“British charities are facing a £2.3 bn shortfall in funds next year due to reduced corporate sponsorship and giving by individuals.”

The Times 1/12/2008

Even if impending collapse seems a distant nightmare scenario, no charity can afford to be complacent about the serious funding reduction expected. Now more than ever before, is the time to examine your operational efficiency, organisational design and cost base, as well as your fund raising strategies.

Brooklands Executives is one of Europe’s leading providers of Interim Executives – senior professionals who ‘parachute’ onto tasks for which they are sensibly over qualified, hitting the ground running and adding value from day 1 of their short-term assignment. Our talent bank of over 4,000 professionals includes many with charity sector experience as well as expertise in fund raising, marketing, retail and business efficiency.

For a free consultation to discover how we can have this outstanding talent of temporary executives on your doorstep, just 5 days after taking the assignment brief, please contact me for more information.

David Jensen Chief Executive

Extra NEWS BULLETIN November 2008

I am delighted to tell you we have grown some more, with David Hay joining us from Ashton Penney. David is an automotive and construction sector specialist but also shares my love of America as a land of opportunity – even now. I look forward to working with him on developing stronger ties with US firms investing in developing European operations and needing the local management expertise to do so.

The Asia Tiger earned its name some years ago – but the ‘tiger economies’ have really stolen the show more recently. News of the credit crunch impact effecting China itself, blurs the fact that the country is still in growth mode for now, albeit somewhat arrested (remember I am there in January, chasing opportunities with the help of UKTI). Inevitably America will lead the way in over-regulating, as a reaction to what has happened and we will follow suit along with the rest of the EU. This will accelerate what was going to happen anyway – the shift of the economic centre of the world towards Asia, who will continue to exercise a light touch in terms of regulation. The flight of capital towards the East will mean that opportunities for your talent to shine will be increasingly far from home. Don’t believe me? Tonbridge School in Kent made Mandarin lessons compulsory 2 years ago.

Meanwhile, don’t all head for the lifeboats! We had a great October with business from all quarters. However we start to see two characteristics of the downturn: more organisations are saying they don’t want to meet us, as they have a hiring freeze on (“Great – then you’ve got little else to do with your day other than meet us and maybe you will be looking for a job soon yourself, so best to get to know the top executive recruiters out here fast, mister!”) and our debtor days heading in the wrong direction. Gordon Brown suggested that the public sector should pay their bills in 10 days to get some money into the economy – except no one told those bits we are dealing with. Our public sector clients seem to have developed collective amnesia as to where they hid our invoices. Some private sector clients are also dragging their feet. Our Resident Rottweiler in on the case, as cash is king.

The fall in the pound is very bad news if like me, you have a Euro mortgage on an overseas property, but for the business it is good news. Our exports are getting cheaper, fuelling trade, thereby aiding manufacturing and selling you to overseas buyers has just got easier with a weaker pound.

Talking of which, we have signed the first of our Middle East alliances with a specialist in the catering and hospitality sector – if you work in that market or have transportable skills, let Stephen Goldman know so he can pro-actively promote you to these partners in this sunshine location. sg@brookexec.com

And because we leave no stone unturned, we launched a new business last month – Career Navigation Consultants – a retail, career management proposition. We are recycling sunk investment from our Professional Development practice. You may have seen the advertisement campaign in the Sunday Times, City AM and Guardian on-line media.

Lastly two quotes to end on: “Never spend your money before you have it” Thomas Jefferson and “You don’t get what you deserve, you get what you negotiate” Stephen Pollard.

I know – two bulletins in one month! But there’s a lot going on out here.

David Jensen
Chief Executive

NEWS BULLETIN November 2008

On the ‘Team’ page you can view the profiles of team members who have recently joined – Pam Truman as Head of Retail & Media, Bruce Dagley as Head of Manufacturing, Production & Engineering, and Simon Marchant-Jones who joins us from Ashton Penney and maybe known to many of you as he is an old hand at the Interim Management business; Simon is Head of Oil & Gas, Professional Practices and AIM listed businesses. We welcome these new team members who have all hit the ground running and are bashing down the doors left, right and centre.

Talking of bashing things down, I was on board HMS Illustrious last night, moored off Greenwich Naval College, with The First Sea Lord, Admiral Sir Jonathon Band. (BANG! Did somebody drop something? – Ed.) Talking about the reductions in the size of the Fleet, he observed that “technology is a multiplier of force”. I reflected on this and thought how that comment was so apposite for our business. The superior skills of our professional Interim Executives, based on experience gained in numerous different environments, are akin to a multiplier of force too. When times are tough, why bring in a permanent ‘everyday’ senior manager when you can bring in a professional interim manager – someone who has high impact, high skills, hits the ground running and adds value from day one?

Having chatted about the diverse roles of the Royal Navy, I loved his closing remark that “Ultimately our role is to deliver violence to the enemies of the Queen, when she is threatened”. Hearing that and seeing the imposing figure who was saying it, I felt pretty threatened myself just then and decided it was not the night to emulate Michael Fagin and climb through Her Majesty’s bedroom window at ‘Buck House’.

I’m an optimist. Whilst Brooklands remains strong and vital in the market, it would be naïve to imagine we won’t suffer in the current climate, to some degree. But we live in a global economy and a world alive with opportunity. Our job is to work harder than ever to go and fine the pots of gold at the end of the rainbow – sometimes successfully, other times not. Our recent assignments have seen our talent bank working on Interim Executive assignments in Brazil and Thailand; currently we have international Executive Search work on in Phoenix, Arizona; Moscow; Budapest; Dubai; and Sharjah. So when I had lunch this week with His Excellency Antonio Gumende, High Commissioner of Mozambique (Enough already! – Ed.) and discovered the staggering amount of money being invested in capital projects there – billions of dollars – I had to ask him about his views on the opportunity for using Interim Executives in his country. “Plenty” was his response. Hungry for expertise and keen to teach management skills to the indigenous population, there is no resistance to bringing in Western expertise. He cited the example of one company who view the fact that their African managers are now being head hunted by local competitors, as a sure sign of success in the development of local talent. Interim Executives are famous for leaving a ‘legacy of learning’ and I am sure there are many opportunities when we look beyond our shores. In fact, nearby Angola has one of the fastest economic growth rates in the world right now – who would have believed it?

Later today we might have some new opportunities for you to consider – watch out for our next bulletin with several assignments we picked up yesterday.

David Jensen
Chief Executive