Bully-Banks take on banks over mis-selling of Interest Rate Swap Agreements
15
2012
More than 50 small-business owners, who have been mis-sold Interest Rate Swap Agreements (IRSAs), are coming together this weekend (Sunday, May 20) to launch a campaign to raise awareness of how British banks have been exploiting their small business customers.
Organised by campaign group Bully-Banks they aim to bring all banks the meeting will set out a plan of action to challenge the banks over their behavior and lobby Parliament and the Financial Services Authority to investigate wide scale mis-selling.
An estimated 300,000 small businesses are calculated to have been encouraged by their banks to enter into IRSAs resulting in deals with crippling monthly penalty charges or excessive break charges which businesses cannot afford to buy out.
Bully-Banks was created to co-ordinate complaints by the owners of small-to-medium-sized business against the conduct of banks including Barclays, HSBC, Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group.
Paul Adcock, who is coordinating Bully-Banks, said: “We will be adopting a two pronged strategy of highlighting the injustice suffered by small businesses as well as the wider impact on the UK economic recovery. Bully-Banks is independent of all political parties and has no commercial affiliations.
“The banks are accused of failing to warn their clients of potential risks and exit costs of very complex financial products, mostly sold at the bank’s instigation and often as a condition of continued borrowing.”
“Bully-Banks is asking every owner of a small or medium-sized business who believes they have been mis-sold an IRSA to register with Bully-Banks. Together we can ensure that this issue is debated in the media and by Government to ensure that the banks address this issue as they already have with the mis-selling of payment protection insurance scandal.”
On Sunday, May 20 Bully-Banks and its members will seek to establish Task Teams to carry out the necessary activities as the campaign moves into the next phase. There will also be an opportunity to meet some of the legal and financial professionals who have played a role in identifying the nature of the banks’ mis-selling activities.
The meeting will be held at the Bicester Hotel, Chesterton, Oxfordshire, OX26 1TE at 10.00 am – the cost of the conference facilities are being met by a member of Bully-Banks – and the event is free to attend. To register your interest contact Bully-Banks by email: info@bully-banks.co.uk or register at the Bully-Banks website bully-banks.co.uk.
Full disclosure – we are working for Bully-Banks on a pro bono basis
Hubris and the demise of regional journalism
11
2012
I used to work with Chris Oakley, former editor of the Liverpool Echo later owner of the Birmingham Post and Mail and then the Yorkshire Post, and he was and is a fine newspaper man. Later, he became chairman of Venturedome.com where I was editorial director. Venturedome no longer exists – but local newspapers are still around. Not for much longer according to Chris.
As a person obsessed with print journalism I was going to do a critique of a speech delivered by Chris last night to the Society of Editors regional conference in Manchester. However, there is not much to critique.
Entitled Five Minutes to Midnight: The death and possible re-birth of the regional newspaper industry, Chris gave his own devastating critique of the current state of the regional press, which he argued now needed to be rebuilt from the bottom up. Here is the speech in full:
Seven tips to overcome Kanter’s Law
10
2012
All of us must have experienced Kanter’s Law: Everything can look like a failure in the middle.
The great innovation writer Rossabeth Moss Kanter highlights how everyone loves inspiring beginnings and happy endings.
It is in the middle however, where the realization that the vision and ideas is actually harder to do than anyone had initially thought. It is here where the hard work kicks in, the tough challenges of implementation emerge, and temptations of the next enticing rainbow appear. Funds and support runs out before victory is in sight
Yet, stop your effort too soon, pull the plug and by definition you create a failure. Post cognitive dissonance kicks-in and all the previous doubts and niggles coalesce into a convincing, ‘Yes, that project was indeed a failure’ confirmation.
I suppose the opposite to Kanter’s Law is what could be called ‘Nike Law’: Just Do it.
Yet I think this would be a too simplistic response. The reality is that life and innovation is a bit more complicated than that.
Innovation texts are littered with case studies and inspirational quotes of individuals, teams and organizations that somehow stuck at it, persevered to eventually succeed.
I don’t however, see that many case studies of the numerous examples where obstinate determination, led to good money and effort being wasted. Where an agony or a negative has needlessly been prolonged.
Nobel prize-winning psychologist Daniel Kahneman reports how optimism kicks in when planning for any new project. Rather than accurately benchmark your situation by other similar experiences we get beguiled by the enticing vision and create over-stated, false hope for the do-ability of our new baby.
The innovation reality it seems is that to succeed we need some bi-polarity, both individually and in our teams and groups.
Those who master change have perseverance and stamina. Yet, they are flexible. By expecting obstacles on the road to success they only keep going for what matters.
Sure, intuition and passion are essential ingredients for success. But as the great Spanish philosopher George Santayana observed, a fanatic is someone who redoubles their effort when they have forgotten their aim
F. Scott Fitzgerald defined the sign of a first-rate intelligence as “to hold two opposing views in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.”
Innovation author Scott Anthony similarly calls for what he labels ‘innovation bipolarity’ – an ability to switch between two modes of optimism and pessimism.
In my creativity and innovation training I co-opt the needs to think pessimistic with the need to thing ‘Big’; by creating a bigger mental landscape there will inevitably be oasis of optimism to harness and harvest.
Using this contrast technique will create sufficient polarity to ensure you have identified possible weaknesses and negatives to your ideas before others do.
Some tips I would share, partly inspired by Rosabeth Kanter, to ensure you overcome your ‘middle stage wobbles’ include:
1. Listen to your environment – what has changed in your context
2. Revisit your original assumptions which shaped your thinking: what assumptions did you make about your assumptions?
3. Check your existing support for your project – is it still with you?
4. Identify potential fresh support or impetus to generate new energies, new networks and synergies
5. Spot any early or quick wins with your project. What do they mean to you or your supporters? What can they mean?
6. Revisit your core brand story, your narrative about your project and update it. What ways it is the same story being extended, or is there a new story emerging?
7. Look honestly in the mirror: Don’t confuse passion for fanaticism
I had an initial idea for this article. I did actually it put it to one side when other immediate, urgent tasks emerged. But I revisited it, completed the text as a blog post. (Should I have continued as a White Paper, or even a book?)
I hope you are thinking I’m glad I overcome the middle stage sense of failure to complete this post.
Coca-Cola vs Pepsi
7
2012
![Psychology of Color [Infographic]](http://nowsourcing.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/psychology-of-color.png)
Sir Ernest Shackleton’s ad
2
2012
It is one of copywriting’s legends. The advertisement used by Sir Ernest Shackleton to recruit volunteers for his expedition.
Shame it never existed – but provides another great example of ‘truthiness’.
I delivered a great creative writing session for the Chartered Institute of Public Relations yesterday, with a great bunch of hard-working talented people.
As usual, there is always something to learn and improve, so I set to work tweaking the course workbook which features the example of Sir Ernest Shackleton’s ad:
LINPAC’s Jo Stephenson shortlisted in First Women Awards
2
2012
Congratulations to LINPAC Packaging’s Joanna Stephenson, Vice President Marketing & Innovation, who has been short listed in the First Women Awards.
Created by Real Business in association with Lloyds Banking Group and supported by the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), the First Women Awards aim to recognise pioneering UK women whose achievements have set the benchmark in the business world for others to follow.
Jo has been short listed for the Engineering and Manufacturing Award.
LINPAC Packaging Chief Executive David Meldram said: “Jo thoroughly deserves to make it on to the short list for this year’s First Women Awards. Joanna has been a real pioneer in championing women in manufacturing and has made an enormous contribution to the print and packaging sector over the years.”
Previous winners include trailblazing, often unsung, women from UK manufacturing, science and technology as well as iconic leaders such as Nicole Farhi. Winners at 2011′s event included Taylor Nelson founder Dr Liz Nelson OBE and Wahaca founder Thomasina Miers.
Helen Alexander, President of the CBI, said: “As we recover from a deep recession, Britain will need women with fresh ideas and limitless ambition. Across business, professional and cultural life, women will invigorate Britain and build our future success. No-one should be excluded from that.
“The First Women Awards were established by the CBI and Real Business magazine as a focal point for today’s and tomorrows female leaders. We are delighted once again to enjoy the support of our headline sponsor, Lloyds Banking Group.”
The winners will be announced at the awards ceremony, on Thursday June 28, Grand Connaught Rooms, London. The awards will be hosted by BBC sports presenter, Clare Balding.
First Women Awards supporters include: BAE Systems, Benenden Healthcare Society, BT, Centrica, Harvey Nash, ICAEW, the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Land Rover UK and COINS. The Awards are also supported by the Financial Mail.
30 Years Today: The ZX Spectrum gave us games to play
23
2012
Our guest blogger today is Nick Ryder, Technical Sales Manager at CCS Leeds – a client of GREEN Communications – offers a birthday celebration for the Sinclair ZX Spectrum.
Its hard to believe as I sit here typing that is was 30 years ago, to this very day that that Sinclair ZX Spectrum 48k was released to the general public. I suppose that in retrospect, it could be seen as the iPad of its day as most people had one, of if they didn’t, wanted one.
The previous year had seen the release of the Spectrums popular forerunner, the ZX81 which had sold a quarter of a million units by the end of 1981. But competition from rival companies such as Commodore were pushing what could be achieved with home computing, and the release of the VIC20 meant that computers with full colour capability were indeed the future, whereas the ZX81 was simply monochrome.
As such, Sinclair set about working on the follow up machine. What would eventually become the Spectrum, actually went through a number of design and name changes before the final model was that we all know and love was decided upon. Two models were released initial – the 16KB, at £125 or the much more powerful 48K version which cost £175.
Needless to say, it was a hit in schools and homes around the world, even if the keyboard was rubbish. And, for the next 2 years, the Sinclair Spectrum would dominate the home computing market, bringing along with it the delights of games such as Manic Miner, Elite and Hungry Horace. Retro gamers still love the old games and there are many Spectrum emulators around, as well as websites where you can actually play them online here.
So happy birthday to the ZX Spectrum!
Personally I prefer the Commodore 64, but that’s a different article.
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