Do you know what keeps Thanet poor?
Written by Matt B · first published 12/03/2008
A Case Study
What is the single biggest failure of the entire market place today? The thing that is so pandemic in places like Thanet that wealth has no chance of being developed. The thing that keeps Thanet poor?
Undervaluing the intellectual and human resources of the company - the workers themselves. This is so common today that entire market sectors and niches are filled with businesses that could be doing ten or twenty times better then they already are but have opted instead to grind what they have to nothing. As a result customers are being forced to pay extra to maintain growth while employees are paid a fraction of their true value.
The result is poverty. Poverty for the company and poverty for the people too. Lets take a look at a couple of examples: Tony Flaig and a friend of mine that we will call Tim Smith. I believe that at an average both are worth a minimum of £30 to £40 an hour to their industry plus a range of fairly hefty bonuses; if only their employers would realise.
Tony works long hours and is required to travel an hour or more every day in order to enjoy the privilege of putting in those hours. While he is doing this he finds a moment to type a hundred or maybe two hundred words a day into his phone to be sent to his blog Big News Margate. Now, I have no idea of the specifics but I imagine that Tony is not on the highest wages ever.
Likewise Tim Smith (not his real name) gets up at four or five in the morning to drive to Dover where he then collects a lorry which he will drive for the day. Up to twice a week he will drive for the maximum of 14 hours. On days like that he will still be out at 8pm.
Tony and Tim are probably not being paid for the 14 to 20 hours travel they put in a week. Both Tim and Tony are sufficiently skilled with technology and with words to articulate well on subjects that they are familiar with. At length if you let them.
Now what's wrong with this picture?
To start with these two gents are applying their primary skill as long and hard as the company can legally make them. In Tim's case there is paid holiday each year too (I'm guessing Tony might not get this).
Tony has more than proven that he has the ability to not just discuss but to draw a crowd to join in the discussion. Imagine for a moment that the Agency that Tony works for were to stop thinking like we were still in the Jurassic Period and put together a team of say three of five skilled workers who say twice a week worked a day on time and a half maintaining a set of conversation channels.
The obvious one's of Blog, Youtube Video and Podcast (audio) along with say a moderated forum would soon establish the company as the leader at what they do. By talking publicly and candidly about the industry including interviews with leading figures, managers and MPs Tony's company would soon be in a position of respect such that they could actually urge for changes and changes would happen.
While that's all well and good it's a lot of money to spend on just getting powerful via Home-brew Media. If that was all there was to it then I would agree but there is more. An industry leader attracts the workers with the highest skills and more often than not pays only a little more than any other.
They can pay more because they can ask more per job and they can land more jobs per quarter too. The result is that the company has to grow and while it is doing so it can change little by little towards being more public facing. As it does so it would take the whole industry squarely into the public spot light.
The company that started with five regular guys engaged in Home-brew Media discussion of the industry is now not only a public figure but a political power.
The potential in the Rail Market Place for such a company is limited only by the imagination of the Company Directors and Chairman.
I see no reason why what was once a temp company could not then raise sufficient capital to take control of a large section of the industry. I'm talking Angle and Venture backing for a bid on one or more portions of the network, control over a huge slice of the maintenance sector and massive reform across the board.
Done right they would be the hero "saving the people of Britain from crap railways".
However, it seems to me that right now they are a as an operation not dominant and just a few hops from slavery.
The same is true for Tim. Although there is more scope for this industry as it is less bogged down with regulation. Right now the company would never even think of putting together a team but let's imagine that the directors wake up and realise that dinosaurs do not rule the world.
They hire a number of professional copy writers and pull Tim and other drivers from their rounds for one day out of five. Between them they literally write the book on Truck Driving in Britain.
While this is going on all drivers are given the chance to receive coaching in not only literacy but in how to articulate thoughts into short bursts of text. All drivers are thereafter encouraged to contribute to the company blog on subjects such as road conditions, driving laws and dealing with difficult corners.
As a result of coaching all drivers get a chance to fill in any gaps in their English and IT literacy with the unforeseen side effect that they are all mentally stimulate and act with more insight. This leads to few accidents and more efficient working.
If anyone is paying attention.
By the time the book is ready to hit the proof readers the drivers take cameras and start to put together a documentary on driving in the UK. These short videos follow the themes of the book and premier on youtube with longer items offered to the BBC and other media giants.
Done right a documentary and a few news items should be the result which increases publicity for the new book which should sell well. The result is that the company is now a household name and has more contracts than it has drivers, lorries or bases. This allows the company to get rid of the customers that dick about and cause agro and do not spend a considerable amount with the company while at the same time the truck company can afford to establish new bases in new locations.
Due to the fame the documentaries and the book have gained (and the website has sustained) these new bases make the local news and bring business even before the place is fully operational. This increases public awareness and additional documentaries are made (the press is nothing if not highly prone to following and creating trends) and each one will reference the material that the truck company has been pushing out in such abundance.
As a result the banks should feel quite happy to hand out loans for expansion while the company now has a number of fully qualified spokespersons to send to the press, to dinners to conferences and so on.
As long as the company is seen to act on the issues of the hour in whatever they do they will be able to do no wrong.
Sufficient public sentiment would enable them to float on the London exchange and buy out a number of smaller companies to rapidly expand to dominate the market place leaving them only to think about expanding into the rest of Europe.
You might think this is the writing of a blogger that has had too much caffeine but I assure you that in all of Thanet there is not a single business that could not dominate it's market by tapping into the power of industry knowledge that it currently thinks of as disposable labour.
It does not need to be something that uses the Internet at all. However the Internet is here and the World Wide Web is something that everyone uses. The ability it offers to communicate effectively with the public is an opportunity it would be sad to throw away.
Currently the attention of the general public in Thanet is not especially focused. Right now no industry aside from pubs is especially dominated. Even where there is a strong player (property and pubs spring to mind) there is no reason why these principles of attention and communication could not cause any given company to dominate Thanet and to out grow and out compete every other company.
It is plausible that a sufficiently well placed company could not only capture their market but everyone else's as well becoming an unstoppable one company regeneration and renewal machine. The sort of company that makes money faster than it can count it regardless of the sector it reaches into.
This sort of momentum requires a different way of thinking. A new model of communication and a level of honesty and transparency not before seen. The effect on a cynical and war weary population would be like a banquet to a dieing man.
I'll tell you now that not all companies will take hold of this or even consider that there is a truth to it. Some will survive that error but others wall fold. Some companies will realise the power of this when most of that power is already spent and the advantage taken by others.
The first few leaders to step up and realise the true potential of humans talking to each other with such channels as the Home-brew Media (blogging, podcasts and the like) will achieve for themselves and unshakable position in the market for many years to come. Sadly for the competitors this could spell the end.
For people like Tony and Tim this could be the start of a whole other lifestyle (if they want it and if there is a market segment into which they could jump that is waking up to these truths). For people like me there is the satisfaction of cheering as my home (I think of Thanet as my home) comes to life, shakes off the death and sleep that has bound it and becomes something new and beautiful.
I think it can happen and soon.
I am so confident of this fact that I have been preparing a series of teaching materials and seminars much of which I am going to make freely available to the business community over the next two years. I believe in Thanet and with help Thanet can start to believe in itself again.
What is the single biggest failure of the entire market place today? The thing that is so pandemic in places like Thanet that wealth has no chance of being developed. The thing that keeps Thanet poor?
Undervaluing the intellectual and human resources of the company - the workers themselves. This is so common today that entire market sectors and niches are filled with businesses that could be doing ten or twenty times better then they already are but have opted instead to grind what they have to nothing. As a result customers are being forced to pay extra to maintain growth while employees are paid a fraction of their true value.
The result is poverty. Poverty for the company and poverty for the people too. Lets take a look at a couple of examples: Tony Flaig and a friend of mine that we will call Tim Smith. I believe that at an average both are worth a minimum of £30 to £40 an hour to their industry plus a range of fairly hefty bonuses; if only their employers would realise.
Tony works long hours and is required to travel an hour or more every day in order to enjoy the privilege of putting in those hours. While he is doing this he finds a moment to type a hundred or maybe two hundred words a day into his phone to be sent to his blog Big News Margate. Now, I have no idea of the specifics but I imagine that Tony is not on the highest wages ever.
Likewise Tim Smith (not his real name) gets up at four or five in the morning to drive to Dover where he then collects a lorry which he will drive for the day. Up to twice a week he will drive for the maximum of 14 hours. On days like that he will still be out at 8pm.
Tony and Tim are probably not being paid for the 14 to 20 hours travel they put in a week. Both Tim and Tony are sufficiently skilled with technology and with words to articulate well on subjects that they are familiar with. At length if you let them.
Now what's wrong with this picture?
To start with these two gents are applying their primary skill as long and hard as the company can legally make them. In Tim's case there is paid holiday each year too (I'm guessing Tony might not get this).
The Track Worker
Tony has more than proven that he has the ability to not just discuss but to draw a crowd to join in the discussion. Imagine for a moment that the Agency that Tony works for were to stop thinking like we were still in the Jurassic Period and put together a team of say three of five skilled workers who say twice a week worked a day on time and a half maintaining a set of conversation channels.
The obvious one's of Blog, Youtube Video and Podcast (audio) along with say a moderated forum would soon establish the company as the leader at what they do. By talking publicly and candidly about the industry including interviews with leading figures, managers and MPs Tony's company would soon be in a position of respect such that they could actually urge for changes and changes would happen.
While that's all well and good it's a lot of money to spend on just getting powerful via Home-brew Media. If that was all there was to it then I would agree but there is more. An industry leader attracts the workers with the highest skills and more often than not pays only a little more than any other.
They can pay more because they can ask more per job and they can land more jobs per quarter too. The result is that the company has to grow and while it is doing so it can change little by little towards being more public facing. As it does so it would take the whole industry squarely into the public spot light.
The company that started with five regular guys engaged in Home-brew Media discussion of the industry is now not only a public figure but a political power.
The potential in the Rail Market Place for such a company is limited only by the imagination of the Company Directors and Chairman.
I see no reason why what was once a temp company could not then raise sufficient capital to take control of a large section of the industry. I'm talking Angle and Venture backing for a bid on one or more portions of the network, control over a huge slice of the maintenance sector and massive reform across the board.
Done right they would be the hero "saving the people of Britain from crap railways".
However, it seems to me that right now they are a as an operation not dominant and just a few hops from slavery.
The Truck Driver
The same is true for Tim. Although there is more scope for this industry as it is less bogged down with regulation. Right now the company would never even think of putting together a team but let's imagine that the directors wake up and realise that dinosaurs do not rule the world.
They hire a number of professional copy writers and pull Tim and other drivers from their rounds for one day out of five. Between them they literally write the book on Truck Driving in Britain.
While this is going on all drivers are given the chance to receive coaching in not only literacy but in how to articulate thoughts into short bursts of text. All drivers are thereafter encouraged to contribute to the company blog on subjects such as road conditions, driving laws and dealing with difficult corners.
As a result of coaching all drivers get a chance to fill in any gaps in their English and IT literacy with the unforeseen side effect that they are all mentally stimulate and act with more insight. This leads to few accidents and more efficient working.
If anyone is paying attention.
By the time the book is ready to hit the proof readers the drivers take cameras and start to put together a documentary on driving in the UK. These short videos follow the themes of the book and premier on youtube with longer items offered to the BBC and other media giants.
Done right a documentary and a few news items should be the result which increases publicity for the new book which should sell well. The result is that the company is now a household name and has more contracts than it has drivers, lorries or bases. This allows the company to get rid of the customers that dick about and cause agro and do not spend a considerable amount with the company while at the same time the truck company can afford to establish new bases in new locations.
Due to the fame the documentaries and the book have gained (and the website has sustained) these new bases make the local news and bring business even before the place is fully operational. This increases public awareness and additional documentaries are made (the press is nothing if not highly prone to following and creating trends) and each one will reference the material that the truck company has been pushing out in such abundance.
As a result the banks should feel quite happy to hand out loans for expansion while the company now has a number of fully qualified spokespersons to send to the press, to dinners to conferences and so on.
As long as the company is seen to act on the issues of the hour in whatever they do they will be able to do no wrong.
Sufficient public sentiment would enable them to float on the London exchange and buy out a number of smaller companies to rapidly expand to dominate the market place leaving them only to think about expanding into the rest of Europe.
What do we learn?
You might think this is the writing of a blogger that has had too much caffeine but I assure you that in all of Thanet there is not a single business that could not dominate it's market by tapping into the power of industry knowledge that it currently thinks of as disposable labour.
It does not need to be something that uses the Internet at all. However the Internet is here and the World Wide Web is something that everyone uses. The ability it offers to communicate effectively with the public is an opportunity it would be sad to throw away.
Currently the attention of the general public in Thanet is not especially focused. Right now no industry aside from pubs is especially dominated. Even where there is a strong player (property and pubs spring to mind) there is no reason why these principles of attention and communication could not cause any given company to dominate Thanet and to out grow and out compete every other company.
It is plausible that a sufficiently well placed company could not only capture their market but everyone else's as well becoming an unstoppable one company regeneration and renewal machine. The sort of company that makes money faster than it can count it regardless of the sector it reaches into.
This sort of momentum requires a different way of thinking. A new model of communication and a level of honesty and transparency not before seen. The effect on a cynical and war weary population would be like a banquet to a dieing man.
I'll tell you now that not all companies will take hold of this or even consider that there is a truth to it. Some will survive that error but others wall fold. Some companies will realise the power of this when most of that power is already spent and the advantage taken by others.
The first few leaders to step up and realise the true potential of humans talking to each other with such channels as the Home-brew Media (blogging, podcasts and the like) will achieve for themselves and unshakable position in the market for many years to come. Sadly for the competitors this could spell the end.
For people like Tony and Tim this could be the start of a whole other lifestyle (if they want it and if there is a market segment into which they could jump that is waking up to these truths). For people like me there is the satisfaction of cheering as my home (I think of Thanet as my home) comes to life, shakes off the death and sleep that has bound it and becomes something new and beautiful.
I think it can happen and soon.
I am so confident of this fact that I have been preparing a series of teaching materials and seminars much of which I am going to make freely available to the business community over the next two years. I believe in Thanet and with help Thanet can start to believe in itself again.
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