Steve Parks

As you'll have seen from my liveblog of the event earlier today I've been in London at the launch event of Enterprise Week.

I'm now on the train on the way home and have noticed a trend to the information reaching my eyes and ears...

1. The freesheet newspaper headlines are on the lines of '1 in 12 Londoners face axe' and similar.

2. I'm in the restaurant car having dinner on the way home, and you always overhear business conversations. This is the first time I've overheard:
a) discussion of reading through the longlist for redundancies.
b) how critical it is to get someone senior onto [Company X] to pressure them to pay because 'we've got our creditors too and its proving quite difficult and embarrassing'

3. Next I browse the BBC News website to catch up on the day and I end up reading about even more redundancies, at Citigroup in particular.

Something really serious and very worrying is emerging here. This is going to be a long, hard recession.

If you're not yet prepared for this in your business, with a plan for surviving a big drop in sales that will last 2 years, then believe me - you must get a plan together right now.

Whatever your political persuasions I think everybody is to some extent impressed by the way Barack Obama organised his campaign, and how he is now organising the transition.

I should say upfront that I'm a great fan, but I do believe that we can all learn a lot of lessons from him and his team.

He is about to become Chief Executive of USA plc - and by anyone's assessment this is a turnaround of a failing organisation. So how is going about this?

1. In his campaign he was very clear about the scale of the problem, and very open that he did not have a magic answer. Any solution would be difficult, and would require sacrifices and hard work he said.

2. Despite the depths of the problems, he campaigned on a very aspirational message - 'Yes We Can'. I loved the simplicity of this, and the emphasis on 'We' rather than 'I' - so many politicians' campaigns are about how 'I' will do this etc.

3. He didn't work himself into the ground. So many people in campaigns like that, or in management of crises, work around the clock and get more and more exhausted - reducing their effectiveness. He took time for his family, to go to the gym, to visit his sick grandmother and more. He had a rule that he didn't work on his many plane trips - he'd use the time to read widely, taking in new ideas, and to think. You reduce your effectiveness dramatically when you allow yourself to get too tired, so everything starts to take longer and you make mistakes. Make time to relax and keep fit, it's extremely important. You can't fix the organisation if you're also breaking down!

4. He built clearly defined teams, with clear onjectives. During his campaign he even had a team specifically preparing for what to do once he'd won! As a result, the day after he won he launched a website at www.change.gov to set out his agenda in detail and invite ideas from the public. It's fascinating browsing that site.

5. He's been very open about the whole process. You can find photos on flickr, videos on YouTube, lots of details on his website at www.barackobama.com, and on the new www.change.gov website. People are fascinated by it, and reassured by the openness. It signals a real change.

6. He emphasises that everyone needs to do their bit. His websites actually set out what that can be.

7. He mobilised millions of people to get behind the change in small ways, rather than just focusing on the people around him who could do a lot. He had more volunteers than any other campaign, more donors than any other candidate in history.

8. He used the power of public speaking to inspire people. He wasn't embarrased to set out to inspire - something many people are very hesitant about.

9. He's focusing his, and everyone else's, attention on the main problem. He had big plans for healthcare and education - but he has made it clear that his original ambitions have to wait until the economic problems are fixed - that is priority number 1. Every failing organisation has one or two key things that are the big main problems. You can't do everything well at the same time, so just focus on those.

I'm going to watch Obama's presidency with interest, and try to learn.

What do you think? Have you learned anything from President-Elect Obama?

I heard an old saying that I knew, but had forgotten, earlier today:

If you chase two rabbits, both will get away

I'm guiltier than most of always launching off a new idea or project, and spreading my time and attention too thinly over many things.

Particularly in the current climate, it's focus that will get results.

As I write this blog post I'm enjoying a steaming mug of smooth tasty PG tips tea - available in all good supermarkets.

I'm tapping smoothly away on my Dell Inspiron laptop (available at www.dell.co.uk), sitting at a practical, cheap and easy to assemble desk from IKEA.

Right, what was I going to actually say?  read more »

There seems to be a link between business success and good design.

A lot of people think design is just about pretty graphics, but it's actually about usability, effectiveness, and consumer satisfaction - and getting a vital competitive edge.

And so many businesses ignore design, or get it badly wrong - and then fail.  read more »

Well it's been a month since my last post here - but what a month! - and for that I apologise. Here's some of what I've been up to:

1. My companies in the Red Group have been very busy, and I've been recruiting a business manager to run them day to day.  read more »

On this week's edition of the RedPod I talk to entrepreneur Gary Dutton about the gathering gloom in the economy, and what it means for business owners.

He's already seeing a marked effect on his business, and is worried that things will take 10 months or so to get better. He thinks 2008 will be a tough year.  read more »

The latest edition of the RedPod has just been published and my guest was Matt Hanson, the creative mind behind A Swarm of Angels.  read more »

The Undercover Economist author: Tim Harford asin: 0349119856

I'm writing this blog post sitting in first class on a National Express train between York and London.

Now, when I say first class, what I actually mean is that I'm sat on the floor, in a corridor between two first class carriages.  read more »

We've just published a new episode of The FlyingStartups Podcast.

This episode features an interview with a community member about their business, and a roundup of the new Pilot's Logs from the site.

FlyingStartups is the online community based around my books for startups.  read more »

I travel to London roughly once a fortnight, and go by train so I can work. The line was run by GNER, but has been taken over by National Express.  read more »

Last night I recorded a special edition of the Redpod podcast, remembering the life and work of Sir John Harvey-Jones, who died recently. Click here to find out more about the programme, and to listen.  read more »

I've just recorded the latest episode of the RedPod. My guests this week were Roni Jay, who runs a publishing company and writes business books, and Charles Orton-Jones , a freelance business journalist.  read more »

In his ten years as Chancellor, Gordon Brown introduced many initiatives to encourage entrepreneurship, or expanded on existing programmes.  read more »

The world has an uncanny knack of maintaining equilibrium.

In nature this is seen when a species becomes too successful and overpopulates an area - food becomes short, diseases spread, and the population is reduced.

In science we learn that every action leads to an equal and opposite reaction - ensuring that energy remains in balance.  read more »

I'm now hosting a new podcast series for entrepreneurs and business leaders.

Redpod is published every Friday, and each week two businesspeople will join me to discuss life, business and everything.

In the first programme my guests were Jonathan Elvidge (founder Gadget Shop and Red5) and Emma Jones (founder, Enterprise Nation).  read more »

Well you may have seen that I'm back to blogging again.

I do all my blogging at home once the working day is done - but BT, god bless 'em, put a spanner in the works a few weeks ago.  read more »

I popped to the local convenience store this evening, and one of the items on my list was fabric conditioner.

There was every kind of washing powder, liquid, tablet, sachet - I never knew it was so complicated to get your clothes clean!  read more »

Business as Unusual: My Entrepreneurial Journey - Profits with Principles author: Anita Roddick asin: 0954395956

I've just seen the sad news that Dame Anita Roddick, founder of the Body Shop, has died from a brain haemorrhage.

Hers is an amazing entrepreneurial story, and what's more she was then willing to write and speak about her experience to encourage a whole new generation of entrepreneurs - especially women entrepreneurs.  read more »

Well the last month or so has been hectic, and has brought some big changes in my life.
But business has been booming at the same time, so I'm afraid I haven't had time to blog. But I'm back at my keyboard now (partly because my publisher wants another book, and pronto, so the pressure is on!), so I'll be blogging again.