The Future of Work - Richard Donkin

Working class heroes

2010-03-11T03:41:00.000-08:00

Members of Parliament have been grumbling at proposals to cut first class train travel from their expense allowances. They say that a first class seat enables them to work on the train since they can plug in their lap top computers.

I’m taking advantage of a first class ticket to do just that right now although the internet access is not brilliant.

If the MPs have a point, perhaps it is time to rename first class and call it Working Class. Labour MPs would probably be happiest buying working class tickets. Once upon a time first class had something to do with status. Today, it seems, it's about plug sockets.

It’s quite possible, of course, to work in second class but there is a real risk that in the cheaper seats MPs would have to mix with more of the people responsible for voting them in to Parliament.

They might even have to mix with children. Children and babies are rarely seen in first class because most people with first class tickets are travelling on expense accounts as I am just now. It’s one of life’s ironies that, come the General Election, when Parliamentary candidates are out on the hustings, they will pick up any random baby if it helps ingratiate themselves with the electorate, or if there is a photographer on hand.

But once the election is over and these men and women of the people are travelling to their constituencies, the last thing some of them want is any contact with voters. That is not true of all MPs just as it is not true to suggest that all MPs have abused their expense allowances.

Second class travel for MPs should be compulsory. That would give them the greatest incentive to ensure that people can travel and work comfortably wherever they find themselves on a train. Two-tier travel should be viewed as an anachronism. We're all working class now.

Education for the over-50s

2010-02-17T01:10:00.000-08:00

As this report suggests, universities must begin to take seriously people in their fifties and beyond who wish to undertake courses. But the thinking needs to go further than the provision of part-time courses.

Anyone embarking on a full degree course at the age of fifty could have twenty years or more in front of them to contribute to a new pursuit. In economic terms, that is useful productive work. Not only that, the student would be able to bring to their learning all their life experiences and expertise gathered in one or more careers up to that point.

Mature students could prove a mentoring resource for younger students. Inter-generational collaboration is important in the workplace. Encouraging this in our universities can only promote better understanding that is going to be increasingly relevant as a result of demographic trends.

Fat hamster

2010-02-15T08:31:00.000-08:00

The modern relationship with work is often portrayed as something of a hamster wheel. I hadn't thought much of the hamster itself, however, until I saw this. One shouldn't blame the hamster. It doesn't know any better. Neither, it seems, do we.

Putting in the hours

2010-02-15T07:32:00.001-08:00

It was inevitable that this New Economics Foundation report suggesting the adoption of a 21-hour working week would be ridiculed. Radio Four's Today programme loves this sort of thing so it was no surprise that it lined up a couple of polar opposites here to debate the suggestion.

"Total madness, fantasy land economics," said Mark Littlewood, director general of the Institute of Economic Affairs. He had worked out, he said, that if people spent such little time working there would be "None of this retiring at 60." People would be working up to the age of 80, he said. What's wrong with that Mr Littlewood? Many people will be willing and able to spend part of their time working long after the normal retirement age.

The things Anna Coote, author of this report, is saying are very much in line with my own thinking on the future of work. I'm not in favour of a compulsory working week of 21 hours. But I see a lot of merit in working towards a three day weekend. Wouldn't it be better for everyone if work was dispersed more equally in society? The real problem is to find an equitable way of doing this that allows those who want to work more the right to do so.

Mr Littlewood says people should have the freedom to work as many hours as they wish. But he wouldn't say that about airline pilots or lorry drivers. Some jobs should carry hours restrictions for the sake of public safety. In the 1990s some junior doctors were putting in 100-hour working weeks. They didn't to want to work such long hours. It simply became a working practice that was tolerated by health authorities until their weeks were capped at 48 hours under the European Working Time Directive.

That said I'm in broad agreement with the argument that, where safety is not an issue, people should have the right to work as long as they wish. I would be very unhappy if anyone were to try and stop me typing these words because I had filled my quota for the day. Then again, too often I ignore other important things - time for leisure, socialising, exercising, in a love affair with the keyboard, books and the internet that is bordering on obsession. Sometimes it is helpful for someone to lay a gentle hand on your shoulder and say: "That's enough for today."

Tomorrow's world - but where is it?

2010-02-02T03:15:00.000-08:00

Predicting the future is tough. This short 1958 film, Magic Highway, shows how the Disney studios imagined transport would develop in future. More than fifty years on we can see how short of the mark they were. A few predictions had it right. Modern cars do have more electronic safety devices on their dashboards and some use TV cameras for reversing.

But it was the bigger picture that the Disney people failed to understand. Some of this could have been predicted. Had they worked out that greater wealth would have meant more cars, they might have suggested that motorway speeds would have been unable to increase because of congestion. Neither did they factor in safety considerations and energy-saving needs that would influence traffic legislation and traffic speeds.

Some predictions, that cars would run automatically with people doing other things as they motored, may yet happen. But where the forecasters really let themselves down was in understanding social trends. In the film when the car gets to the city, father heads off to his office and mother goes shopping with their son. This was still a time when households had one breadwinner, usually the man. It was a time of married couples and nuclear families, not the diverse relationships we have today.

The most mistaken assumption of all, however, was that technology would give people more leisure time. The futurists did not factor in the need for ever greater productivity in capitalism's duty to compete.

It's clear also that environmental factors do not figure much either. The animators did not envisage that environmental concerns would inhibit road building. Indeed they saw the highway as a beautiful construction in its own right, enhancing, rather than despoiling the countryside.

More than anything, however, the film shows the extent to which Americans had fallen in love with the car. In some respects that has not changed. The love affair continues. But the obsession with speed has been contained. Apparently it did not occur to anyone that people might not need to go to the office or the shops.

Own your own space station

I wonder if there will come a time when some people engage very little with each other outside their family homes and local communities. Some, it seems, already value their virtual worlds as much as the world outside their homes.

Erik Novak, who plays a MMORPG (Massively multiplayer online role-playing game) called Planet Calypso, recently spent $330,000 on a virtual space station called Crystal Palace at an online auction. Not, only that, he regards it as a good deal and who is to say that he's mistaken? Virtual worlds attracted $1bn of investment in thew 12 months to October 2007 although most of this was business purchases.

"This is a stunning investment opportunity and I have complete faith I will recover what I spent relatively quickly," said Novak, whose avatar uses the name of Buzz Erik Lightyear. It's good to see that Disney still has some influence on tomorrow's
world.

Elephant in the room

But elsewhere Disney has a patchy record. In this clip outlining the progress, or lack of it, to Disney's House of Tomorrow, the most worrying trend on display is the obesity of the people looking around. Talk about the elephant in the room!

Networks and workplace freedom

2010-01-16T08:27:00.001-08:00

I have just renamed this blog to reflect the issues I've covered in my new book, The Future of Work. Collecting material ahead of two speaking engagements last week it was clear that events with an impact on our working futures are happening constantly so I want this to be a living document featuring developments that I think are relevant to the changing workplace.

Some of these may seem surprising. What, for example, does the news that a former Guantanamo Bay inmate now includes his former jailer as a Facebook Friend have to do with work? I think this shows how people are connecting with each other today at levels that are challenging the controls and expectations placed on populations in the past.

Imagine back in December 1914 if British and German soldiers fraternising in no-man's land been able to exchange their Facebook and email details, organising a "let's go home" group on Facebook, for example.

You think it couldn't happen? I'm sure some EMI marketing executives had similar thoughts when Jon and Tracy Morter, a couple living in Essex, decided they would orchestrate a Facebook campaign to ensure that their favourite song by Rage Against the Machine, became the Christmas number one single (see augmented reality blog below).

People didn't just vote for the song, they dug in their pockets and bought it, such was the bloodymindedness of a section of the British public.

Much of the corporate sector has become increasingly controlling in the way it runs business. Employees are often forbidden to talk to journalists about their work without referring queries to press offices. But attempts to create workplace firewalls simply will not work in a world of Twitter and Facebook.

How will China's standoff with Google pan out? It's too early to say but the struggle for communications democracy is important not just for our personal freedoms but also for our freedoms in work.

The disposable worker

2010-01-16T08:16:00.000-08:00

Is this the future of work? I sincerely hope not. This BusinessWeek article examines the growth of what it calls "the disposable worker".

If companies choose to concentrate on elites, as they do in some talent management systems, while treating the mass of employees as commodities that can be exchanged at will, they are contributing to an ugly future even for those who have profited at the expense of the less well regarded.

Sense and nonsense

2010-01-15T09:00:00.000-08:00

My Uncommon Sense column in Human Resources Magazine is to become highly uncommon after next month as it's had the chop. This is one very good reason why I would never advise anyone to give up their day job without some deep thinking.

Charles Handy's freelance portfolio lifestyle can be an excellent way of making a living when times are good. But when budgets get squeezed as they are just now it is the outsiders whose bum cheeks are closest to those who wield the boot.

My own bum cheeks haven't stopped smarting for more than a year as a once healthy portfolio has been whittled away to a single monthly column in the FT, and who knows how long that might last? The wolf is not at the door anymore, he's making himself comfortable in my favourite armchair, pouring himself a gin and tonic and watching repeats of three little piggies - apart from the ending; he doesn't watch the last bit.

Meanwhile I have started a new book, not about work this time, but about the shape of things to come, although it will not be forecasting the end of the job, a theme I once explored in this old column. Funnily enough one of my sons is inventing computer games these days. Yes, times are hard in the Donkin household. I hope I'll be able to write a happy ending.

Prisoners of the market

2010-01-15T07:56:00.000-08:00

All those hard pressed chief executives and bankers worried about the flack they have been receiving on pay and bonuses can sleep more easily in their beds this week after Stephen Hester, chief executive of the Royal Bank of Scotland gave them what must be the ultimate in justifications. There was nothing highly paid bankers could do about their pay levels, he told an House of Commons select committee, since their employers are "prisoners of the market".

Never again do wealthy executives have to feel cornered at dinner parties. All they need do from now on is throw up their hands and declare: "I'm a prisoner of the market." Case closed, move on.

Augmented reality and the future of work

2009-12-29T04:01:00.000-08:00

In my new book The Future of Work I included one chapter of out-and-out futurism. The book concentrates on themes that are influencing workplace change today and which I believe will strengthen in the future.

I thought it would be dishonest to suggest that I had some kind of crystal ball capable of predicting future events. Nonetheless I thought it might be interesting to indulge myself in a description of what life might be like 50 years in to the future.

This presented immediate difficulties. How can we know the rate of resource depletion when we have no idea of the breakthroughs that might, for example, make fossil fuels an unnecessary resource?

Two strands of thinking dominated the projections. The first concentrated on communications technology and the second explored the idea of extending democracy in government to the kind of decision-making we already experience in "vote-off" shows such as the X-Factor and Strictly Come Dancing.

These shows already have a kind of government - an appointed panel to help us with our decisions, aided by a supporting administration of experts who help to find and groom the talent. But the decision about who wins and who loses is taken by the TV-viewing population. Why couldn't this approach be adapted for the process of legislation?

Politicians might point to the dangers of disruptive voting organised by so-called "mavens", under-the-radar influencers who can use modern communications channels to work beyond established norms of market behaviour and control.

A good example of this is the way that husband and wife a Jon and Tracy Morter, unhappy at the way that the Christmas number one music singles were being monopolised by X-factor winners decided to orchestrate a campaign on Facebook to promote the rock group, Rage Against The Machine, as an alternative. Enough people bought downloads of the track, Killing in The Name, to ensure it occupied the number one spot at Christmas 2009.

What started, said Tracy Morter, as a "silly idea to spice up the charts" developed a bandwagon effect, initially through social networking media and latterly through mainstream media as the campaign became a news story.

The old market-dominated rules of transactional behaviour have changed. Yes, the market is cleverly exploiting the new forms of communications, in viral marketing on YouTube, for example. But it no longer controls the winning idea. Winning ideas, such as that of the Morters can and will emerge anywhere. The Morters' success also makes a mockery of so-called talent management. The couple have proved themselves masters at social-network-based manipulation without an ounce of formal expertise.

I believe that it is inevitable that advances in electronic communications will transform democracy. The only question is how long it will take Governments to respond. The age of the metal ballot box where people enter voting booths is coming to an end. In future we shall all vote from our living rooms.

The chapter also looked at screen-based technology. This feature on Augmented Reality - a system for integrating the use of screens with all kinds of decisions we make in everyday life - fits with the scenario I outlined of wall-sized screens in domestic homes. In future I believe that miniaturisation of screens will develop side-by-side with super-sizing. Small size will equate with convenience whereas bigger screens will allow a variety of uses similar to those discussed in the article. The cost and availability of power, however, may be a limiting factor. But in 50 years time I'm sure that other power sources, including human-powered machinery, will have become far more efficient.

Free online personality tests

2009-11-04T16:37:00.000-08:00

In a move that could shake up the psychometric testing industry, a team of former-SHL test developers is releasing a series of industry-standard assessments online free of charge.

A new website FindingPotential has been established to access the tests. The first in the series is a personality test and more tests are to be rolled out shortly.

The website explains all you need to know about the so-called big five personality traits. If this testing resource really is as good as the providers says it is it could have a profound impact on the test publishing and assessment industry.

I have just tried the individual personality test. . It looks very like others I have taken and the results correspond with those I have encountered before. The analysis is good too. Why pay when you can have this?

Tales from city recruitment

2009-11-03T02:51:00.000-08:00

The things recruiters do and say. And here is a little more of the reality of City recruitment.

Employers should brace themselves for new swine flu attack

2009-10-13T16:07:00.000-07:00

The National Health Service is preparing for a return of swine flu this winter and has warned that the pandemic could infect as many as 18m people in the UK - up to 30 per cent of the population - in a worst case scenario currently circulating among regional health trusts.

If Government fears are realised, the impact for employers will be profound with staff absences of up to 12 per cent of the working population. Such heavy absences would have a serious effect on the economy.

Modest recent increases in reported cases and in demand for the flu drug Tamiflu suggest that the UK could already be two weeks in to a second pandemic. If so, within the next week or so the number of reported cases is likely to show a steep rise well beyond the peaks experienced in the summer months.

One worry is that the rise in cases could overtake efforts to introduce a vaccination programme. The first vaccine, GSK, will be available from the end of October but it will take several months to deliver the full programme.

If the pattern of a winter outbreak follows that of the summer, cases will be concentrated among the youngest and healthiest parts of the population. Older people are thought to have built up partial immunity to the virus through previous flu exposure.

The second wave of the virus is expected to last for 15 weeks and to reach ten times the number of people affected in the first wave.

Details? Who cares about details?

2009-03-09T05:50:00.001-07:00

Thank you to the Strategic Planning Society for reminding me of my membership number (I didn't even know I was a member) in a letter. Next time, perhaps you will include in your strategic planning the necessity to affix a stamp, or, even better, send an email. Or are these the kind of details that do not concern strategic planners? It concerned me. I had to pay the postage and handling fee. I suppose I should plan a strategy for getting it back.

Confirmation that all those long hours are bad for us

2009-02-25T08:40:00.000-08:00

I gave up pastries for lent. Perhaps it should have been work.

Problem solving on the net - more than Factory Balls

2009-02-21T12:28:00.000-08:00

Something big is happening on the internet that is demanding our understanding. I'm not talking about Twitter or any of the other forms of social networking that are fascinating in their own right. I'm talking about flash games.

You may have come across some of these games when whiling away a few minutes at work (which can easily extend to a few hours, hence their notoriety in some workplaces). But what is grabbing my attention, increasingly, is their levels of sophistication in problem solving. I have already enthused about them here but more are appearing all the time and they just get better and better.

I have learned quite a bit about them through my son Robert who has begun making them. He hosts his own games and those of others on his website, BadViking.com.

Last night I was playing this one called Electric Box. Yes it's a game but imagine this was your introduction to physics. I urge you try it. There's a small tutorial to start you off and then you're on your way. Each component and its function in the increasingly complex circuits outlined in the game is explained so that as you move from one level to the next you are building on accumulated knowledge.

Are these games being used in schools? Are they being used in recruitment? If not, they should be. Many of them are marvellous educational aids because they present learning as something that is fun and allow learners to move at their own pace.

Companies are paying consultants small fortunes for delivering so called "training solutions" that are far less sophisticated than this. You want your employees to understand logistics and production flows? Try them out on Factory Balls here. Most flash game developers are relatively young like Robert who is 21. But don't imagine they are not aware of the power of the material they are producing.

Rob has had some success already with his Panda games like this one. His first panda game, Panda Tactical Sniper, has notched up three million plays worldwide. At first sight it looks like a so-called "sniper game" beloved of young teenage boys. But if you try playing it you will find that it's all about problem solving.

He has deliberately avoided shoot 'em up games so that his site concentrates more on thinking or reaction games such as his latest one called Popopop. It seems easy at first. It is not. One thing I like about this game is a feature that allows players to create their own "levels."

I'd like to grab a few graduate recruiters and take them gently by the hand in to this flash games world. The advertising agencies have already discovered it in their search for creatives - but why should they get all the talent? The answer is that too many companies rely on their future talent to come knocking on their doors. But companies can't rely on Robert and his pals, beating a path to their door. They're having too much fun.

Twit

2009-02-19T09:49:00.000-08:00

HR 2.0.,

What about the pay consultants?

2009-02-18T02:58:00.000-08:00

Much has been written these past few days on the size of bank bonuses. The big complaint, understandably, is that in the loss-making banks these can be perceived as rewards for failure.

Most of the criticism on bonus policy is being directed at the banks. These policies, however, are drawn up not by the banks but by their pay consultants who have been keeping their heads down in the past few weeks.

I would welcome some justification for some of these policies from those who advise their corporate clients on incentive pay. But I don't expect to see it.

The relationship between work and pay is complex. Pay does matter but it matters most at the point of negotiation and when there is a perception of injustice. Pay is used as a lure to recruit people but once they are on board it is unlikely to become a source of unrest unless they perceive they are being unfairly treated (something I explored in this column).

In the most senior ranks companies have lived with the reality that sometimes they will be paying for failure for too long.

I have yet to see a convincing argument to support the proliferation of the bonus culture in banks. As for guaranteeing bonuses, that is a nonsense as the only justification for the bonus is that it can be regarded as variable pay, offering some protection for the paying institution if markets take a tumble.

Of course, if employees have done all that is expected of them and more - which is the case for thousands of hard working people in the Royal Bank of Scotland and HBOS - it is natural that many will feel aggrieved to be losing their bonuses as a result of poor decisions at the top of the organisation.

On the other hand they may reflect that their projected bonuses derived from unrealistically high expectations over many years when times appeared good (but in fact, better than reality in a bubble economy). Those that retain their jobs must know they need to take the rough with the smooth.

A bonus must be just that - a sum of money that is not guaranteed and which should not be taken in to account in financial planning. The danger is that some people will have included expected bonuses when stretching their finances to meet a demanding mortgage, for example. They will suffer. But perhaps they should. Overspending on "hope money" is a harsh lesson for anyone, but one that should ensure greater prudence in future. Everyone must learn to live well within their means. That way they should live well.

Pour encourager les autres

2009-02-10T08:38:00.000-08:00

It's all very well hauling bankers before the House of Commons Treasury select committee, but it's not much of a deterrent. Neither is removing their bonuses. The Royal Navy showed how to deal with aberrant leaders when it made an example of Admiral Byng.

It prompted the French writer Voltaire's famous remark, in his novel, Candide, that in England 'it is thought good to kill an admiral from time to time to encourage the others'. Ah, those were the days....

Engelbert to the rescue

2009-02-09T03:11:00.001-08:00

While the newspapers are full of job losses it would be wrong to believe that everyone views the prospect of losing their job with foreboding.

I was chatting with a friend at the rugby match on Saturday who has been weighing up the financial realities of retirement. He's in his mid-fifties in management after spending all of his career with the same employer so the prospects look pretty good. But the company still values his services and is in no hurry to see the back of him.

"How can I hint subtly that I want to go without making it blindingly obvious?" he asked. Another friend came up with the answer: "Download the ringtone of 'Please release me' for your mobile phone." Perfect.

A good day for burying good news

2009-02-03T08:32:00.000-08:00

This is a story I received today in the form of a press release. I hope I am proved wrong, but I suspect that you will not read anything about this in the press. Why? Because newspapers regard every day as a good day for burying good news. I can only extend my apologies to Mrs and Mrs Ward-Henry that instead of the pink pages they find themselves here.

Here it is:

"Hello, our names are Michael & Sarah Ward-Hendry and this is our story as we lurch into the economic tempest that has enveloped us all.

Having started our business Ward-Hendry Photography near Banbury with nothing but personal debt and a great idea following redundancy, we have achieved 5 years of 100% year-on-year growth. Ward-Hendry (as we are known) has become the outstanding schools photography company in the UK and Ireland.

On Wednesday 28th January 2009, we met with our bank, Lloyds TSB, at our offices to review the business's financial performance and hopefully secure the bank's ongoing support regarding existing overdraft facilities and working capital. We were concerned that in the prevailing economic situation the bank's view would be driven by the need for caution.

The outcome of the meeting was not good...it was indeed fantastic and as good as we could have imagined it might be!

In an atmosphere of almost total uncertainty in all aspects of normal day to day business life in the UK, we have received the endorsement of Lloyds TSB for our ongoing overdraft and working capital requirements for the coming year.

From humble beginnings as sole traders working from a wooden shed at the top of our garden in January 2004, the business today employs 35 people, with annual sales in excess of £1.5m expected for the financial year ending March 2009.

Our offer is strikingly contemporary and compelling to the hundreds of schools and hundreds of thousands of parents who are our customers throughout the UK and Ireland.

We are formally endorsed by the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) as a 'Partner' of the Union, which represents a membership incorporating over 80% of Primary School Head Teachers, Principles and school leaders in England, Wales and N. Ireland. We are also a 'Sponsor Partner' of the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust (SSAT) where our offer receives similar endorsement and credibility to in excess of 3,000 state senior schools in England and Wales.

We plan to continue our acquisition of market share in the coming year with the aim of achieving £2.4m in sales and employ an additional 10 staff.

The signs are good for our continued growth and it would appear that Lloyds TSB are indeed true to their word and will support viable, sound businesses as we all continue our journey to broader economic recovery."

The greatest asset

2009-01-31T09:40:00.000-08:00

As a columnist with fairly strong views on things I'm used to criticism. But on this occasion I can only assume that it is because my argument has been misunderstood and that's irritating because it means I have not expressed myself well enough.

I was writing in Human Resources Magazine about the lessons that human resources professionals might draw from the bail out of the Royal Bank of Scotland which, without that bail out, would have suffered the fate of the Monty Python Norwegian Blue - it would have ceased to exist.

One of the things I said, and which I continue to say because I think the expression is dishonest, is that it is wrong for a company boss or a head of HR to declare that "our people are our greatest asset."

I say this because of the accounting convention to declare assets on one side of the balance sheet and employers on the other under costs. This also puts employment costs under the heading of liabilities. While I'm sure no-one would declare "our people are our greatest liability," I think few company bosses would demure from considering employees as their greatest cost.

For this reason I don't think it is helpful to use such accounting terms as assets and liabilities when considering the value of a workforce. Of course people are valuable. In some cases they are the only real value a business has apart from other fragile intangibles such as goodwill. It explains why I prefer to think of people as the living, breathing investment capital of a business. When a company recruits someone it is investing hard cash and not a little faith in the ability of the individual to add value to the balance sheet.

Training, promoting and rewarding that individual might well increase their capital worth. That is what investing is all about. But thinking of people in terms of asset values is less helpful since people can never be described as fixed assets. They can improve their value for a business or their value might depreciate.

It is why companies must think of inputs, outputs and value when looking at employees. Nor should they use such assessments purely with internal employees. External skills have a value too. Some companies prosper by outsourcing almost all of their talent. In fact some ventures, such as a West End musical, rely entirely on assemblies of talent. In such productions it is probably better to think of "we" in a collective sense than in the ownership sense of "our people."

Even companies with employees on their payroll should beware the "our people" claim and certainly any boss should be careful about talking about "my people." It is a highly presumptive phrase. People can never be owned. For that reason they should never be regarded as assets, not as long as they have legs to walk away.

You may, of course, believe this to be "tosh" but I don't know how to express my thoughts on this issue any other way. People are our greatest investment - now I can go along with that.

Free office space

2009-01-30T06:00:00.001-08:00

Starting a new business? This new offer from Regus could be worth a look.

25 years, still red hot?

2009-01-27T12:25:00.000-08:00

Virgin Atlantic is celebrating its 25th anniversary. But is it still red hot? A customer takes issue.

Cowbells and cuckoo clocks in Davos

2009-01-27T03:53:00.000-08:00

This week nearly 1,200 chief executives and chairmen, plus another thousand celebrities, politicians, academics and others who might describe themselves as power brokers, not to mention a small army of journalists, lobbyists and public relations people will converge on Davos for the World Economic Forum.

But there will not be very many women according to this article.

Not that women should alarm themselves too much. Davos does not have a great reputation for getting things done. It produces various publications such as its Global Gender Gap Report. But the above article would suggest that its organisers do not read them.

Yes, it has launched various initiatives that have done something to bring together businesses and political administrations. But its biggest benefit seems to be for Davos itself where increased sales of Swiss Army pen knifes, cowbells and cuckoo clocks ensure the continued health of its shopkeepers.

At least it is living proof that man-made global warming is a reality thanks to the billions of cubic meters of hot air it generates each year. Then there's the giant hole in the snow that is the Davos carbon footprint. We might be thankful, however, that this year it is getting some of the world's most senior bankers out of their offices for a while, saving depositors from even more damage, at least for a few days.

They say that pinstripes are out and sack cloth is in this year. Don't you believe it. The ritual massaging of egos and mutual bolstering of confidence among those disillusioned enough to believe in their omnipotence will continue unabated.

Summing up, a precis of the annual output of Davos amounts to this: "We have got to something about X" where X can be: world poverty, AIDS, malaria, global warming, or, this year, the international banking crisis. It would be a refreshing change one year if the bosses admitted that "x" meant "keeping our jobs."