Synergy
Having now worked in the military for over 24 years I’m not shy of a challenge so when I took over as Secretary at the Radcliffe Club I knew all the skills I’d learnt would be put to good use not to mention tested.
Times are very hard for clubs and pubs, just the same as many small businesses. The local retail shops in towns under threat from the big supermarkets, rising fuel and energy costs, water rates, the list goes on, and if the news is correct banks are reluctant to lend. The odds seem certainly stacked against. Well one thing I have learnt from the military is teamwork, without it no big organisation can function.
But what has that got to do with small business I hear you ask. Well to put it simply; “Synergy” that piece of the whole that is more than the sum of the individual parts! In other words, “working together”. To take on the big organisation you have to become one and that’s what all shops and retailers in Amble can do. By working together, in partnership, the strong helping the weak, there is much that can be done. Now to some this may sound gung ho and a little blasé but simplistically it’s called common sense.
Do the businesses in Amble roll over and die? No they unite, share ideas, promote each other and work together. Without realising it there is so much that each business can offer the others to help survive these difficult credit crunch times. The wealth of experience from the long standing retailers passed on to the new, up and coming. Knowledge is power as they say.
One initiative I have started is Help Clubs Keep Live Entertainment (HeCKLE). A campaign to get pubs and clubs working in partnership with singers, musicians, bands and performers alike, keeping grass root entertainment alive. How? By “Synergy”. Can it work? I’m sure it can, just like the Business Club that meets every month, the more that join the more that can be achieved. I look forward to the next Business Club meeting.
Ian Moyle
