In the UK, the rising cost of food and fuel is heavily debated in the media and political arenas these days. Perhaps the situation is similar in countries around the world. Are we bothered?

According to Jay Rayner, journalist for the Dispatche s programme broadcast this evening, the problem is not that food prices are going up dramatically; the problem is that food prices have been too low for too long in countries like the UK.

Food for thought?

How much of your salary do you currently spend on food?

Living in London, I spend about 10% of my salary on food. If the price of food doubles, I will be spending 20% of my salary on food. I will still be able to afford to eat even if the price of food triples. However, in developing countries, where people currently spend over 50% of their salary on food, the doubling or tripling of food prices will of course mean that people will no longer be able to afford enough food to meet their needs.

Can you imagine a situation where we have to spend over 50% of our income on food? I cannot. This leads me to contemplate on the message in the Dispatche s programme this evening: food prices have been too low for too long in countries like the UK.

Similarly, have you noticed that the price of clothes has been going down so fast in recent years that it is now quite normal to buy T-shirts and tops for £2 in stores such as the pervasive Primark retail store. My teenage students, most of whom have never worked a day in their lives, can afford to dress in quality outfits, crafted by children earning 50 pence per day in the slums of India. When I see these low income, inner city students, in yet another fancy outfit, I have this conversation in my head:
"What, you didn’t know they used child labour to manufacture those clothes for Primark?"
How can you buy an outfit for £2 and not know?

How can you boast that it is cheaper to throw away your clothes after you’ve worn them a couple of times than to get them cleaned, and claim that you did not know the amount of exploitation that was required to meet your desires?"

The primary purpose of most businesses is to make maximum amount of profit at least amount of cost and both India and China have proved lucrative hosts for western companies such as Primark to meet excessive consumer desires at increasingly competitive prices.

The twist in the business tale occurs when we consider ethics and the power of the media to move our conscience. Just one powerful documentary, one video clip can turn a boastful business remark into a cause for embarrassment and guilt.

Primark boasts that it cuts costs of production through minimal spending on advertising. However, in response to the BBC Panorama documentary on the use of Indian child labour for its clothes production, Primark sacked three Indian suppliers implicated in the breach of ethical standards. No doubt this caused hundreds of job losses in the local area concerned.

What would you have done?

The fundamental economic questions are "What to produce; how to produce it; for whom?" What questions do you ask yourself as a consumer? What to consume? At what price? Where to get the product from? In a free market, our decisions as consumers are expressed powerfully each time and each place we make a purchase.

Happy shopping!

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What do the people closest to you like and dislike?

That might sound like a very easy, straightforward kind of question to you but most of my teenage business students would instinctively reply with "Dunno Miss"

Although I am accustomed to that response from teenagers, I was rather baffled when an au pair friend of mine was called while off-duty, by her employer. The GP needed my friend’s assistance with her 6 year old son who was throwing a tantrum.She called to ask "Can you come and help me because I don’t know what he likes?".

If this General Practitioner was a business woman, and of course in many places health is a huge business, how much would you trust her to manage your health? What assumptions would you make about her social skills and emotional intelligence?

Knowing what other people like is fundamental in building relationships and therefore your business success. If you know or can accurately predict what your customers will like and what they won’t like, you have a solid base for marketing your products.

Knowing and being able to deliver what others like is a source of power. The most successful business people are those that constantly please their customers by delivering what they like. They call this the "wow" factor, the delight experienced when a customer receives more than they expected in the added bonus which appeals to their desires rather than merely their needs.

How good are you at finding out what people like and being generous enough to give them what they want?

My guess is that your honest answer to this question will indicate your quality of relationships. The greater your capacity to give people what they want, the greater your level of attraction in drawing friends, colleagues and potential customers into your sphere of influence.

Start with the 20 people closest to you, or even 10 people closest to you. What do they like? When was the last time you did something that made them smile, laugh or feel excited? Would you ever find yourself in the shoes of the GP who could not control her son throwing a tantrum because she did not know what he liked? Of course not. Would you ever reply with "Dunno" when asked what your closest friends and family like? Of course not. Would you know exactly what your customers want and how to deliver that to them? Of course!

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Usually I write about my personal thoughts/ideas on a topical business issue. This time I am adding a link to a live broadcast I did for Westside Radio last week, accompanied by 4 of my teenage business studies students. The show host asked us to speak about the importance of character in business; how to create powerful teams and deliver effective presentations. She also asked us to justify the importance of a business education. Our answers to these questions are available at this link which will take you to the recording of the radio broadcast:

Westside Radio

In the past, there was a distinct gap between academics and the business world…people went to university to become professionals with "jobs for life" and setting up a business was seen, for many, to be the choice for non-academics. Regardless of whether you are a professional or business person There is a great difference between doing a job to pay the bills and doing work that is fulfilling and rewarding. Doing a job that bores you or stresses you will impact on every area of your life just as doing work that constantly inspires you will. Three of my respected coaching friends have created a free special audio called ‘Discover Your Calling’ to share what they have learnt on the path towards creating fulfilling work. You can hear this free recording by clicking the following link: The Money Shaman

Let me know your thoughts on the Westside Radio show and also the Money Shaman recording when you have had a chance to listen.

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	Happy 2008! I hope that this new year has started off very well for you and that you have exciting plans for the months ahead. A very warm welcome to you if you are a new reader of this newsletter. One of my plans for this year was to keep free range organic hens on my allotment and I am pleased to say that this goal has already been achieved and I am a proud owner of some very happy and healthy hens that are being constantly admired by fellow allotment gardeners, for their beauty and capacity to entertain. This new hobby is quite exciting for me as I live in the heart of London with its city hustle and bustle and detachment from nature. If you live in the UK, you have probably seen at least part of the passionate campaign for free range farming, broadcast nearly every evening on Channel 4 this week. The Big Food Fight Food is essential. Therefore, in industrialised nations, food is an essential business. Business depends on providing a product or service that consumers need/want and the more repetition of sales the better. In other words, a dozen eggs will not last a lifetime. The consumer will be back for more once the product has been consumed. After the Second World War, in the UK, there were food shortages. Therefore there were opportunities to create lucrative businesses in the food industry. Chicken and eggs were (and remain) a popular food. If you are a business person, you know well that the way to maximise profit is by minimising the costs of production. How would you minimise the costs of producing eggs or chicken meat? Perhaps you would have done this very differently to our fellow business people in the chicken and egg industry. The way they minimise costs is by stuffing the maximum number of chicken into the minimum amount of space and by reducing the animals to a mechanical instrument for converting pellets of food into eggs and chicken ready for consumption within 39 days of life. My hens are already 119 days old and still not ready to lay eggs. They are expected to live several years, not 39 days like the millions of hens being slaughtered in factory farms, daily. These modern day products of the industrialisation age, and our war against nature, were referred to as "Frankenstein hens" by the leading proponents of the campaign for free range farming, including the famous chefs, Jamie Oliver, Hugh Fearnley & Gordon Ramsey. If you live in a city, like I do, I wonder how much you personally contribute to the process of getting food into your kitchen. I buy most of my food at a supermarket and until I got my allotment 4 years ago, the only contribution I made to getting food into my home was paying the supermarket. I was totally dependent on my food being a business. In developed countries, the majority of citizens are easily able to meet their basic survival needs of food, water and shelter. Businesses provide all these at prices that the citizens can easily afford. Or do they? How dependent are you on the business of food? What choices do you exercise? My hens will start to lay eggs in about 6 weeks time. Feeding them, keeping them clean and protecting them from predators will be mandatory if I wish to consume any of their eggs. It seems much easier to pay less than 20 pence an egg at the supermarket! The fact that millions of industrialised people are making the latter choice, means that we have created "Frankenstein chickens" to meet the demands of the population. You might think that factory farmers are raking in all the profit from this high level of demand? Well, no, not the farmers. According to the Channel 4 documentary broadcast last night, farmers earn less than 3 pence per chicken. I dread to think how little they earn for each egg that they sell. I hope that you have a much wiser business plan! If you are interested in finding out more about factory farming, this link will entertain you while educating you about the issues: The Meatrix Jesvir Mahil

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