Business Diary: May 4

SPEAKING at a lunch in Yorkshire last week, the CBI's chief economic adviser revealed his preferred shape to describe the pattern of the recovery.

Ian McCafferty said Vs and Ws are not for him; instead, he rather

fancies something a little more sophisticated.

"The number of letters of the alphabet that have come through to describe the potential shape of this recovery has really been quite startling," he told the audience.

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"We started with U and V-shaped recoveries. We then went on to a W. Some bright spark even then thought about the square root sign – a sharp downturn, up a bit and then flat along.

"The one I like best is the one pointed out to me by someone who is still a master of what is a declining art – Pitman's shorthand.

"They pointed out if you write the word 'bank' in Pitman's shorthand, you get a shape that goes down very sharply and then a rather static upturn.

"So, essentially, we have the Pitman's shorthand cycle."

Diary prefers Teeline's shape for "bank", which resembles the number six, representing the number of successive quarters officially in recession, with an accompanying sickle to indicate the forthcoming savage cuts.

Prime position

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ROGER Marsh, of PricewaterhouseCoopers, seems fairly philosophical about his elevated position at the Big Four accountancy firm.

The best part of 30 years in business recovery work was followed by secondment to the Cabinet Office where, for two-and-a-half years, he held the post of director-general.

Now back in Leeds, he advises PwC on government-related work. He was recently elected to the supervisory board of the UK firm. "It's a good place to be at five to midnight on Roger Marsh at PwC," said the 57-year-old. (See profile, above).

Racing certainty

IT'S hard to use plastic ducks to fire the imagination.

But one Yorkshire firm turned the tiny ducks into real crowd-pleasers. In the process, it managed to attract a crowd which many professional soccer teams would have been proud of.

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Leeds-based an agency called england has just won the Drum Award for Event or Experiential Strategy.

It walked away with the silverware in recognition of its work staging The Great Yorkshire Duck Race.

More than 20,000 people visited Bolton Abbey in the Yorkshire Dales, last August, to cheer more than 100,000 ducks in the river race down a 1km stretch of water.

The event boasted a website and video featuring a host of sporting celebrities, including former cricket umpire Dickie Bird.

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With the support of a large number of sponsors, including Cherry Valley, the UK's largest duck producer, the agency set out to raise awareness and funds for charities including Little Heroes Children's Cancer, Tickled Pink Breast Cancer Campaign, and Yorkshire

Air Ambulance.

Cracking idea

EVER wondered where your boiled egg was laid?

Bradford-based supermarket Morrisons has come up with the solution. The retailer has launched an online egg tracker for its own-brand Natures Nest range, which allows customers to trace their egg back to the farm where it was laid. All eggs are stamped with a code to help customers trace their origins.

Morrisons has also become the first of the UK's big supermarkets to switch to selling 100 per cent British free-range, own-label eggs. The move to 100 per cent free-range eggs comes nine months earlier than previously planned.

Jamie Winter, trading manager at Morrisons, said: "We sell over 10 million eggs each week, so our move will really make a difference to the welfare of laying hens and will enable more customers to buy

free-range each week."

The X factor

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AS Britain prepares to go to the polls, could firms face litigation if they don't show respect for employees with outspoken beliefs?

Well, according to a Yorkshire employment lawyer, talk may not be cheap when it comes to politics.

Kerstie Skeaping, a partner at Halliwells in Sheffield, warns that the potential for litigation is there if employees feel they are not being treated fairly.

She said: "If an employee is promoting a political party and it is interfering with their duties, it can be addressed in the same way as anything else.

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"Some sort of memo or email stating that it would be to the benefit of all that you leave politics out of the workplace is fine. But it should also state that if anybody has strong feelings, they should contact HR."

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