Episode 58

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:00:03. > :00:13.Much more on that development throughout the evening, but right

:00:13. > :00:30.

:00:30. > :00:33.now, it is time for Show Me The Busy Show Me The Money, your weekly

:00:33. > :00:38.guide to who is making a cash, how they are doing it and what it means

:00:38. > :00:42.for the way we work. With me tonight, his company turned its

:00:42. > :00:45.back on traditional construction Ritz when he joined. We will find

:00:45. > :00:50.out why from Samir Brikho, chief executive of the engineering

:00:50. > :00:56.consultancy, AMEC. He is at our table but you may have sat at one

:00:56. > :01:01.of his, Mark Derry is chief executive of Brasserie Bar company.

:01:01. > :01:04.And Sarah Bridge keeps her feet under the business table as

:01:04. > :01:09.Financial correspondent at the Mail on Sunday.

:01:09. > :01:12.The UK is paralysed by the eurozone crisis and has probably already in

:01:12. > :01:18.recession, that is what we will hear tomorrow from the earnest and

:01:18. > :01:23.Young Item Group which are influential -- influential group of

:01:23. > :01:26.economists. France has lost its triple A rating along with eight

:01:26. > :01:35.other eurozone countries. That means the credit rating agency

:01:35. > :01:38.Standard and Poor's means it is less likely that the -- be credit

:01:38. > :01:42.rating agency Standard and Poor's believes it is less likely that

:01:42. > :01:47.those countries can pay their debts back. We can talk first to Sarah

:01:47. > :01:52.Bridge from the Mail on Sunday. What does that mean for us? It is

:01:52. > :01:58.never good news when a country like France gets UN ground -- and graded.

:01:58. > :02:03.It is fairly unprecedented but you have seen it happen in the States.

:02:03. > :02:07.The UK has held on to its triple A rating but when you have a country

:02:07. > :02:11.like France being downgraded slightly, it makes their climbing

:02:11. > :02:16.out of the recession more difficult. They have to spend more money

:02:16. > :02:20.basically to borrow more money. The UK may have its rating downgraded

:02:20. > :02:23.at some point in the future. could it mean that the UK could

:02:23. > :02:27.essentially borrow money at a cheaper rate because investors will

:02:27. > :02:35.not be putting it in France? Exactly. In the short-term it is

:02:35. > :02:39.very handy. The UK is seen as more stable, less risky. The ten-year

:02:39. > :02:43.bond yields are already down in the UK, they are up in France. But then

:02:43. > :02:47.the future, it is never very good for anyone. We are not part of the

:02:47. > :02:50.eurozone but we are connected with it. The we also have a few economic

:02:50. > :02:55.figures coming out this week, unemployment figures out later in

:02:55. > :03:00.the week, what do you think we are likely to hear? It will not be good

:03:00. > :03:04.news, I don't think. We are already back in recession. The fears of the

:03:04. > :03:08.double-dip recession have been mooted around the market for the

:03:09. > :03:12.last two years. Unemployment is still rising, productivity is down,

:03:12. > :03:16.companies are not able to invest or recruit. It is a whole knock-on

:03:16. > :03:22.effect. If you're not confident as a business person, if you're not

:03:22. > :03:26.confident as a consumer, you will Batten down the hatch. We need

:03:26. > :03:30.people spending and the best thing to get the economy back on-track.

:03:30. > :03:37.Mark, you run a train of restaurants. Are you are employing

:03:37. > :03:41.at the moment? -- a chain of restaurants. We are, indeed. We

:03:41. > :03:45.finding it difficult to find people. You are finding it difficult to

:03:45. > :03:52.find people even though we have to 0.6 4 million people who are out of

:03:52. > :03:56.work? Apparently there are a million under 25 year-olds

:03:56. > :04:00.unemployed. And yet, when we opened restaurants we advertise

:04:00. > :04:07.extensively through Jobcentres, we are actively investing money in

:04:07. > :04:11.advertising to find people and in the end, we end up going overseas

:04:12. > :04:16.to get the jobs. Why is that happening? I think the expectation

:04:16. > :04:21.has been set high in this country, through a generation of kids doing

:04:21. > :04:26.degrees, some of which are not specific. I think they are finding

:04:26. > :04:32.it very difficult to apply for jobs like ours. Having said that, it is

:04:32. > :04:37.a great industry to work in. If you do work in it, you can be extremely

:04:37. > :04:42.successful. What types of jobs are we talking about? Are a skilled

:04:42. > :04:47.ones? Not at all. Some of them are completely unskilled, some semi-

:04:47. > :04:51.skilled, some highly skilled. We are looking across the peace and

:04:51. > :04:55.the bottom line is that we are having to be incredibly creative to

:04:55. > :05:00.find people because we cannot find them through traditional routes.

:05:00. > :05:03.Samir, let me bring you in. Yard chief executive of a massive firm

:05:04. > :05:11.employing 20,000 people. Are you looking for people at the moment

:05:11. > :05:17.and are you finding them? Indeed. For AMEC 2011 has been a

:05:17. > :05:23.challenging year. We have been enjoying a good business and our

:05:23. > :05:27.emerging business has seen business in the North Sea. 3,000 people we

:05:27. > :05:33.employed work in the UK. Going to the website of AMEC you will see

:05:33. > :05:36.500 jobs which we are looking for which we are not able to occupy.

:05:36. > :05:44.there are 500 job vacancies on your website and they have not been

:05:44. > :05:48.filled? Correct. Why do think that is? A many of the people, the

:05:48. > :05:52.students and new graduates are thinking maybe the High Street and

:05:53. > :05:57.the financial market are the only serves is this country can do. The

:05:57. > :06:01.industrial sector, the engineering sector is a big part of the economy.

:06:01. > :06:06.What we need to do is see how are we able to attract more students to

:06:06. > :06:10.study engineering at how are we able to get the graduates to work

:06:10. > :06:14.in engineering and the industrial sector. Two chief executives who

:06:14. > :06:17.are looking for employees at the men so if you are looking for a job,

:06:17. > :06:22.it might be worth going to their website.

:06:22. > :06:27.Now time for a quick flick through the news.

:06:27. > :06:30.Several hundred workers from the Hong Kong Stock Exchange stage a

:06:31. > :06:35.protest march this week over the length of their lunch break. Last

:06:35. > :06:40.week, it was cut from two hours to 90 minutes and now it is going down

:06:40. > :06:43.to just one hour. Officials said they need to bring the brakes in

:06:43. > :06:47.line with other international rivals but the brokers said they

:06:47. > :06:51.need the time to meet the clients and do some shopping.

:06:51. > :06:56.If you are looking for a good use for a government minister, here is

:06:56. > :07:01.one to consider. This one in Zimbabwe was used to show that

:07:01. > :07:05.bungee-jumping was safe again. It is the spot where an Australian

:07:05. > :07:09.students survived after she ended up in the river when the bungee

:07:09. > :07:14.cord snapped. You have not switched over to

:07:14. > :07:18.Frozen Planet and these are not penguins. They are some of the

:07:18. > :07:25.60,000 people taking part in an ice fishing festival in South Korea.

:07:25. > :07:29.The idea is to sit and cut -- catch fish through a small hole in sub-

:07:29. > :07:34.zero temperatures. This is no ancient festival. It was dreamt up

:07:34. > :07:38.just five years ago to attract tourists and so far, one million

:07:38. > :07:44.people have turned up to take part. There are some incredible stories

:07:44. > :07:47.for you there. Let me talk to you, Samir, about

:07:47. > :07:51.this. It sounds impressive that they had a two our lunch break and

:07:51. > :07:55.it has gone bad two one-hour but there is a question about how

:07:55. > :07:59.important is it to break-up the working day and have that he

:07:59. > :08:05.lunchtime. What would you say? normally do yearly Plan, monthly

:08:06. > :08:15.planning, Bigley planning and daily planning. I think it is important

:08:16. > :08:17.

:08:17. > :08:20.that you have the day and not be like a headless chicken. My a plan

:08:20. > :08:24.is to start with the most difficult job and reward yourself when you

:08:24. > :08:27.have done it. We have vast amounts of information management today and

:08:28. > :08:33.we have to be careful about how we are able to take what we need and

:08:33. > :08:38.do what we want to do. Do you get a lunch break? I have a lunch break.

:08:38. > :08:43.Mine is less than 10 minutes, actually. You need to take your own

:08:43. > :08:47.advice and start having a longer one. Mark, it is pretty key, food,

:08:47. > :08:51.in your business. Do you get time for a lunch break every day?

:08:51. > :08:56.certainly hope so. I would encourage everyone to have two

:08:56. > :09:00.hours rather than cutting back to one, but there you go. And perhaps

:09:01. > :09:05.go to your establishment! If they are close enough, why not!

:09:05. > :09:10.yourself, how important you think it is? I think it is very sad that

:09:10. > :09:13.you have to work and have a sandwich at your desk. You never

:09:13. > :09:17.switch off. I'm based in Kensington so it is lovely to go out in

:09:17. > :09:22.Kensington Gardens. Being a journalist, that is when we meet

:09:22. > :09:25.our contacts over lunch so it is very useful. What do you make about

:09:25. > :09:30.the bungee-jumping Minister. It sounds like an extreme to go to to

:09:30. > :09:33.make a point. All credit to him. If he was not prepared to do it, no

:09:33. > :09:36.one would be prepared to do it. If you are running a company and if

:09:36. > :09:42.you're asking people to invest their money in it or buy shares,

:09:42. > :09:48.you have to be able to say, this is a great thing and I wanted it.

:09:48. > :09:52.Talking about meeting up with people, there are so many people

:09:52. > :09:57.who I meet who are in the restaurant trade but they want to

:09:57. > :10:01.go to a restaurant they have never been to but I think they should

:10:01. > :10:07.show off their own business. What about bungee-jumping, Mark? Would

:10:07. > :10:12.you do it? I doubt it, to be honest. What is the extreme that he would

:10:12. > :10:16.go to? There is almost nothing I would not do to encourage people to

:10:16. > :10:22.come through the doors of the restaurant. But the reality is, you

:10:22. > :10:28.have got to do a good job in the first place and then they will come.

:10:28. > :10:33.And this ice fishing idea, the in a sense, it is the idea of getting a

:10:33. > :10:37.new idea of the ground. That must be something you have to do? It is

:10:37. > :10:41.the most improbable thing to get a group of people fishing through a

:10:41. > :10:46.hole in the ground! Get reminds me of some guys are used to work with

:10:46. > :10:50.who said they wanted to set up a group of establishments. They would

:10:50. > :10:54.be shut most of the time because they would only be open late at

:10:54. > :11:00.night. They would not offer food and they would not of the draught

:11:00. > :11:03.beer and in fact, that business turned out be a cop Toll Bar chain

:11:03. > :11:07.which operates the late in the evening and the point is, it is a

:11:07. > :11:14.brilliant idea because they delivered it brilliantly -- a

:11:14. > :11:18.cocktail bar chain. How many ideas are involved in your Business? I

:11:18. > :11:27.guess in the engineering business you have to be creative? Quite a

:11:27. > :11:31.lot. Innovation is important. I went on vacation for Christmas to

:11:31. > :11:36.Sweden because I thought I would be doing ice fishing and ice hockey

:11:36. > :11:40.playing but in fact it was eight degrees centigrade so if you do not

:11:40. > :11:47.believe in global warming, you had better believe it now! You should

:11:47. > :11:54.get to South Korea. Your company, AMEC, employers 27,000 people, give

:11:54. > :11:59.us a flavour of what you do. What AMEC does is we do consulting,

:11:59. > :12:06.engineering project management in the markets of oil and gas, metal

:12:06. > :12:10.and Mark King -- metal and mining. What we do is when we have our

:12:11. > :12:14.clients, we start with the projects and help with the planning, we do

:12:14. > :12:19.the whole engineering for them and we work through the de

:12:19. > :12:24.commissioning phase when the plan has exhausted its lifetime. A

:12:24. > :12:30.typical example of that is an oil and gas platform. Once it has done

:12:30. > :12:34.its operation it needs to be de- commissioned. Why do these

:12:34. > :12:38.companies need to? The likes of BP, surely they have got their own

:12:38. > :12:44.experts and they do not need you to come in? It sounds like a waste of

:12:44. > :12:47.money. On the contrary, BP, Shell and the like, we call them the

:12:48. > :12:53.operators because their core business is about risk management,

:12:53. > :12:58.it is about investment and operating the plans in the most

:12:58. > :13:02.efficient way and as you remember, three or four decades back in time,

:13:02. > :13:07.most of these companies had shelled out one million Engineers because

:13:07. > :13:11.they felt that was not the core business. Half of that has been

:13:11. > :13:15.picked up by the service companies and that is what we provide for our

:13:15. > :13:20.clients. They did have those people, they got rid of them and now they

:13:20. > :13:26.bring in people like you. Correct. How is this is at the moment?

:13:26. > :13:30.order book is very strong. The demand it one our products and

:13:30. > :13:34.markets are continues to be strong. That is because we depend on the UK

:13:34. > :13:39.but we also depend a lot on the emerging markets. We have sectors

:13:39. > :13:49.which are going very well. The mining sector has been improving

:13:49. > :13:50.

:13:50. > :13:53.year on year more than 50 %. You We need to sell more goods and

:13:53. > :14:00.services outside the eurozone, and that clearly way or growth is

:14:00. > :14:07.coming from? AMEC is a fantastic story for the British economy. We

:14:07. > :14:13.have moved from a very UK focused economy, to today a global business,

:14:13. > :14:17.more than 40 countries in the world. We are beating many of our peers in

:14:17. > :14:23.their own home markets. Do you think there's enough help for

:14:23. > :14:28.companies like that? We keep talking about exporting more.

:14:28. > :14:34.major company, you get limited help because we don't need it. We don't

:14:34. > :14:42.do any government work. To begin with? Of course. They were a great

:14:42. > :14:46.support, especially in markets we've not been in before. It's

:14:46. > :14:52.important they need to get support to get exporting to the levels we

:14:52. > :14:55.want them to be. Looking at the year ahead, what do things don't

:14:55. > :15:00.happen with the economy this year and what do you think the biggest

:15:00. > :15:06.challenges for your business? Definitely the eurozone is showing

:15:06. > :15:12.a lot of risk, not only in the eurozone but the UK as a country. I

:15:12. > :15:17.tried to see it from another angle. When I look at the commodity prices,

:15:17. > :15:22.I see oil prices under $13 per barrel, which is double the price

:15:23. > :15:28.of the boom time, which tells me there is a risk from coming from

:15:29. > :15:34.Iraq, Iran, the Arab Spring, Venezuela and other places, but

:15:34. > :15:41.also it appears the USA and China are more resilient to the eurozone

:15:41. > :15:50.crisis. Thank you. A mini correction. We said the bungee

:15:50. > :15:52.jumpers was in Zimbabwe but it was in Zambia. Sorry about that.

:15:52. > :15:55.Another day another highstreet shop struggling. Today clothing store

:15:55. > :15:58.Peacocks is fighting off rumours that it may go into administration.

:15:58. > :16:01.The Cardiff-based firm, which has 550 stores around the UK, is

:16:01. > :16:04.refusing to comment. But has been in discussions with its creditors.

:16:04. > :16:09.And next week sees the final round up Christmas trading statements.

:16:09. > :16:13.Another busy week. We've already had a really bad week of results.

:16:13. > :16:21.We heard from five different retailers are saying they had sales

:16:22. > :16:24.down. Some of the biggest names. More of the same this week? Yes,

:16:24. > :16:29.Christmas 2010 we had terrible weather so people couldn't actually

:16:29. > :16:34.do their shopping. If you're talking comparable situations with

:16:34. > :16:39.that, it's even more down on that, that's terrible news, which means

:16:39. > :16:42.retailers are not immune to the recession. We have seen the

:16:42. > :16:48.supermarkets are highly competitive. It means they have to fight for

:16:48. > :16:54.every last penny. Consumer spending hits a business like yourself. Are

:16:54. > :17:00.you having to discount? Coupons and vouchers? Discounting is pervasive

:17:00. > :17:07.now, but it tends to be at a slightly lower level, so pizza

:17:07. > :17:12.operators are discounting an enormous amount. We are not. We are

:17:12. > :17:15.investment in properties, training, people, and offering great value

:17:15. > :17:19.for money because the most important thing is to win the

:17:19. > :17:23.competition. We don't have the problem the retailers have in as

:17:23. > :17:33.much as a lot of retailers go online. You can't have done a out

:17:33. > :17:34.

:17:34. > :17:40.online. That's a big pressure. -- you can't dine out on line.

:17:40. > :17:47.Halfords may have someone who could buy a bicycle online, when they are

:17:47. > :17:52.looking at it on the shop. You have got to embrace it, so people can't

:17:52. > :17:58.replicated online. You could eat at home or get a takeaway, but

:17:58. > :18:03.restaurants say the restaurant is as such that people want to pay for

:18:03. > :18:08.it. You want to make sure, some were like John Lewis, people

:18:08. > :18:12.actually want to go there and to pay extra to have to have a feeling

:18:12. > :18:19.of quality. Looking at the supermarkets, it was quite a shock

:18:19. > :18:24.that Tesco's sales were down. first in 20 years. A huge reaction.

:18:24. > :18:30.What went wrong? They haven't spent too much investment focusing on the

:18:30. > :18:36.UK stores. They look a bit tired. Tesco used to be seen as leading

:18:36. > :18:40.the way, new innovations, club cards and so forth. Maybe they got

:18:40. > :18:45.complacent but they got so many other things going on. Insurance,

:18:45. > :18:51.banking, overseas operations, you can get your well written, died

:18:51. > :18:57.services. Billy to focus on the core of what made them famous in

:18:57. > :19:02.the first place. -- they need to focus on. Do you think consumers

:19:02. > :19:07.have gone somewhere else? You've always got to buy food. Clothing,

:19:07. > :19:11.you don't need another jumper, but food is a fixed cost, but you can

:19:11. > :19:18.go exactly where you want to go and it Tesco is not providing what you

:19:18. > :19:23.want, you can go to six other retailers. Sainsbury's increased

:19:23. > :19:30.their sales. Yes, Asda is doing very well so Tesco have got to get

:19:30. > :19:35.back and fight. They made do that. Bad news for the chief-executive.

:19:35. > :19:39.They have got a new one. Yes, it's a case of getting all bad news said,

:19:40. > :19:44.and a saying, we are now new people and let's move forward. Thank you

:19:44. > :19:46.for your time this evening. The latest round of military

:19:46. > :19:49.redundancies means thousands of service-personnel will be losing

:19:49. > :19:56.their jobs this year. It has prompted a whole raft of them to

:19:56. > :20:03.set up their own businesses. Lucy Burton's been to meet two of them.

:20:03. > :20:08.Standstill, you people! Get together! Shoulders back! We are

:20:08. > :20:15.going to push forward! You have been issued clothing, weapons, and

:20:15. > :20:20.training. Stand by! This isn't a real army recruitment session but a

:20:21. > :20:27.computer battlefield game are brought to life. Quick mate! Left

:20:27. > :20:33.chloride, left, right, left, right. The experience is the brainchild of

:20:33. > :20:43.these men. After 25 years in the army, they left at the end of last

:20:43. > :20:44.

:20:44. > :20:47.year to set up their own company. Let's go, quickly! The business is

:20:47. > :20:57.called tactics planning and training. It's jointly owned by

:20:57. > :21:02.We both were in the forces. We left recently and thought, let's start

:21:02. > :21:10.to the business, computer war gamers, who look like the computer

:21:10. > :21:14.soldier. Move it! We use the strategy in the army but also put

:21:14. > :21:19.the realistic uniforms so you feel like you're part of the game you

:21:19. > :21:23.are playing. Over 19,000 people left the armed forces last year and

:21:23. > :21:28.many of them went on to become self-employed. Of course, playing

:21:28. > :21:31.this game isn't the same as being on the battlefield in Afghanistan

:21:31. > :21:35.but the skills they learn that the army can be applied directly to

:21:35. > :21:39.their new life setting up a business of their own. We work well

:21:40. > :21:45.together but getting things done, it's the other thing. We focused on

:21:45. > :21:48.an idea. We just wanted to work straight away. The rest of it, the

:21:48. > :21:54.obvious stuff, strategy, teamwork and so on, we put that into our

:21:54. > :21:59.game play. One of the biggest challenges lot of people face

:21:59. > :22:06.starting a business, is funding. The banks are not lending. How did

:22:06. > :22:11.you get money to set up the business? In the army, if you do

:22:11. > :22:16.your 22 years' service, you get a good pension. We've managed to get

:22:16. > :22:23.loans through the bank's which was quite easy for us to do, funnily

:22:23. > :22:26.enough, and when we left the Army, we paid it off with a pension.

:22:26. > :22:30.everyone gets funding from the banks, so the Royal British Legion

:22:30. > :22:35.as that of the scheme to help people who want to start her own

:22:35. > :22:39.company. It's a �5 million project funded by the UK Department of

:22:39. > :22:46.Business Innovation and skills. And delivered by the Royal British

:22:46. > :22:50.Legion. We help ex-service personnel become self-employed

:22:50. > :22:56.through business start-up training, mixed funding of grants and loans,

:22:56. > :22:59.and mentoring. Unemployment is at the 17 year high. Have you noticed

:22:59. > :23:04.more people are wanting to have funding to start up there and this

:23:04. > :23:11.is because they're worried about getting a job? Yes, we have seen a

:23:11. > :23:17.thick of a big increase entering the scheme. We had a 1,000 people

:23:17. > :23:21.entering the scheme after one year. Now we have 2000 people. It really