As at today, Tuesday the Nineteenth of October, the business climate for pubs, restaurants, and hotels is extremely tough. Right now, lobbying the government to demonstrate the facts and the science behind their decisions, is high on the agenda. On the BBC Scotland John Beattie Drivetime show last Thursday, Michael Bergson from Buck’s Bar – “Austria (the country that eats out the most) has a death rate 15% that of the UK and their bars and restaurants are open James Withers from Scotland Food & Drink “There is anger, as the hospitality trade is going through a lot of pain and cost for nothing” He also cited Nicola Sturgeon’s comment “We have to learn to live with this virus and we have to take a strategic approach” A vaccine is the answer to this stop start life for the hospitality trade. Scientists say a vaccine normally takes ten years to be developed and checked successfully enough for distribution. As there are many worldwide teams working flat out, they are...

  Being blind to something is the first stage of the four stages of competence. This is where you don’t recognize the deficit. So, using the blind spot assist analogy from the car, it is telling you there is a vehicle nearby even if you can’t see it. As humans, with necessary skills missing from our toolbox that are essential to our individual as well as business development, we might struggle. Without knowing about it, we are oblivious to the gap in our abilities. It is interesting that the car wing mirror is exactly that, a mirror. But it is more than just reflecting, it is warning us too, warning us of our ignorance. Are there tools to shine a light on our missing skills. The skills required to run a business are: ·         Financial management ·         Marketing, sales and customer service ·         Communication and negotiation ·    ...

  It stopped working on the car, but I managed to re-activate it and now the mirrors alert me to cars in the blind spots, panic over. Successful billionaire Warren Buffett (and he really is) has said “The difference between successful people and really successful people is that really successful people say no to almost everything” I don’t think that is the only reason why he has been so successful, the man will definitely have a very good skillset to be able to be so good at what he does. In fact, although that might be the most famous quote, you can look up at least a hundred other ones to see what the man is made of. Is it possible for us, even in part, to have our own success story? Perhaps, it is all down to our skillset not being as vast or as strong as Mr B. First of all, we need to know what our deficiencies are before we can address them. And how do we do that? To be continued………