Business Diary: November 16

WHICH Yorkshire business figure got his venues mixed up during a recent visit to Grimsby? The well-known individual was booked to speak to a group of accountants and, on arrival at the hall, was greeted enthusiastically with a glass of champagne.

"Are you the speaker?" asked a nice lady. "Yes, I am" replied our man, impressed with the hospitality. As he surveyed the room full of guests, enjoying the ambience, it dawned on him that this was not your typical business event.

He turned to the lady and said: "I think I've made a mistake. I'm here to speak to the accountants." She replied: "That's on the other side of the building." A man then appeared at their side. The groom, it transpired.

Our man said: "I'm ever so sorry – I've been drinking your champagne and enjoying the atmosphere but have accidentally encroached on your wedding. I do apologise. I hope you have a really nice day. Where is the bride?" That's when he found out it was a civil partnership reception.

Dressed the part

Marc Bolland, the erstwhile Morrisons boss, looked very at home in his new role as Marks & Spencer's chief executive at the group's results last week.

Sporting an M&S suit, he managed not to make the same mistake as marketing director Steve Sharp. Steve had opted to wear the new M&S waterproof suit and chairman Stuart Rose was having enormous fun chucking water all over him.

Not the sort of thing you can imagine the debonair Mr Bolland putting up with.

However Diary did manage to sneak into the auditorium early and overheard Marc joking around with the technicians, asking them if they could make his microphone louder than Sir Stuart's.

We hope that wasn't the reason Sir Stuart sold a whole load of M&S shares last week.

B'Stard family pile

Here's a pub quiz question that will tax the finest minds. What do George V, Edward VIII, George VI and vile fictional Tory MP Alan B'Stard have in common with a Yorkshire-based business?

You may well scratch your heads. The answer became clear when Diary attended a business dinner at Goldsborough Hall, near Knaresborough, to highlight the importance of Yorkshire's leisure sector.

The hall's owners Mark and Clare Oglesby told Diary about the hall's chequered history. In its heyday. it was visited by most of the 20th century's monarchs.

However, in the 1980s, it attracted the attention of the notorious Alan B'Stard, played by Rik Mayall. The film-makers behind the hit TV series The New Statesman decided that Goldsborough looked like the type of opulent building that B'Stard would call home. So Goldsborough was immortalised on film, although most of the viewers wouldn't have had a clue about its identity.

Diary wonders if other Yorkshire corporate headquarters can boast fictional links with characters as colourful as B'Stard.

Sarah's money pit

What do you do when you've got a stately home featuring 97 rooms riddled with rising damp and dry rot? Property expert Sarah Beeny faced that dilemma when she bought Rise Hall, near Skirlaugh in East Yorkshire with her husband Graham Swift. The couple have now renovated the listed Georgian home and turned it into a luxury wedding venue after signing an exclusive contract with Leeds-based events specialist Dine. The house will be documented in Channel Four's upcoming series, Beeny's Restoration Nightmare.

Just the ticket

First class train travel might be shunned by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, as regular Diary readers will be aware, but switching to standard apparently costs Yorkshire businesses thousands in lost productivity.

"Cuts in the use of first class train travel is costing Yorkshire and Humber businesses 15,624 in lost productivity per employee every year," shouts a press release extolling the benefits of first class travel. The sender? A PR firm employed by CrossCountry trains, which claims to have questioned 1,000 business people across the country. It's not quite clear how this seemingly arbitrary sum is reached, but CrossCountry is adamant bigger seats, free snacks and power sockets make for more productive employees. "First class has always been a prime place to form business to business relationships which can potentially lead to added revenue for companies," said Professor Cary Cooper, Professor of Organisational Psychology and Health.