Mark Hillary2013-05-22T12:41:20-04:00Mark Hillaryhttp://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/author/index.php?author=mark-hillaryCopyright 2008, HuffingtonPost.com, Inc.HuffingtonPost Blogger Feed for Mark HillaryGood old fashioned elbow grease.No HP Sauce, Endless Red Tape: Would You Want to Live in Brazil?tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2013:/theblog//3.31567002013-04-25T17:32:59-04:002013-04-26T08:04:20-04:00Mark Hillaryhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/mark-hillary/Gringoes.com website. It's a magazine for foreigners living and working in Brazil and the downsides of being in Brazil are a regular theme of articles and discussion, particularly in the associated Facebook group where readers can vent their opinion openly without the need for an editor to approve what they submit to the magazine.
In the past few days there has been an enormous argument raging on the Facebook group because one foreigner wrote a list of dozens and dozens of reasons why he hates living in Brazil.
Every foreign person living far from home has some reason to miss home, but for someone to sit and write a list of 66 - yes 66 - reasons he hates being in Brazil leaves me feeling rather incredulous. This is surely a hatred bordering on obsession?
It is easy to leave. Even if his wife has a good job. Or she wants to be close to her family. He could just leave, return to the USA and swallow the cost of visiting regularly as being better than having to endure a life in Brazil.
But comparing things to home is normal. I knew a British guy who has now left Brazil and he would lament about the quality of shops like Boots. I actually think that the drug stores in São Paulo are pretty good - even if the generic drugs are too expensive.
I spent some time living in the USA teaching kids when I was younger. I had a health-plan provided by my employer and I never needed to use it, but now I am self-employed, I think that finding over $1,000 a month to ensure I can see a doctor when I need one would seriously put me off ever living in the USA - but it's a place I love visiting.
I spent a lot of time in India and Singapore when I was working for a bank and I had all kinds of comments and thoughts about those places. Singapore is clean and safe and well ordered, but nobody has any real ability to criticise the government - then you end up wondering how much that right is worth if the streets are clean and you have no fear of getting mugged?
In India the poverty is oppressive, even in cities like Mumbai where billionaires and film stars frequent the beaches and luxury hotels. All my foreign friends living there had to be in gated communities, sealed off from the 'normal' people - is that really what life in India is about?
And so what about Brazil? It's true that the country is saddled with an inefficient bureaucracy and it appears there is no desire to streamline any of it - just dealing with the cartorios (notary offices) alone by using biometric identity would sweep away an enormous amount of time checking and stamping forms - often for no other reason than confirming a signature is genuine. But there are probably millions of people working in these offices so the government would give efficiency with one hand and wipe out jobs with the other.
Brazilian drivers are very aggressive. I don't mind most of the time, but when someone pulls a stunt like overtaking me on a sweeping corner (it happens a lot more often than you might think) and their stupidity is endangering me and my family then I get angry - and there should be no need to.
It is tough to negotiate life in Brazil sometimes. I'm grateful that I've got a fantastic wife who can steer me through a lot of the things that would give a foreigner an entirely negative view of the place. I know a British guy who was robbed at gunpoint in São Paulo in his own home, but his Brazilian wife chose a crappy neighbourhood for them to live in where he would obviously stand out - so who is to blame?
I've also been lucky to get great professional advice. The accountant for my business had never handled a company like ours before - lots of foreign clients, money coming from all over the world, only really dealing in intellectual property rather than tangible assets. She studied all the relevant rules to handle our company and has been doing a great job - and it's needed because even a small company here has to file a tax or regulatory report AT LEAST ONCE A DAY... I did mention there is a lot of bureaucracy here.
Foreigners on the Gringoes website complain of being ripped off - try catching a taxi in India then and asking the driver to use the meter. It won't happen. They complain of the 'culture' in Brazil not being like back home. They complain about how they can't complain without being ignored.
I have even seen foreigners on the forums talking about how Brazilian music is just not as good as it is back at home. Are they kidding? Have you been out in São Paulo recently? It is packed with live gigs going on every night of the week. I admit, seeing the big international rock acts is expensive, but there is a thriving art, music, and culture scene in Brazil.
And then, when Brazilians respond with a list of all the great things about Brazil it just so often seems to be full of clichés... is feijoada really one of the reasons why people choose to live in Brazil?
The reality is that you can't define a place with a single broad stroke. There is no Brazil this or that in the same way that living in Louisiana is very different to California or New York. Living far from home is affected firstly by the place you have chosen to be and the people you are with.
For example, if you are used to life in central New York or London then life on a beach up in the rural north east of Brazil might seem idyllic when you first arrive. The sun, the beach, the endless opportunity to live next to the barbecue. After a while though you might start wondering when you are going to next visit the cinema, a theatre, see a rock concert, or meet a friend who has read the books of Anthony Burgess. Living an idyllic life by the beach can have downsides too.
And the people are important. Moving anywhere can be improved by having a partner from that country, but people are people. I've met many Brazilian people from São Paulo who don't even know how to get around their own city. In my short time here I've learned more about the public transport infrastructure and different neighbourhoods than they have in a lifetime. And I've also seen locals setting up home with their foreign partners in completely inappropriate locations - as I already mentioned.
I'm not suggesting that a foreigner moving to São Paulo has to live in a ghetto of foreigners. It actually annoys me when I meet ex-pats living in the city and they all gravitate to Jardins, Moema, or Brooklin. They are not really the most interesting parts of the city at all, but are considered 'safe' so foreigner-ghettos are created and then the cycle is reinforced - these are good places for foreigners to live because others are already there.
So the type of place, the location, the people you are with - these are all factors in creating your personal experience. The cultural complaints I read on Gringoes are all influenced by this - we are all in different places with different people so we cannot just assume the same about Brazil. The Brazil one person experiences can be entirely different to that experienced by another.
When I see the complaints about foreigners being treated differently, getting ripped off, I remember when I was living in São Paulo and every shop owner in my street would wave and say hello as I walked my dog down the street. I had a set of spare house keys in my local bar, in case I ever lost my keys. The taxi drivers at my local cab rank all said hello and were happy to do short or long runs at short notice. I never found any of the negativity I can see expressed on the discussion forums.
I was never burgled or mugged or witnessed any crime during my time in São Paulo, despite the statistics painting an image of the city as one step away from Gomorrah.
Now I live in a smaller town this has only become more accentuated. The paranoid may fear that standing out as the only English person in town might lead to being targeted by burglars or worse, but what have I found? Just a sincere welcome everywhere I go from the barber to the bakery to the bar to the local government - who are all excited about having a real English person help them with some music and culture related to the UK.
In fact, what have I found out about Brazil in short?
Business; running a business is bureaucratic. I cannot even personally deal with the number of regulatory and tax reports I need to file - it is more than one report a day. But my accountant does it all efficiently at a reasonable price and the corporation tax on my company is lower than in the UK. It takes a bit of effort to run the firm, but in short, the tax bill is lower than it would be in the US or UK so that can only be a good thing. I am better off that I would be back in the UK and I'm staying on the right law of the law and paying my taxes.
World focus; talking of business, I am busier than ever. Brazil is a great place to be as it has survived the global economic downturn and with the next World Cup and Olympic games coming here everyone is looking to do business in Brazil in this decade.
Home; I now live in a lovely spa town of about 30,000 people packed full of mineral water springs. I open the window in the morning and see mountains in front of me as the sun rises. I've got a pool and sauna at home and space to entertain friends when they come over. I can't imagine having all this back in London - my last home in the UK was a small flat.
Nature; I'm surrounded by the most incredible countryside and real live toucans and parrots fly past - they are not just things you see on postcards from Brazil.
People; I've met so many fantastic people since I moved to Brazil - some locals and some foreigners living here. There is something about living away from your home country that encourages you to get out to meet more people than if you were back on familiar territory and this can be a wonderfully positive experience. I have even ended up working with the British embassy to promote the UK for business and tourism.
Weather; Brazil is an enormous country with searing heat in the north to snow in the south. Where I am living now will be dry until about September and I work outside in the sun almost every day. I'm pretty happy about that - would you prefer a balcony with a mountain view or a dull basement office?
In short, I have personally had a fantastic time since moving to Brazil and I have found opportunities and experiences that would just have never happened had I stayed in London.
There are things I would like to improve in Brazil. Maybe my voice and opinion can help to influence a few changes, but I see so many more positives than negatives. I think that the foreigners who endlessly whine about the problems of Brazil are living in the wrong place.
The foreigners may even be right. They might have a valid point, but if you want to while away your days complaining and dreaming of when you can move someplace else then why not just remember the words of John Lennon:
My own contribution focused on how social media and popular culture - such as music - can have influence as a diplomatic tool. Or to put it another way, can Facebook and British pop hits from the 80s help the FCO diplomats?
But international diplomacy is not just an activity that takes place when politicians are trying to avert military action; it is a process that takes place twenty-four hours a day. Often people who do not possess any formal government role undertake this soft form of diplomacy.
I'm talking about soft power. This is the ability of a nation to broadcast their opinion and values without dictating them by force. Hollywood is possibly the best example. American movies have reached every corner of the world, giving an insight into American life - as the movies describe it - to people from Addis Ababa to Zimbabwe.
Some movies are good and some are bad, but the sheer volume of movies being produced in America and distributed globally give people across the world a sense of American values without ever reading the US constitution or listening to a single speech in Congress.
And the UK is also very good at soft power, probably second only to the US globally. In part this is because of the power of the English language as the global lingua franca of business. I have personally had jobs, based in London, for German and French companies where employees working in those countries had to speak English to get a job - can you imagine the uproar if French was required as standard to get a job in London?
But soft power doesn't have to mean just English courses or the BBC News. Is it possible to quantify just how many people have visited the UK from all over the world just because they love the music of the Beatles, or The Smiths, or David Bowie, or Pink Floyd?
Do you remember the music section from Danny Boyle's spectacular London Olympic opening ceremony last year? Global hit after hit rang out from the stadium and all these songs have been sung in showers the world over for decades.
When I moved recently from São Paulo to Serra Negra - a move from one of the largest cities in the world to a small mountain city about the same size as Buxton and also famous for the local mineral water - the first place my neighbours invited me to go was the English club. Serra Negra has a club for people who want to speak English and they had never had a person from England in the club, so I was especially welcomed.
At the last meeting I taught the group how Cockney slang works and now I'm arranging a screening of 'Only Fools and Horses' with flashcards. I'm expecting to create a group of Brazilians who know that when Rodders asks Del Boy for a pony he doesn't mean a young horse.
British music, art, and culture in general has reached every corner of the world and this does create a favourable impression of the nation - useful for business and politics in addition to just feeling a bit more welcomed when visiting a new place as a tourist.
The British diplomatic mission in Brazil launched a public diplomacy initiative last year that focused on how to leverage some of this goodwill from artists, sportspeople, and other highly visible British celebrities because there are opportunities in abundance for the British to be visible here in Brazil.
The England football team will play Brazil in June at the reopening of the famous Maracanã stadium in Rio - the stadium where the World Cup final will be played next year. The enormous Rock in Rio music festival in September features an entire stage just focused on British and Irish music - with some special surprise acts planned for the fans.
All these events may seem frivolous in political or business terms, but this misses an important point. Music, culture, art, the output of the BBC, and a desire to take lessons in English all shape how people see the UK from outside the country.
The Rock in Rio music festival runs for a week and is screened daily on national TV in Brazil. Muse and Iron Maiden might not feel they are explicitly selling UK plc when they get up and perform, but you can guarantee that some fans are going to book a trip to Britain because of the shows. Some business leaders are going to choose to invest in the UK because they can speak English as a second language. And some politicians are going to be more disposed to try striking a deal with their British counterparts for all the reasons above.
Soft power is critically important as the world becomes more interdependent and connected. If I were a British diplomat walking into an important trade deal and I knew that my foreign counterpart's favourite band was British (maybe I sneaked a look at his iPod) then I know I would feel confident of striking a great deal before the conversation even begins. Run to the hills? More like Follow Me...]]>Thatcher: The Most Divisive British Leader of All Timetag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2013:/theblog//3.30457972013-04-09T13:19:01-04:002013-04-10T05:32:03-04:00Mark Hillaryhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/mark-hillary/The death of Margaret Thatcher has been quite unlike that of any public figure in living memory. The debate about financing her funeral had started long ago so it was only to be expected that there was going to be some diverse and extreme views when she passed away, but her death has led many to challenge the usually-accepted taboo that you don't speak ill of anyone until they are long gone and settled into the ground.
But my real memory of Thatcher's time comes from the school playground. When I was a teenager - with Reagan and Thatcher leading the free world - the Soviet Union was openly considered to be an evil empire. This actually affected playground conversation, with kids often considering how best to hide from nuclear fallout - would a big oak tree suffice?
Thatcher still manages to divide opinion in a way that no other British leader has achieved. Even Tony Blair's false wars don't create the same kind of hatred.
And most of the people I know do hate her. The Irish community in the UK - of which I am one - were singing and dancing in west London last night. The favoured song being 'tramp the dirt down' by Elvis Costello, in which he sings of hoping to live long enough to "stand on your grave and tramp the dirt down."
The Irish have good reason to hate Thatcher. Her belligerence and single-mindedness meant that she would rather watch young men starve to death than negotiate or remove the British troops from Northern Ireland. This character trait came to the fore during the Falklands war. Now hailed as a great military and political victory, almost no other leader would have attempted such an audacious operation in the South Atlantic, but she rarely listened to advice and - of course - this was ultimately her political downfall.
But this confidence and unshakeable decisiveness was a character trait that her supporters loved. In an era before focus groups and a need to pretend that you love the Arctic Monkeys or watch the X-Factor, politicians could lead with conviction.
And Thatcher did lead with conviction. She did modernise the unions where others were beholden to them - Callaghan was desperate to reduce inflation by controlling wages, yet he had lost control. Even if you support the right of workers to organise, would anyone today argue that secondary action or the closed shop really helps workers to negotiate with employers? Some of the Thatcher reforms were clearly necessary.
Thatcher led the world in slimming the public sector. It was no longer a requirement to apply to the government for a phone line or an electricity connection in dozens of nations who directly followed what her privatisation programme achieved in the UK. If you don't believe me, ask someone who was trying to pay their electricity bill or arranging a telephone extension line back in the 1970s.
Some critics now argue that the trains or gas or electricity used to be better when run by the state. Talk about a rose-tinted view of the past. Can you even imagine asking the government for permission to buy a new sim card? We now take for granted many of the freedoms the Thatcher era introduced. Her endless phone calls to President Reagan were a constant reminder to the US that the free nations of the west had to destroy the Soviet empire without a war - and that goal was achieved.
But I also fear that Thatcher's attitude has been cast in stone, changing British society in too many negative ways. Major and Blair simply continued along the same path of chasing the chimera of endless economic growth and houses that only ever increased in value. This meant a decline in manufacturing, because services - such as banking - were more valuable and grew faster.
The good times couldn't last forever - the crash of 2007 proved that. Banking won't save the UK now and outside of London is anyone investing in property? Britain needs a more mixed economy and a culture of respect for society in general, but all this has been lost since the 1980s. The UK now fears foreigners, has lost entire industries, and yet there remains a paranoia over the need to remain relevant internationally.
Thatcher genuinely helped the UK to punch above its weight internationally, but now British people have to accept that they live on a small island facing a long period of economic decline. The GDP of Brazil surpassed the UK a year ago - though currency fluctuation has reversed this for now - the long term trend is obvious. Soon, the economies of India, Mexico, and Indonesia will be bigger than that of the UK.
Can you just imagine explaining to Baroness Thatcher that a country in Latin America has a bigger and more vibrant economy than that of the UK?
The British economic model focused on endless growth collapsed six years ago. The period of economic decline British people are facing at present is the real legacy of Margaret Thatcher. A formidable, but divisive, leader who deserves to be remembered, but there is as much to hate as there is to love about what she achieved during her time in office.]]>When Was the Last Time You Switched Off Your Smartphone?tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2013:/theblog//3.29255752013-03-26T19:00:00-04:002013-04-23T05:09:47-04:00Mark Hillaryhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/mark-hillary/
If you take a flight then it's likely you might have to endure several hours without social network updates - though many airlines are now offering wifi access on board leading to many inane Facebook updates saying little more than "I'm on the plane..."
London commuters know that the Tube is a refuge from phone calls and Internet access, but the recent addition of wifi at station platforms means that it is possible to quickly grab a few updates from Twitter each time the train stops.
My wife told me off at a restaurant last night because I was uploading a photo of the place to Instagram. She was checking the menu and I was uploading a photo of the menu. She had a point and I laid down my phone for the rest of the meal.
I was thinking while I was out running this morning that my time pounding the streets is probably the only time I never carry my phone. But then have you tried running with an iPhone in your pocket?
I use all the major social networks and I update them regularly, but I can switch off quite easily - I still read "real" books rather than just Twitter updates. My Twitter use at the weekend is mostly just photographs or the odd news story shared for friends. I have a good reason to share what I'm up to because I live a long way from my family - it's great being able to show them what I am up to and what Brazil looks like.
But I've seen what borders on addiction in some friends. Addiction to the point that they can't stop sharing all those 'amusing' images on Facebook and endlessly checking to see if anyone has commented or responded - even just with a 'like'. And addiction to the point that they are endlessly appealing for interaction - leaving angst-filled notes online about their lack of purpose or disappointment with life in general.
What addiction has this displaced? Perhaps it was the endless consumption of daytime TV? Why would anyone sit passively all day consuming trash TV when they can do they same online and be rewarded by people giving them a thumbs up?
Technology is converging and creating a perfect storm that will stunt attention spans and rob us of lazy free time to think. When was the last time you actually did nothing at all and just sat thinking about a place you want to visit, a film you could direct better than Tarantino, or a story you could write that would sell more than the Fifty Shades trilogy?
With every free moment now spread evenly between Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, how will creativity work in future? I recently heard a Stanford professor on the BBC talking about pedagogical changes in university education - how lectures are no longer seen as important when they can all be grabbed from the website as a video or podcast. And even those students attending lectures do so with an iPad constantly connected to Facebook.
The use of location-aware smartphones combined with venue services such as Facebook Places or Foursquare creates new possibilities for advertising that make recent science fiction movies look archaic. Right now a brand, such as Marks & Spencer, knows if I like their brand or not, and they know if I'm inside or near to a store. The only reason our phones are not being bombarded with location-aware advertising is because the social networks know how questions over privacy are the one thing that could derail their endless dominance over our spare time.
But I love social networks. I couldn't stay in touch with my friends and family all over the world as easily as I do without them - my dad is always on Facebook these days and I could never have imagined that a few years ago. My company is focused on content used for blogs and social networks. I think this ability for every person to shape their Internet use is about to blossom into a new type of experience, making our present use of social networks soon look as primitive as a 1994 web browser.
But when I go out running, I run without my phone and I think about the stories I want to write, the musicians and artists I want to work with, and how proud I am that I've got friends doing stuff like writing movies and selling out Bafta for a premiere or planning their new album launch.
If all we ever did were update Facebook with motivational quotes, none of this wonderful creativity would ever have a life. Hopefully the teens now getting addicted to a life lived online figure out a way through the temptation. When I was a kid, the perceived danger was that we would fritter our lives away playing video games, yet that turned into an entertainment industry bigger than cinema - the kids addicted to games as teens back then are now running giant entertainment corporations.
I'm hoping the same happens again. It might appear to be quite a stretch to imagine an entertainment industry based on LOLCats, but then who could have predicted that some hacking around in a Harvard dorm would now be changing every major industry worth mentioning - the world over?]]>Peter Hook: Inside Joy Divisiontag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2013:/theblog//3.25756952013-01-30T13:42:35-05:002013-04-01T05:12:01-04:00Mark Hillaryhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/mark-hillary/Peter Hook believes that the truth about Joy Division, the legendary post-punk band he formed, remains unknown. Much has been written about the band and their influence on English music culture, but Hooky has now followed up his popular history of The Haçienda club with a new book focusing entirely on the life and death of Joy Division.
The book is an intimate account of how the band formed in 1976, worked with Factory Records to produce two near-perfect albums up to the point at which lead singer Ian Curtis took his own life in 1980. The loss of Curtis eventually led to the band reforming as New Order, but in this book Hooky focuses only on the story of Joy Division.
The Manchester punk scene - especially Buzzcocks - was the catalyst for Joy Division, but their dark moody sound is a world away from the brash punk anthems of the time. I asked Hooky how the band evolved that more complex sound: "That is the art. It's a combination of talent, skill, chemistry, and luck. There really are so many things that define you. The three of us would play with Ian picking out the bits that sounded great. We relied on him, like the conductor of an orchestra, to tell us what sounded good. This was one of the problems once we became New Order, because we lost him as the arbiter."
It was Curtis who encouraged Hooky to play his bass guitar high, in a distinctive style that led to the bass being the lead instrument for much of their music. Since his death, Curtis has become a revered figure, his black and white image now a shorthand for youth angst and despair, but in the book he is just one of the lads - a young man making music and touring with the band. Hooky explains his fear of describing Curtis as just a normal guy: "I was afraid of pricking too many balloons, spoiling hopes and aspirations, but the mythical and iconic side of Ian's deification has been literally done to death. What really happened was that I read one book too many about Joy Division and I thought that it's time for someone who was there all the time to write about it. I felt that I was in a position where I could relax and tell this fantastic story."
He went on to suggest that he plans to continue the story: "I wasn't going to do a New Order book, because it would be quite ordinary in the way that a Mötley Crüe book would be, dirty secrets, sex, drugs, rock 'n' roll. I really didn't want to do that, but when they reformed without me, in the way that they did, I literally did think fuck 'em!"
But Curtis was always special, even though his epilepsy meant that the band often had to pray they could get through a gig without the singer collapsing on stage. Hardly the kind of frontman who would succeed in the modern X-Factor style TV talent shows: "When we started the band it was all about belief. You had to believe that you were the best thing and Ian Curtis was wonderful at that. He was great at instilling in you that you are great and he would instill the same thoughts in others about how great you are. It was you against the world. Now, what would Simon Cowell have said to Ian Curtis? Something along the lines of 'don't give up your day job'. They [TV talent shows] don't see the heart and soul, they only see the topcoat, the veneer. It's not about song-writing, it's just about appearing to have a perfect technique and following the right fashion."
The bitterness Hooky feels about New Order reforming without him is evident when talking to him, but is mostly absent from the book. The reader is transported to 1970s Manchester where a young band can be selling thousands of records, touring constantly, and yet still be endlessly broke.
But the bitterness is never far away. Just last week, New Order frontman Bernard Sumner took a swipe at Hooky, claiming he was more interested in being a DJ than continuing with New Order. Responding to that Huffington Post article, Hooky said: "My God, that guy is going to some lengths to assassinate my character! It's the compliment of the year - like this is going to discredit me?"
Sticks and stones. But despite Hooky and Bernard's ongoing argument via the music press it is clear that Hooky believes New Order is finished. In the acknowledgements to his book, Hooky lists New Order alongside friends who have passed away with a message to Rest In Peace.
He said: "I do feel that that side of my life is now over. I don't recognise them as New Order in the same way as Peter Hook and the Light are not Joy Division. They can pretend and do whatever they like, but they are just another band celebrating something that was wonderful. It's dead for me."
Unknown Pleasures: Inside Joy Division is published in the UK by Simon & Schuster and in the USA by It Books. It was published in hardback in the UK last September and is available from today in the USA.]]>Cinema in Ealing: Will the Tragedy Finally Return to Comedy?tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.20173342012-10-25T12:04:47-04:002012-12-25T05:12:01-05:00Mark Hillaryhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/mark-hillary/Ealing in west London. The leafy suburb is home to the oldest film studio in the world - a studio that is still seeing active use today on many British movies and TV shows, such as Downton Abbey. The Red Lion pub across the road is affectionately known as Stage Six - a favourite watering hole for cast and crew after a hard day on set.
But you can't go to watch an Ealing movie locally because Ealing doesn't have a cinema of its own.
Five years ago the local Empire was demolished to supposedly make way for a new improved multi-screen cinema that would bring twenty-first century cinema facilities to the town.
Locals waited, and waited, and waited some more as the building was demolished - except for the façade facing into the Uxbridge Road. Rumours swirled that Empire was going to turn the former cinema site into a car park because the economics of running a car park close to the busy Ealing Broadway train station would be more favourable than investing in a new cinema.
Empire always denied the car park rumours and vowed that a new cinema would be built and so the locals waited longer, until now.
Ealing Council leader, Councillor Julian Bell, said: "We have stated that we expect to see a construction contract in place to consider that work has commenced. No evidence of this has been provided by Empire and the site is as derelict now as it was in 2008 when they demolished the old cinema. We've been very patient with them but enough is enough."
The council claim that several major property developers have approached them with proposals aimed at turning the derelict site back into a cinema again and their own plans for the sale of the land would stipulate that any new development must include a cinema.
It's a tragedy that Ealing has no cinema of its own, as this is the neighbourhood of London that has created some of the most treasured British films. However this outcome could also be considered a triumph for many of the local residents who were instrumental in reaching this outcome.
Endless campaigning using social media by local residents such as Kuldeep Brar has not only forced Empire to continue defending their own position, but has also ensured that the Council has finally taken tough action.
I used to live in Ealing myself. I know that there is a strong cohesive community in this part of London and any smart developer would be wise to take this into account. Surely it's possible to make money on a new cinema that includes the local community in activities such as programming features? If another cinema chain has yet to try it, perhaps Ealing can now take a lead...]]>Introducing the Band: Suede Meet their Fans in Braziltag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.19892382012-10-19T19:45:51-04:002012-12-19T05:12:01-05:00Mark Hillaryhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/mark-hillary/Pinheiros district of São Paulo towards the Queens Head pub this morning, they might have wondered why they are here now. The area is being extensively upgraded, with new roads and facilities on the way, but right now the entire area looks like a construction site.
The pub feels like a beacon of sanity amongst the pneumatic drills and provided the band with an opportunity to meet both journalists and fans at a special event today. The fans had all won the right to be there through a competition organised by the British consular team responsible for the UKBrasil season - a series of events riding on the wave of goodwill generated by the Olympic games.
Suede fans surrounded a side entrance to the pub, causing the band to sneak in through the front door. Some of these Brazilian fans have waited twenty years for an opportunity to see Suede and tomorrow they will finally have their wish granted when the band play the main stage at the enormous Planeta Terra rock festival.
One of the first questions from the fans was about their hiatus - from the breakup in 2003 to the 2010 Royal Albert Hall reunion. Just what had they all been up to during that time?
Keyboard player Neil Codling summarised it: "We are musicians and can't really do anything else, except for Mat who has been doing well in journalism." Bass player Mat Osman was editing the UK version of the Le Cool guides until the band activity picked up again after the reunion.
Lead singer, Brett Anderson, has released four solo albums during the break in activity with Suede and he lamented how much the industry has changed over this past decade: "There is no real market for small to medium [record] releases now. It's really hard for an artist to make money on a small release if it gets very little promotion. My solo work only just breaks even and I have bills to pay and a family to feed."
Anderson's comment is a familiar refrain, artists don't all live in golden palaces. Getting paid to write and perform original music is a business that many struggle to succeed in and commercial success has nothing to do with the quality of the music. Great music also needs great promotion so artists can get their music in front of the people who might care about it.
The biggest change is that fans just don't buy records today. It's up to the artists to tour and earn from the sale of tickets and merchandise, but if you don't have the marketing clout of a major label and your songs don't really get on the radio then the tours are not going to be taking in large arenas.
But Suede was always a big brand - one of the biggest British acts of the nineties and they just finished recording a new album the day before leaving for this tour of South America. They are not touring the heritage circuit for ageing fans, they are keen to pick up where they left off - openly warning fans that this might be their last chance to hear some of the old songs live because they are moving on.
Anderson explains: "We split because we just felt that we were not saying anything interesting at that time. We are back together now and writing new material that is really exciting." Mat Osman added: "Even after the split, we always remained close. It wasn't the kind of split where everyone hated each other. It was harder to see Simon [Gilbert, drummer] because he moved to Thailand, but the rest of us saw each other quite regularly."
With a renewed sense of purpose and a new album recorded and ready for mixing Suede appear to be a band on the up. Their dangerous, erotic, glam may even fit better in a world where the Rolling Stones are still touring yet David Bowie is retired - and Suede are still far from retirement. For them to be releasing new material feels relevant and current.
The fans in the pub asked when Suede will return to Brazil for a full headline tour, Mat Osman responded by saying: "It depends how the festival goes. We would love to return, but that's really all up to you!"
An enormous cheer filled the pub as these fans - who had waited two decades to meet their idols - were suddenly reminded by one of the band members that they were the really important people in the room. If the fans don't come to the shows, there is no new music. I sincerely hope that Planeta Terra goes well for Suede because the world needs more artists like this.]]>How Twitter Saved Bletchley Park - Live From Braziltag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.19162272012-09-26T11:22:26-04:002012-11-26T05:12:02-05:00Mark Hillaryhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/mark-hillary/Dr Sue Black is an internationally-known computer scientist. She is is a Senior Research Associate in the Software Systems Engineering group in the the Department of Computer Science at University College London and a Senior Consultant with Cornerstone Global Associates.
Dr Black visited Brazil recently and toured the country lecturing on Bletchley Park and Alan Turing - 2012 being the one hundredth anniversary of the birth of Turing. The lecture series was organised as a part of the UKBrasil season, a series of events focused on enhancing the relationship between the UK and Brazil.
I caught up with Dr Black at her lecture in São Paulo and asked her about her visit to South America and the significance of the Turing anniversary.
MH: You visited several locations in Brazil - was there anything in particular that you noticed as memorable or unusual, this being your first time in the country?
SB: I LOVED Brazil! The most memorable things were:
• The trees and plants were incredible, I didn't recognise any of them. I walked around outside with my mouth open amazed at how beautiful they were :)) I particularly loved the Ipe trees and the bougainvillea. Gorgeous.
• The fresh fruit. Wow, I've never eaten fresh papaya or pineapple before, it was a fabulous experience, so fresh and tasty.
• The people were very friendly, relaxed and happy compared to me and I think most people around me in the UK.
• Sao Paulo seemed to be buzzing with activity around the tech scene, major companies moving in and lots going on.
• Most of my impression was extremely positive, on the negative side though, seeing armed guards escorting trucks on the main roads and the poverty of the favelas was worrying.
MH: Your talk in São Paulo was all about how social media saved Bletchley Park and the importance of remembering people like Alan Turing. The UK was clearly a major power in computing once with arguably the first computers and programmers. Is that innovative spirit still there?
SB: Yes! I think the UK has produced some great innovators like Alan Turing, Tommy Flowers and Steve Shirley to name a few and the innovative spirit is definitely still here. The most exciting innovation that I've seen lately is the Raspberry Pi computer, a credit card size computer that costs only £25. Incredible, and because of the price, accessible to most people.
MH: Do you think some form of computer science should be taught to very young children in the same way as basic maths and English? Do we need computer literacy in a developed society?
SB: Absolutely. Technology is the language of the future, if we don't understand it we will be left behind. I think that children should be taught computer science in an age appropriate way from the time they start school. That doesn't mean that we should be necessarily teaching kids coding at five, but why not teach them programming concepts and get them familiar with computer hardware and interface design?
MH: A decade ago tech globalisation was all about cheap offshore programming, but tech globalisation has become far more complex with countries such as the UK and Brazil offering far more to foreign partners than just low cost IT labour. What do you think makes the UK tech industry stand out compared to other countries you have been to or researched?
SB: We have a great history of creativity and innovation in the UK. I think we stand out because we use our creativity to innovate in many spaces, technology being one of them. We also lead in Ecommerce...so I guess we are still a 'nation of shopkeepers!'
MH: What are you up to once you return to the UK?
SB: I'm busy writing a book about the various campaigns to save Bletchley Park, including the one that I started which really took off in 2009 after we started using social media, Twitter in particular. I'm also working hard setting up a non-profit organisation The Foundation which aims to get the general public a bit more tech savvy and hands on with technology. I believe that understanding of and familiarity with technology is critical for any country wanting to have a vibrant economy in the future. I'm very excited about lots of things that I saw and heard recently in Brazil and the USA. I've had an idea for a business that I've started talking to people about in the women/tech space. I'm very excited about it, i think it could be gamechanging and very successful, watch this space for more details!]]>Who Moved My Job?tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.18983672012-09-20T11:41:30-04:002012-11-20T05:12:01-05:00Mark Hillaryhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/mark-hillary/called Who Moved My Job? Perhaps you even bought a copy or borrowed it from a friend -- if you did then thank you.
The book was short and to the point. It was a story of three English sheepdogs who found their place on the farm usurped by foreign breeds of dog who could not only do their job better, they didn't cost the farmer as much to keep.
The book was a story about offshore outsourcing and within the confines of allegory it explored how the world of work was changing fast in the past decade thanks to globalisation allowing companies to send work halfway across the world.
The book was originally published just before the financial crash of 2008 and so it doesn't reflect the way the world has changed in the past four years. I am planning a new 2012 post-crash edition of the book that will retain the original story, but enhance it with an essay on what has changed since 2008.
And I need your help.
One of the enormous changes in the past four years has been the growth in the use of social media. From 100m Facebook users in 2008 to almost a billion now, there has never been a better time for someone in my position to tell my audience that I'm about to update an old book and to see what the online community thinks before I commit my own thoughts to the word processor.
I can summarize the areas I am thinking of, but I am sure you will have other ideas that drill down further or just open up entirely new avenues:
• Recession; the recessions in Europe, and the USA in particular, initially halted many offshore outsourcing programmes -- due to the up-front investment needed -- but have now made it a more attractive proposition to invest at home.
• Cost; the cost of doing business in a place like India has soared. As the differential between a low-cost region of your home nation and places where the costs are rising fast reduces there is much less of a cost advantage now.
• Risk; the risk of project failure is usually lower if the actors are closer so a manager does not need to be endlessly flying around the world. Attitudes to this risk have been revised extensively since 2008.
• Public perception; outsourcing (particularly offshore) never had a great public image, but in the past four years it has only got worse to the point that companies offshoring in the middle of a recession are seen as positively unpatriotic.
• Unemployment; particularly youth unemployment is jarring. Countries such as Spain are witnessing half of all under 24s out of work. In this kind of environment, how can any local firm justify sending work offshore?
• Automation; potentially a bigger issue than the offshoring itself. More and more tasks are being automated and this will create enormous unemployment anyway.
• Scope expansion; we used to talk about computer programmers in India, now pretty much any intellectual taks that can be delivered online can be done offshore, from marketing to accounting.
• Global market; as alluded to in the last bullet, the market for jobs has atomized down to the skills you have as an individual. If you can offer something on a service like oDesk then you can make a living from anywhere. This potentially changes entire industries, graphic design being one obvious example.
This summarizes the changes I am exploring for the new version of the book. It will include the original story, but will be expanded with an essay that explores the themes listed here in this article.
I'd like your views here as comments on this article or you can reach me by email. Any great points that end up illustrating the new version of the book will certainly be credited so what do you think has changed since 2008?]]>Embracing the Shifting Challenges of Multichannel Retailtag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.18772622012-09-13T12:23:42-04:002012-11-13T05:12:01-05:00Mark Hillaryhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/mark-hillary/flagship Marks & Spencer store in Ellesmere Port. The new store features online hubs, sales assistants with iPads, and free wifi throughout. These innovations allow the staff to offer better information to customers, customers can check price comparison sites using their phones as they shop, and they can also place orders in-store for delivery direct to the home.
It is a complete blend of the High Street store and online ecommerce, but this blended offer is not how we expected retail to turn out -- until recently. Go back just over a decade and ecommerce sites like Amazon were going to kill off their High Street competitors completely.
Simon Russell, Director of Retail Operations Development at John Lewis, explains the changing view of the consumer: "Our expectation is very clear that customers now, and in future, will use multiple channels at every part of the customer journey. People used to talk about researching in one channel e.g. online and then buying in another e.g. a shop. But now people will use mobile, shops, and the net together at each part of the journey, i.e. researching."
This change is great news for the customer. More consumers have smart phones today so research and price comparison is not limited to the home - customers can be in one store comparing the price another is offering, but as customer use of technology has taken a quantum leap since the introduction of the first iPhone in 2007, some retailers are struggling to keep up.
But the customer doesn't usually care how the technology works, they just want to be treated well in-store and on the retailer's website. Bob Cell, CEO of MyBuys, believes that there are basics that should not be forgotten: "A consumer doesn't want to be treated well and then forgotten. Consumers want personalisation and they now expect it. For example, when you give a company your credit card, you usually want the company to remember that information so the next purchase is easier."
Not unusually, many stores present only edited highlights of everything the company offers - often with the in-store items being less price sensitive. Items that would only ever be compared on price, rather than service, are all available, but only on the website.
But how can the sales team benefit from sending customers to the website? If a customer values the help and advice of the in-store staff, how does that staff member get a bonus when the customer leaves the store and just places an order online? It's a tricky problem and nobody seems to have the answer -- yet.
Matt Stead, Multichannel Director at Pets at Home, has a simple solution that ensures his in-store team do earn bonuses for online sales. He applies the sales bonus for each online purchase to the nearest physical store, based on postcode, where Pets at Home colleagues share the bounty.
"Every single colleague has an opportunity for sales by postcode so that breaks down all the traditional barriers for promoting sales on the web. Our colleagues in-store are interested in helping people shop online because they can also earn from it, i.e. they are incentivised at store level, not on a personal basis.
And of course, the web is a useful tool. When we launched click and collect, people in the business could see web users spending more than twice as much as an in-store customer," Stead explains.
But one of the greatest changes in the retail environment today has emerged in literally the past couple of years -- the use of social media as a customer service and experience channel.
Jamie McRonald, Online and Web Manager at Pret a Manger, believes that the changes needed are greater than just an improvement in marketing, this intimate communication channel with customers is now influencing high-level decisions.
"Customers now have as big an influence on business decisions as the executives. For many senior executives in business today it can be hard to accept that the customers are as important in setting strategy as they are. The nature in which customers give feedback today is so open and transparent, it cannot be ignored," he said.
In summary, multichannel retail is a beast with many heads. Retailers are finding social media a useful way to build communities of fans and to encourage genuine engagement with their customers. Customers are also becoming familiar with price comparison and services such as click and collect and major retailers are offering a blended multichannel offer that helps to boost their brand value - especially where the products are easily compared and ordered online.
Retailers need to offer more than price alone to thrive in an environment where every consumer has all the information, recommendations, and reviews they can handle.]]>How Will You Be Watching the Rio Olympic Games in 2016?tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.18597422012-09-05T21:47:10-04:002012-11-05T05:12:01-05:00Mark Hillaryhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/mark-hillary/London Olympic and Paralympic games? Did you follow the coverage on TV offered by the BBC and Channel 4 or were you watching on a phone or iPad, catching video clips offered up from various social networks?
London 2012 was the first Olympic games where social media and mobile devices played a big part in the experience. Don't forget that the iPhone was only launched in 2007, just a year before Beijing 2008, and the growth in people using tools such as Facebook and Twitter has been enormous in the last four years. In 2008 Facebook had 100m users - now they are nudging close to their first billion.
The traditional broadcasters acknowledged this to a degree. Channel 4 is covering the Paralympic games in the UK and all their presenters seem to be broadcasting as much information on Twitter as they are presenting on TV. The BBC were talking about hashtags and athletes worth following - stimulating a backchannel of live discussion online, where those on the social networks were also following the TV broadcast. And the BBC Olympics app was widely praised as an innovative way for a traditional broadcaster to be feeding sports news to fans.
But out of the almost 200 international broadcasters who covered the Olympic games, just one was broadcasting content to the Internet alone. Terra from Brazil was at the games, with a studio in the Olympic park allowing them to interview athletes from across the Latin America region in Portuguese and Spanish. No single broadcaster can have enough cameras to cover all of the games so live coverage is pooled and distributed by the Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS), allowing broadcasters access to everything that is happening live. Terra were taking their OBS feeds and pumping them straight out to their website - allowing the viewer to be the editor because everything was available all the time.
This was the first time a digital-only broadcaster had undertaken such a major broadcasting challenge. Terra did cover the games in Beijing, but their application to broadcast only on the Internet was considered a bit strange back in 2004 and they were only accredited a few weeks before the games, not leaving enough time to mount a serious broadcast operation.
Let's spin forward four more years and consider how we will be consuming the action from Rio 2016. It won't be unusual to be consuming mobile video content from the Internet by then and it's unlikely that Terra will be the only Internet-only broadcaster in 2016.
There will be a lot more smart phones in the world by 2016 - even in Brazil sales of smart phones with Internet connectivity are doubling each year. More people are going to want more information pumped direct to their handset rather than waiting for the evening roundup on TV.
I believe it is likely that a majority of fans will be consuming the Rio Olympic coverage on their phones. If you remember how the BBC Olympic app worked, allowing sports fans to select news about their team only or even a particular athlete - now overlay this with the ability to get a live feed from all sports all the time and that is probably what normal will look like in 2016.
Of course some of the more traditional broadcast methods will survive. The BBC picked some great presenters for London 2012 and created a friendly collegiate atmosphere - tuning in to the late-night summary of the day with Gabby Logan was part of my whole 2012 experience - but by 2016 people will expect to be able to edit the show themselves.
Dinosaurs of the industry like NBC showed just how badly wrong broadcasters can get the coverage of major international events - even with decades of experience. When they chose to record the opening ceremony and play it back later, editing out all the bits that might not be understood in the USA, they just took another step on the road to irrelevance.
It will be innovators like Terra - and their future rivals in digital-only broadcast - who succeed at Rio 2016. And being on their home turf in Brazil I know whose app I'll have on my phone four years from now.]]>Have You Taken Up Sport Because of the Olympic Games?tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.18543222012-09-04T11:10:18-04:002012-11-04T05:12:01-05:00Mark Hillaryhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/mark-hillary/according to a feature in the latest issue of Time magazine.
And why not? 2012 has been a bumper year for sport with the Euro football, Wimbledon, the Olympic games and now the Paralympics all taking place one event after the other - not to mention the cricket tests, rugby six nations and everything else that has happened this year.
Getting the public to engage with sport was one of the legacy commitments made when London won the right to stage the Olympics back in 2005, but this government pledge was quietly dropped sometime between then and now. However, despite the lack of any formal targets it seems that British people are taking up the challenge themselves - spurred on by day after day of great athletic performances on their TV.
And I have personally taken up this challenge too. I travelled to the Olympic games and spent a month in London watching sporting events and participating in other cultural events or business meetings. Paradoxically the month was spent watching sport, rather than doing it, and eating and drinking far too much - far from healthy at all.
When I lived in London I was a regular urban cyclist, riding at least 30km a day around the city streets. I arrived at the House of Commons for a meeting once without time to get changed and I was actually praised for my environmental awareness - even in my less-than-formal cycling attire.
Now I'm living in São Paulo it's not an option. If you think London is tough for cycling then try it in a city of twenty million people where the car really is king. A new cycle lane just opened on Sunday in Avenida Paulista - a major city centre street perhaps analogous to Oxford Street - but it applies only on Sundays. The rest of the week it's not just difficult to cycle anywhere, it's dangerous.
But since I arrived back from London on Aug 21st I have been out running almost every day. Not in a gym - out on the street pounding the tarmac and dodging the potholes. It hasn't cost me a penny in gym or club fees and yet I have already lost 3kg and hopefully more over the next couple of months.
It's hard to get back into regular exercise after a long break, especially a long break that included the daily consumption of English beer, but it does feel really good to be getting fitter again.
And I've not only been exercising, I volunteered to help out at the Brazil World Cup in 2014. They are already looking for volunteers and what might interest sports fans back in the UK is that the primary requirement for volunteers is an ability to speak fluent English. This may seem strange in a nation that uses Portuguese, but I assume FIFA wants English speakers because the World Cup is a global event.
I've certainly been inspired by the Olympic games to improve my own fitness and to get more involved in sport again. I hope that millions across the world feel the same way and get the chance to enjoy sport - even if it just means taking a run around the block more often. Who knows how many medical conditions of the future might be avoided thanks to this burst of international physical virtuousness?]]>Can We Forget the Recession Until the Paralympic Games Are Over?tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.18373212012-08-28T15:38:11-04:002012-10-28T05:12:04-04:00Mark Hillaryhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/mark-hillary/Rebellion punk festival in Blackpool last month, the St George's flags and swastikas were clearly visible, yet the same crowd roared with approval when a Jamaican, Usain Bolt, won the 100m sprint final.
I'm not saying the crowd was racist - punk and new wave music has always had an uneasy relationship with the symbolism of race and nationality - but bands like The Clash intelligently integrated reggae and ska into their music, sticking two fingers up at those who assumed punk couldn't be English without being racist.
And one musician who knows about these issues more than most is Morrissey. I was at the Madness reunion concert in 1992 when Morrissey caused a storm of controversy by wrapping himself in the Union flag in front of a largely skinhead crowd. It was not a pretty sight. My other presiding memory of that event is being at the bottom of a human pyramid - I think there is still the sole of a Doctor Marten's boot printed on my shoulder.
Morrissey is an intelligent man and a great artist, but he is also belligerent, unfeeling, and says what he thinks without worrying if he is the only person in the nation with those thoughts. He is one of those artists who can be admired for their work, but you know inside that it must be almost impossible to ever be his friend.
"I am unable to watch the Olympics due to the blustering jingoism that drenches the event. Has England ever been quite so foul with patriotism? The 'dazzling royals' have, quite naturally, hi-jacked the Olympics for their own empirical needs, and no oppositional voice is allowed in the free press. It is lethal to witness."
The man who sang that that the Queen is dead is unlikely to have fawned over the opening ceremony or Team GB gold medals in quite the same way as other viewers, but he has sorely misjudged the mood of the nation - a nation now anticipating more success in the Paralympics, which open today.
In the run up to the Olympic games, the media was largely hostile. The land to air missiles, the security guard fiasco, the money being spent - all were issues that endlessly tore at the games. Most commentators judged the whole event to be an expensive folly. There were just a few lonely voices before the games trying to remind people that this is going to be a great event for the UK - all too often Boris Johnson or Seb Coe sounded like lonely voices chirping 'on message' support for the event.
But that has all changed. Media and public sentiment changed once Danny Boyle's spectacular opening ceremony reminded people that Britain really is great - there really is something to celebrate here. And the spectacular organisation, venues, and golden performance of Team GB have just added to the present sense of wonder. I have lost count of the people I have seen on Twitter confessing to turn from Olympic-haters to flag-waving Team GB supporters and the Paralympic games are surfing that wave of popularity with almost every event now sold out.
Can you just imagine what the September 10 Team GB victory parade is going to look like and how Britain as a nation feels revitalised and newly proud through sport?
Morrissey is calling for people to wake up and smell the coffee. But we all know the recession is still here and Europe still needs to sort out the Euro and Lords reform has collapsed because there are bigger fish to fry. The public know all these things and yet the Olympic and Paralympic games are offering a few short weeks of respite - the people don't want to wake up just now, the summer of sport isn't over yet.]]>It's Time to Big Up and Bonus the Games Makers at London 2012tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.17634082012-08-10T06:20:58-04:002012-10-10T05:12:15-04:00Mark Hillaryhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/mark-hillary/London in 1948 so it's only appropriate that at the London 2012 games over 70,000 volunteered to help out. Olympic volunteering is coming home.
The 'Games Makers' have staffed the venues, directed the public to train stations, advised people on how to find the venues, raked the volleyball sand, and collected tennis balls missed by Roger Federer. This army of volunteers have given their time for free and truly made the games happen.
And weren't they great? When I arrived at Lord's for the Olympic archery I had never been greeted by so many friendly smiling faces at a sporting event. It was as if the gene of British cynicism had been removed from all of these smiling volunteers, waving big rubber hands to guide lost tourists towards the cricket ground.
The hit of the Olympic park, and area around Westfield shopping centre, has been the Games Makers sitting on high chairs - like the chair a tennis umpire uses to watch over the game, only in this case they are able to survey a crowd of fans streaming from one event to another.
Seemingly without training, the volunteers using the chairs have become comedians, cheerleaders, and cultural commentators. I've seen them up on the chairs leading cheers from the passing crowd, calling out results, commenting on great costumes, and welcoming people from all over the world in their own language.
The volunteers were all expected to give up at least ten days of their time with no pay and no expenses - if they live a long way from the Olympic park then it's their own problem getting into work. Yet thousands have done it and thrived on being an integral part of the games.
Perhaps the London organising committee (LOCOG) could find it in them to give a surprise bonus to the Game Makers who made these games so special? LOCOG Chief Executive Paul Deighton has already announced that he will give his £1m bonus to charity - surely there are other executives and employees expecting a bonus too?
Add all this together and it can't be too difficult to send every volunteer a £100 thank you cheque? I might even choose a random Games Maker this weekend myself and give them £100 of my own cash just to say thank you for making this the greatest Olympic games ever.
It is time for LOCOG - and all of us in London - to thank the volunteers for making these games special - offer your thanks online using the hashtag #bigupthevolunteers. As the beach volleyball commentator was saying a couple of days ago: "They are giving up their time and volunteering to rake the sand, but they do have a front row seat for the entire tournament."]]>Is the Customer Always Right?tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.17590472012-08-09T16:13:11-04:002012-10-09T05:12:04-04:00Mark Hillaryhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/mark-hillary/
But things don't always go to plan and when customers feel let down they have always wanted to express their disappointment. This has now become easier with the advent of social media.
Previously an upset customer would tell their friends and family about poor service; now they can write a blog and publicize the blog on their Facebook and Twitter accounts. Their friends can republish the complaint and in minutes thousands can see the complaint -- possibly even more if a friend with a large online following also passes on the message.
You have probably tried this yourself. I know I have commented on service from hotels, airlines, and restaurants and almost always had a response. Times are changing.
But there is an even more important aspect to good service than avoiding complaints. Recent research by Accenture found that 55 percent of consumers who receive poor service from their insurance company are more inclined to commit insurance fraud against that company -- as if the poor service means they deserve it.
The Huffington Post even collected together ten recent customer service disasters where customers retaliated in various ways -- all spurred on by poor service.
What is clear from these examples and from scanning the social web is that customers are becoming more vocal than ever. They have a platform to complain and with tools like Tripadvisor now informing many buying decisions, that voice is more powerful than ever.]]>