Friday 22 September 2017

CIMA Global President, David Stanford, to attend West Midlands Ball onFriday 17 November



CIMA WEST MIDLANDS BALL
Friday 17 November
Burlington Hotel, 126 New Street, Birmingham
7.30 for 8.00pm
£36.00 per person
 CIMA West Midlands would like to invite all members, students and their guests to their annual ball
Each year we are pleased to welcome many CIMA members, students and guests from around the West Midlands to our annual ball. This is your opportunity to not only have a very enjoyable evening but also to network and meet guests from many business sectors within the area. We would love to see as many students as possible joining us.
The evening includes:
  • A drinks reception
     
  • An excellent 3 course dinner with wine
     
  • We are pleased to welcome David Stanford, FCMA, CGMA, CIMA’s President
     
  • After dinner Fun Casino – try your hand at Blackjack or Roulette – casino chips will be provided.
     
  • DJ and dancing
We are happy to take group bookings for tables, including corporate tables, so please bring along your colleagues, family and friends. The dress code is black tie.  
The event is being held in association with:
Eastcote Wealth Management - www.eastcotewealth.co.uk 
As independent advisers with Chartered Financial Planner status, Eastcote Wealth Management aim to provide the highest level of professional and unbiased advice to our personal and corporate clientele.  Our team of experienced, well-qualified professionals will coherently explain complex financial issues and we would welcome the opportunity to assist CIMA members and their clients.
To book a place please go to www.cimaglobal.com/westmidlands and click on ‘Events’ on the right or contact Julie Witts on email Julie.witts@aicpa-cima.com or Tel 02476 849380

Tuesday 7 March 2017

CIMA Leadership Conference in Birmingham on Saturday 22nd April


CIMA CPD conference: Leading innovation, creativity and enterprise - leadership lessons from the parallel universes of the business school and music 

Speaker: Peter Cook, Human Dynamics  

The Academy of Rock uniquely blends business and leadership with the power of music to inspire, inform and engage you. Join us at this exciting conference to find out more. 

The conference will have four sessions during the day covering: - 

Leading innovation, creativity and enterprise I

In this session, Peter Cook will examine the disruptive business world in which we now operate and outline strategies for innovation as a means of responding to this.  We will relate this to the job of the finance professional in the wake of an adaptive business environment 

The music of business 

We continue our exploration of innovation and creativity but this time using examples from the parallel universe of music. What can we learn about leadership from Madonna, business strategy from AC/DC or innovation from David Bowie and Prince?  This is a unique blend of business academia and music with opportunities to contribute your own examples and participate. 

Leading innovation, creativity and enterprise II 

In this second session, we examine ways in which you may create a culture of innovation in your enterprise.  We also examine the qualities of creative leadership that will contribute to an enterprise where people bring their heads, hearts and souls to the workplace. 

The Virgin way: leadership lessons from Sir Richard Branson and Virgin 

Peter Cook won a prize from Sir Richard Branson and this led to working for Virgin as an author and event leader. At the same time Richard then offered an exclusive interview for Peter’s book with Bloomsbury.  As a result of this he has had the opportunity to study the Virgin group in terms of its leadership and approach to innovation and creativity.  Here Peter reflects on his experiences and gives an insight into the way that Virgin is led and managed with transferable lessons to your own organisation. 

Schedule: - 

9.30 to 4.00pm

9.30 - Arrival, breakfast and registration

10.00am - Leading Innovation, Creativity and Enterprise I

11.30 - The Music of Business

12.50 Lunch and networking

13.50 - Leading Innovation, Creativity and Enterprise II

15.20 - The Virgin Way: Leadership Lessons from Sir Richard Branson and Virgin

16.00 Close, networking and 1:1 coaching opportunities  

Peter Cook, Human Dynamics   

Peter Cook leads Human Dynamics, offering business and organisation development. He also delivers keynotes around the world that blend business intelligence with parallel lessons from music via the Academy of Rock. Peter is author of and contributor to 12 books on business leadership, acclaimed by Tom Peters, Professors Charles Handy, Adrian Furnham and Harvey Goldsmith CBE. His three passions are science, business and music, having led innovation teams for 18 years to develop life-saving drugs including the first treatments for AIDS, herpes and the development of human insulin. He won a prize from Sir Richard Branson for his work and now writes and delivers events for the Virgin brand. Peter has spent 18 years in academia and 18 + years running his businesses and all his life since the age of four playing music. 

Booking Information: - 

Date:  22 April 2017

Location:  ETC venue Maple House, Birmingham

Price: Price: £65 members, £60 students, £75 guests. 

To book you place visit: - 

Monday 27 February 2017

CIMA West Midlands Free Event, “The economic contribution of industryin the West Midlands” on 15 March at the British Motoring Museum,Gaydon CV35 0BJ



We welcome three excellent speakers to this exciting event in the West Midlands that will complement the automotive industry, CIMA and business looking at the industrial and economic development in the West Midlands. We look forward to hearing from Andrew Miskin, CIMA President, Andy Street, ex CEO of John Lewis and Michael Mychajluk from Jaguar Land Rover. The evening will include drinks and networking and an opportunity to have a look around the British Motoring Museum.

Speakers: -

Andrew Miskin will discuss the contribution management accountants can make to economic development and growth in the business world.

Andy Street will look at recent economic changes and development in the West Midlands, using his knowledge from his time as CEO at John Lewis and involvement with the Greater Birmingham and Solihull Local Enterprise Partnership.

Michael Mychajluk will look at the impact of Jaguar Land Rover on the UK economy, supply chain, the future and how finance professionals could learn from this.

Schedule: -

6.00 for 7.00pm – approximate finish time 9-9.30pm

6.00pm – Arrival, drinks networking and tour of museum

7.00pm – Welcome and talk Andrew Miskin, CIMA President

7.45pm – Andy Street, ex CEO of John Lewis and West Midlands Mayoral candidate

8.15pm - Michael Mychajluk, Supply Chain and External Engagement Manager, Government Programmes at Jaguar Land Rover.

Booking Information: -

Date – 15th March

Time – 18:00

Location - British Motoring Museum, Gaydon CV35 0BJ

Price – 0.00

Contact Julie Witts at Julie.Witts@aicpa-cima.com to book your free place

Tuesday 7 February 2017

Use our Technological, Engineering and Manufacturing capabilities to help our armed forces protect the UK after Brexit.


It is of great concern to see the recent suggestions that our armed forces aren’t currently capable of defending the UK in our times of need, and the MOD is wasting billions of pounds on vanity projects that aren’t joined up on kit that doesn’t fully work. Further, with the army down to just 83,000 in number, the RAF at 30,000 and the Royal Navy at 29,000 and just 19 warships and 10 submarines, things seem very perilous in the current global climate where Russia and China appear to be developing ever more technologically advanced weapons and increasing the size and reach of their military capabilities. 

Cut-backs may balance the government’s books in times of austerity, but they don’t defend our nation from the threat of aggressors – and we have recently seen the Russian Aircraft Carrier Group sail through the English Channel twice, as well as the numerous incursions into our airspace from Russian Tu-95 Bears. 

Our last remaining Aircraft Carrier, along with our Harrier Jump Jets, fell victim to the 2010 cut-backs leaving us without a capability until the new Queen Elizabeth carriers come in to service in the next 2 or 3 years, although the 24 £105m F-35 jump jets that will fly off them won’t be in service until 2023. Why did the government not find the funds to have kept the capability that we had in place until the replacements were ready to be introduced operationally? In addition, it has been commented that these carriers are already irrelevant due to China’s carrier killing DF-21 ballistic missile that has a top speed of Mach 10 and a range of 1,100 miles and due to the fact that there are not enough “destroyers, frigates and submarines to protect the aircraft carriers”. 

If the reports are right, our new state-of-the-art Type 45 Destroyers are unable to operate in warm waters without suffering engine problems that have shut them down and left them adrift and stranded. The solution to the engine problem is to spend yet more money cutting holes in them in order to replace the engines with ones that work. Furthermore, it is reported that these Destroyers can be heard 100 miles away by Russian submarines as they sound like “a box of spanners” underwater. And these ships are so expensive that, at £1Bn each, the original order for 12 was subsequently reduced to 6. 

The cheaper Type 26 combat ship is believed to have risen well above budget meaning that the order for 13 has already been reduced to 8, and could reduce further if costs continue to spiral. 

The army’s 42-ton Ajax tanks are too heavy for the RAF’s new transport plane, the A400M, which can only carry up to 25-tons. This means that the tanks would need partially disassembling to deploy by air – not exactly rapid reaction is it? 

The RAF’s new maritime patrol aircraft, the Boeing P-8 Poseidon, which doesn’t start to arrive until 2019, cannot be refuelled in mid-air by our Voyager air-tankers, and could be vulnerable to cyber-attack. And this is all after the scrapping of the new Nimrod project in 2010. Sounds like more tax-payer money wasted unnecessarily by politicians. 

54 drones were ordered in 2005 for £700m – that cost has now risen to £1.2Bn and they have still not entered full service. 

The recent $28.8Bn expenditure on aircraft, drones and helicopters from the US Military is also likely to be hit due to the 21% fall in value of the pound since the UK voted to leave the European Union increasing the cost of the equipment. Furthermore, due to the sensitivity of the technology on the US supplied helicopters, software upgrades and some parts can only be supplied by American nationals. You couldn’t make this up! 

What happened to the country that developed the Dreadnought warships that revolutionised modern navies, and the invention of the tank that took armed warfare from the trenches and made it more mobile? We also seem to have come a long way from the cutting edge of aircraft design that we held for the first three—quarters of the twentieth century (Sopwith Camel, Supermarine Spitfire, Avro Lancaster, De Havilland Mosquito, Avro Vulcan, English Electric Lightning, Hawker Siddeley Harrier, TSR2 etc.), although much aviation technology still comes from the UK. 

It also seems a strange strategy to continually allow UK defence companies to consolidate over the years until there is little or no competition – clearly the outcome of such a near monopoly position is going to be higher costs and reduced bargaining power for the government. 

And is the current meagre defence budget being spent in the best possible way to defend our shores? Are the big tickets items such as aircraft carriers at £6.2Bn each, Type 45 Destroyers at £1Bn each, F-35 jump jets at £105m each the best value for money? Or should we have been extending the life of our original carrier, keeping our Harrier Jump Jets, retaining the numbers within the ranks of our armed services, ordering more Typhoon Eurofighters and building a more joined up capability that takes in the modern aspects of cyber-warfare too?  

A cross-service approach to look at what we need to defend our island on land, on sea and in the air, together with looking at the capabilities within the technological, engineering and manufacturing sector of the UK’s industrial base is surely the way to go – particularly within a post-BREXIT Britain where we will need to rely upon our own independence even further. Smaller ticket items to match the requirements of a full cross-service capability need identifying and enacting now – we don’t want to be caught out as almost happened in the 1930s in a world that is rapidly changing. And this would be good for UK business too; creating jobs, paying salaries, encouraging consumer spending, generating tax for the government to spend on hospitals, schools, roads etc. as well as keeping and enhancing skill sets and technology that can be sold to other countries.

Monday 23 January 2017

Wolverhampton Civic Halls revamp to start as Shaylor Group is appointed Contractor





Refurbishment work on Wolverhampton’s Civic Halls will begin today following the appointment of Shaylor Group as contractor.


Enabling work on the grade II-listed venue was completed in 2016 and the £14.4m will boost its capacity.


A bar will also be installed above the main entrance of the Civic Hall.


Both the Civic Hall and Wulfrun Hall will reopen between October 2017 and January 2018 and the revamp is scheduled for full completion in October 2018.


John Reynolds, City of Wolverhampton Council cabinet member for city economy, said: "This is an exciting time in the project when we will begin to see real changes to the Civic Halls.


"The halls have been around since 1938 and are an important part of our visitor economy – providing jobs and generating millions of pounds every year by staging nationally acclaimed shows.


"As part of our regeneration plans for the city we recognised the Grade II listed building is in need of refurbishment, as well as improvement to ensure it remains a thriving venue to be proud of."

Tuesday 3 January 2017

Business groups' 2017 priorities


 
Carolyn Fairbairn, CBI Director-General, has jointly signed a letter alongside the heads of other UK business groups outlining their priorities for firms of all sizes and sectors for 2017.  

The letter below appears in The Sunday Telegraph:  

Dear Sir
 
2016 has been a year of unprecedented change for politics, society and for business. The decisions that will be made in the year ahead will shape the prospects for people, businesses and communities across the UK for generations to come.

We are committed to making 2017 a year of progress and success, and to working with the Government to shape a better economy. 

Industry input into the Brexit negotiations is critical. The Government must enter negotiations with the evidence it needs to understand the implications of the decisions and trade-offs that lie ahead. This evidence must be drawn from the on-the-ground experience of small, medium and large enterprises, which are committed, despite an uncertain business environment, to delivering the economic growth that creates jobs and funds our public services. 

A modern industrial strategy relies on a vision of our future shared between firms, the Government and society. By calling on all the experience and knowledge available across the UK, this new plan can transform our sectors and communities. 

Success in all these areas depends on an open and honest dialogue and we welcome the engagement we have had so far with the Government. Firms must work to be more transparent and build fairness into the heart of their operations, including their supply chains. The Government, employees and customers should champion the businesses that do this. 2017 must be the year when this open dialogue begins to deliver for Britain. 

We the undersigned commit to play our part, working with businesses from all corners of the UK, to seize the opportunities and overcome the challenges that lie ahead. 

Yours sincerely
 

Mike Cherry, National Chairman, Federation of Small Businesses 

Carolyn Fairbairn, Director-General, CBI 

Adam Marshall, Director-General, British Chambers of Commerce 

Terry Scuoler, CEO, EEF 

Simon Walker, Director-General, Institute of Directors