Business Diary: January 31

IF you’re unaccustomed to public speaking, there’s always a danger you’ll put both feet in it.

Former Home Secretary Alan Johnson entertained guests at the Hull and Humber Chamber of Commerce Annual dinner with anecdotes about speakers from the trade union movement who should have invested in a thesaurus.

At one meeting an official solemnly warned the audience: “If you carry this, you will dessicate this union.”

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At another meeting, union members were told: “It’s time to boil this lance.”

Diary welcomes other examples of malapropisms from the speaking circuit.

Quality candidates just right for the job

IT was refreshing to hear businessman Carl Pickup speak of the vast number of “quality” candidates he came across when recruiting.

When asking about the challenges faced by firms, Diary is often told by members of the business community of the struggle to find the right calibre of people for jobs.

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But Mr Pickup, who is the managing director at Leeds-based Peter Cook International, an upholstery components firm, told Diary: “We were recently recruiting for a sales administrator. We used a recruitment consultant and the calibre of the 15 people put in front of us was so high that we could have employed any of them. I was quite amazed at how many quality candidates there were.”

He added: “People are inherently good. They don’t wake up in the morning and want to do a bad job.”

And as companies go into administration, plenty of quality workers are left without jobs, freeing them up to take on roles elsewhere, he said.

New golden age for the mutuals

ON the face of it, you wouldn’t have thought that the story of a Yorkshire-based mutual had blockbuster potential.

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But there’s a compelling drama at the heart of Benenden Healthcare Society.

This week, Diary received a copy of a new documentary, Ahead of its Time, which describes how Benenden was founded in the early 20th century to stop post office workers from dying of tuberculosis. Today, membership of Benenden is open to all public sector workers and their families, as well as staff from organisations “whose aims and objectives are compatible with the society”.

According to the blurb that comes with the DVD, mutuals could be on the brink of a “new golden age”.

Earlier this month, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said he wanted to create a “John Lewis” economy, by encouraging employee ownership.

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All 76,500 permanent staff at John Lewis are partners who own 35 shops across the UK.

Paul Keenan, Benenden’s external affairs manager, said: “In the past year, we have continued to engage with politicians and other stakeholders about the future of healthcare in the UK, and we plan to maintain our efforts in the months and years to come in order to promote the work and role of mutuals.”

Sometimes things are better left unsaid

AS saccharine answerphone greetings go, a certain well-known Yorkshire retailer’s voicemail takes some beating.

“Hope you’re well, leave a message; I will phone you straight back. Have a great day and keep smiling.”

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For a sector witnessing an increasing flow of administrations, redundancies and profits warnings, that might be a tall order – smiles are an increasingly scarce commodity among retailers.

If you’ve heard better – or worse – voicemail greetings, then please contact Business Diary at [email protected]

Green Investment Bank bid sent off

SO Leeds City Region has submitted its bid to host the Government’s £3bn Green Investment Bank.

It will face competition from around 20 counter bids from other parts of the country, including historic rival Manchester.

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Diary wonders if Manchester has finessed its bid since December when the website promoting the city’s credentials, greenbankmcr.co.uk, described Leeds as “a perfect location for the Green Investment Bank”.

Embarrassed supporters claimed that the website should have been behind a firewall.

The Leeds City Region bid has cross-party support from the area’s MPs and widespread backing from the business community.

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