A Huge Global Event...Going Local

I think the 2012 Olympics is great news for London so I was delighted to hear news this week that my local beauty spot Hadleigh Castle is going to be the venue for the mountain biking. Hadleigh Castle is 700 years old and has a stunning vista on top of a hill overlooking the Thames Estuary.

It’s great to have the Olympics on our door step and a great feeling when such a huge global event like the Olympics touches you locally.

See the press release here.

Don’t Forget Local

Whatever the merits of doing business online, huge global brands, trading globally, outsourcing, blah blah don’t forget the importance of ‘Local’.


Here’s our local fish-shop, where we bought Saturday night’s dinner. A fish merchants that has stayed the same for decades. It sells fish. No frills, no gimmicks. A huge central table full of fish. An aisle to the left to enter, an aisle to the right to leave.

Survival in business is sometimes about change; but here's a retail business that will hopefully survive without having too change too much.

'Global' Meets 'Village'

What has always stimulated me about my own business is having an eclectic mix. I’ve had days where I met with Benetton in the morning, a local arts festival in the afternoon. Dealing with a subsidiary of a Fortune 500 company one day, a sole trader the next. A client is a client in my book, whether big corporation or one-person business. Many companies talk about being global, but in the long tail of business there's a growing number of companies who pride themselves on being village, not global. I like the challenge and stimulation of dealing with both ends of that spectrum.

Those dramatic juxtapositions are reflected in some recent press interest. Last week I did a telephone interview with The New York Times* (1m + readers); yesterday I did an interview with my neighbourhood newspaper The Leigh Times (20,000 + readers).

From The New York Times to The Leigh Times; completely different ends of the spectrum, but equally valuable.

* The NYTimes sent an ace photographer Sebastian Meyer to shoot me, he’s a talented guy. Check out his website