All Roads Lead to Cheltenham

This week Cheltenham will be staging one of the UK’s premier sporting events as the 2013 National Hunt Festival is staged at Prestbury Park, featuring four days of top class racing.

Racing is a great passion of mine, so I’d like to share some fantastic facts, followed by a few nags that may be worth a flutter…

The event attracts around 230,000 spectators generating ticket sales of more than £7 million, with 27 races, offering more than £3m in prize money, culminating with the prestigious Cheltenham Gold Cup on Friday.

The Festival has grown significantly over the years and now generates a staggering £50 million for the local economy. Some of the statistics are quite amazing:

- 5,000 temporary staff are employed
- 10,000 beds in the town are sold each night
- 220,000 pints of Guinness are consumed at the course
- 12,000 people sit down to lunch at the course each day
- 30,000 cars and 2,000 coaches bring people to the course
- Over 600 helicopter landings, making this the busiest temporary airfield in the country
- Over £1m cash is withdrawn from the cash machines on course
- Over £1m passes hands in the betting ring for each race
- Off course, bookmakers take more than £600m on the Festival
- Unknown amounts are gambled in all night poker schools

If this is your first visit to Cheltenham, you may be surprised to find that, unlike other sports events, the crowd is constantly moving from parade ring to the stands, to the bar, to the toilet, to the shops, not necessarily in that order. I suggest you try and take time to go into the centre of the course so you can get up close to the horses jumping a fence and appreciate the speed and bravery of the jockeys. It’s a great vantage point to take in the huge number of people in the stands opposite and to hear the roar when a well-backed horse wins, especially one from Ireland!

The Jockey Club is always looking at ways to develop facilities at the racecourse and they are going to be renovating some of the older stands over the next few years, which is long overdue and a welcome improvement. It will be strange not to see Edward Gillespie at the helm this year, as he stood down after more than 30 years as Chief Executive. His forward thinking and organisation have made such a huge contribution to growing the Festival, making the venue a lot more than ‘just a racecourse’, and a place of which the people of Cheltenham can feel justly proud.

No article about the Festival would be complete without a few pointers to some winners this week! So here are some long-range selections for all 27 races, that should give you a run for your money:


Tuesday

1.30 - Dodging Bullets
2.05 - Overturn
2.40 - Fruity O’Rooney
3.20 - Rock on Ruby
4.00 - Arabella Boy
4.40 - Quevega (each way alternative Kentford Gray Lady)
5.15 - Shangani

Wednesday

1.30 - Lyreen Legend
2.05 - Taquin de Seuil
2.40 - Unioniste
3.20 - Sprinter Sacre (each way alternative Somersby)
4.00 - Pendra
4.40 - Bordoni
5.15 - Golantilla

Thursday

1.30 - Aupcharlie
2.05 - Seymour Eric
2.40 - Menorah
3.20 - Reve de Sivola
4.00 - Poquelin
4.40 - Frisco Depot

Friday

1.30 - Our Conor
2.05 - Edgardo Sol
2.40 - Conneygree
3.20 (Gold Cup) - Sir Des Champs (each way alternative Captain Chris)
4.00 - Cottage Oak
4.40 - Art Professor
5.15 - Tanks For That

Enjoy!

Colin Spencer
Chairman

The resolve to succeed

Bitter economic chill, but are there blue skies ahead?

As we approach the end of the first month of 2013 there has been a lot of negativity in the media – with the prospect of a triple-dip recession, well known brands such as Jessops, HMV and Blockbusters failing to cope with the changes in technology, and the snow causing havoc for businesses.  It’s been rather tiresome watching endless reports from roadside TV crews telling us how bad the conditions are.

Have we heard all this negativity somewhere before? Well, yes we have. Cast your minds back to early Summer 2012 when we were told that the Olympics would be a disaster with transport chaos, security issues, problems with ticketing and lack of British success.

Last weekend, starved of my staple diet of Saturday afternoon National Hunt racing on Channel Four, I decided to watch a DVD of the 2012 Olympics. It really brought home to me what an amazing event it was and how the huge negatives were overcome to prove that it is possible to be successful, even when everyone tells you that you will fail! As Lord Coe said in his wonderful speech at the closing ceremony: “When our time came, Britain did it right”.

But why were the Olympics and Paralympics so successful, and how can businesses take inspiration in a difficult economic environment so that we too can look back in a few years and say “we did it right”?

It’s my opinion that the key drivers behind the success of London 2012 were leadership, organisation, planning, teamwork, public enthusiasm and a strong desire to make it work!

Sebastian Coe was a brilliant middle distance athlete and a double Olympic gold medal winner in 1980 and 1984. He was involved in the London bid from the start and took over as the chair of the bidding committee in 2004, playing a huge part in the successful bid in July 2005. Coe then became chairman of LOCOG and has shown himself to be an outstanding leader and was a major reason for the success of the Games. Every business needs leaders who are able to provide focus, motivation, inspiration and provide solutions to problems as well as a strong resolve to get things done. That’s something that my Board has considered closely this last year, prompted by my colleague Sarah’s participation in LEAD, the unique leadership development programme run by QuoLux.

Of course Coe could not do everything himself. He headed up a strong LOCOG team to make sure that the organisation was in place to execute the extensive plans. Construction of Olympic sites was based on redevelopment with an emphasis on sustainability. The major redevelopment was the Olympic Park built on a former industrial site in Stratford, although existing sites were also used. The construction programme came under the authority of the Olympic Delivery Authority and the success of two large organisations working together emphasises the need for having a clear vision and mission with succinct plans, clear milestones and regular reviews.

The final cost of the Olympics is estimated to be around £9 billion, which also emphasises that any strategies must be accurately budgeted and re-forecast. While it would be unlikely for most businesses to have a project of this scale, it does highlight the need to look at your business, consider areas where growth is likely to occur, and look at areas that are not so profitable. The recent collapse of the high street stores shows how they have been slow to react to change and their businesses have been severely damaged. It helps to have good financial direction to ensure that it is possible to achieve product and customer profitability, as well as the ability to regularly update profit and cashflow forecasts. This message has been at the heart of my career as a Financial Director, and one that I’m keen to share with other small businesses, which is why I have become an Associate Director of SouthWestfd.

The volunteers, police and military were a huge success displaying great enthusiasm and making sure that everything ran smoothly on the days of competition. The uniforms of the Games Makers became very iconic. These were the workers who made things happen; they were fully aware of what was expected of them and ‘lived’ the vision to make the Olympics a huge success. We can make sure that all our employees are motivated by taking an interest in them, letting them know what is expected of them and how we can help them to develop. Teamwork is a key component in making businesses successful, as well as delivering the vision for the future.

The huge public enthusiasm for the Games meant that sports not normally in the limelight were in the headlines. The success of our British competitors helped and also gave a tremendous feeling of national pride and optimism.  Let us hope that there will be a lasting legacy for the Games and we can encourage more people to participate in sport.

So as the sun filters through the clouds at the end of a snowy week, are things as bad as the media would have us believe? Well, it is certainly a challenging time to be running a business. But if we can take inspiration and learn from the success of London 2012 and have a strong resolve to succeed, there is no reason why we cannot say in a few years: “we did it right”.

Colin Spencer
Chairman, Target PR

It's a dog eat dog world

HMV 1908 – 2013, read it and weep.

But first, let’s rewind some 105 years to the birth of a brand that went on to establish more than 400 stores worldwide and provided a hub for music enthusiasts to unite through their love of lyrics.

The origins of the brand name ‘HMV’ were founded upon the title of a painting ‘His Master’s Voice’ which pictured a dog listening to a wind-up gramophone; it was this image that later became synonymous with the brand among loyal customers who devoted their hard-earned money to purchasing CDs at their local high street store.

Fast forward to the year 2000 and, ironically, it was those customers who became savvy to the cost-cutting ways of online downloads, fuelling a digital music revolution and leading to the demise of the master and his dog.

But why was this allowed to happen? Why didn’t someone take a long hard look at the business model and realise that buyer behaviour was evolving in the same way man has done since time began? With the advent of the internet HMV’s alarm bells should have been ringing as the battle for survival of the fittest had begun.

The downfall could have been prevented with a strong stakeholder management strategy supporting the organisation’s overarching mission to sell music, while creating positive relationships both internally and externally. Unfortunately for HMV, 80% of the public pipped them to the post as customers’ attitudes towards online downloads had made the transition from latent, to aware and then active. The public evolved, while HMV sat and watched.

Just as we highlighted in last week’s Starbucks blog post: the golden rule of reputation management is to always listen to your publics and tailor your message accordingly – the same can be said for any business model.

From telegrams to texts, books to ebooks and blogs to vlogs; the world has evolved and it’s time for brands to listen and adapt or get left out in the cold.

Let’s hope that future business models hit all the right notes.

Zainab Rahman
Account Executive