LONDON — I talked to an M&A banker on the weekend. Made me think of my time at high school dances. Always standing on the wall, trying to look cool. But never out on the actual dance floor.
The merger and acquisition market is a bit quiet at the moment. And amen to that. We’re busy enough without it. Businesses are — rightly — taking advantage of the quiet and their own peaceful progress, to transform their operations.
We’re working on big “transformation” programmes on several continents and in a diversity of sectors. Change management is in high demand. And that’s good.
But M&A will be back. My friend should be up frugging, ‘cutting some rug’ and doing The Hustle by Q2 at the latest.
Transformation is the powder room before the ball.
That’s my prediction.
Watch this space.
/df
PICADILLY CIRCUS — Looks like the sun might actually come up in London today. That’s a relief. And one of my biggest concerns. Yesterday was dark and I can’t handle that.
So, how lucky am I? That trivial issues like that concern me?
Yesterday umpteen decisions were made that affect all of our lives and futures. Not just in London, New York and Beijing. But in Rome and Athens. In Geneva and Berlin and Paris. And in Damascus and Doha. And…
Open the paper and have a look through. There are an amazing amount of fundamental, big decisions being made by people in places all around the world.
Last Monday Chancellor Merkel said she thinks we’re in the biggest global crisis since 1945.
And she and a group of other diverse, independent leaders, are trying to make sense of the whole thing. New leaders are being sworn in. Senior financial gurus are being tapped up.
And big decisions are being made.
In recent years here in the UK a chorus goes up of people saying: easiest job in the world! Paid for nothing! Crooked! Useless!
And today they are doing more than any of us to save our collective backsides. That’s what leadership is — and probably what we need. It may even be more than we deserve.
/df
Two guys, a garage and a plan
LONDON — It’s been three fairly eventful years. I suspect you’d be hard pressed to look at the last 25 years and come up with three more volatile years in which to be in business.
Able and How was born on 08 September 2008. If you look here you can see the enthusiasm and excitement of that day. (We asked people to say hello and many, including our moms and kids, promptly did.)
A year later the situation was not as it had been. The economy in that first year was… not good. Many of our respected colleagues and friends were out of work. We were still at it. And asking for celebratory haikus.
Last year at this time we were coming out of a more settled summer and seeing signs of things picking up. The optimism was palpable.
But some common themes were also starting to emerge. Have you spotted them?
- We’re lucky to be in a brilliant business where we can make a real difference.
- We’re in it because we believe in what we do
- We have an amazing team
- We love doing it
- We are still in it because we get to work with brilliant people
I am sure it sounds too obvious and too superficial to say that our clients make our business. However for all of us who work at Able and How the good people who have put their trust in us have made it work.
Thank you.
Take a bow. Say hello below.
/df
CHELSEA — The problem with change is that you cannot always foresee what might happen next. So you create an anticipated direction of travel and risks, issues, dependencies etc. along the way.
That’s how it’s done. In a nutshell.
The problem with Britain’s big banks though is not that they don’t know what might happen next. They do, but they’re determined to [...]
Might As Well Go For a Soda
• You can listed to your local radio half-way around the world. On the 14 bus even. And I now think I may finally know why some Canadian rock and roll never found a larger audience. April Wine? Tom Cochrane? Kim Mitchell? Yea.
Google Translate Won’t Do
• Speaking [...]
LONDON — I have been on a BBC topical-news show kick this year. And earlier in the year I was watching a show called something like What the Arabs did for us… It made the point that many, many interesting thing were created in times of conflict.
And there is an unassailable logic to that.
If you look simply at what has been [...]
SW LONDON — There’s a video shop across from my bus stop. Or there used to be. Now it’s a specialty ski boot shop. Obviously.
There are now cafés where there used to be off-licences… and estate agents and phone shops on every high street.
It’s the natural evolution of business. Old businesses pass away and new ones come in to their places.
The [...]
LONDON — There’s a great report out now from my old mates at Towers Watson. It’s called the Global Worksforce Survey. They do it every year, and it has lots of interesting stuff in it.
[Although don't be fooled into [...]
FULHAM ROAD — It’s official. For me anyway. I have come to the conclusion that the market has changed. I recognise that it may only be temporary, but it feels longer-term than that.
Where once businesses were interested in concepts and ideas… most now are being far more practical. “I want you to do something that [...]
LEICESTER SQUARE — My colleague Chris pointed it out yesterday: Copenhagen is essentially a great big positioning exercise. And on a week when we are doing this in the Boardrooms of two big multinationals, it’s interesting to watch.
Essentially the nations involved have asked that a written proposal, proposition… or positioning statement be put to them. And then they’ll [...]
