RELOCATION BLOG
In the face of competition and economic pressures, global supply chains are under more and more pressure to deliver their products at a greater value, on-time and at a lower cost.
But if one link in the supply chain is broken, (for example, a delayed payment or late shipment), the consequences to your business can be problematic.
So what can you do to better manage this process and reduce the downstream strain on your business?
Here are 5 tips for managing your global supply chain:
As the economy grows slowly at home, your business may have to look at selling internationally to remain profitable.
Before examining foreign markets, you have to be aware of the major trends in international business so you can take advantage of those that might favour your company. International markets are evolving rapidly, and you can take advantage of the changing environment to create a niche for your company. Consider the 7 areas below:
Selling your house can, unfortunately, be a long and drawn out process. However, if you take a little time and effort to prepare for viewings in advance of the property going on the market and of any planned viewings, you will stand a much better chance of achieving a sale quickly.
Here are a few pointers to get you moving in the right direction.
Guaranteed Sale schemes are very good, and have been for years, at allowing an employee to dispose of his or her home quickly, efficiently, and at market value, in order to enable them to take up their new role and focus on the tasks required of them. The only trouble with these schemes is that they are fraught with risk. Despite controls put in place to minimise the risk to the client, there are a number factors beyond our control that always bring an element of risk in varying degrees. What if the property doesn't sell? What if the guttering comes loose? What if squatters take up residence? What if the property is fraudulently let out? I've seen all of these happen and they have caused problems - some not so great, some costly and very time-consuming.
Our Outright Purchase programme has been designed to provide an alternative to traditional Guaranteed Sale schemes but at a fixed cost, removing such costly uncertainties.
Under a traditional scheme, you would never know for how long the property would be on the market, and thus how much the scheme would actually cost the company. There are a number of individual costs* to take into account when operating a Guaranteed Sale scheme:
* Costs relating to the employee's purchase are excluded.
As an example, consider the typical cost of operating a Guaranteed Sale scheme. For this example, the following assumptions are made:
Property value - £200,000
Insurance reinstatement value - £180,000
Time on market - 6 months
Bridging finance interest rate - 4.12% (Average Standard Variable Rate of Barclays, Halifax, Nationwide, Natwest)
Loss on sale - £5,000
The absolute minimum cost of providing this programme would cost the company £20,987. If the marketing period is extended to 9 months, the cost increases to £23,985. It should be further noted that in this example we have not included costs relating to any increase in interest rates, increased loss on sale, stamp duty in Scotland, maintenance charges (e.g. cleaning, infestation clearance), or repair costs (e.g. broken windows, fences blown over in high winds).
Offering a Guaranteed Sale scheme does involve some element of risk. The outright purchase scheme completely eliminates this risk - you know exactly how much it is going to cost from the outset, and once it has been sold, there is no further involvement with the property.
The scheme is a straightforward purchase and therefore, unlike traditional Guaranteed Sale schemes, the agreed price is released on completion (usually within three months), whether a new property is bought or not.
Benefits to the company are:
Benefits to the employee are:
Exchange of contracts with the employee to buy their existing property can take place within a month and completion within three months, thus enabling the employee and family to be in the new work location quickly and with no ongoing "old area" costs or responsibilities for either the company or the employee.
You may have seen the fabulously funny, if not slightly controversial, film, The Life of Brian, by Monty Python. If you haven’t, I suggest you watch it as soon as you can, as this is the pinnacle of the Pythons’ intelligent yet twisted humour.
Anyway, for those of you that have seen it, you will no doubt recall the stoning scene, where Brian and his mother are attending a public stoning. Brian’s mother is sporting a fake beard to give her the appearance of a man and when Brian asks her why women aren’t allowed to go to the stoning, the reply is that, “It's written. That's why.”
It turns out that those attending the stoning are indeed all women wearing fake beards, but the game is almost given away when of them shouts out but forgetting to put on her “man voice”.
“Are there any women here today?” questions John Cleese.
Let’s rewind 45 years or so from today when my dear mum embarked on her career; she did something phenomenal – her decision to join the WRAF (Women’s Royal Air Force) helped pave the way for thousands of women to not only join the service, but to break into a heavily male-dominated sector. She turned up at RAF Leeming guard room to report for duty to be greeted by, “We don’t have women here.” So she was sent home in London for two weeks whilst they installed female-appropriate facilities.
It’s still a problem today, though thankfully nowhere near as great as it once was. The battle of the sexes and the idea that women just aren’t quite up to the job has always been with us and the opinion (generally from a chauvinistic male population) has always been that men are better than women. This is a preposterously vague and equally ridiculous a statement to make. It’s like pointing out that unicorns are better than sheep. Better at what, exactly? I was looking for three bags full of wool, not a distorted and puerile sense of reality.
Reality. So what is the reality? Well, the argument seems to be that women are better listeners, are more empathetic and engage more quickly and more deeply with their audience. In a recent Gallup study in the US, female managers exceed male managers at meeting employees' essential workplace requirements. And female managers themselves are more engaged at work than are their male counterparts, which would help explain this phenomenon. There is currently an enormous amount of debate about employee engagement on social media, but it is reasonable to say that if an employee demonstrates energy, enthusiasm and absorption at work then they are probably much more engaged and therefore doing a better job than somebody who does not display those traits.
Relationship and trust building is a key part to any business and the way in which men and women build these is very different. Men tend to build relationships by playing football, going to rugby matches, doing activities together, whereas women build relationships by conversing with each other. I bet you will have seen the familiar scenario unfold at business meetings where the men really don’t have a great deal to say to each other and one or two of them are staring into space, twiddling a pen, or checking their mobile device. The same goes for social gatherings where the male is only there because his partner wanted to go as a couple. If he had his own way he would be back at home avoiding all this idle chit chat. Contrary to this, the women are chatting away as if they have known each other for years. Relationships are built almost instantly, but for the men, the guard is up. Consider the advantage women would have in the context of a sales meeting or a networking situation. In the world of business, every organisation has to play to its strengths, but one thing is for sure – as our sales team grows it will consist almost entirely of highly capable women.
Just to end, Celsium is proud to announce that its leadership team is 50% female – striking a perfect balance for all business needs.
