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Saturday 31st March 2018
Hi Friend,
Taking a break ...
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Yes we are taking a break from The Saturday Economist ...
After six years we are taking a break from the Saturday Economist. We are off to London for the week-end and then off on holiday. Leaving the laptop behind, it's time to think about the direction of travel for the weekly blog.
Many still remember "The Sunday Times and Croissants". STAC ran for about three years before yielding to "The Saturday Economist". It was all great fun. But having a weekly blog is almost as bad as having young kids or pets. The week-ends have to be planned around the Saturday morning time slot, wifi access and a commitment to press send before a self imposed 1:00 pm deadline. I have been blogging on a week-end for almost nine years non stop. Perhaps it is time to stop.
I love economics. It is more of an affliction than an asset but I do love it. I first picked up an economics text book in 1964. I was just fifteen years of age. We had been fast tracked through school to take A levels a year early. Some of it just didn't make sense. We learned those bits parrot fashion. A process of indoctrination, akin to brain washing. Many ideas, with which we then struggled, have since been discredited or denounced.
My first love was business. My first job after LSE was a graduate trainee with Tube Investments. TI along with GKN were the two largest engineering companies in the UK. I was one of eighty graduate trainees. We did welding, metalwork, pattern making and casting. We visited group companies like Raleigh Bicycles, Creda Cookers, Russell Hobbs, British Aluminium and many more. We observed steel being poured at Round Oak Steel works, a site now occupied by the lingerie section in Marks and Spencer, Merry Hill.
It was the year the CEO of the group was not of military back ground. The edict was issued - all military titles should be removed from within the business. Colonel Scott, sales director suffered the ignominy of an NCO taking down his nameplate from the office door and replacing it with just plain Mister Scott. It must have been difficult. Even the Colonel's gun dogs, with their own office slot, turned away with shame.
Some compensation, every Friday at 3:00pm all directors cars would be taken away to be washed and valeted for the week-end ahead. Oh yes those were the days. I was so keen to finish my training and get started before all the business problems were sorted out. There seemed so many to contend with. The year was 1970.
Returning to Manchester in 2008 after some great years playing tennis in Spain for six years, I wanted to be tagged with Economics, Strategy and Social Media. Clearly the strategy worked but I became somewhat over tagged with economics. I am occasionally asked, "So what do you know about manufacturing then". Well quite a bit actually ...
This week, someone asked via Twitter for advice on Heckscher-Ohlin trade theory and the implications for Nigerian trade flows over a ten year period. I could not resist. My PhD was in international trade after all. Strange how reputations travel around the world, thanks to Social Media!
So yes, it is time for a break from The Saturday Economist for a few weeks. We may be back towards the end of the month ... but then again ... it may be time for something completely different ... do let me know what you think ...
That's all for this week, have a great Easter week-end,
John
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| © 2018 John Ashcroft, Economics, Strategy and Social Media, experience worth sharing.
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