The Department for Business, Trade and Regulatory Reform (BERR) has launched a pamphlet of helpful business advice, in response to widening concern over the financial prospects of the UK’s services industries.
The booklet begins: “Despite what you may have been told, the current uncertain commercial landscape does not represent a significant opportunity for you, nor does heightened competition among your client base make your service more valuable than ever.”
It then goes on to detail “specific and practical” steps for a number of business types, which may be struggling in an environment where many firms are reluctant to spend on non-essential services.
Management consultants should, for example, “take a strategic appraisal of their long-term commercial prospects, with a view to finding new synergies between their own corporate outlook and that of the Job Centre.”
It also advises against “confining creative individuals to arbitrary, task-based silos”, in favour of “exploring more flexible deployment of human capital – perhaps moving from purely knowledge-based roles to mopping up sick in a hospital.”
For PR professionals, the booklet extols an “exciting opportunity to re-align your businesses, to focus more on Playstation and very cheap wine,” while marketing strategists are prompted to, “re-assess your core brand values – you’ll probably find you no longer have any.”
A spokesperson for BERR commented on the launch: “There are times when you simply need to view each problem as a challenge – a chance to make your business stronger and more efficient. To be clear: this is not one of those times.”
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