Day 2: How do these Characteristics affect FullEmploy?

Today, I'd like to discuss how Clarity affects FullEmploy.

Clarity is needed when communicating anything. FullEmploy communicates with its customers, consumers, and partners. Today I learnt that there's a difference between customer and consumer. In the past, I didn't think about, I just used them interchangeably. For what it's worth, a customer is one who purchases goods and services and a consumer is one who makes use of them. They can be one and the same. Clarity is also needed when you're defining your vision, aims and objectives.

The vision, aims and objectives of FullEmploy couldn't be clearer:

Aims
          - reduce unemployment and maintain it at low levels
          - reduce the skills shortage and maintain it at low levels
          - get the Government to pay for the training to create a level playing field for the employers
          - create income streams to replace unemployment and skill shortage reduction schemes
          - find accommodation for the homeless and then treat them as for the unemployed

Objectives
          - Build a geographical hierarchy of offices
          - Hire office managers one for each office
          - Hire 5 Client Managers for each of the 9,523 offices
          - Build relationships with Employers to identify jobs and skills required to do them
          - Use the identified skills to build a skills database
          - Build relationships with the unemployed to identify capabilities and shortfalls
          - Where there are shortfalls, arrange training on the identified skills
          - Build relationships with Training Providers to identify if they can provide skills
          - If not, we'll work together to build capacity
          - Build relationships with the funding agencies to pay for the training
          - Build relationships with the politicians to help us get the Government to pay for the training
          - Monitor the progress the candidates are making in attaining the skills and/or qualifications

The above will be communicated to all our partners in the solution to the unemployment and skills shortage problems namely the Employers; Training Providers; Funding Agencies; the Unemployed; and the Politicians.

Day 1: How do these Characteristics affect FullEmploy?

In the next few days, I will describe how the Characteristics of an entrepreneur affect FullEmploy. Some will be short and will be discussed in one article while others will be one article per characteristic.

     1. Being Organised

There are 3 types of organisation
a) the physical structure
b) the busness model

c) personal organisation

a) FullEmploy's physical structure is that it's organised as wards within Areas within Counties within Regions. The legwork is done by the wards who employ Client Managers to do the work. Each office will be managed by an office manager and they'll communicate with each other up and down the hierarchy.

b) FullEmploy's business model is to build relationships with Employer's to identify jobs and skills to populate a Skills Database; build relationships with  the Unemployed people to identify their capabilities and shortfalls with regards to the identified skills; build relationships with Training Providers to deliver the identified skills; build relationships with Funding Agencies who will pay for the training.

Externally, FullEmploy would build relationships with Politicians who would help us get leverage in industry and get Central Government to accept responsibility for training to create a level playing field for Employers who can then gain access to a skilled workforce. One of the Structural Imbalances is Low Productivity which led to the UK losing market share of the global economy thus increasing the balance of payments deficit. So, it's in the Government's interest to pay for the training in order reduce the skills shortage.

c) Personal organisation is how a person organises the work which implies use of Project Management techniques such as Prince 2 the UK standard. However, when you implement a task, you need to organise your thoughts which is akin to preparation and rehearsal. It's this sort of preparation that can make you look confident and that you know what you're doing. Implementing a task should be treated as a mini-project in it's own right. This is where you consider 'what' needs to be done; 'how' you're going to achieve it or present it; and 'what actually' happened i.e. did things go according to plan? Were your expectations accurate? Can you learn from what worked and what didn't? This can form your Continuing Performance Development.

Characteristics of an Entrepreneur - Day 4

I've so far described the first 12 characteristics in the past 3 days; here are the last 4:

      13. Optimism

Flexibility is to open-mindedness as Optimism is to Confidence. Optimism is descriptive. Hence, when delegating work, the strategies you describe must be optimistic i.e. they must at least sound achievable. Presenting it with confidence bolsters that notion. People tend to ask questions for clarification. These are the easy ones. Others ask "what if" questions. If you involved them in the planning process, they would've asked them then; and contingency plans would've been drafted to cover them.

Optimism reminds me of positive thinking - if you think positively, positive things would happen. However, experience has shown that even if you do think positive, there's still a chance to fail. That's why a proverb was coined to warn about this: "if at first you don't succeed, try and try again". This implies that you have to know when to stop "flogging a dead horse", and pick another one.

      14. Perceptiveness

Under communications we said you not only need to ensure that your audience understand what you're presenting but also that you understand their feedback. To do this, you need to be perceptive so that you can accurately perceive body language as well as words which would enhance your understanding.

I don't relish reading but from articles about communications that talk about non-word methods people tend to concentrate on these methods that they don't listen to what's being said. If you accidentally cross your arms, for instance, your counterpart will take offence because that's how people have been taught communications. Some unscrupulous negotiators use this to great effect i.e. they give the other side the impression that they'll get what they want even if it isn't in the contract.

So, perceptiveness goes beyond understanding what's being said or the body language but also the implications of these nuances. Also, you need to perceive future events so that your forward planning can deal with such events by creating appropriate contingency plans.

      15. Persistence

Although Drive is the energy to see things through to completion; the will and the discipline to see them through, usually in the face of adversity, is persistence. Under optimism, we discussed a few proverbs such as "if at first you don't succeed, ..." and that you have to know when to stop "flogging a dead horse". You need to be optimistic if you want to continue doing something persistently.

It's said that if you think negatively, you'll fail 100% because you won't even try. However, if you think positively and optimistically, there's no guarantee you won't fail. For example, James Caan, the entrepreneur, bought a chain of sandwich shops that were losing £100,000 per week. 6 months later he cut his losses and used the savings for other projects. In this example, it's fatal to persist with the undertaking. Napoleon Hill said "a quitter never wins; and a winner never quits". It should read "a quitter doesn't always lose and a winner knows when to quit".

      16. Risk Taking

This is what defines an entrepreneur. Some entrepreneurs say that you don't have to take any risks. For example, an East End entrepreneur started with only £200 capital and used it to run a business from his bedroom. His business model was to double his capital every so often. That way he doesn't become dependent on lenders. Richard Branson sold Virgin Music for £1bn to pay off Virgin Atlantic's debts so that he doesn't become dependent on lenders.

You only need to take a calculated risk when you face obstacles that stop you from launching a new business or expanding an existing one. You also take risks when an obstacle threatens the viability of your business. Some entrepreneurs think that the higher the risk, the greater the reward will be and take high risks on that basis.

The big banks of America and Europe took unacceptable risks and became bankrupt as a result. But, with the exception of Lehman Brothers, they were rescued by their Governments. However, the minnows were allowed to go bust - a great injustice. We had warnings that this can happen - remember Nick Leeson, the Rouge Trader? He bankrupted Barings Bank with illicit derivative trading - the same mechanism that bankrupted American and European banks.

You'd think that derivative trading would be made illegal in return for bailing out the failures. But no; these bankers are having their cake AND eating it too. When Goldman Sachs say they made a profit, they don't mean they made an economic profit; they mean they made a profit on derivative trading. What's worse is that the tax authorities didn't receive a penny from those "profits" because derivative profits are not taxable. However, the tax payers pay for their losses.

If you want to make profits tax free, become a banker. What's more, your losses are covered by the taxpayers. Not really, ordinary derivative traders go bankrupt when they lose - look at what happened to the small banks. Talk about false profits. Doesn't that remind you of false "prophets"?

Tomorrow, I'll start describing how these characteristics affect FullEmploy. Some characteristics are so vital that they'll be one article.

Characteristics of an Entrepreneur - Day 3

I've so far described the first 8 characteristics in the past 2 days; here are the next 4:


      9. Focus

This is an obvious one as if you have too many tasks to do at the same time, you won't do any of them any justice. Yet people don't deliberately lose focus; they're distracted by other people. So if somebody tries to distract you from your task, follow Brian Tracy's advice: point to somebody else and say "go and waste his time".

      10. Health & Fitness

Not many people associate Health & Fitness as a characteristic of entrepreneurs yet people will happily talk about entrepreneurs needing to work long hours and do most of the task themselves - the proverbial wearing of many hats. If that doesn't knock the stuffing out of you, nothing will. All this implies that you need to be Fit & Healthy.

However, if you're working long hours, there's a chance that you're not taking adequate rest or sleep. This will harm you in the long run. Another characteristic of entrepreneurs is Delegation. By delegating tasks, you'll free up time to plan strategically and rest adequately. Remember to work on your business not in your business.

      11. Leadership

Not many people associate Leadership with entrepreneurs. Some of them are known to be serial entrepreneurs - Richard Branson being the best example with over 400 companies in the Virgin Group. Such entrepreneurs become leaders because of their proven track record; they don't need to look important or confident - they can look fake. Branson's contributions to the economy make him important. With all that success behind him, he's naturally confident. In interviews Branson looks and sounds ordinary. That's because we all are from the PM to the shopfloor worker. The difference between a successful person and an unsuccessful one is opportunity. Most successful people create their own opportunities. Branson must have exercised leadership early on as soon as he hired people to work for him. This is because all levels of management require leadership skills. This means that Branson is not the only leader in the Virgin Group.

      12. Open-Mindedness

This is like Flexibility - there are limits to how many tasks you'll take on or how many ways to do the same thing. If you operate an open-door policy, the amount of work you'll end up with will drive you to distraction, and you'll lose focus. I suppose open-mindedness comes in when considering possible solutions; and flexibility when considering other people's contributions. Remember that these must take into account the organisation's core values which cannot be compromised.

Open-mindedness implies that you need to tolerate many points of view. This is legitimate for long-term planning. Some people are not aware of the long-term objectives and they see the diverse viewpoints as a distraction which contributes to the loss of focus; and they ditch most of them. They achieve short-term success but fail in the long term. Sentences like "So that's this is for" can be heard when describing some of the things that they ditched.

See you tomorrow for the 4th instalment.

Characteristics of an Entrepreneur - Day 2

Yesterday I introduced what I learnt from my research i.e. the 16 characteristics of an entrepreneur. I also published my understanding of the first 4 characteristics. So, below are the next 4:

      5. Decisiveness

This is the true mark of leadership especially when done with flexibility but a leader must lay down the law for everyone else to follow and this necessitates decisiveness. Again the central theme is knowing your vision; aims & Objectives; and the strategies to achieve them. This enables you to make decisions with confidence but decisiveness comes into its own when the decision maker is under pressure.

You need to be decisive when
a) Negotiating
b) Delegating
c) Communicating
d) Being Flexible
e) Leading
f) Risk Taking

      6. Delegation

All levels of management need to delegate work. The ultimate responsibility remains with the manager. In the past, managers used to delegate authority to do work according to a set remit with the ability to make decisions within certain limits known as tolerances. Nowadays, although this practice still exists, delegation has shifted a gear and responsibility, within stated tolerances, is also delegated but control is retained by the manager.

In order to achieve that control, the manager sets milestones with clear targets and monitors progress independently of the people doing the work e.g. by interviewing the recipients of the products/services as well as asking for progress reports. In other words managers are taking a strategic view and allow the people, to whom work is delegated, to take care of the operational issues.

Most managers are operational managers in that they're responsible for implementing strategic plans. However, when they delegate work to lower levels, they create strategic plans for this to be controlled. These are called "operational strategies" and can be created at all levels. This is reminiscent of functional decomposition where a large problem is broken into smaller problems which themselves are broken into even smaller problems or problemettes. This gave rise to the top-down approach which is difficult to accept - it's still waiting for wider acceptance. The solutions of these problemettes has to be communicated up the hierarchy using a bottom-up method.

      7. Drive

My research found that what this implies is that you've got to have the energy to see tasks / projects through to completion. You need to be fit and healthy in order to have that energy.

      8. Flexibility

Managers at all levels need to be flexible and seriously consider other people's input to solutions. This implies that such people need to be involved in the planning phase so that their input can be used in the right context. Shopfloor workers have experience of what works and what doesn't and this is very valuable info for the planners as it can result in more realistic estimates and the shopfloor workers would feel involved which means there's no more them and us. This is not just about flexibility but also common sense.

See you tomorrow for the 3rd instalment.

Characteristics of an Entrepreneur - Day 1

While researching the market for FullEmploy, I came across a claim that there are 16 Characteristics of a Business Owner. The majority of business owners are essentially entrepreneurs; so these became characteristics of entrepreneurs. The characteristics are:

1. Being Organised
2. Clarity
3. Communication
4. Confidence
5. Decisiveness
6. Delegation
7. Drive
8. Flexibility
9. Focus
10. Health & Fitness
11. Leadership
12. Open-mindedness
13. Optimism
14. Perceptiveness
15. Persistence
16. Risk Taking

The most recognisable characteristic is Risk Taking and the least recognisable one is, believe it or not, Leadership. When entrepreneurs start their careers few people believe in them let alone recognise them as Leaders. It's only when they succeed that people see them as Leaders - of innovation at least.

16 is a perfect square whose square root is 4. So in the next 4 days I'll be describing what these characteristics mean to me. On the 5th day I'll remove some characteristics that I think are identical and add more characteristics that I think are also relevant. So, I'll begin with day 1:

1. Being Organised - you can organise objects, activities, time, etc. This is akin to management e.g. management of objects is called Resource Management; activity management is called Project Management; time management doesn't have a posh name. You don't need to be a Resource Manager or a Project Manager as these can be delegated; you do need to know what's involved in order to control them. So when an entrepreneur organises activities, he/she has to know how they fit together and what the expected results are before delegating them to a Project Manager. When people see you as being organised, they see see you as being in control which inspires confidence and puts you in a Leadership position.
2. Clarity - you need to be clear on what you want to achieve overall, the Aims & Objectives i.e. the stepping stones on how to get there; and the methods of solution to achieve the Aims & Objectives. You also need to show that clarity to the people you delegate work to. This inspires confidence and is seen as a mark of Leadership. Clarity is also needed during negotiations which is not included as a characteristic. However, an entrepreneur needs to be a skilled negotiator in order to get their idea accepted let alone funded.
3. Communication - once you're clear on your overall vision and its constituent Aims & Objectives and techniques, you need to communicate them to the people who'll eventually do them. You must make sure that they understand what's expected of them. During execution the people who do the work will report on progress at regular intervals. This time you have to show them that you understand what they're reporting. With the best will in the world, sometimes resources and techniques don't work according to plan and you have to be prepared to be flexible. Clear, concise communications delivered confidently can inspire confidence and increase the chances of success. Maybe communications replaces negotiations as a characteristic.
4. Confidence - this has to be the result of delivering the other characteristics. It's easy to look confident when you know what you're doing i.e. when you're clear about your Aims & Objectives and the techniques of achieving them. However, expressing an air of confidence for the sake of it, can lull you, and others, into a false sense of security and, if the people you're dealing with eventually find out, you'll lose your reputation. Many people "fake it till [they] make it". This should be done as a last resort after everything else has failed. Confidence is a component of other characteristics:
   a) Communication: you need to communicate confidently as well as clearly
   b) Decisiveness: you must make decisions with confidence which shows the other parties involved that you're serious and that you know what you're doing.
   c) Delegation: when you give people work to do, as well as communicating what's required clearly, it needs to presented confidently.
   d) Flexibility: Although you may need to accommodate other people's ideas but you believe their suggestions are out of place, communicating these facts clearly and confidently will make them accept your methods more easily. I've always advocated involving the workforce from the earliest opportunity.
   e) Leadership: clarity, confidence, decisiveness, flexibility, etc together make a leader. One of these characteristics alone doesn't quite cut it.
   f) Optimism: this is almost synonymous with confidence except that optimism is descriptive whereas confidence is conveyed through body language and tone of voice.
   g) Persistence: being able to continue in the face of setbacks enhances other people's confidence in you.
   h) Risk Taking: your confidence motivates others to share the risk with you.

As you may have guessed, the words in red will be discussed later on. So until tomorrow, have a great time.

Business Basics adopted by FullEmploy

I believe that all types of business have similar processes to each other and that some of these processes are so basic that they apply to all businesses without change. The only things that change are the way these processes are implemented due to current circumstances. These processes are:

1. Business Foundations
2. Business Support Functions - Admin and Functional Support
3. Business Processes - the most variable as they depend on the type of business

1. Business Foundations

This is encapsulated by the 4 Corners of the Business World:

a) Business Premises - All business activities occur within premises

b) Staff - All business activities are performed by people

c) Resources - Equipment, Tools, Raw Materials, and Training are needed to perform these activities. The Staff need to be Trained to use the Equipment and Tools to shape the Raw Materials into the finished products/services that'll be sold for a profit.

d) Money - the above 3 corners give us an idea of what the costs are going to be. In this corner, it's the sources of money available that are discussed when starting up a new business or expanding an existing one. Profits or cashflow will be the source for everything else.

Entrepreneurs should start by describing their venture in terms of the Business Foundations i.e. where are their activities going to be performed; how many Staff will be needed; what Equipment, Tools, and Raw Materials are needed; and what training is required not only on the use of the Equipment and Tools but also on the techniques required to produce the products/services.

The Money aspect should be discussed when all the necessary processes have been planned. The above will give you a running total of expected expenditure.

2. Business Support Processes

a) Payroll, Pension, HR

b) Accounts including accountancy

c) Legal Services

d) Customer Services including relationship management

e) Skills Development

 f) Product Development

g) Sales and Marketing

h) Procurement

In big companies, Payroll and Pensions are in one unit and HR is in another. Training, hence Skills Development, is an HR function but they don't carry out the actual training; they simply coordinate the training activities i.e. provide a monitoring role. In a later blog, I'll describe the need for delegation where authority is delegated with the work but control and responsibility remain with the delegators.

Similarly, Sales is in one unit and Marketing is in another but they work closely together. In small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) Sales and Marketing are usually in one unit if at all. Usually Sales staff double up as Marketing operatives. Customer Services is part of the Sales Unit as it's the Sales team who close the deals and provide after-sales care. The Marketing team simply bring in the sales leads.

Similarly, Accounts and Legals can be separate units in big businesses; SMEs can outsource them. The Accounts unit keeps track of all transactions which are used to prepare the financial reports and submit tax and VAT returns to HMRC and Returns and Accounts to Companies House. The Legal unit would give advice on compliance and a defence on any litigation.

Skills Development is a strategy used by HR when developing staff. Product Development is similar to Skills Development but is applied to goods and services. It's also a province of HR as it's the Staff that are developing the products.

3. Business Processes

This section is different for each business. For FullEmploy it involves the following:

a) Building relationships with Employers to identify jobs and job skills and negotiate a contract where the Employer either keeps the post open until the training is complete; or hires the candidate as an apprentice and sends him/her for training as any other employee. This will be done in 2 stages: Client Manger gets job details and uses it to create a Business Plan for the candidate; then negotiate with the Employer.

b) Build Relationships with the Unemployed providing them access to the Skills Database which will contain background info on the Employers so that he/she can select a job that is closest to his/her capabilities. When a candidate joins FullEmploy, he/she is assigned to a Client Manager. Then when he/she selects a suitable vacancy, he/she is reassigned to the Client Manager who manages the Employer that holds that vacancy. The candidate still has to go through a vetting procedure/interview to make sure they're suitable.

c) Build relationships with Training Providers to ensure they have the required skills, if not, we'll work together on building capacity. Details such as cost and duration are noted and shared with the Employers and Funding Agencies. This relationship will include monitoring the progress candidates are making on the course provided. Strict and difficult decisions need to be made regarding where inefficiencies lie.

d) Build relationships with Funding Agencies to see if they can pay for the training. If not, we'll negotiate with the politicians especially Cabinet Ministers. FullEmploy's aim is to get the Government to pay for the training as Industry bosses are reluctant to train staff because they get poached by companies who can offer higher salaries. The latter is our selling point i.e. we don't poach staff from one company and place them in another. If the Government pays for the training, it'll create a level playing field thus preventing wage inflation which translates to lower prices hence lower inflation. FullEmploy will coordinate this activity by creating a Skills Database to reduce the skills shortages and the Government will only pay for training on this particular skill for this particular job which has a vacancy with this particular Employer.

e) Build a relationship with Politicians who can help us perform the activities in d). Once we get the politicians on board, they'll help us gain credibility and persuade the Cabinet to pay for the training.

f) Build relationships with organisations that can supply unemployed people. I've identified Shelter and Crisis, the Homeless Charities, as sources of more difficult candidates because we have to house them before we can find them jobs. This problem needs to be resolved. If we can't get a sufficient number of unemployed people from the various sources, we'll have to advertise for unemployed people and either negotiate with employers if they can pay for the training and recruitment - the chances are they won't. So we have to use e) to get political leverage.

g) Once we've proved the concept in one ward, we'll deploy it in every ward in the UK. This will be done by using the top-down approach which was the original method I wanted to use until I was persuaded to start small and grow organically like everyone else. I wasn't persuaded by that argument because I wanted to be different. What stopped me was the money required (£1.5bn). It was too much for anyone or any syndicate. Another thing that stopped me is credibility as this is my first venture - I sold it to myself by planning to hire 12 Regional Directors who'll hire as many County Managers as there are counties in their region who'll hire as many Area Managers as there are Local Authorities in their Counties who'll hire as many Ward Managers as there are wards in their area who'll hire as many Client Managers as necessary to reduce unemployment and maintain them at low levels in a reasonable period of time.

h) Once we've proved the UK model, we can deploy it internationally.

Why FullEmploy was created

The Ladywood Constituency of Birmingham, UK has the highest unemployment rate in the UK and has had that position for decades. This is despite the fact that Birmingham City is the UK's second city; Europe's largest local authority and biggest landlord; and the City Centre has 31% of the companies in Birmingham. The City Centre is within the Ladywood Constituency, This can only mean that they DON'T employ local labour and haven't been doing so for decades.

When these companies are asked why they don't employ local labour, they claim that they are unqualified, unskilled, and inexperienced. This was used to form one of the policies of FullEmploy: we'll employ and help local people who are unqualified, unskilled, and inexperienced. To enable this to happen, we've ring-fenced each constituency so that we'll only help people within that constituency so that we can focus on the problem. In other words, we'll operate in a constituency by constituency basis. We'll operate on a ward by ward basis but find opportunities for the local people within the constituency they're in.

Birmingham City Council has the largest per capita budget in the country - £3.5bn for its 1m inhabitants - that's £3,500 per man, woman and child. Yet it's spent on prestige projects and the local people don't see much benefit of all that money; they just look on as people from outside the constituency get the jobs they should've had or look at somebody else's wealth that they don't benefit from. Perhaps the new policy of FullEmploy will help reduce the chronic unemployment in Birmingham's inner city areas.

Birmingham City Council members are experts in getting inward investment into the city; it's just that the new employers either bring their workforce with them from outside Birmingham or are very selective when recruiting staff. Personally, I don't blame the employers, they need the staff who CAN do the jobs available. This has become another policy of FullEmploy: identify jobs available and the skills required to do them; then train local people in these required skills so that they become attractive to the new employers as well as existing ones.

The idea is simple, if the local people miss out on current opportunities, there will always be more opportunities sometime later. If not, FullEmploy will help them start their own businesses. It's a well known fact that when there's a plethora of skills in a particular area, that area attracts inward investment without the need to give inducements.

So, the Ladywood Constituency has the highest unemployment rate in the UK; although Birmingham has a high level of oppurtunities, they're largely not available to the local people because most of them are unqualified, unskilled and inexperienced. To make matters worse, nobody is doing anything about it.

FullEmploy will do something about it. In the coming days I'll outline the vision, aims, and objectives of FullEmploy and show the way forward. It'll be a learning exercise for all concerned including the local people involved.