I have been persuaded (but not paid!) by Tad & Dom to contribute to this brand new, all singing and dancing, sparkling and bubbly "Point to Point" newsletter via my personal musings about our wonderful world of relocation. But mindful of what a PR consultant once told me, that, "your voice lends itself to short speeches", I'm going to assume my musings will need to be brief too.
So here goes. Musing No.1. On the car radio the other day I heard a song originally penned by the US songwriter Sy Oliver in 1939 and entitled"It ain't what you do it's the way that you do it". And I thought to myself – how true! In the increasingly competitive and expanding world of relocation service supply surely that's exactly the point. Anyone can talk the talk but it's commercially crucial to walk the walk as well. Otherwise a more service conscious competitor will undoubtedly run away with what should have been our piece of business.
Musing No.2. According to the British Institute of Facility Management; "Despite the evident complexity involved in relocating a massive 68% of organisations have no documented process to handle a relocation project". And yet we're supposed to be a relocation-savvy nation. Does this mean there's an exploitable market niche in training Facilities people to handle their relocation projects more smoothly and efficiently?
Musing No.3. The other day I came across these survey findings put out by Cushman and Wakefield, the leading international commercial agency. "London is the best city in Europe in which to locate a business. The performance of 30 leading business cities shows that London has extended its lead over Paris and that both are well ahead of their nearest rivals Frankfurt and Brussels. The results are based on the views of senior managers and board directors of 500 top European companies and cover 12 wide ranging factors. London ranked number one in terms of ease of access to markets, availability of qualified staff, external transport links, telecoms quality and the range of languages spoken".
Aside from the fact that there will certainly be bitter Gallic gall at these findings it does serve to underline the overseas interest and appetite for London which obviously isn't slowing down. Should we then be more proactive in our marketing to overseas markets perhaps?
And finally Musing No.4. A CBI news release. "Eighty percent of UK companies are considering expansion within the next two years with 35% considering other countries". My reactions to this "news" are twofold. The 80% figure is still edging upward and seems to be running pretty much pro rata to the "push factors" of increasing competitive pressures and market development opportunities.
The 35% figure however is, to my mind, more interesting. In our own commercial business world we are still getting UK-UK relocation project enquiries. But it's certainly true that more enquiries are coming in from organisations wanting to develop business overseas. In recent weeks China, Germany, Italy and India are good examples for us. And at the same we have active overseas enquiries from organisations (in Singapore, Gibraltar, the US, Canada etc) wanting to move into or set up business in the UK.
My take on that is there seems little doubt that as the world gets smaller our relocation opportunities will get bigger. So even if you don't feel personally or organisationally able to directly handle overseas enquiries don't forget you can always open up networking contacts with others that can.
And so to conclude these musings. If you have stayed with me to the end, then I thank and congratulate you. If you've cherry picked along the way I hope the cherry(ies) were tasty. And if you ignored this missive you'll just never know what you missed (i.e. what are best described as relocation ramblings).
Grey Thatch
June 07