,
6 tweets,
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1/ Business organisations like @CBItweets, @MakeUK_ or @The_IoD aren't perfect, but bypassing them to speak 'only to companies direct' is a cartoonishly bad suggestion for three reasons:
(1) Representation
(2) Honesty
(3) Scale
(1) Representation
(2) Honesty
(3) Scale
2/ An IoD Membership survey may not be perfectly representative of UK Business or even the IoD Membership...
but it's a hell of a lot better than hearing from only those companies whose Chairman plays golf with the PM's Chief of Staff, or picking them out of a phone book.
but it's a hell of a lot better than hearing from only those companies whose Chairman plays golf with the PM's Chief of Staff, or picking them out of a phone book.
3/ It is a truism of public policy that the smaller and medium size firms most impacted by ill-conceived or poorly implemented government policy have the least capacity to shape it.
Business organisations allow such firms to pool their resources and magnify their voices.
Business organisations allow such firms to pool their resources and magnify their voices.
4/ While success in the UK economy doesn't rely on government patronage to the extent success in say, Russia, does, most business can still ill-afford to earn the ire of a Prime Minister by being brutally honest.
Surveys provide cover to speak candidly. Direct talks do not.
Surveys provide cover to speak candidly. Direct talks do not.
5/ Direct outreach, even to multiple firms, also risks providing a picture skewed to the unique circumstances of those companies.
Weatherspoons and Mr Tice's UK real estate empire may not feel Brexit exposed, but a Welsh lamb producer sure as hell does.
Weatherspoons and Mr Tice's UK real estate empire may not feel Brexit exposed, but a Welsh lamb producer sure as hell does.
6/ Summary: By collecting and collating data from across their Membership, business organisations can flag issues in a manner likely to be more representative, more honest and a better proxy for the economy as a whole, than any kind of direct No.10 effort.
