Author: Damian Merciar

Damian Merciar is Managing Director of Merciar Business Consulting, http://www.merciar.com, a niche business economics consultancy founded in 1998. He has over twenty years experience in the areas of commercial Business Strategy. He is experienced in the transition environments of nationalized to private sector state utilities and the senior practice of commercial management, advisorial consultancy, and implementation. He has carried out policy advisory work for government ministries and been an adviser to institutional bodies proposing changes to government. He holds an MSc Economics from the University of Surrey’s leading Economics department and an MBA from the University of Kent. Also attending the leading University in the Middle East, studying International Relations and Language, for which he won a competitive international scholarship, and has a BA (Hons) in Economic History and Political Economy from the University of Portsmouth. He is currently based in London.

Volunteering a heady contribution…

Voluntarism is a vital form of community involvement, it provides a bond between the citizen and their broader grouping, whether it be social or civic. Business can benefit hugely from “deploying” people on various community activities: they provide ambassadors for the company, giving it credence and relevance to the neighbourhood, and they can bring some of the district back into the company, helping it to remember its core ‘stakeholders’ – be they a potential employment pool, or a new source of customer.

Big companies have been doing this for many years now. Companies with designated PR budgets ensure that their employees are seen volunteering – and, more importantly for them sometimes – where they volunteer. Just as with everything, there are fashionable causes to contribute time and attention to. As Sarah Murray says in a FT article from the tail end of last year, when speaking about Cisco:

“It tends to give people a broader perspective – they often come back with ideas as to the way we do business,”

Employees are allowed to take sabbaticals, typically of about three months, to volunteer on this and other philanthropic projects to which Cisco contributes. As well as being seen as an appealing perk, the sabbaticals allow the company to give its staff valuable opportunities of a break from routine.

Cisco also uses volunteering for team building. Through its work with Habitat for Humanity, for example, the company sends teams to work on construction projects with the charity, which builds affordable housing.

“As part of their development during the year, they do these projects jointly, and you usually have various skills in the team, from technicians to sales people, so it’s interesting to see how these people gel in an environment that’s more level,” says Mr Smith. “Taking them out of their normal comfort zone and putting them somewhere different can often be very powerful.”

Environmentalism is the main recipient of new volunteering schemes, its cache resounds around the workforce and this usually means that it’s easier to obtain willing supplicants to whatever new idea the Chief Exec’ wants to pitch his people into. However, it is vitally important – indeed we have done work on this in the past ourselves, that the “old society” (see dot com distinction between ‘old economy’ and ‘new economy’) is well represented in this largesse of time giving. By this, we mean Scouting, the National Trust, Church groups: Civic Society. We all benefit if we know the people with whom we entrust our children; if we understand the work that it has taken to restore the local park, if the old folk’s home has a brighter cheer to it, as people call in, even just to spend some time. An older and often more rewarding form of currency.

Remembrance is a necessary balm…

“They disembarked in ‘45

And no spoke and no one smiled.

There were too many spaces in the line”

Yesterday was our National  Remembrance Day in the UK, and we attended services in the morning. Our Vicar is an impassioned and resolute intellectual, with true warmth and compassion towards the subject. Also, in his case, experience, as a former Naval Chaplain.

Damian Merciar too has several years’ personal experience of the Forces, and, like most families of this country, experience of the losses from both conflicts. His Great Grandfather was one of the tens of thousands killed in the early days of the Somme, and his Grandfather a veteran  of the Royal Artillery Regiment, wounded in action in occupied France – after doubling up as a paratrooper.

This was precisely the point about the Sermon delivered yesterday – that it is only with personal experience that we are able to honour what is meant by Remembrance. This is distinct from a call for Peace. A separate and necessary time for reflection, mourning and a possible tempering of the will towards not letting this happen again. Mankind is a violent animal, and the latter point is uttered as much in hope as anything else. See Rwanda, Darfur, recent (and historical) Balkans’ implosions – let alone what passes for ‘calming’ measures in both Afghanistan and Iraq.

Pain is a universal leveller; there are economic, societal, psychological and emotional losses to be borne as a result. Remembrance is a necessary balm.

Scaring off the creative Goose…

 

Chris v Rob is a Lambyweb Production. Lambyweb is an as yet unlisted private operation, owned managed and promoted by a very serious animator. Oh, and he happens to thirteen years old.

“There’s money in them there hills” seems to be the resounding phrase of the moment, and in this analogy, the hills are the imaginations and creativity of our young people. Today, Google paid $1.65 BN for a very new kid on the block – YouTube . This is a “social networking” site where the young (and everyone else) can gather to view, critique, upload and engage in home produced video shorts. Films filmed by us, for us, with no higher agenda than simply to be noticed – a small flag in Cyber Space.

That was until today. Google has said it is potentially keen to share in the revenues it hopes to generate with advertising on the site, with those key filmmakers who prove the biggest draw. In one fell swoop, the innocence and carefree attitude of the site has been changed. We wait to see if this proves significantly detrimental to the site, in fact it could conversely create a legion of Minnelli’s (both Vincente and Liza with a “Z”), Truffaut’s and Scorsese’s. However, intimacy and atmosphere are crucial to these hybrid networks. They can easily become overwhelmed with corporate polish and presence – a presence many young people will run a mile from.

The power of local democracy…

The title of this Blog is not supposed to be ironic – in fact it is meant to be celebratory. However, there is always an element of irony where the subject in hand is local democracy.

This is because of the great centralising tendency of national Government over the last number of years. Unfortunately, blame cannot only be laid at Labour’s door – both Lady Thatcher’s then administration and John Major’s subsequent time in office, effectively set the mould for heavy involvement in local issues from Central Government.

Today, we attended an important rally – to try and save our local hospital, from its threat of downgrading. This is critical, as the hospital (Epsom General Hospital), is the nearest major trauma centre for a number of miles – miles in a densely populated part of South West  London, and the South East of England more generally. Miles, in a location where one cannot afford the time lost in travelling by ambulance to replacement trauma centres; miles that are critical. Literally a matter of life or death.

Not that this seems to matter to the broader NHS Trust responsible for the substantial cuts. Next to be threatened is maternity provision: as Chris Grayling , the local MP (and then Shadow Secretary of State for Transport) states clearly on his website, this would “(leave) Epsom with a much smaller unit with no special care facilities and no emergency cover – creating the risk that mothers needing emergency treatment will have to be rushed to St Helier (Sutton) by ambulance mid-labour.

Many of us in the local area have been campaigning against this reduction in provision for over a year now, thus far to little avail. The fight isn’t over yet, but we have to admit, our faith in local democracy itself needs resuscitation.

Halls of Power – Westminster…

Westminster Village is precisely that – a village; it has all the gossip and intrigue of a medieval palace, and of course, the courtiers to go with it.

However, this is a little more serious than regular speculation on who’s up and who’s down; the standing of the country is at stake. In the USA they cannot believe that we could be on the brink of removing the most Statesman like of Prime Ministers, since Lady Thatcher. For all his brilliance, Gordon Brown projects an image not a million miles away from those Premiers of the former USSR – a little harsh perhaps, but as with every stereotype, there are elements of truth to it.

Tony Blair is a fantastic politician. This does not mean he has been a fantastic Prime Minister – he hasn’t. Unless of course, your criteria are huge increases in the scope, role, power and cost of Government – in which case, he has yet to be surpassed. Here lies the problem. Gordon Brown actually could increase further the tax take, and spend, as a proportion of the National Economy. After 12 years as part of the public head of Government, we have effectively NO idea about where GB stands on International Diplomacy – on various of the UN Treaties of the last decade (notably Israel). We do not know his view towards the Ministry of Defence (MOD) – is it under funded, or are we at the correct pitch for a World Power, slowly relinquishing it’s status to the emerging Titans of India and China (and an increasingly Internationalised and revitalised Japan, and a slowly outward facing Germany – one could go on)

Our Drama unfolds, and we the British public watch on from the wings, reluctant to let go of a world figure, and yet quietly excited at the hoo ha – how long will this last, once Gordon is safely in place?

Collateral Damage is a bizarrely levelling force

Collateral Damage is a bizarrely levelling force. It presents an unjust and unedifying mordant dread for those caught unawares in its blistering range. And for those deliberate enough to exploit and capitalise on the vulnerable within their geographic range, they are merely, it seems, a hand to be played.

This past week has brought all the main rudiments of loss of life and limb to innocent participants in others’ conflict. British holiday makers suffer miserably as a splinter group of Kurdish separatists use their presence to publicise a cause that is both known, and widely supported in the democratic European Union, to which Turkey seeks entry. Ironically, such actions can only further jeopardise Turkey’s chances of successful entry into the EU. No matter, reason the separatists – their concerns are more immediate than the lengthy ongoing accession negotiations.

Similarly, in our last Blog item, we wrote about Hezbollah and their manipulation of the local population in Southern Lebanon. Collateral Damage knows no borders, no ideologies nor moralities. It is what it is, a blunt and terrifying presence – not showing favour as too which side suffers more acutely. Which side, that is, of the perpetrators: the victims are non-aligned – that is their designation.