Last week, I gave a presentation to the sales and support managers of CFS. The division has been managed by Dennis Ryan (ex Barclays) for the last few years and Dennis has taken the distribution channel through some major changes as it organises and equips itself to compete in the challenging times ahead. Dennis is a charismatic leader with a disarming nature that is unusual in someone of his position. Originally from the North East, he is so ‘down to earth’ that his management team and colleagues ‘look up to him’! He has an open and honest approach that helps him to deliver and get support for changes that he has introduced – including a reduction in the adviser numbers from over 1,000 to 600 (with increased growth and profitability).
On one slide (of too many) that was part of the presentation about the market challenges – including the global and local economy and regulation (RDR etc) – I listed a number of bullet points to illustrate the economic environment:
My point was that it is too often too easy to focus on the negatives and see the ‘glass as half-empty’ (some see it as completely empty!). I gave a personal example of how we need to put problems and challenges in context – without ignoring them for what they are. I was relating a story about the challenges of having a daughter about to do ‘A’ levels and the pressure that I was placing on her to study in order to get the grades required by her University offer (I am apparently more of a ‘stress transferor’ than a stress owner). All of this paled into insignificance (well not quite…), when, after a week of racing heart rate (tachycardic) and two occasions when she collapsed, she was eventually rushed into hospital with what turned out to be ‘massive bilateral pulmonary emboli’ (two big blood clots on both lungs) that were causing significant strain on the heart and required urgent thrombolysis. My daughter has become a bit of a phenomenon due to the rarity of the problem in someone so young without obvious linking causes, but I am sure she would prefer not to have this notoriety.
The good news is that the advice and treatment by the experts seems to have worked and although still recovering with ongoing medication, the current status is less critical and worrying than three weeks ago. The point is that however difficult the situation, there is usually a way of dealing with it and in the context of other situations it may not be as bad as we first feel.
Going back to the presentation and the bullets on the various slides, we should remember that our industry often has the knowledge, skill and experience (and products) that can help consumers to manage or mitigate some of the consequences of the problems that the economy presents. We should be proud of what we do and positive about the value we create. As I said (not original) last week, ‘the only constant is change’! Our industry needs not only to cope with change, it needs to be resourceful and adaptable in order to ‘create positive change’.
