Bernard Ginns: 2010 kicks off in fine style – but there are battles ahead

Could that result be a good omen for Leeds in the year ahead? We'll have to wait and see. It should certainly give the city's confidence and sense of identity a big boost.

And in terms of marketing potential, a high-flying football team is the best vehicle a city with European aspirations could have. Perhaps Yorkshire Forward could invest some of its millions in a few players before the Tories turn the tap off!

Love him or loathe him, Ken Bates appears to have done a good job of stabilising the club.

In an interview with a Sunday newspaper, he said: "Now we are building upwards with foundations of rock. We expect nothing but we plan for the worst and hope for the best.

"The new Leeds has no debt. It is making a profit. Not a lot but a profit. That a lot more than can be said for many clubs even in the Premier League."

That's a remarkable turnaround job.

Talking of turnarounds, I learned with interest that Leeds Business School is launching a new course in turnaround management with the backing of one of the industry's leading exponents.

I suspect that the skills gained in the business school's course may be in great demand over the coming year.

A new year brings with it the chance to start afresh, but only the most ardent optimist would believe that 2010 will offer a kinder and more forgiving business environment than 2009.

I know the banks have geared up to deal with companies that have run into difficulties – at Yorkshire Bank, I hear that Angus Smith, the head of the work-out team, has doubled his staff in the last 18 months.

Turnaround management, according to Martin Allison, the dean of business and law at Leeds Business School, involves the formulation and implementation of a strategic plan and a set of actions for corporate renewal and restructuring, typically during times of severe corporate and financial distress.

The course is being supported by Endless, the five-year-old Leeds private equity company that has built a national reputation for its skill in rescuing businesses.

According to Mr Allison, a successful turnaround plan has seven stages. These are crisis stabilisation; new leadership; stakeholder management; strategic focus; critical process improvements; organisational change and financial restructuring.

Politicians could learn a thing or two about turnaround as well, as it is not just companies that will find themselves short of cash in 2010. As has been widely documented in this column and elsewhere, the UK's finances are in an appallingly bad state.

Perhaps George Osborne, the man who seems likely to be the next Chancellor of the Exchequer, should get up to Yorkshire for a lesson in turnaround management and learn from the masters.

MOVING down to Sheffield, I predict that 2010 could be a good year for one of the steel city's most iconic businesses.

Sheffield Forgemasters has been trying for many months to nail down the government on a commitment to help the company with new investment to help it compete on a global stage in the building of the next wave of nuclear power stations.

The company is planning a programme of investment worth 140m – to pay for a massive new 15,000 tonne forging press – and is seeking government support in the form of grants or loans or both.

Tony Pedder, the chairman, said yesterday that Forgemasters has been having "encouraging and hopeful" conversations with the government about the "question of a funding formula that works for everyone".

Forgive me for being cynical, but I do expect a positive government announcement on this before the general election. If I was a political strategist, it would be a no-brainer.

ON to the east of the region, where I would like to wish the best of luck to port operator RMS Group, which is taking its battle against grossly unfair port taxes to the Lands Tribunal next week.

The scandal began when the Valuation Office Agency carried out a review of port ratings, which resulted in many companies being hit with backdated taxes.

Businesses argue that they had already paid taxes for the period through a cumulo arrangement and warn that the new system could lead to job losses and bankruptcies.

Peter Aarosin, the chief executive of the 30m turnover RMS Group, said: "We cannot get a decent dialogue with the government over this and so the next stage has to be through litigation.

"No one in our industry is going to take this lying down. There is too much at stake for our industry."

If ever there was an example of an idiotically conceived, business-unfriendly tax, then this has to be it.