so that stress does not become an issue.

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in the past

Barry talks about the influence of culture on the workplace.

BiG event report

Barry Rogers led us skilfully and thoughtfully through a presentation entitled, ‘The Cultural Advantage & the Model of Freedom’, dealing with the following areas:

1. Introduction

You don’t have to go far to discover different cultural approaches. What is ‘freedom’? The answer for the British may be the ability of an individual to make informed choice without external influence, within the framework of the law. That, however, is a very North European concept. For the Japanese, the answer would very much be about the centrality of family and responsibilities towards other people.

The concept of freedom is at the foundation of culture. But what is it? For the Finnish, it would entail a reflection of a history which is very rural and very private, and so a perception that their nature is withdrawn in a business context is false, primarily because it is assessed from our Anglo-Saxon cultural starting point: it is a failure to understand their cultural perspective.

To one person, organisation can create freedom through security, but to another it is oppressive. Likewise, an absence of organisation can be free or insecure (e.g. for the resident or visitor to New York City).

2. Cultural Identity in Organisations

The individual achieves results by their own skill. A team requires trust, support, co-operation and leadership. It needs requisite group skills and rules.

INDIVIDUAL COMMUNITY
I have rights We have obligations
I do it my way We are disciplined
I will speak up We conform
I look after myself We look after each other
I take responsibility We share responsibility

Although it is a broad generalisation, this table essentially indicates the cultural shift from left to right of ‘the West’ to ‘the East’. In the West, conflicts can be seen as ‘healthy’ to create equality, but in the East conflicts are avoided because of status differences and group responsibilities.

3. Dimensions of Cultural Identity

Parents have an ascribed authority in telling us what to do. Laws and rules express cultural difference, even if they have the same end. For example, with two public signs for clearing up dog mess in the street, in the USA the sign says ‘Clean up, It’s the Law’ with the monetary fine boldly specified, whereas in France it says ‘I love my neighbourhood, so I clean up’, an encouragement towards community and corporate responsibility rather than individual obedience. Or in the Philippines, a sign says ‘We all share the same air, thank you for not smoking’, and not ‘Do Not Smoke, Fine £x’.

4. Working with Cultural Differences

Philippe Rozinski’s model is a sliding graph from a low point of ‘ethnocentric pitfalls’ to a high point of being ‘culturally aware/intelligent’. Across that rising scale there is ‘recognising, accepting and respecting’ cultural difference, to ‘adapting’, to ‘integrating’ to ‘leveraging’ from a business perspective.

The value is in the difference, not in the similarities. The aim is to move away from cultural stereotypes, and to enable integration whilst maintaining your own cultural identity.

A final word on perseverance from Vince Lombardi (US football coach): ‘it’s not whether you get knocked down; it’s whether you get up’.

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in the past

Ewan Mearns of Scottish Enterprise discussing strategies for change.

BiG event report

The March lunch-time event was a great success and considered the topic of Strategic issues. Ewan Mearns from Scottish Enterprise led us skilfully and thoughtfully through this issue and provided relevant insight and useful advice.

Ewan firstly highlighted that we live in a world of global change and shifts, where we need to adopt skills, strategies and tactics to embrace that change. With climate change and political changes at the forefront of the media, there are very few constants. Alterations in family, spiritual, lifestyle and behaviour patterns are frequent. Advancements in technology and engineering have provided opportunities, innovations as well as posing questions.

Often change, combined with complexity, can result in confusion. Ewan suggested various tools in order to overcome this confusion and navigate the times of change. He highlighted the importance of acknowledging how individuals respond to change and can be affected by it but also that businesses must be prepared to adapt in a changing environment. He explained how strategic planning should resemble a nimble yacht, able to set its sights on the distance but navigate around obstacles on the way. This is as opposed to the previously common view of strategic planning being like a tanker or battleship, setting its direction ahead with little room for manoeuvring on the way.

Ewan provided some useful tips for navigating change. He suggested that we take the long view – plan ahead and identify strengths and capabilities. It is also important to ensure that we remain flexible and open to change.

Ewan provided some notes of encouragement by highlighting that, even in the current climate, there will be opportunities and a silver lining to each cloud and that we should have faith and perseverance (Proverbs 22).

”Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has” Margaret Mead, Anthropologist

This encouraging and practical look at Strategic issues was closed with a question and answer session raising such diverse issues as the concentration on visual imagery in planning and demonstration, the difficulties of introducing a ‘S.W.O.T’ analysis outwith the business context in a church environment, the difference between strategy and tactics, and the opportunities that will exist and arise out of the present financial crisis.

We thank Ewan Mearns and everyone who joined us at this event. The PowerPoint presentation for this talk is available on request.

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in the past

Unfortunately Danny McGuigan is unable to speak on Tuesday because of illness, but Manish Joshi has kindly agreed to step in at the last minute.

Manish should be well known to those of you who regularly attend BiG Tuesdays. His talk will look at how we manage our money, as individuals and also within our businesses and organisations, and what measures we can take to weather the current economic storm.

BiG Event Report

We were delighted to welcome Manish Joshi for his first talk at Business in Glasgow. We benefited from his considerable acumen as he provided timely advice on an extremely topical and relevant subject.

Manish took us through a very practical overview of how to assess the way we handle our finances, particularly in these times of economic difficulty. He began by reminding us how frequent bankruptcy is in this country, currently at least one person is declared bankrupt every three and a half minutes. Despite the pressures on financial lending, consumers are borrowing a staggering 154 million pounds every day. In addition, 124 properties are repossessed every day and one in three adults are concerned about servicing their personal debt.

Manish gave four main causes of debt which are:
1. Changes in work circumstances
2. Changes in family circumstances
3. Poor money management
4. Unforeseen expenses

One of the difficulties concerning debt is that it is perceived as such a delicate subject and difficult to talk about. Often it gets out of control before we face up to the fact that it is not going to go away.

For people facing these issues, the initial course of action should be to speak to someone you can trust, prioritise the most significant debts and avoid taking on any further debt, including ‘consolidating loans’ which can often be at much higher rates of interest than you might be currently paying.

Manish then highlighted the fact that many of us don’t set a personal budget and when we do we tend to miss some of the incidental expenses which can then mount up.

He also highlighted the fact that many people end up in debt because they haven’t been able to save. He gave us some simple outlines of how to plan for the future. For example, by using the ‘Joseph Principle’ as described in the Book of Genesis which is to save and store in the years of plenty for use in the years when it is lean and difficult. Or to use the practical way of saving as in the 1950s by using a row of jam jars for a different category of household expenditure. That way we can ‘see’ what we are spending and what we are saving. He suggested that a good rule of thumb would be to have six months of income saved as a safety net.

Manish then looked at managing our business finances. He emphasised the need to make budgets and forecasts, making them as accurate as possible and trying to foresee everything that is likely to affect them. Also reminding us of the importance of keeping them updated, not just to set them up and ignore them but to return to them frequently. As in personal finances, it is good to have a contingency to help in difficult days when business is slack and money is tight and to always keep our eye on the cash flow. He also mentioned that, for those who are employers, it’s important to help staff to be practical in their own personal management of their money. This is a benefit to employees but also to the business as it can be quite debilitating and detract from people’s work performance when they are concerned about their own debt issues.

He gave a list of groups who offer professional and practical help for those who are in financial difficulty eg: Consumer Credit Counselling Service, Citizens Advice Bureau, Christians Against Poverty.

In conclusion, Manish reminded us that it is good to talk about money and that budgeting is not a one off event but a continuing exercise. We might not always have control of our circumstances but can be prepared for most eventualities that will arise. There is lots of expert advice that is available to us so we needn’t struggle alone when faced with debt issues.

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in the past

Excerpt from open meeting.

We would like to bring together people interested in BiG to discuss how BiG might evolve in the future.

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in the past