WITH the twin aims of researching how the economy is fairing and building up stamina for the Christmas season, I headed off to two drinks parties last night.
First it was to AECOM’s annual ‘Winter Warmer’ at Crafthouse in the Trinity centre in Leeds.
I didn’t know much about the business but a glance at its website revealed it is a quoted US company with $18bn of revenue last year which delivers “innovative solutions to the world’s most complex challenges”.
“Delivering clean water and energy. Building iconic skyscrapers. Planning new cities. Restoring damaged environments. Connecting people and economies with roads, bridges, tunnels and transit systems. Designing parks where children play. Helping governments maintain stability and security.”
Not bad.
Perhaps we should ask it to sort out Brexit, or help deliver the Northern Powerhouse?
They would both be a good warm up for the even more daunting challenge we face today.
Getting everyone to agree on a devolution deal for Yorkshire.
What is interesting is that the property professionals and architects I spoke to last night appear to be having similar experiences to a corporate financier I bumped into yesterday.
They are finding there is a lot of work out there but they can’t quite explain why, don’t know how long it will be around and so can’t plan too far ahead.
Brexit doesn’t appear to be an issue. Yet.
It seems there is so much uncertainty about what it will look like that companies are just getting on with things.
Other than businesses who have been hit by currency fluctuations post the vote for Britain to leave the European Union, I haven’t seen any others that have played the Brexit card when their business is struggling.
Except chef Jamie Oliver who used it as an excuse when he shut six of his Jamie’s Italian restaurants earlier this year.
So it wasn’t anything to do with the food and service then?
Stability is a great thing for business.
But I don’t think since the recession started almost a decade ago that businesses can say they have had a smooth ride for a sustained period.
A couple of years into the recession most people realised that it was going to be around for a while and conditioned themselves for the “new normal”.
That experience is valuable now – uncertainty has become a fact of life and you just have to get on and make some hay when the sun pops out from behind the clouds.
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THE second ‘do’ I went to last night was a 10 year celebration by the law firm Clarion.
I was sure they had been around longer than a decade, but perhaps it is just that they have made themselves part of the Yorkshire legal landscape so successfully that it just seems like that.
At the time it was rare for lawyers not to want to put their own names over the door and so choosing a brand name was an unusual, but ultimately, very successful step.
Firms are only as good as their people and Clarion has very good people.
Roger Hutton, joint managing partner, was a welcoming host, keeping the drinks flowing in the upstairs bar of the impressive Dakota Deluxe hotel in Leeds.
He spotted the double monk shoes I was wearing (I know, why was he looking at the floor? I think I dropped a canapé on the carpet and was trying to kick it out of the way.) and said that when he trained under Chris Jones at Hammonds, everyone in the insolvency team wore shoes with two straps.
Given that must have been at least 20 years ago it doesn’t really say much for me being very, what the magazines tend to call, “fashion forward’.
Fortunately Roger didn’t just learn sartorial tips from his mentor.
Chris Jones is a man with a phenomenal appetite…for legal work…and Roger has also embraced that philosophy with gusto.
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ARRIVING at Dakota Deluxe, I saw Dave Jones of Reward Finance leaving.
Given he has acquired the monicker “Two do’s Dave” in his local village, I was pretty confident he was heading to another party.
He actually informed me that he was off to his third do of the night, all three of which were just 70 yards from each other.
I did see him back at the Clarion party later on but don’t think there is any truth to the rumour that he arrived in a taxi.
Have a great weekend.