Kaiser Soze wrote:
Secondly:- I think you will find that a co-operative has been run the same way for many many years, the committee men at the moment are doing nothing different to what has went on before. The guys running City Cabs at the moment may not have degrees or HNC's or highers etc, but they do have the one qualification that matters most:- that's the qualification of life's experiences.
So before you come back with your next tirade, answer this question. You currently slaughter the current committee, could you do the job any better?
First, the committee men are doing nothing different to what has went (sic) before.
Precisely my point. The committee structure was relevant when a few taxis hung about the foot of the walk taxi rank, smoking their fags, talking shecht as usual, and waiting for the single telephone to assign them their next job.
But the whole dynamic has changed. The trade expanded exponentially, yet the business model is mired in the past. It's had its day. Co-operatives like this are no longer relevant in the taxi trade model or the commercial world generally.
Multi million pound businesses need qualified businessmen to run them in order that they reach their full potential. The taxi companies in Edinburgh don't have that. The big PH company doesn't have it either. The time has long passed for amateurs to run these businesses. If the owners want them to be successful and reach their full potential that is.
ECPH is a case in point. Whereas a qualified business expert would have a real marketing strategy, what currently exists is written on the back of a fag packet and changes daily. And when all else fails, the quick resort to price reduction is the order of the day. Yet every price reduction might buy a slightly increased market share, but it doesn't grow the market, and it ends up reducing profits. And when that happens the drivers are stiffed again. The company dips into their pockets to fund the mistakes. The drivers always pay.
The same happens in the co-operatives, hence buying work like Social Work, RBS, etc. Drivers don't really want the discounted work, they're hoping someone else will be allocated it while they do the more lucrative general public work. And they gripe when it does come their way, unless it involves a longer job which may help to defray some of the discounting loss.
Fact is, you're right in respect that nothing's changed in the way co-operatives operate, but the change in the whole dynamic demonstrates how the companies are being held back by an inability to evolve into a modern dynamic enterprise with efficient company structures manned by skilled staff. And it would take real commercial skills to take the companies down that route. The amateurs who effectively "own" the companies, because proxy votes from pals keep the clique in power, have neither the wit nor intelligence to lead the companies there.
Second, just reading the above should lead you to understand I likely could do the job better. As could a few others. Thing is, I wouldn't want to. And it comes back again to the important thing being the company, not the ego of individuals.
If I WERE in the position to try, the first task would need to be a root and branch organisational review by professional experts, like KPMG perhaps. And that would lead to me being removed for the very reasons I've outlined. And that would likely be the limit of my success - a true facillitator who put the needs of the business first.
BTW Kaiser. I think you're Kevin Woodburn.
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