Here We Go!

On Friday the books finally arrived at my and Lane4's door. Exciting times. The formal launch is on Tuesday night at the Lane4 Client Conference.

It's been a pretty wild ride so far, and when the dust settles I'll look to recount some of the highs, lows and amusing moments along the way. There have certainly been a few!

In the interim, you can click here to get a little more info on the book....
Britain and the Olympic Games

Back in the Swing at 7-41am

I am writing this blog on the way into London. I was lucky to get a seat on the train, whereas two weeks ago I could take my pick. Britain is very much back to work after the Summer Holidays!

The other thing that feels noticeable in my train carriage is how few newspapers and ipods are out on display. The people either side of me are both hammering away on their laptops, and for many the working day has started in earnest.

I do have a sense that working life in Britain is changing somewhat. We often hear how mobile technology is making our working world 24 hours a day rather than 9-5.30, and I certainly think there is truth in that. We are having some work done on our house at the moment, and our builder cheerfully announced as I was heading to the station that before getting to us at 7am that he had already bought all the materials he needed for job for the next week online while eating his breakfast.

The flipside, of course, is that none of us cannot work at that level of intensity without eventually breaking ourselves down both physically and mentally. My sense is that as a nation we are both working and recuperating more intensively. During August and December, London can feel like a ghost town. As I write today, it feels like a train full of people feverishly working away at 7-41am.

I imagine more regular readers of this blog, who might have noticed its non appearance for a month or so, will be thinking that I chose that as my own time to kick back and put the laptop away. Actually I have been putting the finishing touches to the book in time for launch in mid November. Things are now a little calmer on that front, and I hope now to be back in the swing of things.

This blog has taught me that writing can be a pleasure and a relaxation exercise, and the book has become a natural extension of that journey. Rightly or wrongly as I speed past Wembley Stadium, I do not feel like my own working day has yet begun.

London 2012 & the Tourism Industry - The Horse Has Bolted

It was interesting to hear David Cameron yesterday declaring the Government’s new commitment to tourism, in the light of the opportunities and challenges facing us as we progress towards 2012. Of course this is not surprising to hear as regards London 2012. Tourism South East expects that an additional £1bn or so of tourist money will be spent on the back of the Games.

While political capital will exist in the subject for months and even years to come, the truth is that much of the planning and decision making at a macro level has been completed long ago.  This is just one good example of the kind of effort that is needed years in advance of generating any concrete return from the Olympic and Paralympic Games. At the Beijing Olympics, Tourism South East, SEEDA and other regional partners met with hundreds of tour operators, journalists and representatives from National Olympic Committees to pre-promote the region in advance of London 2012 and secure significant up-front reservations. Those organisations' plans are mostly now set in stone.

All is not completely lost, Mr Cameron. We might well still have the opportunity to change the perceptions of individual tourists as regards attending London, but the ease with which they will find flights, hotels, tickets and so on was decided long ago. Having been to Beijing and talked to many people there, much of this seems to involve persuading those Cameron might think of as floating voters to press 'Purchase' on those flight tickets. 

I was a floating voter myself as Beijing drew near. From my perspective, the important message was 'Yes, there will be legitimate tickets available...and yes, your hotel will be ok for your family.' I didn't want pictures of the Great Wall and smiling Chinese cab drivers, I wanted facts.  

I suspect we will hear an increasing number of big picture announcements made to large fanfares in the next few months - investment in athlete training programme X; commitments to grass roots sport Y; Inner City regeneration programme Z and the like. The truth is that most of these announcements are being made principally for political and corporate marketing ends.

Most of the big Olympic decisions were made years ago, it is just that only now are they becoming of interest. Baton down the hatches, here comes 2 years of media circus!

Two Years and Counting.....

Two years to go. On one level it seems like only yesterday that the Annexe at Lane4 with the small TV in it was full of employees awaiting the decision. I will never, ever forget that moment when Mr Rogge read out the word ‘London’. I remember thinking all sorts of things...’will I have kids by then, it would be fantastic to be able to take them.....what on earth will this mean for Lane4, it could be hugely important...I bet Adrian is glad he went to Trafalgar Square, and I bet he doesn’t make our meeting this afternoon now!’ Many other things besides.

Two years to go and I have kids, two now, and they are very definitely coming. Conor even made it out to Beijing with my wife Claire and I. It has certainly been hugely important for Lane4. And Adrian definitely didn’t make that meeting!

From a Lane4 perspective things are really hotting up. We have a wealth of talented colleagues taking some part in 2012, whether aiming to compete – Greg Searle and Clare Strange – or in a coaching capacity – Wil James, Jeremy Cross, Dominic Mahony and Charlie Unwin. Also, Adrian will be commentating on the swimming Commonwealth Games and European Champs warming up his vocal chords for London. More details about what each of these people are up to are at http://www.lane4performance.com/Lane4-on-the-road-to-2012.html#first 

Away from the actual field of play, many of us remain involved on other levels. A group of us support a Bucks County Council, GE and Lane4 CSR initiative in local schools called Inspire Motivate Achieve. We are actively supporting the engagement and learning agenda of five sponsors on their journey to bring alive the opportunities presented by the next few years present to support meaningful change in their own organisations through their employees.

On a personal note, I have finally finished a book with my Dad which builds on some of the themes from the session I ran with Rob Clarke from London 2012 at our Lane4 Client Conference last year. This is due to be released in November.

 Two years to go. It hardly seems possible....and yet this London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games has already given me, my family and Lane4 more in terms of a legacy than I could ever have hoped for.

Children, Fireman Sam and the Kids Industry

It's been a while since I posted to this blog. The reason for that was spotted by an eagle eyed reader who noticed in my profile that I now live in Oxfordshire with my wife Claire, son Conor and also a new addition - daughter Niamh. 

Niamh is now two and half weeks old, and getting used to life in the Rogan household. Her Daddy tries to go running early, unfortunately now even earlier in the morning. When back, it is a case of juggling breakfast, the radio, dinner plans and an early blast of Fireman Sam for Conor. 

Fireman Sam is the tip of the iceberg, if that is not too confused a statement. One of the newest phenomena for me has actually been getting to know the kids industry a little bit. My favourite is Thomas the Tank Engine, principally because he was my favourite as a kid, too. HIT Entertainment own the rights to the show, and license the brand in a number of categories - from new books to train sets; pyjamas to cutlery. Yes, we have them all.

I have actually been pleasantly surprised by the quality of much of the entertainment available to children. For example, the BBC through CBeebies provised a stream of consistent, educational television. Half an hour in front of the Numberjacks (a show teaching basic numeracy) has to be a good use of a child's time. 

It feels to me that we demonise the kids' toys and entertainment industry nowadays. We complain that it is too commercial, as though that were a sin in itself. In my view it is a good thing. Commerciality and free market economics ensure that the quality output which parents value rises to the top. We get the kids industry we deserve.

Economics, Leadership and My Friend Stephanie

If I am ever lucky enough to get the chance to study again, the subject I would like to study is Economics. While the recent crisis has revealed that actually nobody holds all of the answers in this space, I think I would definitely enjoy the journey. Strategy consultancy after University taught me the real basics, and not a day goes by where I do not return to that grounding as the building blocks of my current working life. At some point I would love to top that up with some more detailed learning.

Of course, the reality is that some top line theory from a few years ago is not enough to lead in the current environment. I try to take as lively an interest as I can in all things economic, both in terms of news but also pushing my ongoing learning along. This is not easy because I am lucky if I get a spare minute in a busy day, let alone time for attending a lecture or two. Fortunate, then, that I have my friend Stephanie to rely on!

Stephanie Flanders is the BBC Economics Editor. Actually I have never met her, and I rarely even get the chance to hear her broadcast. I find the car en route to work a little early, and the end of the News at Ten a little late for me to really process complex information. Fortunate for me, then, that she writes a fantastic blog called Stephanomics. This provides me with all the economic news and opinion anyone would need to lead a business in short, concise chunks.

One of Stephanie’s blogs last weekend, ‘Damned if They Do, Damned if They Don’t’ brought home to me once again the challenges our leaders currently face. The truth is, nobody knows which way the economic pendulum will swing, and there is a fine line (or even no line) between too much and not enough fiscal stimulus. Stephanie relays our expectation that leaders will meet this this challenge head on and deal with ambiguity in an agile, proactive way.

Leaders of any business are confronted with their our own version of this tightrope. Over-investment might be risky to the long term health of any business in the current environment, but no more so than under-investment. Our Lane4 approach throughout has been to favour positive, forward movement – launching our broader service offer being the outcome of this approach. We move on remaining confident but not complacent.

http://mattrogan.blogspot.com/2010/04/lane4-our-new-world.html

While I am no more likely to be able to predict the medium or even short term economic picture than the next man, my responsibility as a leader is to have my ear to the ground. My friend Stephanie is by no means the only strategic input to my work at Lane4, but personally I do value the context she sets.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/stephanieflanders/2010/06/damned_if_they_do_damned_if_th.html

Greg Searle and Bobby White - If Not Now, Then When?

Yesterday I was invited to an Entrepreneurs' Lunch run by the Bucks Economic and Learning Partnership which had a focus on the challenges and opportunities presented by London 2012.

The highlight of the day for me was meeting a guy by the name of Bobby White, the goalkeeper of the Great Britain Handball team. Bobby and the team aspire to compete in London in two years time.

It will not surprise you to know that Bobby did not grow up aspiring to be a handball goalkeeper. He started his senior sporting life as the semi professional goalkeeper for Newport Pagnell FC, and has actually only been playing Handball since January 2008. Bobby, along with seven of his team mates, was selected from over 2500 athletes that applied for the 2007 Sporting Giants Talent Identification Programme (TID) which was led by UK Sport and the English Institute for Sport. After a series of fitness and skill based trials he was eventually offered a full time contract starting in January 2008 at a sports academy in Denmark where he joined the existing GB squad members. The aim of the programme is to create a competitive Handball team to compete in the 2012 London Olympics, targeting a top eight finish.

It has not been an easy path for Bobby and the team, principally because news of a significant reduction in funding has meant immediate changes to the set up of the programme. UK Sport funding is remorselessly focused on delivering podium athletes, and this coupled with squeeze in Government funding means that handball effectively needs to be self sufficient at a time when it is investing heavily. Bobby is currently trialling to join a Danish League side which would give him senior League exposure at a crucial time in his development.

When I was talking to Bobby about the moment he decided to give Sporting Giants a try, it reminded me of listening to Greg Searle at Lane4 talk through his decision to go back to competitive rowing. On the face of it both seemed ridiculously tough challenges - to come back to rowing ten years after retirement and at the age of 38, and to learn to play a completely new sport to Olympic level in four years. Both of the guys talk about their decision making ending by them saying to themselves something along the lines 'if not now, then when?'. If I do not make the jump and push myself now, when do I see myself doing it?

I am very fortunate to have the chance to mix with people like Bobby and Greg. It is hard not to be genuinely inspired by the bravery of the decisions they have made, let alone what they may ultimately achieve. 

World Cup, Wimbledon and Technique Under Pressure

This is a fantastic time in the sporting year - World Cup, Wimbledon, US Open Golf, IAAF Athletics. Fantastic. It is also a lively time for me sport-wise as I try to balance running and tennis.

Saturday was interesting in that respect. I had a shoulder op in Jan and have been on a race to get back for this tennis season ever since. Things have been going well, although re-modelling my serve to help my shoulder has been tough - I have twenty years of ingrained technique to overcome, and serving is so fundamental even at my level. 

On Saturday I was playing for my club - Halton Village - against arch rivals Great Missenden. Halton is a fantastic club if you ever get the chance to visit - if Lane4 was a tennis club, it would look and feel much like Halton.

http://www.haltontennis.co.uk/

So - things were tight against our rivals, and my job in the doubles pair was to serve at 4-5. I was fairly confident having played reasonably well most of the day. I was 40-30 up....and it all went wrong. Out of nowhere 2 double faults. I didn't feel nervous or anxious, they just happened. Being frank about it, my new technique just folded under pressure. Something I had done hundreds of times before that day inexplicably went wrong when it really counted. It had to be the pressure...and yet I wasn't conscious of it. We lost the Game, and so the set.

The irony of this was not lost on me when 3 hours later I was watching England vs United States in the World Cup.  I guess I saw exactly the same thing happen to Robert Green on a far bigger stage.

It's not many people who can say this, but Robert Green is now my role model as I pick myself up and dust myself down. I thought his reaction both in the moment and in front of the media was absolutely world class. Effectively he said, ''it happens, I prepare for handling it, I learn from what happened and move on''.

Technique does break down - in particular when it is new. A new serve or a new strategy...it is all the same. It happens, we deal with it, we move on.

England, Coaching and the FIFA World Cup 2018

England is awash with commentary around how far we can go in the World Cup 2010. Whether we perform well or poorly this time, I am sorry to say the long term picture is bleak. 

I read a fascinating article last week in The Guardian International Edition. It referenced recent UEFA data linking the number of B, A and Pro badge Coaching Licence Holders (the very top football coaching qualifications) in each of the major European nations. The data is frightening. UEFA suggest that there are only 2,769 UEFA top level coaching badge holders in the UK. At the same time, Spain (many people's favourites for FIFA World Cup 2010) have 23,995, Italy 29,420, Germany 34,970 and France 17,558. This means that there is one UEFA coach for every 812 people playing the game in the UK, versus a ratio of 1:17 in Spain, 1:48 in Italy, 1:96 in France, 1:150 in Germany and even 1:135 in Greece!

Having played competitive football in the UK for a good nineteen years (and one year in Germany), I can certainly vouch for that ratio. I was lucky, in that I was coached at a good level in England by the Manager of my Under 11 to Under 18 side. He gave up countless weekends to challenge and support me and my team at equal measure...and gave the guys in our side who were good enough to chance to make the step up to semi pro level when he felt he had given us all he could. We were the only side he worked with - his ratio was 1:20 at most. We played many sides with far more talented players - and yet our team was the one with the strongest pathway to making football some sort of a career choice.

Like it or not, creating talent pathways in elite sport is in part a numbers game - both initial support and ongoing challenge have critical roles. Wayne Rooney only wears the Number 10 shirt for England because he was one of the lucky ones - not once, but twice. He was plucked out at an early age and given intensive, UEFA level support as part of Everton's system. Once he outgrew Everton, he made the timely switch to a club which could keep challenging him with Champions League Football. Again his career is not typical - there are regularly more Brazilians, French, Argentinians, Spanish, Portuguese, German and Turk players registered to play at Champions League level than English.

The data tells us that English domestic football is a mess. We might still earn the right to host  the World Cup in 2018, but we are not earning the right to win it. Oh, and by the way, you can be coached in art the taking of penalties.... 

Sport and Community: From London 2012 to Marathontalk

Today I MC’d a European Sponsorship Association session entitled ‘Beyond 2012’ which looked at the impact that London 2012 would have on the worlds of Olympic Sponsorship, grassroots legacy in the UK and the sponsorship industry a a whole.

The event was hosted at the British Olympic Association offices, and our Reception hosted in and around Olympic torches from Games past.

We were fortunate to have a host of fantastic speakers and panellists from the likes of British Olympic Association, Lloyds TSB, Deloitte, RFU and so on. The most unique session, however, was presented by Dr Martin Yelling and Tom Williams, co-presenters of the excellent running podcast Marathontalk.

The rationale behind Marathontalk (http://www.marathontalk.com/) is not dissimilar to that of parkrun which I mentioned in this blog a few months ago. The podcast creates a sense of community and support for all levels of runner looking to share their passion with others, support that is often lacking in listeners’ daily lives. It has grown dramatically since launch in January, aiming to create the sense that ‘Even if my husband, wife, parents or children don’t understand my running interest, there are thousands out there who will’. In this way, Martin and Tom hope to inspire others to learn and progress in their running. I was left with a sense that theirs is a legacy which will sustain when the Olympic flame has long departed our shores.

This need for ‘connectivity’ relates to a lecture I attended last night given by Baroness Sue Campbell at Bucks New University. Chair of UK Sport and Youth Sports Trust (and thus leading the school and high performance sport agenda in Britain) she talked about the critical need to connect schools with clubs at a local level in driving participation in sport – removing any remaining feeling that sport beyond 16 is only for the elite and encouraging coaches to bring genuine expertise into schools. In this way, they aim to create a bridge from school to club sport in order to create a route towards sport for young adults once the worlds of timetabled PE lessons are long left behind.

London won the right to host the Olympic and Paralympic Games with a promise to inspire young people to ‘choose sport’. 'Legacy', for me, means not just choosing it once, but being supported in choosing it for life. Concepts like Marathontalk and parkrun are the future for supporting grassroots sporting participation in this country. London 2012 will not ensure they continue to do so into adulthood, but together the Youth Sports Trust and Marathontalk just might.

Our New Coalition: Real Leadership and Motivation!

One week on, and the decisions are made. We have a coalition Government in Great Britain.

I am fascinated by the energy and motivation levels of our leaders, Messrs Cameron and Clegg, at the moment. I cannot easily imagine what it feels like to be flat out for six months on the closest election campaign for decades and then have to transition overnight into running the country for five years. There was not even the chance for a quick weekend away to recuperate. It reminds me of the M&A situations we have found ourselves in supporting clients at Lane4 whereby a deal is struck to acquire a business late at night after weeks of negotiation, and the 100 day integration plan kicks off the following morning!

Britain is certainly in need of strong leadership at the moment. Lane4's Co-Founder Professor Graham Jones recently recorded a podcast for the American Management Association where he talks about the distinction between real and safe leaders. He suggests that real business leaders are, among other things, those who are prepared to take the tough decisions for the good of their organisation; who thrive on pressure in doing so and who are highly visible in tough times. They make things happen. They are mentally tough, and their motivation is principally intrinsic rather than extrinsic. The podcast is available here if you would like to listen in.

http://podcast.amanet.org/edgewise/strategic-planning/193/dr-graham-jones-on-mental-toughness/

Real leadership feels a great synopsis of what we need in Great Britain in the months and years that follow. Time will tell!

Back to the lack of a weekend off for our political leaders. Actually we are conducting a study at Lane4 at the moment which looks at the current state of motivation in the workplace against the backdrop of a relentlessly challenging economy. While we might have not all fought an election or bought a business, the last eighteen months have certainly been a roller-coaster ride for all of us. You can take part by hitting the link below. All respondents will receive a free summary report once we have compiled them. Thanks in advance for taking the time!

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/Lane4motivationsurvey

The Election and London 2012

There are far more qualified people than me to write about the General Election. I did, however, want to mark one change. With a change in Government comes a change in Olympics Minister - and the end of the road for Tessa Jowell. I spoke at a CBI Event on London 2012 after Tessa Jowell a couple of years ago, and was extremely impressed by her genuine passion for what the Games could do for our country. She was clearly speaking from the heart.

Appointed Secretary of State at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport after the 2001 election, Jowell played a significant role in the Government position with regards to the bid for London 2012. If Tony Blair was central to the victory in Singapore, Jowell was certainly central to getting him there in person. She retained her Olympics portfolio after Gordon Brown’s post succession reshuffle, and retained this responsibility until the 2010 Election. I feel for Jowell now - she has moved things so far, and yet now faces the likelihood of seeing Hugh Robertson or similar take the glory.

We already have an interesting model in what the transition to Conservative Olympic Games leadership will look like in the change. We watched as from Ken Livingstone (another victim of the changing political tides) gave way to Boris Johnson's London Mayorship. Initial complaints about mismanaged budgets and inefficient management have already all but seeped away as Boris recognises he will be better set portraying himself as the White Knight of the Games rather than bickering and haggling all the way to 2012.

I feel sorry for both Tessa and Ken, as I do any business leader or even football manager who is asked to leave before his or her work is truly complete. In complex working environments there is often major value in continuity. While Hugh and Boris will grab the glory, the learning curve will be steep.

Facebook, Blackberry and Social Media - At Play and Work!

Last week I was Moderator of an Insights session for the European Sponsorship Association entitled, 'The New Era of Sponsorship'. We were fortunate to be joined by Vijay Solanki from Blackberry, Trevor Johnson from facebook, Thomas Godfrey from Sport England and Kieron Kilbride from Football League Interactive. It was a fascinating session which focused on the growing adoption of social and new media in sposnorship. What was clear throughout was, in the Vijay’s words,

‘social media is word of mouth on steroids’

It is also the future of marketing and sponsorship as we know it.
It has been relatively easy this far for those of us who are slightly long in the tooth in our roles to ignore the phenomenons of facebook, myspace, bebo and the like in our lives and our business. But did you know Starbucks now has 6.2m facebook fans in the world, and that it can effectively now engage with them on a personal level for free? Could you imagine how frustrating it might be for the Football Association that there are now more football clubs set up on facebook than there are registered with the Association itself? Can any of us really understand how powerful it is that British Gas can market their British Swimming Championships in Manchester to 98,000 fans of swimming in the local area at the touch of a button?

As Thomas Godfrey from Sport England shared, the majority of sport in this country is now played outside of traditional clubs. Just like the majority of music is bought outside record shops, the majority of voting decisions made without watching an official Party Political Broadcast and the majority of our news consumed outside of the 10pm broadcast and the morning paper. We no longer live a boxed-in existence.

The great irony, of course, is that for some reason in a corporate setting we somehow forget all of this. We tend to assume that mass communication without two way dialogue is appropriate, and even effective. We grumble when we see an employee on facebook at work, ignoring the fact they will likely be on e-mail in the evening. We tut when we see our employees with their ipods on while they work – ignoring the fact classical music helps them focus. We consider it a hindrance not a help.

Social media helps create tailored communication with individual audiences. It supports dialogue and debate rather than formal dictat. We could all use a little bit in our lives – at work and play.

Lane4: Our New World!

Those among you who have been on the Lane4 website in the last twenty-four hours or so might have noticed some changes. The link is here if you have not seen it. http://www.lane4performance.com/Home.html

In the central panel, you will also see a story which gives a little more  context.http://www.lane4performance.com/Lane4-extends-service-offering.html#first

Some of my veiled hints in this blog may now be making a little more sense! This is the week that Lane4 launches a broader service offer to the external market.

We have spent the last twelve months or so developing, planning and testing these ideas, encouraged along the way by clients and friends who we have bounced ideas around with. I have the responsibility of leading these business streams, which I am doing alongside my Commercial Director role. I am really enjoying the variety this brings, and fortunate to have great teams in each one of the business areas to make this possible.

The most critical part of the jigsaw has been to ensure that we can deliver the same quality in these new areas (Training, Communications and an extended Diagostics offer) that we deliver in the Consulting space. The same rigour around research-driven insight, recruitment, development, delivery quality and client service have been par for the course from the start. This doesn’t necessarily make it easy to launch a new service offer quickly into the market (we started planning these changes last August) but it will make it easier to do it right.

My favourite week on this journey so far came 3 weeks ago. In the course of the same week, we delivered the design of a performance management process to a pharmaceutical client and started to help them think through how they might land this in the business in a more engaging way (‘Diagnostics’); we kicked off the first module of a significant programme of work for a retailer with twenty cohorts in one week across the country (‘Training’); and we supported a financial services client with aligning their sponsorship to their group values (‘Communications’). We also proposed a three year plan for a sponsor of London 2012 which cuts across each area of our service offer.

Another step along the road for Lane4 as a business. It's great to finally be able to 'go live'. I'd love to hear your feedback.

Sport, Business and Change - Welcome to parkrun!

Regular readers of this blog will know that I particular enjoy writing about sport, business and how change happens. This blog covers all three.
I am spending a lot of time focusing on my running at the moment. One of the newest developments in the UK running world has been a new phenomenon which takes up the challenge of delivering sporting experience for the masses. Don't switch off if you're not a runner, because here is the real interesting bit ...the best and most initially puzzling thing about this new venture is its business model. Competing is totally free. 

This concept is called ‘parkrun’. At its heart, it is very simple. A central website and brand is essentially licensed, and no charge, to local individuals who wish to organise a 5k run in their local park. Costs are funded centrally by core sponsors – including Nike and Lucozade Sport – who are excited by the opportunity to engage with grass roots runners in cost effective and scaleable way.

I heard about parkrun from a friend and decided to enter at the last minute on the Friday afternoon before a Saturday afternoon race. After a 2 minute registration process online, I am now able to simply turn up and run a race any Saturday at one of 30 sporting locations across the UK by simply bringing along a personalised bar code. The event itself was very low key – some 130 attended, from elite club runners to those for whom this was a very first ‘race’. The bar code was read at the end to record a finish time, and I received a personalised e-mail by the end of day on the Saturday registering his finish time, finish position and pointing me back towards the parkrun website for free available photos from the event and a race report provided by the race organiser. Better service than I have had at races I have paid 20 pounds to enter.

The following Thursday a chatty, friendly parkrun newsletter arrived in my inbox – updating on the growth of the phenomenon, promoting some of the newer races, gently emphasising the need for volunteers to make the runs happen and thanking the sponsors whose funding made the events happen.
These two final elements of the jigsaw are critical to the parkrun model. Firstly, volunteers are the lifeblood of the event in order that participation can remain free to charge. An ongoing points competition between athletes rewards volunteering as well as competing. Secondly, sponsorship funds ensure that investment in the technology platform which delivers such a compelling experience can continue.

Keep an eye out for parkrun. Whether you are reading this in the US, Australia or the UK, parkrun will be coming to a green space near you, soon. When you head for a coffee after a first race and are asked how you heard about parkrun, I hope you might say 'I read about it in a semi-regular blog I enjoy reading'. Maybe you might feel able to send the felow runner who asked you the question the url for this blog. Welcome to how change happens in 2010!

http://www.parkrun.com/

Sponsorship, Employees and London 2012

This week Lane4 hosted an informal event for those clients of ours who are focused on employee engagement through sponsorship. Our session took a specific focus on the forthcoming London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. It felt like a very meaningful step not only in Lane4’s journey in this space, but also the awareness of the sponsorship industry as a whole.

Three years ago 'employee engagement through sponsorship' meant, to put it simply, ‘free hats for every employee, offering tickets for the sales teams to win through incentive programmes and hospitality for key clients’. There is nothing particularly wrong with those areas of an internal activation programme, but they are scratching the surface of what is possible. The danger if this is all tha you do is that they risk disenfranchising all but the lucky few. How on earth can you hope to rationalise an £80m spend with an intelligent employee by giving them a free hat? What else might you be doing to help your employee base understand how the Games is relevant to their own daily working lives? How can the Olympics help them understand what their own organisations are all about?

Our conversation this week was focused on that final question. Very tellingly, thirty people from more than ten organisations were working it through together. Richard Lloyd – Head of Brand, People and Culture at BT talked compellingly about BT’s work in the area of cultural and behavioural change. The Games offers a metaphor for the journey BT and many other partners are on.

If this is an area you’re interested in, you might like to pop along to Sadlers Wells Theatre in London on 15th April at the Think Sponsorship event where we’ll be sharing more of the BT journey so far.

http://www.thinksponsorship.com/pages/content/index.asp?PageID=131

MTV, Gen Y and the UK Election

I am very interested in the area of generational shift in the workplace. By chance my career has effectively followed a generation from teenage years (interested in urban music, fashion and, occasionally, basketball) through to young adulthood (music, parties, technology and MTV). I now find myself at Lane4 as we support businesses in the process of understanding how to assess, engage and develop their newest and youngest group of employees. This is the population we call Gen Y.

We often find perplexing. They join law firms – but do not necessarily want to be Partners in ten years time. They turn down Graduate roles at McKinsey for the equivalent Cancer Research scheme. They ask for promotions and pay rises before they have any track record of achievement. And they are never, ever, afraid to challenge.

When I was at MTV, we spent a lot of time talking with brands looking to target Gen Y. We talked with them about the power of ‘’experiences’’ and the internet to position their brand . We ran focus groups to demonstrate the importance of nurturing word of mouth among influential populations to drive trend leadership. We showed them videos of teenagers talking about poster advertising (‘’I never look at it’, ‘’It’s just brands paying to target me’’, ‘’Talk with me, not at me’’). We talked about how the internet would change the rules of the game. Often this was anathema to a marketing industry which revolved around making expensive thirty second adverts.
 It is interesting to reflect on where we stand today, six years on. Those eighteen year olds who we talked to in focus groups are today’s high potential talent. They are saying exactly the same things as they were when in the focus groups, just now they are saying it to their employers. ‘’Talk with me, not at me’’. The biggest change has been the coming of age of the technology which now facilitates this. We might not like it, but facebook, linked in and the like are now part of our working lives. This is a generation who will send an e-mail to the CEO. Not only that, they will expect a reply.

I was at an excellent session yesterday morning run by Communications Management. It looked at the potential impact of a Conservative government on British business. What I found interesting was the extent to which the Conservative Party, like Obama before them, are aiming to embrace technology as a means of engaging this population. The Conservative Strategy Director has apparently spent an awful lot of time at Google HQ in the last year understanding how technology can be used to engage its users and influence decision making. Generation Y is going to be a hotly contested area of the election. It strikes me as a fascinating battleground. For Gen Y effective communication is bespoke, two way and authentic. It is not top down, manufactured and impersonal. It will be fascinating to see to what extent the Main Parties’ campaigns genuinely pick that up in the next few weeks and months. My advice to British industry would be to watch closely. The next few weeks might offer some useful learning to those corporate organisations struggling to understand how to engage, influence and retain their future corporate leaders.

Different Types of Conversations

Two months into the year, and our economy continues to be in a very interesting yet slightly perplexing place. Traditional indicators of the health of our market-place do not provide a consistent picture.

Of course prospects for the public sector and the overall size of the national debt cast an ongoing shadow over the UK market at the beginning of the year. We all recognise that something needs to be done, and yet we have a curious interlude until the General Election until anything major actually happens. Britain’s biggest businesses claim that 56.6% of gross profits went back to the Government in the form of different types of taxation last year. That is an extraordinarily high figure. We tend to think of the government as having an equity stake in our banking sector alone, but the practical reality is that their ‘dividend’ flow comes from each part of the 'private' sector.

The challenge of public debt aside, there is a brighter news. Recruitment in the UK is on the rise. I met a provider of assessment software the other day who described a very promising uptake in demand from January. The prevailing mood at the Best Companies Awards Ceremony (where we were delighted to come 5th) was one of cautious optimism. This definitely stronger than last year, although less because of any broader confidence in the economy than a feeling that we are collectively wiser about how to tackle this uncertainty than eighteen months ago.

This sense of 'confidence from experience' we felt in the SME market last week is also mirrored in our corporate clients. They are increasingly leaning to practical action not just despite, but also because of economic circumstance. Certainly the strategy houses are very busy indeed with a blend of growth strategy and due diligence work. The strongest businesses are plotting for significant market share growth in the next eighteen months. We notice them being far clearer around their strategy whether we experience double dip or slow growth scenario. They have built plans which will operable under either set of economic conditions.

This environment creates a really interesting shift in our client conversations. Three years ago we might have been asked about (for example) a pre-diagnosed leadership development programme for a 150-strong Directorate. Often it needed a lot of probing to identify how this related to the future strategic intent for the business. Today our conversations start earlier and far broader in scope. Questions like ‘’if this is our strategic straw man for the next 5 years, how will this impact our people strategy? How do we cascade the imperative for change and the behaviours we require? How will that impact on our employees, our customer service levels and the way our customers talk about us? How will we know if it is working?’ This is where we love to start a conversation.

Economic uncertainty remains in the UK, but it seems to be driving far less strategic uncertainty than twelve months ago. Our clients are clearer about a future vision and purpose. Or challenge is to respond to that.

Best Companies 2010 - The Results Are In.....

It is Awards ceremony season, and tonight is the real big one – the announcement of the Top 100 in the Sunday Times Best Companies to Work For list. Lane4 is in the 'small and medium size businesses' category. This Sunday the results are announced to the general public as a supplement in the Sunday Times.

Lane4 has been invited along tonight, which means that once again we have made the Top 100. We are delighted. An increasing number of organisations enter each year hoping to make the grade. Of course this year we have the extra spice of having experienced one of the toughest years on record for British industry generally, and certainly the toughest on record for our industry. Best Companies provide a feel for individual organisations’ scores in advance of the evening awards, and it was very gratifying for us to see that (as per our own internal data) our data is as strong as in previous years when we have made the top 10.

The first year we entered Best Companies I remember being surprised by the robustness of the diagnostic which underpins the assessment process. On a professional level I am particularly interested by some of the extra questions which Best Companies have begun to ask participants – in particular around how they feel about their organisation’s brand as well as its values, leadership and culture.
  
I would like to think that this evening in itself is a barometer of some of the things that put Lane4 on the list. Of course we have a table at the Awards Dinner tonight. Places were ‘’won’’ via the Lane4 internal lottery. Many others who did not win the Lottery are going to be gathering just down the road at the ‘’Unofficial Lane4 Awards Ceremony’’. Arguments persist every year over which group had the better evening. A brave few manage to meet up at the end of the evening – although Fatherhood has put paid for that level of stamina for me!

It is interesting to see how many of our clients proudly tell us now that they have made the ‘’Best Companies’’ list. We are increasingly party to many discussions around this at FTSE Board tables. Ten years ago references to the ‘’Best Companies list’’ would have been citing the list of ‘’Top Stock Market Performers’’ in the Financial Times. No longer. In fact bestcompanies themselves (the organisation behind the diagnostic) have data which correlates ‘’Top 100’’ status with sustained outperformance of the Stock Market. 

Tonight I am heading along to the Unofficial Lane4 party. We will be celebrating being together  today, and also reflecting informally on how we aim to evolve over the next few years. More on the latter point in the next few months. 

Regulation versus Common Sense!

I read with interest journalist and author Philip Whiteley's last post on regulation in British business at http://felipewh.wordpress.com/.

''The arguments over more-versus-less regulation are often not the most important ones to have, because the things that really matter are to do with leadership, workplace competence, engagement and trust''

I found myself nodding along as I read. Regulation is not the sexiest of subjects, but like it or not it increasngly effects my role every day at work. We recently moved around the structure of our office and some of us were in at the weekend moving desks around. Theoretical Health and Safety risk. We have some fabulous working Mums (and some soon to be Mums) in our office. Maternity leave requires a PhD to understand. Let alone the procurement systems that some FTSE businesses would judge a suitable first interface to put together a partnership-orientated approach to scale change!

It is not just my core Lane4 role that I feel this pressure. Wearing my European Sponsorship Association hat, European regulation of alcohol, betting and tobacco sponsorship among other areas is also a hot topic. On one level this is understandable, and yet on another my frustration is that the lobbying becomes an industry in its own right. Six years ago I spoke at a European Union conference on the subject in Brussels. It was run by a private company in a swanky hotel with chiefly European Union Member speakers and evening ''lobbying'' aplenty. There was a distinct sense that nothing at all of any importance would be discussed or debated (let alone decided), apart from which champagne was the best on the menu. 

Despite all of this I support sensible regulation in business leadership. I support it in the world of sponsorship. I particularly support it in an industry such as learning and development where no qualifications are required to call oneself a coach. However I also support common sense. Any business leader who needs to get out the small print to wrangle through a conversation about accrued holiday with a a new Mum returning to work has more fundamental issues in their organisation than the odd day of holiday. Any sporting organisation who genuinely wishes to accept a sponsorship which is ethically dubious will only erode their value in the long term. Equally any HR Director who is prepared to bring in unproven and unsupervised coaches will soon realise that the risks outweigh any potential benefits.  

I believe in regulation to help us look after the vulnerable in society and business, but I also believe that ultimately the ethical, sensible and emotionally intelligent prevail way before it is needed. Regulation in business is similar in many ways to the best negotiated commercial contracts between two organisations. It is important to have in the desk drawer as a guide, but if it ever leaves the desk drawer, it is probably too late!

Countdown to Vancouver Part II - Fundamental Challenges

If my last post painted a picture of the micro Olympic picture in Canada, I though it would be remiss of me not to try to paint the macro picture as we approached the Games.

As we sat down to breakfast on our first full day in Canada, there were two big stories on the front of the Calgary sports pages. Firstly, Brian McKeever’s extraordinary achievement in qualifying to represent Canada in Cross Country skiing at the Olympic AND Paralympic Games. This was global news at the time – and still features heavily on the BBC website. His home town? Canmore of course (see below if you have not read my last post!)http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/olympic_games/vancouver_2010/8428841.stm

The second story with the front page picture? Calgary Roughnecks narrowly losing to Washington Stealth 16-15 at indoor lacrosse. That just about sums up my experience of Canadian sport. Passionate about the Olympics, balanced with a taste for certain sports which have escaped the attention of most of the rest of the world.

Brian’s selection is not the only incredible story in Canada’s build-up to hosting the Games. Quite the opposite in fact. There are many other stories I encountered during my trip which verged on the surreal. Last minute challenges seem to be particularly extreme this time. For example, the Whistler skiing venue faces a challenge to create enough snow in time for competition - it has been 11 degrees and raining for much of the winter. Of course those of us in London would not be surprised with those conditions come 2012, but they are more than unusual for Whistler.

Amazingly though, a total lack of snow is not even Whistler’s biggest current challenge. Even more critical is that fact that the venue for the skiing events at the Olympics is actually going to be up for sale by Wall Street Financiers after its owners defaulted on their $1.4bn loan facility. The recession has hit this Games hard. http://www.cbc.ca/money/story/2010/01/20/intrawest-whistler-olympics.html

Another key theme while I was in Canada was (of course) ice hockey. Along with the obsessive form checking on Team Canada’s brightest stars plying their trade in the NHL, a more serious debate was emerging as to whether the sport had crossed the line to an illegal level of violence after Calgary’s 19-year-old team captain was banned for the rest of the year for an assault on an opposing player. The question is whether the sport is viable in its current form in any socially mature (and litigious) culture.

Of course the Olympics will also cover an inordinate amount of column inches as we approach London. However hopefully they will be less fundamental issues than the financial collapse of the primary Games venue, the lack of the basic conditions necessary for competition or the unsustainable violence in our nation’s leading sport!

Not every story is a blockbuster of course. Come London I imagine we will be glad to see the following kind of stories on the front page, whereas currently they are hiding in the Olympic supplements and in the sports pages in Canada. This would mean London has escaped any larger issues. These are the kinds of stories I read over a four-day period:


• Which national legend should light the torch?

• How did the local politician put their foot in it at Day 89 of the Torch Relay?

• How are protesters likely to try to impact the Opening Ceremony Games?

• How on earth can a sponsor who signs up for the Games 4 weeks out get any value from the deal at all?

• How will companies cope with employee downtime during the Games?

• Why cannot our country fill all the spots we could have had available for x or y sport?

• Why do we need 3 Olympic mascots – and why do they look Chinese?

• Can the leading childrens clothing licensee stay solvent long enough to deliver on their responsibilities up to the Games?

• How do you put a huge vinyl overlay on a dour Vancouver building to transform it to a fully branded part of the 2010 experience?

• How quickly can the public use each facility when the Games leaves town?

• Which bars have been block booked by Corporates for the evenings in Vancouver?

• When it all boils down to it, how many gold medals will we win?

It’s been fascinating reading.

I hope the last two posts have helped to give you a sense of the kind of sentiments in a host nation just a few weeks from the lighting of the torch. It is genuinely a story of national sporting excitement, with the role of the Games as a social and economic catalyst (or threat) never far below the surface. I have many friends making the trip over for the next few weeks to soak up the lessons from Vancouver. There is much to learn and inspire amidst the challenges of being a host nation.

Countdown to Vancouver Part I – Lessons for London from the Canmore Nordic Centre

Last week I travelled to the Rockies – staying in Banff – for a family wedding. We spent a week there which gave us time to look around and really enjoy a country that is now just weeks away from hosting the Winter Olympic Games. In my next two posts I will try to give some insight into the Host Nation I experienced, recognising that London is next in line!
 In my first post I wanted to share the story of one Canadian town which continues to be touched by the 1988 Alberta Games. Its story challenges us to think about how we ensure the Games really is a catalyst for Britain in 2012.

Banff itself is some 500 miles from Vancouver. As you drive to Banff from Calgary Airport you pass a town called Canmore. It is not a big place – its total population (permanent and non permanent) being around 18,000. Canmore grew up steadily from the late nineteenth century onwards – benefitting from being on the Canadian Pacific Railway route, and critically the discovery of coal in the town. This combination guaranteed success until 1979, when dwindling demand for coal means that Canmore Mines Ltd. ceased operations. Canmore's economic future seemed dismal until the announcement in the early 1980s that Alberta would host the 1988 Winter Olympics and that Canmore would play host to the Nordic events (cross country skiing, biathlon, Nordic combined, and blind cross country skiing).

Ultimately this provided the impetus for the regeneration of Canmore to the tourism and recreation destination it is today. However, if one looks more closely at Canmore’s story, the journey has not been linear and successful transformation of the town is still not guaranteed. There seem to have been three mistakes in Canmore’s regeneration which offer us some lessons for London:

 • Lesson 1 – Sporting Investment does not finish with the Olympic Games

The Canmore Nordic Centre was built with the specific purpose of hosting the Olympic Games in 1988. This it did very successfully, however by its own admission the investment stopped the moment the Games left town. Over time elite events stopped coming – and with them the quality of the facilities dwindled. It was only in 2005 that the authorities reinvested in the facilities to bring them up to the standard required to host World Cup events. The venue now hosts Canadian teams in these disciplines….and as a result remains a magnate for enthusiastic amateurs like myself.

• Lesson 2 – The Books Need to Keep Balancing

Given the reality of Lesson 1, there is an ongoing need to balance the books after the Games. While ongoing World Cup events help, they do not do this on their own. Even in Canada, Nordic skiing is a minority sport. During the summer months the Centre converts to include mountain biking facilities and plays host to several national and international mountain bike events annually as well as orienteering and disk golf. It even hosts an 18 "hole" disc golf course during the summer months. The Nordic Centre offers services full time such as a cafeteria, meeting rooms, equipment rentals and lessons.

We spent a good amount of time making use of these facilities during our break. We took a lesson, went out on the trails, took Conor our son on his first pair of skis at the age of 2 1/2, and then had a big, and mercifully warm lunch in the cafe. Conor ate them out of tomatoes after ransacking the lost property for some sunglasses. We watched people from 8-80 out on the slopes, and saw hundreds of schoolchildren arrive for lessons after school.
 The most incredible thing about the Centre, however, was the extent to which it now manages to balance its elite and public facility responsibilities. As Dad and I were learning to hill climb, the Russian and Kazakhstan squads pulled out to pass us on their training run for the World Cup Nordic Event this coming weekend. Our lesson was given by a member of the Australian national team. His parting words were ‘the Olympic course is up there – it’ll be hard graft, but give it a crack it you want’. It felt a tremendous privilege to be out there with the elite as well as my family.

• Lesson 3 – Sport alone is not enough…

Sadly, despite learning lessons 2 and 3, Canmore has one further lesson to overcome. The town itself has yet to move into becoming a fully viable concern for the twenty-first century, and sustainability remains elusive. Concerns over urban growth adjacent to Banff National Park has led to a limit on future development. The town is expected to reach its maximum "build out" following the completion of the SilverTip and Three Sisters Mountain Village developments sometime around 2015–2020. Recession has hit Canmore hard, however. Three Sisters went into receivership and burnt down during later stages of completion in the spring of 2009.
Ongoing salvation remains frustratingly at a distance for Canmore, but it continues to try very hard indeed. Witness the efforts made for next weekend to convince the International Ski Federation to make Canmore a full-time stop on the Nordic World Cup tour. I am sure Eurosport will be showing the action this weekend if you want to see the fruits of their labours. Those hills are steeper than they look!

A Dangerous Follow-Up Post - Obama and Bankers Bonuses

When I started this blog, I was advised that being occasionally controversial was a good idea.
So here's the thing. Today Barack Obama has launched a stinging attack on the US banking system. By the time you read this, you are bound to have heard all about it. You might not quite have managed to wade through the headlines to hear about Goldman Sachs results.

Goldman anounced it will pay $16.19bn in compensation and benefits for the whole year, up 48% from 2008. But its compensation as a percentage of net revenues was 35.8%, the lowest since it went public in 1999.

As I mentioned below, there are very few people intensive businesses which manage a salary bill which equates to that percentage of total income. Certainly not football clubs, and also not quality HR consultancies which offer value for money.

Therein lies the rub for me. I have no issue at all with bankers bonuses. In my mind they are no more controversial than Richard Branson or Anita Roddick using their intellect to build and then sell their businesses for equivalent fortunes. The days of a City job inheritance are long gone - most of our City's bankers are intelligent people with immense talent who have grafted hard to get where they are.

The issue for me is not the P&L of the investment banks, but the balance sheets. If these annual profits are generated via excessive balance sheet risk, the man in the street gets hurt. I imagine less than 1% of this country's bankers have willingly endangered the health of their organisation's balance sheet.

In my view investment bankers should be able to pay their people as much as they like as long as they can manage the downside risk. Obama is absolutely right to push for stronger regulation of the banking sector, but politicians who petition for smaller bankers' bonuses are simply pandering for cheap votes and big headlines.   

It's a Dodgy Old Game: Debt versus Equity

I enjoyed the Sunday Times article yesterday on the parlous state of the finances of Premier League football clubs. While the Sunday Times business section can regularly veer into sensationalism, the Premier League continues to reflect a truth that is stranger than any fiction.

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/leisure/article6991053.ece

The article, subtitled ‘How Manchester United became a piggy bank for its American owners’, confronted head on United’s attempts to restructure its financing (total debt of £700m). United are not alone. Liverpool are in a similar boat (net debt of £300m), with Chelsea and Manchester City’s owners having recently swapped their loans for equity stakes to stay on the right side of football’s traditionally impotent rule makers.

There is a certain irony of course that the Sunday Times is a Murdoch business – the same parent company that has funded the Premier League gravy train via Sky and some core international TV rights deals. I recall leading part of a due diligence process for Newcastle United some 12 years ago now. Even then, player salary levels were a significant, limiting concern for future value of cash flows. Now this has become a concern for current profitability.

It is widely expected that one Premier League club will default on its financials obligations this season. Hot favourite is Portsmouth. It is extraordinary to think that the England goalkeeper cannot get any games for his club in a World Cup year because that club is scared of triggering a clause in his contract which will commit them to paying another year of his salary. In particular when you think they are bottom of the Premier League and leaking goals.

The hard reality is the business model for professional football – where salary levels are typically 65% plus of total revenue and net profitability is marginal or non existent – simply cannot sustain that level of debt. It might survive it in the short term, but it cannot sustain it or thrive on it.

This brings an interesting reflection for those of us who work in professional services businesses. There are not many businesses in our sector where costs of our ‘talent’ are less than 65% of our total revenues. It is impossible for the average professional services business to make a debt versus equity swap on a week’s notice should things get a bit sticky. I know many who would envy Chelsea’s agility!

Many in our market continue to struggle. This will continue to be the case as demand remains flat, in particular if interest rates rise. It has been interesting to see the increasing number of clients who request our full company accounts when we are pitching for work – and rightly so. Several suppliers in our market have run the debt gauntlet to capitalise on early to mid noughties growth – developing their own software, buying competitors and so on. Any client would want to be sure their 2010 suppliers can continue to fulfil their obligations without needing to do the equivalent of dropping their England regulars.

Balancing Personal and Professional Goal Setting

I mentioned in December the need to lead Lane4 with a balance of optimism and realism. That is an important line to tread as we set goals and objectives for 2010.

Of course, an additional challenge for all of us is not just to find appropriate balance in our goals at a Lane4 level, but also our aspirations as family members, friends, sports team members and so on. Sometimes balancing the personal and the professional is easier said than done. It felt particularly tough at times in 2009 to keep that balance.

I spent time last week finalising my own set of goals for the year…setting the personal alongside the professional. It is the first time I have really set about making sure I look at both together. I would definitely recommend it.

Initially it can feel a little odd to have life ambitions (write a book), sporting goals (which I hope will include a sub 40m 10k run and a return to competitive tennis) next to working aspirations and most importantly some family and friends goals. That is why it is such an interesting and thought provoking process.

Obviously there are tensions between the different areas, which is where the thinking really begins. It leads me to reflect that goal setting professionally in the absence of the personal dimension just isn’t being honest with yourself, your colleagues or most importantly your family. It’ll be a busy year, but hopefully very rewarding one.

Unfortunately this busy year starts with a shoulder op on 13th Jan. That will mean a period in a sling and a crash course in one (left) handed typing …so please accept my apologies if my blogs are somewhat less frequent for a while!

2010 (or 'Why Robert Peston Reminds me of the Ribble Valley 10k')

And so to 2010 – Happy New Year!

I started to rev up for the New Year this weekend. The first thing I ended up reading was the blog of BBC Business Editor Robert Peston. The usual under-stated Peston approach : ‘A cheerful first thought for the New Working Year.

Viewed across all economic sectors, the UK and the US are still submerged in debt: the aggregate borrowing of households, companies and government is equivalent to more than three times the value of everything we produce, still greater than at any point in peacetime history.

We have all read and heard several variations of the same story told in the Business Press. In the absence of any real news, time for the media to become crystal ball gazers. Predictions of hung parliaments; loss of AAA ratings; costly government borrowing; resultant cuts in state and household spending..and a second dip to make the first look like a hiccup. All this by the end of Q2. Looks like the business journalists have had a nice break and are all revved up to talk us into more financial difficulty.

As I have said in previous posts, we have focussed Lane4 not just to cope with the challenges of any future dip, but also to capitalise on any steady recovery. I’ll say more about how we are doing this in the next few months.

On the subject of a steady recovery though, as befits the return to work I have included a festive holiday snap (of sorts) below. This picture was taken by my wife Claire during the Ribble Valley 10k on December 27th. It shows some of the 900 hardy souls (me included) making their way across the freezing Ribble on their way out to a snowy adventure in the Lancashire countryside.

 I include the photo because the way I felt when it was taken - 800m into the race - mirrors pretty well how I feel today starting the working year. It was already clear that the conditions were going to be a bit tricky underfoot, and I definitely wasn’t sure how I would fare on a course I had never seen before. But I also knew I had done my preparation and was ready for a tougher workout. At least I thought I was.

As it turned out the race went pretty well in the end, but only after I struggled badly in the first half. It was not until I realised at the 5k mark that I had been going just slightly uphill since we crossed the Ribble that I began to understand why. When we turned for home, things really picked up for me. I actually went quicker in the second half than the first - which is very unusual for me.

So – back to 2010. The training and preparation is done, and the gun has just gone off. The Robert Pestons are talking up the course, and we sense the first few kilometres might well be tough. For all we know, the whole race might well be uphill. But here is hoping that the Q4 2009 hill repetitions will pay dividends!