PROFESSOR DYLAN JONES-EVANS

  Do we get the bosses we deserve?   Certainly, many of those leading organisations have views of their achievements that are poles apart to that of their employees. For example, a recent report from Deloitte showed a massive difference between those executives who felt they had done a good job supporting their staff during the last two years and those workers who felt otherwise.  Whilst nine out of ten of those in executive management said that they had understood what their employees had gone through the pandemic and they have made the best leadership decisions for the company, only half of their workers agreed with that sentiment. Perhaps the biggest problem, as this column as discussed previously, is that the style of leadership we see in an increasing number of organisations relies on individuals only being powerful because of their job or position, with this power acquired and maintained by a combination of patronage and fear rather than trust and respect. By h...

Since the day Russian tanks rolled across the border into Ukraine, nations across the World have been going the extra mile to support the people of that resilient nation.  Whilst governments and politicians have imposed sanctions and cut diplomatic ties, the private sector has also responded to the ongoing situation mainly through the withdrawal of major global businesses from Russia.  As a result, the Institute of International Finance estimated that the Russia's economy will shrink 15% this year and 3% in 2023, wiping out fifteen years of economic gains. Whether that will eventually have any effect on the current situation is anyone’s guess but with over a thousand Western businesses having left, or are in the process of leaving, all sectors of the Russian economy have been hit hard by those large corporations ending their links with the country. In energy, BP is divesting its multi-billion pound stake in Russian oil firm Rosneft and Shell is ending its partnership with Russ...

Earlier this week, there was yet another political row between Cardiff Bay and Westminster over additional funding that had supposedly been released to the devolved administrations as a result of new support for businesses in England.  Welsh ministers said that this was not new money at all whereas their equivalents at a UK level said that it formed part of funding that had been ‘advanced’ to the Welsh Government last year to enable them to provide support to businesses. Whatever the truth of the matter, it was disappointing to see the focus on all too prevalent ‘he said, she said’ that has come to dominate any discourse on who has done what to support businesses here in Wales. At a time when the vast majority of Welsh firms will be struggling as a result of the current lockdown, political point scoring should come a distant second to actually providing the support they need to survive until the vaccination process is completed in the next few months and the economy opens up again....

Back in late January, I was having a cup of tea with one of Wales’ leading businesspeople who had been keeping an eye on the emergence of a new flu-like virus that was spreading like wildfire through the Chinese city of Wuhan.  He showed me a video of people shouting from their locked apartment blocks in the middle of the night and suggested that this could be a serious situation that could get out of control quickly, advising me to buy some high-quality personal protection masks as soon as possible.  Of course, when I did and told friends and family, this naturally resulted in a lot of leg pulling at my over-reaction to something happening thousands of miles away that would never affect Wales.  Fast forward six weeks later and everyone was trying to get hold of facemasks as the whole of the world went into lockdown and nations faced the first serious global pandemic since the Spanish Flu outbreak in 1918. Since then, we have seen the country shut down, re-opened and now ...

Last Monday, First Minister Mark Drakeford ordered a “firebreak” lockdown for two weeks to break the spread of coronavirus in Wales. This came into effect yesterday and will last until November 9th. As a result, people must work from home unless they are critical workers or cannot do their jobs from home and all gatherings with people outside households have been banned. Whilst primary schools will reopen after half term, secondary schools will shut for all but years seven and eight. For businesses, all non-essential retail, gyms, leisure centres, bars, restaurants and hospitality must close for this period. The rationale for this ‘sledgehammer’ approach of shutting everything down for just over a fortnight through a combination of different measures is that it is the only way to bring down the R rate (i.e. the average number a sick person could pass the virus onto) from its estimated current level of 1.2-1.4 to below 1.0 when the numbers of those infected start to fall. The scientific...

Back in 2002, I presented a paper on the state of research and development (R&D) in Wales to the then Economic Development Committee in the National Assembly for Wales. It found a long-term trend in the low level of R&D carried out in Welsh businesses and that Welsh universities received less funding relative to the rest of the UK higher education system.  Not surprisingly, it concluded by stating that if Wales was to achieve its aim of becoming a strong knowledge-based economy, there must be increased emphasis on the development of R&D within the public and private sectors in Wales. Fast forward to 2020 and very little seems to have has changed with the latest data showing that Wales has the lowest level of private sector expenditure as a proportion of economic output of any nation or region in the UK.  In addition, Welsh universities receive a lower share of research funding per head of population than they should if this was devolved and this pattern has been co...

Earlier this week, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) published its latest Coronavirus indicators report for the UK economy. This covers responses from 5,036 businesses surveyed during the period 20 April to 3 May 2020.  Given the lack of information on business performance, this is an important ongoing study that will enable policymakers to hopefully nuance their responses to supporting businesses as we hopefully begin to move out of the recession caused by the current pandemic.  So what are the takeaways from this current survey?  Given the constant bad news on the economy, it may be surprising to find that less than 1% of responding businesses indicated they had permanently ceased trading. In fact, 77% of UK businesses are still continuing to trade with the highest proportion found in England (78%) and the lowest in Northern Ireland (73%).  In Wales, 76% of businesses are still trading during the current lockdown although a higher proportion are trading at a...

Last month, the South Wales Business School, in partnership with Wales Online, compiled a list of the largest Welsh businesses and examined their effect in terms of employment and sales.  As a result, the Wales Top 300 demonstrates the significant contribution of some of the largest businesses in Wales at a time when there are major economic challenges for all firms as we prepare to leave the European Union in 2020. Of course, new entrepreneurial ventures are important to the dynamism and vitality of any economy but large firms continue to make a disproportionate impact on the Welsh economy. For example, the latest data on business demography shows that whilst the total turnover for all Welsh businesses is £122 billion, the total turnover of the Top 300 businesses is £38.4 billion with three firms - Admiral, Iceland and GE Aircraft Engines - accounting for 22 per cent of total turnover of the 300 firms.   This means that the Top 300 firms are responsible for 32 per cent o...

In an era when negative trends such as fake news are dominating headlines around the world, consumers and businesses are increasingly looking for products and services that encapsulate their own personal values. As a result, the concept of authenticity is becoming increasingly perceived as giving businesses a competitive advantage in a number of key markets, especially at a time when personal and working lives are increasingly influenced by the social world. So what is authenticity?  Some have noted that being authentic is essentially staying true to what you are and what you do and if your customers see that if you truly believe in what you are doing, then they should as well. This is not surprising as people now need to feel there is something genuine in their lives and that they can get a more honest and transparent experience for their money. More relevantly, if socially connected consumers feel they are not being offered the genuine article, then they will increasi...