Sloping playing fields, target common sense, rising from the flood, an opportunity.

Last week Welsh Water was fined £60,000 and ordered to pay £69,000 in costs after admitting supplying unfit water that left 231 people suffering from sickness after the outbreak of the cryptosporidium bug in November 2005.

Back in the summer Cadbury was fined £1 million for failings which resulted in salmonella in chocolate products. It is also reckoned to have cost them £30 million in terms of the resulting product recall and lost sales.

At about the same time British Airways was being fined £121.5m by the UK Office of Fair Trading and $300m (£148m) by the US Department of Justice, a total of £270m after it admitted collusion in fixing the prices of fuel surcharges.

Is it my imagination or is there an imbalance here?

Also last week we heard the incredible horror story of Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust. Like most people I am absolutely incredulous that such a regime should have existed. I believe that criminal charges should be brought against the senior management. If this had been an industrial company that had suffered 90 fatalities as a result of sloppy practice, there is absolutely no doubt that the Health and Safety Executive would have prosecuted.

Again, there has to be a level playing field. Management of any organisation owes a duty of care to its employees and customers. It matters not whether it is a private company or a state run hospital, the same rules should apply.

In previous Rambles I have criticised the government for setting too many targets in health and education, for being unwilling to let the professionals manage without interference. In this case there seems little doubt that focussing on certain targets caused the management eye to be taken off the ball, but surely to goodness, any half competent and caring management would recognise that their first responsibility was to the patients. Targets can be useful. We all need them to stretch us. But an application of common sense is even more useful.

Some call centres have targets for speed of dealing with the customer. This isn’t to benefit the customer but is a way of getting more out of the phone operators. Thankfully many recognise that it is the quality of the call from the customers perspective that counts rather than the speed of throughput. Similarly, sales people who only care, or are only allowed to care, about the number of new sales deals clinched, do their company no favours in the long term.

Most of us want to be looked after, valued. If we feel we are important to the business we are likely to go back again. If we are dissatisfied it is more than likely that we will go elsewhere next time. The most valuable member of the sales team is the one that you don’t have to pay - yes the customer who recommends you to others because they are delighted with the service that you provide. My website features a few who are worthy of recommendation. One in particular I would like to mention.

Hotelshop is based in Droitwich in Worcestershire. They specialise in booking hotel accommodation, whether for business or pleasure, and short breaks throughout the UK. They pride themselves in finding last minute deals with great savings on normal rates. During ‘The Great Flood’ that affected many areas of Worcestershire, Herefordshire and Gloucestershire during the summer, their offices were flooded to a depth of ten feet. The file server was lost, the phone system was lost, records were lost. Thanks to a great team effort which saw temporary relocation, including to kitchens and dining room tables, and long hours worked, business was able to continue. Check them out at http://www.hotelshopuk.com/.

On Wednesday 7th November I will be running a business workshop called ‘Towards the Perfect Business’. The target ‘audience’ is owner/directors or influential managers in small/medium sized organisations. This is a ‘dress rehearsal’ to evaluate the concept before launching the full programme.

Two of my associates, Kim Johnson and Trevor Gay will be helping to facilitate the Workshop. You can read about us and learn more about the Workshop on my website http://www.davidwike.co.uk/.

If you are in my target audience category, there is an opportunity to participate in the event completely free of charge. In fact a buffet lunch and all refreshments will be provided as well. The Workshop will be held in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire starting at 9.30am and finishing around 4.30pm. If you are interested, please contact me as soon as possible as there are only a couple of places left.

And finally, did you see the first programme of the new Dragons’ Den series that started on Monday? Wasn’t it wonderful?


David Wike