Nick Clifford

Clifford Style and Project 1000 have joined together to take a new approach to business advice and support. Traditionally those with more experience and knowledge – the ‘experts’ – offered this wisdom to those who needed it as ‘consultants’. But is this model changing?

What might a ‘different’ (rather than new) normal begin to look like post C-19? For SMEs the key challenge is to begin to imagine a world where the rules have changed. Customers and suppliers are changing their relationships and behaving differently; others are able to offer services that had been exclusively yours. It’s so much easier for others to enter into your marketplace. Being able to see into this rapidly changing world is a challenge.

Clifford Style (Charles and Nick) and Project 1000 (Andrew Lewin) are seeking a new approach to meet this challenge. Instead of assuming there are experts who know the answers – those who have ‘been there’ before, who have met these kinds of problems and solved them … today’s world is recognising that these problems have not been encountered before by anyone. Global pandemics and the economic fall-out that has followed are new. We will have to work out answers together. The Clifford Style Project thinks collaborative learning through investigation is needed – asking the right kinds of questions and investigating them together. Completely new insights are needed. Supporting each other in finding new approaches will be much more effective than hoping experts have the magic answer. Finding a way forward together and learning from each other maybe be a better way – perhaps we need to think differently.

The Clifford Style Project aims to help. We are setting up ‘collaborative hubs’ – these will seek a new understanding of how technology, supply chains, and customer satisfaction all combine into a new way of working in business. We think there are at least six areas where permanent and fundamental changes in attitudes are occuring.

• Wealth and value – how and for whom its created?
• Technology – will digital data and artificial intelligence change us?
• Mobility – how will working, living, and travelling change?
• Shared space – how do we use ‘places’ e.g. town centres?
• Resilience and wellbeing – how do we stay healthy?
• Learning – have we become better informed but less wise?

Our approach to this is

• Pause and reflect (P)
• Gain new Insights (I)
• Develop New thinking and ideas (N)
• Support each other in change and development (S)

In a nutshell – PINS! Our new hubs will develop how we can achieve a better understanding of what challenges we are facing by identifying the underlying issues behind these changes and then thinking about how to address them.

We will be adding to this work as it develops and sharing with you our progress. Nick, Charles and Andrew share a unique blend of knowledge and experience that equips them to take on these challenges:

Nick has been a senior professional in local government and an academic. He has experience in environmental planning and policy analysis. He has researched and taught in a major UK business school, both designing and delivering executive education programmes.

Charles has been a Naval man, with senior command at sea, experience in defence strategy and equipment procurement. He headed the Royal College of Defence Studies, a senior international college based in London developing strategic leaders, and has been an executive in residence at a leading business school.

Andrew has been a Headteacher and Director in a number independent boarding schools, he is passionate about Workplace Resilience and Wellbeing and is an accredited WRAW Master Practitioner, as well as a certified Life Coach. (Contact: project1000.ltd@outlook.com)

Exceptional business challenges have in recent times included uncertainties around the eventual shape of our post-Brexit trading position, the challenges of the environmental/social/governance (ESG) agendas, and the cyber threat. 

Now they include Covid-19. It’s not far from a ‘perfect storm’.

So how do we react?

If we take the ‘perfect storm’ analogy a bit further, – seafarers might frame the choices in terms like this: “batten down?”,  “reef?”, “seek assistance?”, “remain close-hauled, beating upwind?”, “run before the sea?”, “seek the nearest shelter?”, “pray?”, “give up”! 

In fact, we don’t need to know the finer points of storm strategies at sea to know that there are comparisons with business – do we pause?; feel overwhelmed?; act boldly or cautiously?; move fast or wait and see?; remake our strategies?; jump at opportunities? … or a combination of all of these?  

Clifford Style offers a bespoke fast service, with a flexible approach on both product and fees, to small and medium sized businesses as they grapple with extreme uncertainty; commercial obstruction; cash-flow challenges; and the complexities of government financial relief structures.

Now is certainly the time to reassess strategy while handling the unprecedented uncertainties and survival challenges of the moment.

Rishi Sunak, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, announced last Thursday, 2^nd April, that he was revising the financial support scheme to help small and medium sized firms suffering during the nationwide lock-down – the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (Or C-BILS)

The original scheme promised support to the tune of £330bn. – that is 330,000 million pounds.  Last Thursday it was reported that £145m of that £330bn had been lent out.  To put that in perspective it is like me saying I have £1,000 to lend to people in real need, quickly.  And you ask me how much have I loaned out so far of the £1,000?  And I reply 25p.  When you ask me how I was administering the scheme, I reply I was using agents who were lending the money on my behalf.  Rishi Sunak’s agents were the banks.  They were offering their own loans first (before offering C-BILS) and asking for personal guarantees and allegedly in some cases charging up to 30% on those loans.  No wonder it has been slow to get going.

The Chancellor now says he has removed the need for personal guarantees.  But he has still not capped the amount of interest that banks can charge.  So, what does that mean on the ground?

To take an example, on the BBC Radio4 Today programme this morning, Andrew Howard, of PC Howard, a road haulage firm, said that he did not qualify for the scheme since he could not show his firm was ‘viable’.  This was because his Profit and Loss and Cash Flow forecasts were impossible to predict accurately when his business was facing unprecedented fluctuations in demand and there was no way of knowing how long the lock-down would last.  Normally his trucks would be fully loaded with both ‘essential’ and ‘non-essential’ goods.  With all the non-essential goods excluded he was now running his trucks for most trips 44% empty; thereby losing money on each trip.  On the one hand he was assisting the nation to survive (by delivering medical, food, and other essential goods), while on the other hand his business was suffering financial losses in the process.  He claimed that he had been denied support from two banks because both felt that he did not qualify since his firm appeared to be ‘unviable’.  Technically it is and none of it is his fault!

On the same programme, Richard Burnett, the CEO of the Road Hauliers Association, pointed out that 46% of the nation’s fleet of trucks were currently out of commission.  That is 240,000 trucks out of a total fleet of 525,000, standing idle.  80% of road haulage firms are small and medium sized and most are working on margins of 2% and normally hold no more than 2 – 3 weeks ready cash in the business.  So, while Mr Burnett says it is good that the Government recognises that the haulage industry is vital in keeping the nation fed, the measures that they have come up with so far ‘simply don’t work’.

So precisely the kind of ‘high productivity/ low cost’ management that has been admired by British shareholders since the 80’s, which has squeezed both costs and profit margins to improve return on their investments, turns out to be precisely the wrong model to deal with a pandemic crisis.  And the nation is now frozen in the headlights.

When this health crisis begins to ease, the real challenge will be for the Nation to address its economic crisis.  Picking up the pieces will be similar to the aftermath of the Australian fires – social, economic and environmental devastation.  Counting the cost will be difficult.  Developing strategies to achieve future prosperity will need some fundamental re-thinking.

Nick Clifford (Partner) April 8th 2020

When one word can change a conversation completely …

Powerful leaders can use words highly effectively.  One that is least understood and yet really powerful is ‘And’.

An Assistant Chief Executive friend of mine once told me about the thing that most irritated him.  This was when his office door opened and a staff member would come in and say ‘ I have a problem’ –  and after briefly outlining the problem they would then wait … for the answer!  He would then have to tell them that he didn’t possess a magic drawer marked ‘The Answer’!  He would then ask about their problem and probe into why it was a problem for them.  Eventually they would come up with what exactly the problem was; what options the staff member would be comfortable with; and it was only then that my friend would suggest taking one of the options.  Together they would then agree a plan.  The staff member would go away.  ‘Why can’t they do that themselves?’ asked my friend – then all I would need to do would be to suggest which option to choose!

He continued:  “What if there was a way to get staff to think through problems for themselves?”  Finally, he exclaimed: “What they need is a way to problematize!”  In other words, staff needed a sort of mechanism to enable managers who faced problems to work out the nature of the problem; think through possible options  for how it might be solved; make some recommendations on which option they preferred … and then go and discuss it!’.  It got us thinking – how do we go about analyzing problems? 

The key is knowing the right questions to ask – very often solutions to problems are staring us in the face; we just don’t see them.  Some of the sharpest tools in our management toolbox are knowing the right question to ask and when to ask it.  As leaders this is where ‘and’ comes in.  ‘And?’ is the word that encourages; questions; pushes the question back to the staff member; and ultimately helps guide them to the solution they actually know already.  Try it!

Just ask the question ‘and?’ (and leave the rest of your question – what’s in the brackets below – hanging …)

And (so what is the real problem)?

And (so what do you think might be done)?

And (the point you are trying to make)?

And (are you thinking really clearly on this)?

And (have you explored the possible options you have here)?

And (go on a bit more, don’t stop there) …

‘And’ is such a gentle yet powerful word – it can prompt exceptional thinking from staff who are willing to embrace challenges and take on a greater self-leadership role.  It also helps senior leaders who feel under pressure to have ‘all the answers’.  Using ‘and?’ allows them to reflect and ask other questions until they can see the whole situation more clearly and begin to make choices.

At Clifford/ Style we encourage an investigative approach to identifying exactly what the problem is; this allows for creativity; and it offers solutions to emerge from those who probably already knew the answer – they just hadn’t realised it. 

Posted by Dr Nick Clifford

16^th December 2019

The Prime Minister has ruled out a second Scottish independence vote because people were promised it was a ‘once-in-a-generation’ event in 2014. 

However the Financial Times now offers polling data suggesting an increase in the numbers believing the UK will not exist in its current form in 10 years.  The reduced confidence in the UK’s future in its current form is described as ‘striking’.  In Scotland  (which wishes to stay in the EU) parliamentary moves are afoot towards a second independence referendum, potentially heralding another constitutional crisis.

Brexit offers complexity and risk within the island of Ireland, and there is more talk of Welsh independence at some point in the future. 

Watch this space.