Enrichment – Of a Non-Pecuniary Nature!
This has been self-improvement week!
It started with the kick-off of this year’s Haberdashers Monmouth Initiative. The purpose is to enable Sixth Formers to visit offices and get a feel for the working life in a profession. Haberdashers’ partner with a modern Livery Company, which uses its connections to get firms to participate. The students gathered for a meal at Haberdashers’’ Hall.
I expect there will be a report in the Newsletter, so I will simply say that I was impressed at the enthusiasm and mature approach of the students. My own Cost Centres are now into their working life so I envy people in schools able to get great satisfaction out of being part of kids’ development.
Haberdashers’ leader on this is PM Mike Jeans, in the centre of the photograph above and well known in this company! We are the first Company to be asked for a second time! Second Warden David Peregrine-Jones had done a get job to line up a number of consulting firms to show the students the ropes. Liveryman Ben Taylor had put forward his own firm, Red Quadrant, to host some of the students.
The Excitement of Off Again, On Again!
I hope it looked swan-serene to everyone, but there was a lot of paddling going on under the water when our long planned Guest Lecturer at our Change Lecture had to pull out with about ten days to go! Doctor’s orders for an investigatory procedure – I hope all is well.
Fortunately Second Warden David Peregrine-Jones (a big up to David – a crowded week!) was able to land Charles Thomson. Charles walked through the fire to rescue the maximum for Equitable Life policy holders and investors. A darn good story and it left me wondering, given stuff like this keeps happening, why it seems impossible to embed lessons from one firm to another and from one management generation to another.
Paralympics Revisited
Representing the Company I attended the Annual Lecture of the Worshipful Company of Actuaries. The Lecturer was President, International Paralympics Committee Sir Philip Craven. A paraplegic international Basketball player himself in his day, he personified the character and determination that was evident in all the competitors in the Paralympics. He showed us the amazing growth in international viewing figures from Athens to Beijing to London. He expressed the view, and I'm sure he's right, that the huge demonstration of what people can do has improved the attitudes of employers and staff generally.
Yours
E J Sankey
17/11/13