It was great to see family installers Allcooper fly the flag for the security industry at the Best UK Family Business Awards.
Very well done to them – not only as a company, but as ambassadors for security in this tough national competition that is open to all industries.
There was a time when family businesses were widespread in security installation, which was seen as a perfect sector to be in if you wanted to involve your offspring.
For a number of years this has been tailing off. Independent-minded children don’t necessarily want to follow in their parents’ footsteps and take over the firm.
Having grown up in the shadow of security, so-to speak, they were exposed early to the downsides and might well have been put off by the example of how long their parents were having to work to support the family.
With so many career opportunities having been available to young people, some proprietors nearing retirement have been forced to think outside the family – leading to accountants being kept busy with “succession planning” and management buy-ins and buy-outs.
But with the recession closing down so many opportunities in the wider world – leading to huge competition for even budgetjobs – it will be interesting to see whether or not this attitude will change.
If you look down the list of qualities needed by organisers, Coutts, to win the Best UK Family Business Award, what stands out is the need for strong “family values” – something Allcooper has in abundance, according to the judges.
But what are family values? They could be defined as a supportive environment; good role models; leading by example; strong feelings of cohesion and belonging; group responsibility for success and failure; the absence of a fear culture – especially that of losing your job.
Surely these “family values” are goals every business should aspire to?
The weak and the strong
Whether or not a company is family run is not detailed in the latest analysis of UK installation companies.
But according to the Plimsoll analysis, many players – almost half the firms analysed – have really upped their game to combat the effects of the recession.
It’s great to see so many firms succeeding in these most difficult times. But there are also 152 considered to be in danger, where their management is operating under severe financial pressure.
Many of these companies are likely to be sold off, according to the analysts. So expect a fair amount of movement in the sector.
These companies could be your rivals. No one wants to see businesses go under but, with the inevitable casualties there could be acquisition opportunities or the picking up of new customers.
Claim back what’s yours
The customers you don’t really want – the late payers – are probably playing a significant part in the downfall of many of these companies on the danger list.
Late paying customers are a big burden to installers – especially in a recession.
But how do you adopt an effective deterrent against this?
According to one legal source, firms should exploit their right to charge interest and claim compensation against late payers.
Law firm Lovetts says just 37 per cent of all claims issued by its customers have late payment interest and/or compensation applied.
They say more firms should claim this compensation. You even have a six year window to do it in.
I dislike the lawyer-driven “compensation culture” we seem to be in as much as anyone. But I don’t see this compensation is anything but claiming back what is rightfully yours.
This is probably easier said than done, especially if you are a “micro SME” afraid of alienating your customer.
However, if the trading relationship with your customer has broken down anyway, what have you got to lose?
After hours martyrdom
One of the inevitable effects of a recession is the increase in working hours – reduced staff not only having to share a bigger burden of the workload but wanting to show the boss how hard they are working.
But is this martyrdom all for nothing?
According to a new survey, most employers do not associate long hours with productivity. And almost half do not reward staff who work late or out of hours – so, for god’s sake, go home and stop making life difficult for the cleaners.
The survey says the recession has resulted in four million people working more than 48 hours a week.
But in a recession how realistic is it to ask employers to “increase resources and decrease workloads”?
Late for school again
Pupils with ID passes to catch out late comers? Cripes, it wasn’t like that at school in my day.
If you were late you had to have a note from your mother, countersigned by a doctor and clergyman, or else it was a humiliating six of the best from head boy, Lasher Bullingdon, in front of the whole school at punishment assembly… yokels from the village invited for atmosphere.
Actually that’s not one hundred per cent true, but it does go to illustrate the incredible progress schools have made since the (extremely late, in fact almost seventies) sixties.
This includes school access control – from none or a rusty padlock to hi-tech, state of the art, envelope-pushing, mission critical ID card systems that track a pupil’s every move and dish out crisps and soft drinks.
According to some of the parents at Bristol’s new GB pound 30m school, the ID pass system their little darlings are having to use is “a bit Big Brother” (presumably not the puerile, time-wasting garbage that’s well past its sell by).
Personally I don’t see any objections to this monitoring system. We’re not talking about national ID cards here. In a closed environment for children the head has every right to know what time pupils arrive.
All the old “I was at registration but didn’t hear my name called / my sister took ages in the bathroom / mum ran over the cat in the drive / alarm set for pm” excuses are silenced in the face of a stark readout with full, gory timings.
Most pupils’ lateness is down to their parents anyway. Maybe that’s why some of them are not over keen on the system.
I hope the school has got a good supply of duplicate cards. “I was late because I couldn’t find my pass card” is an excuse not just limited to children.
Of course the only way around this is the embedded chip solution, mentioned in my last couple of newsletters and thought, by some, to be gaining momentum as a concept.
Tough skin of security
I’ve said it before, but IFSEC 2009 seemed to me to be a great indicator of how this industry is up for a challenge.
The Big R was always in the background, but did it stand for Recession or Resilience?
Read my personal summing up of the show here.