Told that to a workaholic over the weekend. They took it to heart and have decided to retire. You've been warned.:-)

I was gobsmacked - not by what he'd said but by the open admission of what I'd long suspected. As my father said "It's not what you know! It's who you know." Now, if the people you know don't like you - your *!!*ed. It's just a shame it took me so long to find out. When I was managing a £4.5 million budget a lot of people appeared to like me.

Loosing your job is bad enough - loosing 25 years of professional connections is quite another thing. Moral of the story?  Your peers are the enemy.

I shared a cab the other day with a Treasury Official, who on knowing my involvement as Former Head of IT for Crossrail with a big government project, said that while HMG took the short-term political credit for getting the Crossrail Act onto the statute book they knew the long-term fall-out of the inevitable cost overrun of the estimated £16 Billion bill would land on the next administration -"Just like they'd done to us with the Dome."

With some Crossrail politically appointed consultants paid up to £3,500 per day to work there, it's time to pull the plug on a 'revenge' project and save the taxpayer from funding politico-tribal wars.

After complaining to the Executive Chairman's office we were assured that the faulty component would be replaced on July 30 as the part need to come from overseas. Whether it was or wasn't, the problem of intermittent internet connectivity continues.

If I was writing about the Outer Hebrides, there would be little excuse but we're talking M5 corridor. It seems spare parts have to be imported from China on a needs basis.

While we have a strategic stockpile of nuclear weapons it appears there is no stock of vital infrastructure equipment on which the Prime Minister can rely to deliver his 'Digital Britain vision for economic recovery. Let this be a warning.

There is a business continuity platform worth looking at called Wamey and Imjack. It is useful as a contingency tool with regards to any potential pandemic, adverse weather or acts of terrorism. The platform has a number of tools that allows a business/education institution to carry on seamlessly. Take a look at the demo links below.
http://www.wamey.com/demo/index2.html
http://www.imjack.com/demo/index2.html

Handling Swine flu from an IT perspective is about enabling people to continue to work together or collaborate with reduced levels of face-to-face interaction. It is imperative to have work-from-home capabilities ready for staff. Executives need to think about how they would do business if the level of face-to-face contact with customers and staff drops dramatically.

However, it is almost too late for companies without remote working tools to put them in place in time unless you appoint someone to stay on top of the issue. If anyone is looking for advice on this matter no better place to start than with Ian White and myself, Michael Pincher. We've been here before and can help implement business continuity strategies pretty quick - call me on 07923691849 anytime if you need any help.

Now while I know it's BT incompetence at a delivering consistent digital dial tone (Pa lives in the M4 corridor) but every day the problem goes on he's more and more convinced its the intelligence services putting a spoiler on things. Any of you geeks out there know of any way of telling?

Gareth (having done lots of research) has confirmed that many businesses are simply 'on hold', they know that there is lots of stuff to be done, but right now no one is willing to commit to any sort of investment 'just in case'.

In case of what? In case we never come out of recession? - well even the most pessimistic of economists will agree that whether we are going through a 'U', 'L' or 'W' recession, at some point in the future there will be an upturn (which could be small, medium or large).

It is clear that most businesses will want to build revenue /profitability as it regrows on their current cost base, i.e. not employing more headcount before it becomes absolutely necessary. However in order to do this, efficiency, preparedness and scalability need to be invested in. On top of these foundations for growth, new rules and regulations are going to make compliance, governance and business continuity much more important that they have ever been to-date.

So 'doing nothing' is not really an option for businesses with a medium to long term view of the world. Doing nothing is a false economy which will lead short term-ist businesses to lose share, lose competitively or lose out altogether due to some man made or natural disaster (swine flu?) that could have been prepared for.

Only time will tell who were the wise and who were the fools - I know I would rather do business with the wise.

Anyone else got any examples of such 'motivation' techniques?