I recently read a great blog by Leo Babauta titled ‘Why I’m always in a hurry, and what I’m doing about it’
In fairness to myself, I’ve been making a conscious effort over the last few years to slow down. This is largely thanks to yoga, which has taught me how to find stillness in the mind through practicing yoga on a regular basis
And this - surely - is the thing; by paying attention to what we’re doing, we don’t just get it right, but it makes the experience more enjoyable. Taking the time to complete even mundane tasks gives us the confidence that they’re done properly
Taking the time to do things we want to do, irregardless what they are, makes the whole process so much more enjoyable. Why? Because we’re in the zone. Smelling the roses (and any other cliché you want!). But they’re true. Because we’re ‘being in the moment’, and when we are there, we become more relaxed, we do it better, and we can appreciate more of what we enjoy doing
I remember a story attributed to Bill Clinton, that he had the ability, even as President of the US, to make whoever he was talking to feel like the only person in the room. He focused his attention purely on them, and in doing so, he made them feel very special.
So whatever we’re doing, maybe we should just ease up, and stop greedily cramming our lives full of stuff. Turn off the self-indulgence, and just let go of the need to have it all and do it all
What a great idea - practice being more generous. To ourselves and to others. To learn how to pay full attention to whatever we’re doing, to get more fun and satisfaction out of what we're doing, and just appreciate being in the moment
Why? I have a vested interest. I started my business career at BHS in 1976 as a graduate management trainee, and spent six years there, working in several stores, moving up to Store Manager
I’m sad to see the demise and closure of BHS. Maybe it was due to happen; the business hadn’t progressed in the past 20 years, and it had become a bit of a high street dinosaur. However, my chief concern revolves around the serious mis-management of the business, under the ownership of Philip Green and more recently Dominic Chappell
Apart from the fact 11,000 employees will lose their jobs, the pension plan has been significantly underfunded. Without going into detail, it’s amazing that one former owner (Green) has recently bought his third luxury yacht, having paid his family massive dividends in excess of £580m since he bought the company in 2000
To date, there’s been no tangible offer from Green towards plugging a substantial part of the gap in the BHS pension fund. When he acquired the company in 2000, the pension fund had a surplus of £5m. The deficit in that fund now stands at £571m. The consequence is that BHS pensioners will have to suffer a 10% shortfall in their pension payments.
I should declare that I’m not amongst them, having moved my BHS pension into another fund many years ago. The principle however, of one man taking huge dividends from a business without seemingly any social conscience towards the care and protection of the pension funds for his employees past and present, in my book, absolutely stinks
Incidentally, it’s unbelievable how Philip Green, who prides himself on being one of the UK’s most successful retailers, could possibly imagine how someone without any retail knowledge could do a better job rescuing the company he was about to sell for just a £1
But the other part of my concern is about the mis-management of large companies. There are some appalling recent examples. Such as Mike Ashley, who heads up one of the largest UK retail businesses. He was also summoned to appear before a parliamentary inquiry yesterday to answer criticisms that his company Sports Direct was mistreating its employees, and paying them less than the minimum wage.
He later admitted that some of the accusations put to him actually shocked him, and that the company has outgrown his ability to effectively manage it. Yet in another riposte, he argued he could do a better job for his employees than the Trade Union Unite. How arrogant! In summary, it’s taken a long awaited parliamentary enquiry to get him to commit to an independent review of working conditions in his business. And one more thing; this same Mike Ashley was also looking to acquire BHS from the administrators. If he has concerns about his ability to run his existing company, how on earth does he imagine he could take on an additional major retail business? The mind truly boggles!
Finally, I was interested to read at the weekend that hundreds of former employees of City Link won an employment tribunal against their former owner Better Capital, a private equity business. They will share a payout of more than £1m. City Link collapsed into administration on Christmas Eve 2014, and their employees found out on Christmas Day that they would lose their jobs. The Tribunal ruled that Better Capital made a “deliberate and calculated decision” not to inform staff properly about potential redundancies.
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