How do you know when a business is in trouble?
BHS, Jessops, Clintons, Mothercare, Debenhams, Maplin, Blockbuster, MFI, Allied Carpets…
There’s a long list.
Each of them tells a story of disappointment, humiliation, the inescapability of gradualism and the very personal impact of job losses.
Businesses become unviable for all sorts of reasons;
Demand; changes in customer habits or superior technical developments. That’s Blockbuster.
Financial sustainability; borrowings, revenues, cash-flow. That’s BHS.
Competitive advantage; Jessops eclipsed by digital and cameraphones.
Scaleability and growth; Clintons couldn’t get big enough, quick enough.
Management. All of the above! All the problems were foreseeable but management didn’t act quick enough.
Woolworths had a confusing offering, most of what they did was duplicated better, elsewhere. It was the same for BHS. Some argue Boots will go the same way.
John Lewis is struggling and are urgently trying to diversify into rental homes. Swapping retailing for renting.
More than a quarter of businesses reported their turnover was lower in April 2023 compared with the previous month.
Eighteen percent of trading businesses expect to raise the prices of goods or services this month.
The viability of a business depends on the vagaries of demand, customer’s attitude and developments elsewhere.
It’s also about staff. The working environment, how easy the work is, can you hire, train and retain?
If I were to tell you of a business where over one third of the staff thought their workplace wasn’t fit for purpose…
… you’d probably think I was talking about a business that was teetering on the brink.
What, if I were to confide in you…
… nearly a quarter were working in a business that relied on the telephone and a third thought they phone systems were useless?
What if you were told the regulations said the business had to be conducted in rooms around 12msq
… but were generally well below that, you’d be forgive for thinking the business was heading for regulatory trouble.
Add to all that…
… there was probably unsafe staffing with the numbers in decline…
… nearly half of the workers thought the shortage of trainers and supervisors was making a tricky situation worse?
There’s more…
… nearly half of the staff think their PC or laptop software is not fit for purpose…
… over a third say their broadband is naff and over two thirds say they can’t exchange information with other branches.
Might be Phones4U, HMV?
You’ve guessed…
… this is an old fashioned business. It has a huge carbon footprint. Responsible for 0.9% of the UK’s total emissions and 23% of the sector.
To make things worse. Huge chunks of it are trapped into using pen and paper.
This is going nowhere. It’s Mamas and Papas, Karen Millen, Toys ‘R’ Us, Focus DIY. What is it? What high street brand are we talking about?
It is primary care.
Now, before I get inundated by irate practice managers telling me it’s not like that where they work… that’s not the point.
The sector as a whole is in the Phillips Casette world. Instamatic cameras and Twiggy Dolls.
Who says so?
All the facts and figures I have quoted (and a lot more beside) come from the Royal College of General Practitioner’s report ‘Fit for the Future’… just published. (And the HSJ).
If this report was a vehicle, it would be a bulldozer.
If it were a drink it would be Hapsburg Absinthe XC.
It rips the roof off and shows us, the front door of the NHS needs major investment and a complete reworking.
But…
Is it worth saving? Is it set to collapse, anyway? Is the kind of money it needs ever going to be available?
If the business owners can’t even get their phones sorted out… are we dealing with the right people?
Like so many business… has its time come?
Is primary care the Bon Marche and Mothercare of the NHS?
Of course we need a vibrant, well staffed and funded primary care.
But…
… is what we have repairable or do we watch it go the same way as Virgin Records… in a world of downloads and streaming.
Primary care in a world of video consultations, vertical ownership, consolidation and Darzi Centres?
Should we dump the partnership model and sell primary care franchises with tight contractural requirements on investment and standards.
The RCGP, NHSE and for that matter, the pointless CQC, have presided over a decline that is hard to fathom, hard to untangle and really tough for RCGP members to admit.
Whoever is the primary care Tsar needs to get real, get some new policies and…
... try to get out of managing decline.
News and Comment from Roy Lilley
Contact Roy – please use this e-address roy.lilley@nhsmanagers.net
Reproduced at thetrainingnet.com by kind permission of Roy Lilley.
