Real Business

I am still staggered by the fact that, with so many people out there desperate for jobs, the applicants are fairly low in quality and very mixed in approach. Twice recently I’ve had applicants turn down interview times, with barely an apology, and demanding times that “suit them better”. While I haven’t enjoyed ploughing through a remarkable amount of useless CVs (tip to applicants: read the ad first and check if your qualifications are remotely relevant before sending your CV!), the plus side is that the handful left at the end take very little selection because they stand out so easily.

It comes as no surprise to me that Debenhams, with their intention of offering 9,000 job on the run up to Christmas, have had to hire special recruitment managers to cope with the additional work. I don’t envy them the CVs they will have to plough through.

 

I don’t claim to be anything near to an economist, but I would have thought there will be huge potential for retailers to achieve high sales in the run up to Christmas based on a combination of the festive season and the “buy before the VAT rise” incentive. I’m really surprised this isn’t being treated as more of a gift from the marketing gods. I haven’t read about the golden months of opportunity to capitalise on this anywhere; rather, headlines are dominated by the gloom and doom of the potential double dip.

The same goes for the mixed reports on property. We read so much about the crashing house market prices, but not about the London property market seeing an extremely satisfying growth of 11.4 per cent.  Not exactly the published picture.

It’s extremely hard out there at the moment.  Small companies – those Mr Cable tells us that he is relying on to induce the British economic recovery – are all beleaguered; they have to convince their work force to raise their games; survive with little or no funding and high levels of bad debt; cope with customers blackmailing them with threats of moving suppliers if their often unreasonable demands are not met. And the list goes on.

Sales, though, have always relied on being able to see gaps in the market. We only hear of the crashing property prices, not of the boom in the letting market. It doesn’t take rocket science to work out that if people cannot afford to buy, they are still going to live somewhere and therefore have to rent.

By the same token, if people have less to spend, they will go out less. We hear about the decline of the coffee shop and in the demand for black cabs. We hear less about the companies succeeding by capitalising on changing buying trends; the growth market in take-aways and even baked beans. People need escapism as spotted so brilliantly by online DVD-rental firm Lovefilm.com. Mills and Boon – the ultimate in chick-lit escapism is also making a mint.

If we are to support Mr Cable, we have to grasp the crispiest chip from the interviewing pile, the cleverest alternative marketing plan or indeed even a product that actually suits a recession. It does not necessarily even have to be original (what is Poundland if not a cleverly re-hashed Woolies?). Most of all, we have to ignore the doom and gloom and get on with it!

Picture: source