Episode 63

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:00:33. > :00:40.This is Show Me The Money - your weekly guide to who's making the

:00:40. > :00:44.cash, and how it works. With me Digby Jones, banging the drum for

:00:44. > :00:47.British business. Former Trade Minister, now an advise tore the

:00:47. > :00:50.most gold-plated of British names. The American travel entrepreneur,

:00:50. > :00:55.Barbara Cassani, lives over there, but works over here. She will tell

:00:55. > :00:59.us why this is the place to do business. Ruth Lea has spepbtd her

:00:59. > :01:04.working life talking about and helping to run the economy. She

:01:04. > :01:09.advises the Arbuthnot Banking Group. The cash machine is standing by.

:01:09. > :01:13.The wheelbarrows are at the ready. Europe's Finance Ministers will say

:01:13. > :01:19.tomorrow they will give Greece a second bail out. That is �100,000

:01:20. > :01:25.of new loans, so Greece can pay back some of its existing lenders.

:01:25. > :01:30.Ruth Lea - why give Greece any money at all? It should be the end

:01:30. > :01:34.game now. The Greek my is in such a bad state and its deficits and debt

:01:34. > :01:42.is so enormous that by doing this you are not solving any problems at

:01:42. > :01:47.all. On the economy, it is almost tanking at the moment. GDP fell 7%.

:01:47. > :01:52.Unemployment is 22-23%. This is unsustainable. More to the point,

:01:52. > :01:56.it has very little competitiveness. It probably needs a devaluation of

:01:56. > :02:02.30-40% to get some go into this economy so it can grow. What is the

:02:02. > :02:07.point of giving it money, saying, stay where you are, keep up the

:02:07. > :02:12.austerity. It will not solve any of Greece's problems. This is just

:02:12. > :02:17.continuing the madness? It is sticking plaster time. And the

:02:17. > :02:23.indebtedness of Greece is so huge, it cannot pay these debts off. It

:02:23. > :02:27.is time for a reality check. Let it devalue, let it get some

:02:27. > :02:31.competitiveness back into the economy. I actually think, giving

:02:31. > :02:36.them the money at the moment is going to solve nothing. It's not

:02:36. > :02:41.going to be good for the Greek people, because they'll have to

:02:41. > :02:46.take enormous austerity. Secondly, Ruth is right, it will not grow the

:02:46. > :02:50.economy. We'll be here again. The northern European countries, where

:02:50. > :02:55.you, where there are democratically elected people managing a default

:02:55. > :02:58.in Greece, because if banks take a haircut, which they are, but a

:02:58. > :03:03.default, secondly Greece is being told what to do by another country.

:03:04. > :03:07.The two things they say they will not have, which is a transfer of

:03:07. > :03:11.sovereignty or managed default, they are having both. At the end of

:03:11. > :03:15.the day the Greek people will have an awful time for the next ten

:03:15. > :03:19.years and not solve the issue. do we have the Greek Prime Minister

:03:19. > :03:23.flying into Brussels saying thank you very much? They are all

:03:23. > :03:29.democratically elected people. The Greek one is not at the moment. The

:03:29. > :03:32.problem is they have got to be seen to do something. The thing to be

:03:32. > :03:37.done would actually be to get Greece into a position where, at

:03:37. > :03:41.some point in the future, they can earn enough money as a nation to

:03:41. > :03:44.pay down some debt. I don't see it happening because they give them

:03:44. > :03:48.money now. These comments coming in from the American Treasury

:03:48. > :03:52.secretary. This is a very strong and very difficult package of

:03:52. > :03:57.reforms, deserving of support of the international community and the

:03:57. > :04:01.IMF, the United States will encourage the IMF to support this

:04:02. > :04:06.agreement. Barbara, of course this has been felt on the ground

:04:06. > :04:11.economically. Among the companies you work with you are on the board

:04:11. > :04:17.of Air Berlin. It has noticed the impact of this? Yes, both from the

:04:17. > :04:21.US perspective as well as looking at it from a country like Germany,

:04:21. > :04:25.it's all about how consumers feel and how much confidence people have

:04:26. > :04:30.in making decisions in going forward. Looking at it from say the

:04:30. > :04:36.US, if Europe falls apart, it's a particularly frightening prospect.

:04:36. > :04:41.When you are sitting in Germany you may still have a job, you may have

:04:41. > :04:49.everything fine. It feels uncertain. Neither things are good.

:04:49. > :04:54.outsiders, to nations in China, the countries Europe is going to asking

:04:54. > :04:58.for help to them this looks like a disorganised row? It takes them

:04:58. > :05:04.wonder what happens next, what happens to Spain, to Portugal, et

:05:04. > :05:09.cetera. It would be best for Europe, as a whole, if it could be settled,

:05:09. > :05:14.but that may or may not be possible. Ruth says this may not be the

:05:14. > :05:18.settlement - it suggests there might be more to do? Greece is not

:05:18. > :05:23.Argentina. It worked well for them to take the devaluation, et cetera.

:05:23. > :05:27.It is part of a bigger entity. There are similarities and

:05:27. > :05:32.dissimilarities. That brings me on to another point. We have talked

:05:32. > :05:37.about Greece, you touched on other eurozone countries weak as well.

:05:37. > :05:41.It's not just Greece uncompetitive, you could argue that Portugal and

:05:41. > :05:46.spaib is, possibly Ireland. They have actually got some export

:05:46. > :05:51.industries as well. The real problem of the eurozone is you have

:05:51. > :05:56.a competitive northern countries, Germany, the Netherlands, Finland

:05:56. > :05:59.and you have this sudden string of countries which need a 40%

:05:59. > :06:04.devaluation in order to be competitive with Germany when you

:06:04. > :06:07.are in a single currency. That is the fundamental flaw. It's the

:06:07. > :06:15.fundamental problem of the eurozone. If you were Ayoub Salangi telling

:06:16. > :06:20.the Scottish people, if you have -- If you wereal election Salmond

:06:20. > :06:25.telling the Scottish people either have the pound or the euro, think

:06:25. > :06:31.of this, you have the position Ruth described having to take it on

:06:31. > :06:36.interest rates, exchange rates, the whole thing to suit the competitive

:06:36. > :06:40.big country. Germany runs the show. They will say, we'll have the pound,

:06:40. > :06:45.England will run the show. If it is no, we'll have the euro, Germany

:06:45. > :06:51.will rub the show. If you don't have inherent competitiveness and

:06:51. > :06:56.an export country, then there is a word for it - Greece. Argentina -

:06:56. > :07:02.what was that comparison? Apparently with the Peso, it was

:07:03. > :07:11.tide with the dollar until the early 2000s. They did that because

:07:11. > :07:19.they had hyper inflation in the 1990s. Argentina was

:07:19. > :07:23.uncompetitive.... They try to harness themselves. A Stronger

:07:23. > :07:28.currency. They broke the linked with the dollar. They had a 40%

:07:28. > :07:32.devaluation with the currency. For a time it had a boost for the

:07:33. > :07:39.Argentinean economy. At least they got growth back. It was based in

:07:39. > :07:44.minerals, exports in agriculture, which is not Greece's.... It is

:07:44. > :07:49.something Greece cannot do. They have tourism. Should they go that

:07:49. > :07:55.route? I think they should leave the euro and go for it. It is make

:07:55. > :07:59.your mind up time. Thank you. Now time for Boom or Bust. Our flick

:07:59. > :08:03.through some of the news stories, starting with an itsy-bitsy teeny-

:08:03. > :08:10.weeny newspaper. This is an edition of the Portuguese weekly paper, no

:08:10. > :08:17.sign of it being yellow or polkadot. It is one inch high and the

:08:17. > :08:23.Guinness Book of Records said it is the world's smallest newspaper. A

:08:23. > :08:30.tall tale - this is Paul Sturgess, the tall block, his nickname is

:08:30. > :08:36.Tiny. He's the first British player to sign for the Harlem

:08:36. > :08:40.globetrotters. He is the tallest player at seven foot eight inches.

:08:40. > :08:44.The photocall to unveil him was on the top of the Empire State

:08:44. > :08:52.Building. You might want to put your feet up in retirement - I know

:08:52. > :08:57.I do - it is not the thing for Dorrie Noyek. She is only 10 -- 105

:08:57. > :09:03.years old. She works in a Florida hospital

:09:03. > :09:09.every day. She says the thing is never to complain. The business we

:09:09. > :09:14.draw from that is even if you have a product that works you can never

:09:14. > :09:21.close the door to innovation. I worked in a traditional airline

:09:21. > :09:28.industry and then started up a low- cost, there is something to

:09:28. > :09:37.reinvent in the industry. I am not sure about a small newspaper. The

:09:37. > :09:41.apps on your iPad take a traditional business model and

:09:41. > :09:45.change it and hopefully make more money out of it. There are many

:09:45. > :09:49.ways newspapers are trying ta make it work for them. They are

:09:49. > :09:53.realising that you can charge for something that the public, the

:09:53. > :10:00.reading public until now has assumed was free, if you add

:10:00. > :10:04.something else on to it. Absolutely. You were working within BA at the

:10:04. > :10:10.time, as an executive. They came to you with the idea, orp you went to

:10:10. > :10:14.them with the idea? Let's launch another airline within an airline?

:10:15. > :10:20.They said, we need someone to write a business plan to see if it is a

:10:20. > :10:24.good or crazy idea. I went at it with a sceptical approach. I had

:10:24. > :10:29.been selling first class seats on Concorde for years and years. I got

:10:29. > :10:37.into it, started to look at the numbers, looked at what competitors

:10:37. > :10:41.had done. It continues to be a much better business model. I got in

:10:42. > :10:46.there quickly and strapped on a back pack myself. Did you feel it

:10:46. > :10:51.was difficult to sell the idea of what would have been a ku ku in the

:10:51. > :10:55.nest? Yes. It was. That was the reason British Airways ended up

:10:55. > :10:59.selling Go is because there was a change of chief executive. The new

:10:59. > :11:03.chief executive said, strategically I don't want a subsidiary which

:11:03. > :11:08.competes with their own business. The new guy says, oh, that was a

:11:08. > :11:13.big mistake, so every time there is a change at the top you get a

:11:13. > :11:18.strategic shift. It is the problem with big companies is how you

:11:18. > :11:22.innovate within a big organisation. It is tough. You have to take risks

:11:22. > :11:28.and accept that change is required. I will ask you about the tall

:11:29. > :11:33.basketball player. He has a skill. It is his height and sporting

:11:33. > :11:40.ability. The business lesson is his skill is not actually that he's

:11:40. > :11:44.seven foot something. That's not the skill. He's there. The skill is

:11:44. > :11:50.how you exploit that, what you already have and turn it to

:11:50. > :11:54.advantage. In a business, you've got a mind to the business and find

:11:54. > :11:58.where the talent is and then maximise that talent, get that

:11:58. > :12:02.talent to do things it never thought it could, that might be

:12:02. > :12:06.leading people. It might be exploiting the market where you are

:12:06. > :12:10.established but didn't know certain things were happening. The lesson

:12:10. > :12:14.we can take from the basketball player is not he's seven foot

:12:14. > :12:19.something, it is how do you build around him to turn it to advantage.

:12:19. > :12:25.When you were looking at the old lady doing her stuff, my mum

:12:25. > :12:32.retired at Christmas, she's 89 this year. She finally packed it in at

:12:32. > :12:40.Christmas. Now she is getting under everyone's feet. She is 89 and she

:12:41. > :12:45.packed it in. Dorrie Noyek going at 105. My father is 91 and still

:12:45. > :12:49.playing the organ in church. It is a growing issue, this one. There

:12:49. > :12:53.are two things, one businesses say they have a shortage of skills.

:12:53. > :12:56.Often it is older workers who have the skills. We are finding

:12:56. > :13:00.retirement is becoming more and more expensive and more people have

:13:00. > :13:04.to take part-time jobs to be able to afford it. Frpbld and their

:13:04. > :13:10.pensions will not be as good -- their pensions will not be as good

:13:10. > :13:14.as ten or 15 years ago. A business wants the skills of people who are

:13:14. > :13:19.adaptable and can change. I loved the way she said the mystery, the

:13:19. > :13:25.key thing about this is you don't complain. If somebody asks you to

:13:25. > :13:30.do something, you don't want to do it - it wasn't done that this in my

:13:30. > :13:35.day, was it? You grasp it, say this is what I have been asked to do,

:13:35. > :13:39.just do it. You keep that aliveness, which is important as you go

:13:39. > :13:44.forward. On the other hand - so that is the relationship between

:13:44. > :13:47.the employer and employee. It is that people will have less good

:13:47. > :13:52.pensions than they had ten or 15 years ago. That means people will

:13:52. > :13:55.want or need to work longer than they otherwise did. This point

:13:55. > :14:01.about not complaining - that's never going to work in this country.

:14:02. > :14:06.We like a good wage. We do. It is very interesting. I worked for a

:14:06. > :14:10.Japanese company, an American company and then for a British

:14:10. > :14:13.again. The Japanese and the Americans did not complain. The

:14:13. > :14:17.Brits complained. I thought the British company was better than the

:14:17. > :14:21.American or the Japanese company, but there you go. Having a whinge,

:14:21. > :14:28.but that is different than a complaint. You might have a whinge,

:14:28. > :14:34.then you just, you know get on and do it. I think humour is the key.

:14:34. > :14:39.It can dispel most whinges. Do you think we whinge today? Great humour.

:14:39. > :14:43.I think a whinge can be a constructive thing if it is

:14:43. > :14:46.channelled properly and used properly with a glint and a smile.

:14:46. > :14:52.One great thing about using older people and I think supermarkets

:14:52. > :14:56.find this, is they are more reliable, they are more dependable,

:14:56. > :15:00.their customer-facing is good. If we can do this, it will give us a

:15:00. > :15:05.fabulous lead, is why don't we put an older person as the mentor to a

:15:05. > :15:11.younger person in the business and bring them on, in terms of all the

:15:11. > :15:15.soft skills you need - confidence, look me in the eye, be more dil

:15:15. > :15:22.gent and careful. They are the talents that the older people have

:15:22. > :15:27.developed over the years. It is more about the soft skills. They

:15:27. > :15:37.are so essential. Especially in consumer-facing businesses.

:15:37. > :15:41.

:15:41. > :15:46.Your worry is there are a large If you think that half of the kids

:15:46. > :15:51.do not get above a seat in English or maths, they are functional

:15:51. > :15:55.illiterate and innumerate, and many have so much unemployed people, I

:15:55. > :16:01.would say to you that about half of them are unemployable because all

:16:01. > :16:10.the businesses of Britain will telly the biggest challenge is

:16:10. > :16:15.education. They cannot be employed? We have just heard about how we

:16:15. > :16:21.have mood this country to a branded end of the game to goods and

:16:21. > :16:26.services. One thing you need is you need skilled people, not rocket

:16:26. > :16:33.scientists, just can read and write, turn up to work on time, at all,

:16:33. > :16:37.and if you crack that, that is fine. People are delivered into the world

:16:37. > :16:40.of work that are not fit for purpose. So this is not a feeling

:16:40. > :16:45.of employers that they are not providing the training that is

:16:45. > :16:50.required because the apprenticeship schemes, that have come back. But

:16:50. > :16:56.it did with a. You were saying the problem is done at a much longer

:16:56. > :17:01.level. Definitely. You have got people, 11 and 12, who cannot read

:17:01. > :17:06.and write. When you try to teach them geography, it goes over their

:17:06. > :17:11.heads. You get truancy and drugs. We have got to address illiteracy

:17:11. > :17:15.and innumeracy. If we do not, we have got a very good time to come.

:17:15. > :17:18.Lord Jones, thank you. The Labour has called on the

:17:18. > :17:22.government cut taxes. Ed Balls wants a temporary cut in

:17:22. > :17:27.either VAT or income tax. He says it will give the economy a

:17:27. > :17:31.necessary boost. We need growth. We need to get the

:17:31. > :17:36.economy moving. This is the only way to get the deficit down. A

:17:36. > :17:40.temporary VAT cut is the fairest way. There are other ways, but the

:17:40. > :17:46.Chancellor needs to act. Doing nothing will make the growth crisis

:17:46. > :17:52.was and make it harder to get the crisis down. Is he right? How much

:17:52. > :17:55.will he stimulate economy by doing this? Would get me is that Moody's,

:17:55. > :18:01.the credit agent -- credit rating agency, downgraded the outlook for

:18:01. > :18:06.our debt, the sovereign debt, from stable to negative, meaning that is

:18:06. > :18:11.a one-in-three chance we might have our credit -- credit rating from

:18:11. > :18:16.the AAA now. If that happened, you get high interest rates, because

:18:16. > :18:19.the bond market will react badly, so you might well have some initial

:18:19. > :18:23.kick on the economy by cutting taxes, but they knew would have

:18:23. > :18:28.interest rates going up, and it would be difficult to see over all

:18:28. > :18:34.what the impact would be fools stop these are the rating agencies that

:18:34. > :18:42.got it so terrific the wrong. should we pay any attention to it?

:18:42. > :18:48.It is whether the markets listen to them. Having said that, when

:18:48. > :18:51.standards and pause to downgrade the United States, what happened to

:18:51. > :18:56.Treasury yields in the States, they went down. So people were still

:18:56. > :19:01.buying them. But we are in not such a happy situation. Will the markets

:19:01. > :19:04.not be more worried that we are stuck, that there is growth, but

:19:04. > :19:10.very little of it? Unemployment is rising and the deficit is getting

:19:10. > :19:17.bigger. I take that point, but I would like to put the question back

:19:17. > :19:22.to Ed Balls and say, how much extra growth will he get out of these tax

:19:22. > :19:27.cuts? He needs to answer that before we actually entertained this.

:19:27. > :19:33.Barbara, would you cut taxes? Of their taxes worth cutting? Taxes

:19:33. > :19:37.are high, but I think fixing the budget deficit is more important.

:19:37. > :19:43.When businesses look at whether or not they will invest, they are

:19:43. > :19:46.going to create new jobs, etc, they need to be able to predict the

:19:46. > :19:50.business environment. So it is a tough situation. Everyone wants

:19:50. > :19:54.lower taxes, but we have come through 10 years of doing whatever

:19:54. > :19:59.we want and there are consequences. Now we are dealing with the

:19:59. > :20:03.consequences. I am in tough it out mode. The argument is, if you cut

:20:03. > :20:08.VAT, it drives up demand and get people spend ing. There is not much

:20:08. > :20:13.evidence of it. Does that work? There was not so much evidence when

:20:13. > :20:18.the rate was cut a couple of years ago, and, by the way, I am not

:20:18. > :20:22.pessimistic about the economy as much as Ed Balls does. By the

:20:22. > :20:26.second half of this year, it might pick up again. The squeeze on real

:20:26. > :20:30.incomes we saw last year when the price of inflation was running so

:20:30. > :20:39.high ahead of earnings, that will end. By the end of the year, there

:20:39. > :20:45.will be grateful to drop would you cut taxes? I would get the

:20:45. > :20:53.employers tax, I would abolish it. That money, please do the dock one

:20:53. > :20:56.of my jobs is to chair a business. And we pay �60,000 a year in

:20:56. > :21:01.National Insurance. We are not making a profit it. We would employ

:21:01. > :21:04.three more people, but because we do not, is because we are paying

:21:05. > :21:10.National Insurance. The depression world have just put

:21:10. > :21:15.on a show for London fashion Week. They put on a show. The catwalk was

:21:15. > :21:20.inspired by Stella McCartney and a magical trick. It is all about

:21:20. > :21:24.making magic out of a few more sales in a shoe.

:21:25. > :21:29.-- in Asia. London's big names unveil their

:21:29. > :21:33.latest collections and a up-and- coming talents good a chance to

:21:33. > :21:37.showcase their skills. This season, the event has an international

:21:37. > :21:42.flavour. As well as a big push to attract more buyers from Asia and

:21:42. > :21:48.the Middle East, 19 embassies and cultural institutions are promoting

:21:49. > :21:54.the work of 18 young designers. inspiration is about nature power

:21:54. > :22:02.and the garment and the human bodies. And all of the subject is a

:22:02. > :22:05.reflection of the radiations and tsunami in Japan. For London

:22:05. > :22:09.fashion Week, it creates an opportunity for me. Many of those

:22:09. > :22:14.displaying clothes on the main catwalks also have their sights set

:22:14. > :22:19.further afield. Maria has been showing in London for many years.

:22:19. > :22:23.This season, heart art-deco inspired signature prints and

:22:23. > :22:26.sculptured Sutton creations are just as likely to be snapped up at

:22:26. > :22:34.her boutiques in Singapore and Taiwan as in her flagship London

:22:34. > :22:38.store. Companies go in cycles. The Asian economy is where the Western

:22:38. > :22:45.economy was 10-15 years ago. Singapore is a completely different

:22:45. > :22:50.place now than it was 10 years ago. It is, you know, booming, and you

:22:50. > :22:55.have got a very sophisticated and developed customer there, that

:22:55. > :22:59.really is... They are young, call, and they are embracing a whole

:22:59. > :23:05.designer fashion. How has it been, working as an international

:23:05. > :23:10.designer in this economic climate? When the recession kicked off in

:23:10. > :23:14.2007 or thereabouts, there was a real shift in the consumer and

:23:14. > :23:19.people started to think much more carefully about how they shopped,

:23:19. > :23:23.what they bought. And, I think as a designer, that pushes you much more

:23:23. > :23:28.to really think about design. Design in its core essence. If you

:23:28. > :23:32.think of Great design, it should be timeless. From a creative

:23:32. > :23:38.perspective, it is a really healthy thing. From a business perspective,

:23:38. > :23:42.it was the natural cycle of What -- of a baby we were going. In terms

:23:42. > :23:47.of the challengers, my main challenge has been suppliers going

:23:47. > :23:50.out of business. I have had a number of things like that over a

:23:50. > :23:55.number of years. I created something and then I wasn't able to

:23:55. > :24:01.produce it because I couldn't get the fabric or I had to source it

:24:01. > :24:05.from somewhere else. Quite challenging? Yes, and it is sad.

:24:05. > :24:10.When people who have been in business for 40 years and cannot

:24:10. > :24:14.make it work any more. I find that quite sad.

:24:14. > :24:19.Despite such setbacks, her expansion plans continue. She

:24:19. > :24:23.follows a path blazed by the bigger fashion houses like Burberry. It

:24:23. > :24:29.sales rose by 30% in China during the last three months of last year.

:24:29. > :24:39.Asia is also the biggest market for the brunt a Chris Hughton. There is

:24:39. > :24:41.

:24:41. > :24:46.a shift. It is to do with made in England. People think, I have got

:24:46. > :24:51.to wear something British. Key to Maria's success has not also be --

:24:51. > :24:55.has not only been her creativity but her keen business sense. It has

:24:55. > :25:00.been my dream to be a designer and I was cutting and making from age

:25:00. > :25:07.12. But it was actually someone at London fashion Week who gave me a

:25:07. > :25:12.lovely piece of advice and said, you need to run a business. I did a

:25:12. > :25:16.little bit of business courses and ended up in the city. That was for

:25:16. > :25:21.a short while. That gave me a good financial background as well, which

:25:22. > :25:26.has been very helpful, I have to save. Especially during this time.

:25:26. > :25:31.As the autumn-Winter Collection 2012 wraps up at London fashion

:25:31. > :25:35.Week, she will be straight back at the drawing board, designing what

:25:35. > :25:40.her customers will be wearing next spring and summer.