Member Blog

I woke up at 1.30 on Friday morning and made the mistake of checking the first few results. I never got back to bed. Whatever your political persuasion it is hard to see the election as anything other than a bad result for Theresa May. I think it was the best of possible results for the UK.

Anyone who has read my ramblings over the past decade or so will have gathered that I believe austerity was the wrong policy at the wrong time and that the decision to leave the EU was hugely misguided. Unlike many, I think it was right that May sought the approval of the electorate before the true Brexit negotiations started – I am delighted that approval was withheld.

There are many positives to take from the results. My natural leaning is toward progressive policies but I was concerned that under Corbyn’s friendly geography teacher persona lay a hard-left core that would simply see organised labour replacing the ultra-wealthy as the principal beneficiaries of socio-economic policies – leaving the many with little change. I was heartened by his acceptance of manifesto promises that conflicted with his own long-held views – his belief in party democracy appearing to trump his personal convictions. The Labour party now has a short period to rebuild, embrace those who had distanced themselves from Corbyn, and hopefully emerge nearer the centre with a deliverable alternative to austerity.

The rise of Ruth Davidson in Scotland has been a breath of fresh air. Her swift and unequivocal condemnation of the more illiberal views of the DUP was welcome, as was her assertion that country was more important than party. This makes a hard Brexit less likely.

The young have started to engage in the political process. For too long people of my generation and older have had a disproportionate influence and it’s great to see this starting to reverse.

And finally, Theresa May’s weak and wobbly performance has demolished any semblance of steeliness – this is no Iron Lady. We can now move from the silly confrontational negotiating stance to one that seeks the best outcome for both us and our long-term European friends and allies. The best negotiations result in a win-win.

If I were a betting man my money would be on a Labour Government by Christmas, with a small majority, supported by a progressive alliance. I think the chances of us leaving the EU during my lifetime have receded considerably. The negotiating timetable was impossibly tight even before the election was called. In two years’ time we will enter an interim arrangement and there we will stay indefinitely or at least until everyone has long forgotten about Farage, Gove and the £350m a day.

So, if this prediction came to pass, what would it mean for investors?

Broadly, it’s hard to see Labour’s spending pledges as any less realistic than the Tory’s. They would have been more appropriate in 2010; the risk now, especially against a background of falling immigration, is that we have too little productive capacity in the economy to absorb the additional expenditure and so risk stoking inflation, but they are at least pointing in the right direction. It is a great shame that Osborne abandoned the concept of a mixed economy in favour of a politically-motivated desire to reduce the size of the State. His failure to step in after the financial crisis, when the private sector was unable to, lies at the core of many of the tensions we now face.

We can look to the US for recent examples of both parties’ economic policies in action. Nationally, Obama introduced a Keynesian stimulus in 2010 that was not a million miles away from Labour’s proposals. It was universally accepted as being successful – covering its costs over a five-year cycle and stimulating growth. At around the same time the State of Kansas introduced tax cuts with the expectation that these would spur economic growth – along the lines the Tories are proposing. The Kansas experiment has been roundly judged to have failed. It would be too simplistic to cite two examples and draw firm conclusions, other than the Labour route does not have to lead to economic disaster.

While I would like to claim it was down to our skill, the fact is that much of the exceptional investment gains we have seen over the last twelve months have been illusorily. The fall in the pound after the referendum has seen the nominal sterling value of overseas assets and income increase. The real value of these gains will be eroded by inflation. Much of the currency depreciation was in the expectation of a hard Brexit. Any Brexit is going to be costly but a soft Brexit will be less so.

The UK economy is in a pretty dire place already. Last year we found ourselves growing at the fastest pace in the G7; in the first quarter of this year it was the slowest. This is after a 13% fall in the value of our currency and while we still have the benefits of full EU membership. It does not auger well for the future. Even before we have introduced controls, skilled immigration has fallen – in part because repatriated pounds are worth less but equally because foreigners no longer feel welcome – an aspect that leaves me both sad and ashamed.

With so much political uncertainty around Brexit it is simply not credible to assume private sector investment will step up to the plate to fill the gap left by a schism with Europe. The time for a mixed economic response that sees Government expenditure alongside private capital is surely now if we are to dampen the negative effects of Brexit. Against this background, Labour’s tax and spending plans appear not simply plausible but timely and essential.

The housing market remains a concern and the election has not improved the outlook. The rise in the youth vote will mean all parties will shift their focus to improving the lot for this cohort – which boils down to fixing the housing market. There is no pain-free way forward. The failure by successive Governments to boost supply has led to housing becoming an over-priced asset while the growth of the buy-to-let sector has increased risks. An increase in supply coupled with reduced demand on the back of lower immigration will see prices fall. With luck this will be experienced as depressed future growth – history suggests it is more likely instead to be a dramatic correction. The housing market is key to consumer confidence. Although we cannot spend the value of our homes they nonetheless exert a strong psychological influence. If house prices are rising we feel more confident and are more likely to spend, and the opposite when they are falling.

Compared to global market capitalisations our core portfolios have a UK bias. The justification for this rests on the multinational nature of many UK listed firms and the perception of relatively low political and currency risks. Over coming weeks we will be looking carefully at the extent this bias remains justified and the degree to which our portfolios are exposed to the effects of a strengthening pound if the risks from a hard Brexit continue to diminish. We have a reasonable exposure to smaller and mid-cap UK companies. Although these reflect factors that are likely to see stronger returns over the long term they are also firms that will tend to be more dependent on the domestic economy. We will be considering whether the extent of our tilt towards these areas remains appropriate.

Overall, these are minor tweaks to our long-term strategy. We remain of the view that in these uncertain times diversification is the key to managing risk.

Keep calm and carry on!

If you’re interested in finding out more about how the Millennial generation is likely to change our world over the next decade then why not come to our Masterclass at the UEA on 18th July? Two of our Millennials, Radi and James, will be presenting their research on long-term socio-economic trends. Very interesting stuff with some surprising conclusions.

More details and book a place here: https://www.chadwicks.co.uk/seminar-registration/july-2017-new-generation-investing/

Contracts might seem like something only big business needs, and many small companies work without them, but if your work is important to you, it is vital to have a contract in place. A well put together contract can make a business relationship stronger and more successful, so it is worth investing some time and effort in getting a contract just right. When people think of contracts, they often seem daunting, filled with complicated language only solicitors understand, fine print made to confuse the signatory and seemingly endless clauses that only apply in the most unique of circumstances. Documents like this are off putting, and occasionally detrimental to the business process, especially at the beginning of a new working relationship. Contracts don’t need to be pages and pages long, or contain lots of legal jargon or penalties, the most important thing is that all parties understand the content of the contract and all are in agreement as to their own responsibilities. It is very important to make clear what is expected of each party and what will happen if either side fails to keep up their end of the agreement. Being clear on cost is essential too – what is included in the charge and, very importantly, what is not included. A good contract should only contain information relevant to that particular piece of work and should be written in simple, understandable language where possible. Having someone sign something they don’t understand is not a good way to begin! For general terms of business, applicable to every piece of work, a Master Service Agreement can prove useful to accompany each specific work contract and Naked Element agrees and signs an MSA with every client. This MSA does not oblige either party to work with each other, it merely details the quality of the service or product, each party’s availability throughout the business relationship and the responsibilities they have to each other. Only once a schedule is signed, does it become a binding contract. The MSA defines the confidentiality clauses, copyright details, intellectual property rights, payment terms and the scope of charges as well as liability from each party. These key details are indispensable for any business, whether the project is worth £500 or £5,000,000 as they are crucial if something were to go wrong. Contracts also shouldn’t be designed to catch someone out, or tie them down unnecessarily, they should be an agreement, put together for the benefit of all parties. Where possible, a clever business person should be open to discussing and amending a proposed contract before it is signed if the other party wishes to make changes. It is also often beneficial to include a clause allowing either party to revisit a contract for adjustment after a set period of time. Being flexible and open to future issues in this way increases trust between parties, making a successful business relationship more likely. A good contract should:

• Only include relevant information
• Use simple language
• Outline benefits of the contract to both parties
• Be negotiable
• Be adjustable where appropriate

With a proper contract the client will feel they can depend on the product or service they are paying for and can rely on the contract to ensure they will not be out of pocket if something goes awry. By the same token, the service provider is protected by the contract if a client should renege on something that was previously mutually agreed upon. A good contract, that has everyone’s interests covered equally, makes a business seem more trustworthy, as well as more professional, and if everything goes well, more likely to do business again. Click here to read the blog on our site.

Cyber security is a topic that is on everyone’s minds this month, and if you follow the news it will be obvious why (and if you don’t, see our previous blog posts!). On May 18th I attended the Norfolk Chamber of Commerce’s Cyber Security Conference, hosted by Paul Maskall. The itinerary included four very relevant talks from speakers Kitty Rosser, Peter Freeman, Andy Taylor, and Rahul Colaco.    On the 15th May 2018 a new legislation will be put into place, replacing the current Data Protection Act (DPA). This new law is called the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Kitty Rosser explained how we can make sure that we are complying to this regulation before it comes into effect, protecting both ourselves and our customers. Below is a short summary of the key new aspects of this law:

• Accountability and transparency – ensure that you are absolutely clear about what you will be using their data for
• Data protection by design – build data protection into processing activities from the ground up
• Consent – a high standard of consent is required, and you will need to record how and when this consent was given
• Data subject rights –  the rights from the DPA will be carried over, with the addition of the right to transparency, portability and to erase personal data
• Data protection officer – this is a new mandatory role for businesses whose activities match certain criteria
• Data processors – records must be kept in writing and electronically for reference
• Fines – the maximum fine can be much higher (€20 million or 4% of global group turnover, whichever is highest)

Peter Freeman explained how managing your network can make all the difference when defending yourself from a security breach. Something I hadn’t considered before to refrain from giving your WIFI password to visitors, as you don’t know what is on their hardware that could affect your network, or even better – have a separate network for guests. For a similar reason, you should also change your wifi password at regular intervals, to keep it secure and harder to reach. There are several wireless encryption types that have been hacked and compromised too, so you should only use WPA2 with PSK or Enterprise. In essence, monitor who is on your network, and keep it as restricted as possible.    Andy Taylor was full of hard hitting statistics, and emphasised that hacking is often a business problem, not technical. Some of the figures that stood out most to me were:

• 99.9% of victims have anti-virus software 
• 99.9% of breaches include stolen credentials
• Attackers are on the network an average of 150 days before breaching
• 66% of malware is installed through corrupt email links

There are steps we can all take to ensure that we don’t inadvertently ‘invite’ hackers onto our network. You should therefore have in place day to day cyber essentials, including user access controls, malware protection, patching, and boundary wall configuration. It is also important to have risk management, so that if you are attacked you have all of the necessary components in place to recover quickly.    Rahul Colaco expanded on this, explaining that you need to have a plan on what to do if you are attacked, for “you are only as good as your security measures”. It may be that in response to a beach, the IT department needs to switch off, the legal department needs to discover what legal consequences there may be, whilst the rest of the business needs to operate as usual. This is no easy task, so pre-planning for the worst care scenario is the most effective way of managing the situation.    As Paul Maskall recapped, you need to look at the value and risk of the data you hold, and ask yourself the following question: what do you have in place should you be breached? Do you have an incident management policy? It is also key not to “fire and forget”, but instead keep your software up to date and check it regularly. At the end of the day, it is usually your client’s data that would be at risk and in order to deserve their trust, it is your moral duty to protect it.   Words by Emily

Recently, I experienced first-hand both ends of the customer service spectrum. I had a wonderful experience at a local Indian restaurant where the hospitality was first class. In contrast, I was on the receiving end of some particularly poor customer service at a main car dealership in Norwich.

Whilst I’ll certainly be returning to the Indian restaurant, and recommending it to my friends, the experience at the car dealership left me with a very sour taste in my mouth. Maybe I just caught them on a bad day? But really, there should be no excuse.

“Customer excellence” is one of the areas I spend a lot of time working on with my clients. The importance of it is often ignored within organisations, as targets and deadlines take precedence. But ignore it at your peril. Customer excellence is a vital ingredient in business growth.

What is customer excellence and why is it important?

In short, customer excellence is about being excellent in the eyes of your customer. A simple concept, but very important.

Customer excellence drives profitable growth. By putting your customer at the centre of everything the company does, you’ll ensure that you’re delivering the product or service that they need. Doing that will help you achieve long-term customer satisfaction which, in turn, means you’re better able to maintain a sustainable competitive advantage. So, it’s not just about creating a warm, fuzzy feeling for your customers. It’s directly linked to the successful growth of your organisation.

But building a culture of customer excellence within your organisation relies on your team having the passion and commitment to delivering a positive customer experience time after time. How do you build that?

Here are my top 6 tips on how to bring customer excellence to your organisation

There are a number of key steps to building and sustaining customer excellence within your business:

1)     Be clear on what your customer needs

It’s a pretty fundamental concept for business success. But knowing exactly what your customer needs is vital. If you don’t know, find out. Conduct some market research and refine your proposition based on the findings. Understand their challenges so you are equipped to deal with them.

2)     Add value

Once you know what your customer needs from you at a most basic level, think about how you can add value to that through your customer service. How can you exceed expectations? What can you do to make them go ‘wow, that was great’ and go and tell their friends/colleagues about it.

3)     Communicate effectively

Be clear on your core values as a business and communicate these across the organisation. Keep everyone in the loop, both internally and, where relevant, externally, so they feel like an important part of the business.

4)     Empower your customer-facing staff

Make sure you give your customer-facing staff the training they need to do a great job. Remember that your customers are individuals. Give your staff the training and empowerment to treat them as such. And, just as importantly, allow them the time to deliver customer excellence rather than encouraging them to rush on to the next call.

5)     Listen and learn

Gather survey feedback from customers and act on it. Learn from complaints. Listen to your customer service staff. They are the ones speaking directly to your customers and can be a mine of useful information.

6)     Measure differently

Implement ways to measure customer excellence and the resulting customer loyalty. Yes, the number of customers serviced per hour might be a very important metric within your business, but delivering excellence is likely to be worth a lot more in the long run. Think about how you can measure these things and develop a continuous improvement plan to create customer loyalty and share success.

The effect of customer excellence

My recent experience perfectly illustrate the value of customer excellence. Whilst I’m looking forward to taking some friends along to my new favourite Indian restaurant, I’ll be advising people to steer clear of the car dealership. And yes, that’s based on one bad experience. But that’s all it takes.

So, I am on a mission to help businesses create a culture of customer excellence and reap the rewards. Don’t let your customers settle for anything less; give me a call on 07468 499131 to find out how.

People’s barriers start to rise the minute they hear the word ‘sales’. Images of cheap-suited, fast-talking phone drones appear, desperately trying to sell something nobody wants or needs. Scarier for some are the words ‘sales training’ – being taught how to give the hard sell, hit the targets and seal the deal no matter what. This ruthless vision harks back to the Eighties and is still conjured up in many minds when dealing with the topic of sales. This figure is outdated however, and the sales training that Naked Element receive couldn’t be further from it. The Naked Element team are trained weekly through the ‘Sandler‘ methodology by Ermine Amies who uses psychology to understand potential clients (and occasionally coloured plastic dinosaurs). The Sandler style encourages businesses to affect lasting changes in how they operate, not a big buck quick fix. Sandler offers a systematic approach to sales, rather than focussing solely on sales targets. It’s about understanding people and their needs, about building relationships. It also offers the opportunity to get support and advice from peers, to share ‘war stories’ and help to expand each other’s knowledge and gain practical experience of a sales environment. While not everyone will think they have the time or money to invest in such training, for those who are serious about improving their business skills and broadening their professional repertoire it can prove invaluable. It improves relationships between a business and their potential customers, increases the number of positive interactions between them and ultimately leads to an increase in successful results! When Naked Element makes a sales call, they really do want to get to know you and your business first, and sell you something second.  Click here to read the blog on our site. Words by Lauren

As the summer starts in earnest, we again face the ironically hot potato of many an office manager; Air Conditioning.

We are all well aware that one man’s Sahara is another woman’s Antarctic, but we offer the following advice to try to achieve that magic happy medium somewhere between ‘surface of the Sun’ and ‘dark side of Pluto’.

Air conditioning units are rated by capacity to cool, measured in BTUs (British Thermal Units) per hour, so the higher this figure, the more cooling you will get.

The main consideration with regards to the required output is not how low the temperature you want to reach is, but how big the room is.

Room Size (m2) BTU’s per hour 45 12,000 55 14,000 65 16,000 75 18,000

This will give you a good start on calculating the rating of the conditioning unit you need, however life is rarely this simple and there are a few other considerations to add in to the mix. The size of windows and how much direct sunlight will also need to be factored in, as a south facing office with large glass windows will obviously need more cooling than a shady basement. Lastly, the amount of people typically using a space will greatly influence the size of the unit required; it is estimated that after the first two people in a room, each additional person will add 600 BTUs to the required cooling capacity of an office.

It is tempting to just go for the largest BTU rating you can find – after all surely it will just work quicker. However, due to the fact that air conditioning units will both cool the air and remove moisture, too large a unit for a room will cool all the air before having a chance to remove the required humidity, leaving you will a clammy and uncomfortable space. 

We hope that this helps you chose the right air conditioner for your office, if our sales team can be any further help, feel free to give us a ring.

Exclusive Norfolk Chamber Member Offer –  10% off when you spend £250 + VAT.

Use code NCM10 at the checkout or mention it when calling 0808 278 3258

Not to be used in conjunction with any other offers, one use per customer. Valid until 31st December 2017.

Last week a vicious, and highly effective, computer virus infected IT systems across the globe. Commercial and educational organisations in Asia were down, Germany’s railway system was affected, even US courier giants Fedex weren’t immune to the virus and here in the UK our health system was hit worst. The NHS, including GP surgeries, pharmacies and hospitals were left with reduced functionality, with some facilities cancelling appointments altogether, including planned surgeries. The majority of this cyber-attack is ‘ransomware’, where the aim of the virus is not just to cause disruption, but to hold information and systems to ransom, promising to grant access to data and the return of a fully functioning system, only after a fee has been paid. As with any malicious demand for money however, there is no guarantee that the agreement will be upheld from the ‘kidnappers’ side once the ransom has been paid. Many speculated that the NHS IT systems were vulnerable because they were still using outdated software – Windows XP – which was more susceptible to hackers, but this has since been shown to be true in only a small number of cases. Some commented that old versions of Windows continued to be used by the NHS because the hardware in hospitals would not run on any later versions of the operating system. We may never know all the factors that left the health service so open to attack, and it is likely to be a combination of many variables, but the important question is ‘what can we do about it?’ As software developers, security is a primary concern from the outset when writing any commercial, or private, software. At Naked Element we build systems with the future in mind, in a way that allows for updates and adjustments. We use predominantly non-Windows based operating systems, such as Linux, to develop and host the software we write. Among the many advantages to developers, non-Windows systems are also less appealing to hackers, as they are not widely used on desktop computers, but they also tend to have fewer security loopholes as they are not as accessible to the everyday user. We also choose our cloud storage provider based on security, as well as cost, because a hacker cannot hold your data for ransom if you already have it backed-up safely elsewhere! As the NHS and other big organisations around the globe wrestle with this latest cyber attack, it is a reminder to us all that, in our ever increasing digital age, cyber security is critical. As hackers become a central concern for institutions who might be vulnerable in the future, it is vital that software should be designed to be as ‘futureproof’ as possible. Words by Lauren

“It’s been a long time coming” David Higgins is a self-proclaimed ‘cyber-security geek’, used to working all over the world with the Foreign Office, now resident in Norfolk. He recently founded the county’s first cyber security cluster and is keen to get everyone talking about it. “In the past, it was generally hard to get people interested in security – they don’t think it’s something they need be concerned about – but nowadays people are getting a little more savvy”. Similar clusters are dotted all over the UK, seventeen in total, with the nearest one in Cambridge – David plans to get the Norfolk branch up and running before beginning a similar group in Suffolk. The cluster aims to meet once a month at various Norfolk locations, with the inaugural event in June. The regular meet-ups are free for SMEs, but larger companies are welcome for a modest charge. “I’m hoping it will be a big networking group to get the word of cyber security out. We’ll get developers, other techies and interested businesses in, even just to chat about what they do and how they do it” says David. The events won’t be limited to tech-talk either. Remember the young lad from Norfolk who was convicted of hacking mobile giant TalkTalk a couple of years ago? “I think I’ve got the solicitor that got him off coming to speak at some point!” As well as looking for members to join the cluster, which is free to do through the website, David is also asking for bloggers to contribute interesting and relevant pieces, as well as speakers for future events. “I’d like the cluster to be a big sharing portal where we can all learn and help each other in the Norfolk business community”. To join and find out about forthcoming events visit https://www.norfolkcyber.net/ To email suggested blogs, speakers or other ideas – [email protected] Words by Lauren

Everyone has been on the receiving end of a “We have updated our T&Cs” email from the likes of Google, PayPal, Twitter, eBay etc. There may be legitimate reasons for this such as a change in the law, company restructuring or changes in working practices. But should you care? Well the short answer is yes.

Why you should care

It is easy to fall into a false sense of security, particularly for trusted brands that you buy from or regularly use their services. If you are a consumer then you may feel more relaxed on the basis that there is a large body of Consumer legislation which sets out a basic standard for suppliers of goods and service providers to comply with. However, this is far from saying that the terms are in your favour, and they are generally not.

It is therefore crucial to know your rights and obligations so that you can make an informed decision when you are signing up to purchase goods online, download an app or use a service. However, this does have to be balanced against how much you want to receive the goods / app / services as there is usually no room for negotiating the terms with giant multinational companies.

For example, in a recent email from eBay we received entitled ‘Updates to your eBay agreements and privacy notice’, eBay clearly state that: “If you choose not to accept these updated terms or the assignment of your agreement to your new eBay company, then you must cancel your eBay account.” So essentially they are saying, accept our terms (and a new contracting entity) or go away.

Because of this, if you still want to receive the service, we can see why you wouldn’t bother wasting your time reviewing the terms, particularly if the changes are not clearly stated. This highlights the risk of a party having the unilateral right to change the contract – they can change key terms and the changes may be hidden in a lengthy document that they know you won’t read.

Scope for negotiation

However, the situation is slightly different in your own business agreements with suppliers and having a good understanding of the ‘reasonable’ contractual position can greatly help increase your bargaining strength. Demonstrating that certain terms are clearly unreasonable to the other party can be a very effective tool in moving the terms towards a mutually agreeable position.

We negotiate contracts for clients every day and by knowing where the key issues are likely to arise, we are able to significantly decrease our clients’ risk, and in particular, remove any right for the terms to be revised without our clients’ knowledge and consent. This ensures that there is certainty in the relationship and reduces the risk of disputes arising.

We would be delighted to help with reviewing and/or negotiating your commercial agreements so please give Cracknell Law a call today on 01603 339044 to discuss your requirements.

“Coming out of uni having had that experience is really valuable in this industry”   “Last summer I carried out a week’s work experience with Naked Element. At the end of the week MD Paul sat down with me and said I’d impressed them, that I had the right attitude and skills set to be a trainer developer, and invited me back for a week’s paid work in my October half term. From that he offered me the chance to come back each holiday since!”   Tom Alabaster was (and still is) a student studying computer science at 6th Form when he was introduced to Paul and the Naked Element team. After having a disappointing start in the world of work experience and being let down by another company, a school trip showed him the variety of tech companies available, and led to him working as an trainer developer. “My 6th Form went on a school trip to nor(DEV):con – that was a great day, I loved that! It was fascinating speaking to all these people from the tech industry, then I arranged work experience with Naked Element.”   “Being there for that first week was such an enjoyable experience,” Tom explains, “it was exactly how I envisioned a software development job being. The Whitespace office was nice and relaxed, it’s a great layout. The Naked Element team were all really friendly too.”   When trying to describe why he likes software development, Tom struggled. Like many of us who find our passion, it is difficult to put into words exactly why it is we enjoy doing it! “I like the challenge of making computers do things we want them to do. The idea of being able to control the way things work by writing exactly what I want it to do. It’s difficult to explain! It’s just buried in me, almost natural. It feels satisfying writing a few lines of code and then having it work and making the computer do something.”   “I’ve been teaching myself since i was around 14” he goes on to explain. “At school they only really did the basics, so learning it myself has given me more confidence in my abilities. It’s also a skill I’ll need in future jobs. Hopefully in September I’ll be going to university to study Computer Science. Beyond that I hope to get into a software development job, as that’s what I’m really into. It was a choice between Leeds Uni or UEA. While they’re both great, Leeds offers the chance to get out there and be more independant. I can remember the day I told Paul that Leeds was my choice, he was actually wearing his Leeds Uni hoody which was a coincidence!”   A combination of natural ability and honest passion, along with an attractive opportunity has meant Tom has real work experience to take with him in September. “I wanted to go back to Naked Element more so for the experience than being paid for it. At the end of the day the experience was the most valuable thing for me. After Uni I’ll be able to come out saying that I have a number of hours actually working for a software development company. Coming out of three years studying having had that experience is really valuable in this industry today.”   Speaking about Naked Element as a whole and what he feels he has gained directly, it is obvious that Tom has gotten a lot more than just work experience hours from his time with the company. “Naked Element have been really supportive in developing me as a software developer, not just specifically to work for them but for moving on in my life and career as well. Paul has said that if I want to go to work for a larger company elsewhere he completely understands that and is supportive of that, recognising that his isn’t the biggest company out there! They’re interested in me as a person, not just as an asset to the company. His influence, and that of Naked Element as a whole, has been really great.”

by Emma Roache ISBN-13: 978-1523989560   I sat next to Emma (complete with orange jumper) at a Norfolk Chamber breakfast in Great Yarmouth. We had the best table for the event and the conversation ranged from Trivium (modern Thrash Metal band) to the Kings of Leon. It’s incredible how, when you get away from business, the conversation flows. Of course everyone talked about what they did and I was delighted to hear that Emma was a coach and that she had a book!   ‘You Can’t Do That’ is like nothing else I’ve read. It’s not science fiction or fantasy and it has absolutely nothing to do with software development or management. The style was easy and simple and very readable. This isn’t a self help book, it’s a travel diary. In most cases you have to read between the lines to see the personal issues which Emma is overcoming, they are in no way exaggerated or over played. Although I’m in no two minds about her dislike of spiders!   Something came across loud and clear. Emma loves people. I found this inspiring. Despite working to break the classic software development mould I still struggle with ‘small talk’ with people I don’t know (unless of course we’re talking Rock & Metal).   This book won’t take you long to read and is well worth it! Could only be improved by being available for the Kindle.

Firstly, I have to apologise – this isn’t a scientific discovery about how eating chocolate will help you find meaning and purpose in your life. Or is it…?

I’d love to be a polymath like Leonardo Di Vinci or Galileo, swanning around the renaissance era being excellent at art, science and architecture but I’m not – I’m definitely not. Or, I’d be very happy to be someone with expert knowledge, to have a specialist subject like the contestants on Mastermind. But again, I don’t.

I am a “Jack of all trades and master of none”. If you’re anything like me, you’ll know how this often leads to those big scary questions like “what’s my calling?” and “am I doing the right thing?”. This ultimately causes confusion and worry about what direction I should be heading in life.  In essence, I am lacking purpose.

In true “Jack of all trades” style I’ve read a few books and have watched various TED talks on purpose over the past few years – it seems to be everywhere at the moment. However, I feel like the questions they pose, intended to help me find purpose, are still too difficult for me as an individual to answer.  I love how powerful and important having purpose is for a collection of people, or a business, but how can I, as me, find it?

Last week it was my birthday and I was bought some fancy chocolates.  In those chocolates was a little note, much like you would get in a fortune cookie. It said…

“Did you plan much of what’s happening right now?”

This question, I believe, unwittingly holds a great way to put a stick in the sand.  Are you in control of your destiny or not? And, whatever the answer is, are you happy with it? And that’s all purpose is really – the steely determination and dogged persistence to not let things get in the way of a goal.

So, if you understand where I’m coming from and struggle with purpose sometimes, here’s a little exercise I did. You’ll need two pieces of paper, and a pen. Hopefully it’ll help you get a handle on things (or at least start to)…

Step One

In the middle of one piece of paper, write “Did I plan much of what’s happening right now?”. Draw a circle around it.

Step Two

On the other piece of paper, list everything that’s important to you right now and for the foreseeable future. Don’t forget to include the ‘negatives’ – your fears are just as helpful, if not more so, than the things you’re looking forward to.

Step Three

Back to your first piece of paper. Move everything from your list of important things into two columns, either side of the question you wrote down. Put things in your control on the right and things out of your control on the left.

Step Four

Now number each item in order of importance, 1 being most important.

Think

You now have in front of you the things you find important, in order. They’re either in or out of your control. How do you feel about that?

If you have more on the left – that suggests you are going along with wherever the tide takes you. And that’s fine, if are you happy with it.

If you have more on the right – that suggests you are forging ahead in control. And that’s also fine, if you’re you happy with it.

Is there anything really important to you that you would prefer to swap sides?This isn’t going to be the answer to everything but, if you do get the purpose, wobbles hopefully you’ll find it useful to take stock of where you currently are.

Please share if you give this a whirl as I’m genuinely curious if a) anyone gives it a bash and b) if it was a useful exercise.