Dissident

Mark Prisk talks about the issues of running a small business in Briatin today

2008-07-17T22:27:45+01:00

As a small business owner myself, struggling under the ever increasing burden of government regulations and stultifying tax, I had a vested interest in the eCademy networking event that took place on Tuesday 15th July, where Mark Prisk MP was guest speaker.

Mark Prisk is MP for Hertford & Stortford, Shadow Minister, Enterprise, Deregulation & Competition and Shadow Minister for Cornwall He presented on "Running a Business in Britain Today".

As a former businessman, Mark has a wide interest in all entrepreneurial activity. He is the vice-chair of the all-party parliamentary groups on Small Business and on Freelancers, the treasurer of the all-party group on Entrepreneurship, and a trustee of the Industry Parliamentary Trust

I captured the full presentation on video (24 mins) - well worth looking at if you have the time - a mix of amusing anecdotes, worrying statistics, and maybe hope for the future. Some key points I noted:

There are currently 3000 business support schemes in operation, managed by 2000 different public bodies at a total cost to the taxpayer (i.e. you and me) of £2.6 billion (yes...billion!)
A recent survey revealed that 75% of these schemes have no ideas whether their money is being spent effectively - i.e. there is no measure of success.
Only half of one percent of business owners of these schemes were satisfied with their service.
Government does not recognise the existence of home businesses or SME's with less than 50 employees - except of course when recovering business taxes - i.e. they are simply not on the radar.

So, if these statistics are not sufficient to warrant reform of the system, I don't know what is!

See also the Doug Richard's report (he of Dragon's Den fame) on the proposals to overhaul the Government's business support system, which it describes as "complex" and "out of control".

If you want to know more about the Conservative's ideas on small business reform, check out the website. There's also a link to a nationwide survey which Mark Prisk is coordinating to see how a Conservative Government could best help SME’s. Regardless of your political persuasion, if you are a small business owner, you may as well have your say.

Enterprises urged to pay staff to use their own kit

2008-07-10T16:02:45+01:00

According to analyst group Gartner, enterprises could make significant savings by paying staff to use their own laptops. The report suggested that a monthly payment of £47 per employee would be cost effective and attractive to staff. Gartner said that schemes that encourage staff to use their own laptops would reduce maintenance and support costs and improve productivity.

"The costs go down for the enterprise if the notebook is provided by the employee because the employee takes more responsibility fixing the computer I their own time"

the Gartner analyst is reported as saying.

This touched a sensitive nerve for me, given my own experience as a consultant. More often than not I'm compelled to use the ‘corporately approved' hardware and software build for PC and laptops when I'm working at a client's site, which usually means - at best - IE6 with no plug-ins, 3 versions back of Flash player and an obscure version of PDF reader. The only plus point is that Vista is not yet widely deployed. The transition from my personal laptop configuration to these corporate versions is like stepping back to medieval times (though in reality it's probably no more 5 - 10 years). No more one-click access via my Firefox plug-in to my del.icio.us account for tagging useful web pages; no more one-click social bookmarking to Digg or Stumble; no more one-click saves to Google Notebook.

I get the impression that any whiff of user productivity is sniffed out by these ICT departments and vigorously stamped out, as a recent experience would seem to reinforce. A short time ago I managed to install the Google toolbar on my corporate PC. All was well for a couple of weeks, and then I got one or two obscure messages from the virus checking software. I made the mistake of calling the IT support desk, who soon sussed that I had installed the toolbar (shock, horror), and wanted to arrange an appointment for a techy to visit my desk and remove it. Needless to say I haven't returned these calls, and have so far managed to dodge the IT security police. In the meantime, I can save a few seconds each time I want to do a Google search by using the toolbar. But then again, a few seconds saved for each search mounts up to a few minutes each day and maybe even a few hours each month. Multiply this across several hundred employees and you begin to wonder if the inmates are running the asylum!

Perhaps one day (but unfortunately not in my life time), these ICT departments will begin to understand the business needs of the enterprise and provide the services that will contribute towards the business and user productivity. Devolving ownership and responsibility to users for their own PCs and laptops is probably a step too far for most enterprises, but I remain hopeful that it will happen one day. On that note I will hastily finish - I think I see an IT person approaching looking for a rogue laptop!

Browsing the web cost billions in lost productivity

2008-06-20T14:15:19+01:00

I worry that some people believe this sort of rubbish. According to the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) the average UK worker spends ninety minutes a week misusing corporate internet connections.

The CBI said that workers are spending roughly an hour and a half out of their week visiting web sites that have no relation to their work whatsoever. Cumulatively, it said, this costs UK businesses some £10.6bn in lost productivity over the course of a year.

The CBI polled some 503 businesses, who it said employed nearly one million workers between them. Two thirds of those who took part admitted that they think that their staff use work time – ie, not lunch, or formal breaks, to look at non-work sites. It identified social networking, web-based email and shopping and holiday sites as the biggest draws. Overall, they estimate the annual cost, per employee to be the region of £1000. According to the report, this costs UK businesses £10.6 billion (yes billion) a year in lost productivity.

Firstly of all, do they really expect us to believe that if there was a complete embargo on 'non work related websites' that we'd be saving the economy getting on for £11 billion? This assumes that these employees wouldn't be doing other 'wasteful' things with their time if they weren't surfing the web - like reading a newspaper or doing su-doku, or otherwise expanding their knowledge.

Secondly, they seem to have concluded that any serendipitous use of the internet is wasted time. What about all that information that has been both consciously and sub-consciously absorbed during this browsing experience? I wonder if they've quantified the times when some apparently useless nugget of information has been stored in the sub-concious and then used at some later date to contribute to the well being of the person (e.g. some health information), or maybe even applied to the workplace in a way that has improved productivity?

I'm saddened that a respected industry body such as the CBI should publish such report like this that draws some very debatable conclusions on a potentially flawed hypothesis that serendipitous use of the web is bad for business. Maybe they'd have us bring the workhouse back?

I just hope that managers will not use this report as further ammunition to restrict workers from using the web for anything other than browsing their own company's web site. Let's not apply 19th century working practices to 21st century workers!

The meaning of life, the universe and everything

2008-06-11T14:46:15+01:00

You may recall that the answer to the question “What is the meaning of life, the Universe and everything?” was “42”, according to the Deep Thought Computer in Douglas Adams’s The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.

The problem for Arther Dent and Ford Prefect was that in order to understand the answer, they first had to find out what the ‘Ultimate Question’ was.

Well, now we know. It’s clearly “how many days we should be allowed to hold a suspected terrorist without charge.” How, this will affect the meaning of life, the universe and everything is no entirely clear, except if we were to presume that the outcome of today’s vote in Parliament resulted in defeat for the Government and the realisation that the game is up for Gordon. Will this herald a new dawn, or will the earth cease to exist tomorrow? This is indeed a worrying time for us all!

Equality and diversity - regulating the regulators

2008-05-21T15:39:47+01:00

I wonder what it is about Non-Departmental Public Bodies (NDPBs), Non-Government Organisations (NGO's) and other Quangos that somehow feel compelled to monitor and report on socio-demographic data that is not part of their brief?

I encountered this first hand when I was contracted by LSC and DIUS last year to set up the Information Authority. This afforded me some brief (albeit heady) power over the Individual Learning Record (ILR), which is the process by which schools, colleges, universities and employers working in the further education (FE) sector report on courses they're running, the trainees on the courses and the training outcomes. I am reminded of one particular request from the LSC to modify the ILR for 2008/9 to start collecting information from the FE sector about age, ethnicity and sexual orientation of trainees. When probed about why they wanted this information, it was "to ensure compliance with equality and diversity legislation". Fortunately I was in a position at the time to reject this request, mainly on the grounds that the LSC had no statutory right to monitor and report on this data. They were there as a funding body - full stop! It's the duty of the schools and colleges etc. to comply with the legislation, not for some other self-appointing authority to report and regulate.

I was therefore mildly alarmed when I heard that the IDeA wanted to start collecting data on ‘equality and diversity' of users of the Community of Practice platform. I understand this only extends to age and ethnicity of users, which is not quite as pervasive as the LSC example. The main concern here though is opaqueness of purpose, i.e. what the data is needed for and what would happen to it once it became available to other organizations working in the local government sector. I've so far managed to head off a proposal whereby this data would be compulsorily provided as part of the CoP platform registration process, but I don't think the requirement has quite gone away.

It may be that the motives are entirely innocent, but I don't understand why there is this perceived need to categorise and label people when there is no distinction made as to who and how they use the CoP platform. It's the same interface, the same applications, the same support procedures etc. I remain suspicious of any organization that wants to start putting people into pigeon holes, particularly when this is done under the banner of ‘equality'. After all, isn't this an oxymoron?

Tax Bill up 50% under Labour

2008-05-16T13:16:52+01:00

Juts picked this snippet up from the Tax Payer's Alliance latest report. Even when inflation is taken into account Britain’s tax burden has soared by over 50% in the last ten years under the Labour government, the report claims.

In its report, the TaxPayers’ Alliance (TPA), a lobbyist for fairer taxes, said a combination of up-front and stealth levies has led to a total tax bill of £517billion a year.

In other words, a single British household has seen their annual tax bill rise, helped by fiscal drag, to an extraordinary £20, 700.

“Shamefully,” a significant part of the tax rise has been in the form of ‘stealth’ taxes, the report says, pointing to the 10p sting in last year’s so-called “tax-cutting” budget.

Alongside stealth taxes, there have been “sly increases” in the shape of fiscal drag – the failure to adjust tax thresholds in line with earnings and asset prices.

Over the last decade, the TPA said Labour has hiked taxes in this way by £14 billion a year, partly explaining the group’s view that taxpayers have been ‘ripped off.’

Wallets have been hit even harder because taxpayers have been made to pay additional fees or charges for what used to be ‘free’ or virtually free public services.

For example, the Driver Vehicle Licensing Agency now takes £300 million per annum from the sale of driving licences, while its business in personalised number plates brings in another £100 million per annum.

Passport charges are another good earner, the report said pointing out that in 1997 a passport cost £18, but last year the cost soared to £72, a quadrupling in price.

These charges now cost taxpayers nearly £500 million per annum, and the TPA said it fears further costs could be on the way given the increasing expense of ID cards. (If this touches a nerve - might be worth checking out No2ID - I'm already signed up!)

But it is the NHS and local authorities which have proved the biggest money-grabbers, the report says.

Its authors said school dinners charges have risen 50% in ten years, parking charges and fines have risen to over £1 billion and hospital car parks raise over £100m in England alone.

Mike Denham, a former economist at the Treasury who authored the report, reflected that “the government has used every trick in the book to drive up the tax burden.”

“Ordinary families are paying a heavy price,” he said. “People are increasingly beset by record levels of taxation and growing service charges, but there has been no improvement in services in return.
“We find ourselves paying more and more for less and less. With rocky economic times ahead, this rate of taxation simply cannot be sustained.”

Matthew Elliott, the TPA's chief executive, believes the British public are being “ripped off in the most shameful way.”

“The cloak and dagger methods the Government is using the squeeze money out of hard working people are deplorable,” he said.

“With fewer police stations, limited GPs’ hours, libraries closing, rarer bin collections and a host of other cuts we are getting less for our money than ever before.

"People are facing higher fuel bills, more expensive food and much bigger mortgage bills – and on top of all that they are being stealth taxed and charged more than ever before. This con has got to stop.”

Here here I say! Roll on 2010 (or preferably sooner!)

New links on Communities of Practice @del.icio.us 2008-05-04

2008-05-04T11:26:58+01:00

THIS BLOG IS MOVING TO STEVE-DALE.NET

Tools for Communities Wiki

A companion piece to a forthcoming book Stewarding Technologies for Communities of Practice by Etienne Wenger, Nancy White and John D. Smith. It collects knowledge about how Communities of Practice use different tools. Like all Wikis, this is a work in progress. It collects knowledge about how Communities of Practice use different tools. The vision is to provide a community perspective on these tools and their key features.

GroupTweet

GroupTweet piggy-backs on the Twitter service via the Twitter API. It allows you to set up a private group on Twitter for sending and receiving text messages (tweets) to members of the group. This tool might be a great introduction to Twitter as quick information sharing tool for a small community of practice and people who are new to Twitter.

Social Media for the socially excluded

2008-04-24T16:31:57+01:00

I had a meting today with an organisation - HeartsnSoul - who want to create a community web site to bring people with learning difficulties together with potential employers. They want to encourage use of personal blogs for their users and have a virtual meeting place (e.g. forum) where their users can ‘meet' potential employers.

I am looking into the issues and dependencies for providing all this through our existing CoP platform , but I think the interface design requirements may exceed the available budget and there may be implications for the future management and maintenance for what would have to be a separate bespoke development.

I was wondering if anyone had any experience with designing, developing or using similar sites (i.e. with heavy emphasis on accessibility and usability), blending social media applications with a simple and intuitive front end design? Or perhaps anyone with experience in this whole area of bridging the digital divide for socially excluded groups. If so, I should be very grateful if you would contact me.

CoPs at the boundary of institution and innovation

2008-04-19T15:18:38+01:00

David Wilcox over at Designing for Civil Society has posted some additional comment on the Community of Practice Facilitators Workshop. My thanks to David for his probing questions and insightful comment.

Community of Practice Facilitators Workshop

2008-04-19T15:16:31+01:00

We had a very good day at the IDeA Community of Practice Facilitator's Workshop on Friday 11^th April. These are regular (bi-annual) events where we get the CoP facilitators (and several guests) together to share knowledge and experience of facilitating one or more of the 300+ CoPs now active across local government.

The day was organised and facilitated by a team from the IDeA, led by Michael Norton, who interestingly enough has just put his toe in the water and started his own blog. I'm sure he'll have lots of valuable things to say about his specialist area - knowledge management.

Socialreporter David Wilcox was there with an eye on proceedings and video camera at the ready. David did a video interview with Michael Norton and me, but not quite sure where this will appear (note - since posted here). David is also trialling video streaming using QIK and his new S60 Nokia so we'll look out for some instant video commentary next time!

One of the key themes for the day was how to make a CoP fly. We used the analogy of the CoP being a hot air balloon, and the need to ensure it could gain sufficient height to cross a mountain range. The injections of hot air being the various activities that a facilitator could take to keep the CoP flying. There's a useful article over at Knowledge Board about this.

We also had a video from Nancy White, who has been chairing a hotseat in the Facilitators CoP for the past two weeks on the topic: Are our assumptions about sustaining groups online out of date in the network era?

My personal interest was in listening to the stories ‘from the coal face', i.e. the experiences of the various facilitators. I have a role as technical steward for the CoP platform, so I want to make sure that the technology is meeting the needs of the facilitators and ordinary members, and that future developments are keeping pace with how the platform is being used. I briefly covered what was being planned for next phase of development, and fortunately the new features seemed to be consistent with what users were asking for. However, I was a bit surprised at how some people were using blogs - not as I had anticipated in that they would be associated with personal comment and promotion on what is happening in a CoP, but in some cases as the vehicle for collecting and distributing confidential CoP comments and documents to just the members of the private CoP. My plans for changing the blog facility from being just internal to each CoP to more of a platform-wide facility to encourage more inter-CoP communication and collaboration may have to be reviewed - though I still think this is a valid need.

Overall it was a very successful day, with lots of useful tips interchanged on how to keep that CoP flying. The benefit of all these type of events is the realisation that you have colleagues out there facing similar issues to you, and can draw on the collective knowledge and experience of a growing cohort of facilitators.

There were a few quotes I will remember:

"I'm not sure that we have permission to innovate in our organisation"

I'd like to think that CoPs do empower people to make change, but the heavy hand of command and control is still evident in many organisations, and could in some cases snuff out that spark of innovation that is in all of us.

"Someone read and commented on my first blog! I got a real buzz out of that - it's not an ego trip or anything, I'm just so pleased that someone thought I had something interesting to say"

Yes, let's have more of that!

"We're all learning together; IDeA does not have all the answers - it's up to us to help each other"

On that note, I went away feeling quite happy with life!