Choice quotes (entertainment edition)

Some of the most entertaining (as entertaining as it gets!) quotes from interviews with economic folks in my Ph.D...!!! read on:

IIP is tired!

“Investors in People is ‘tired’, and it is not really up to US company standards. We know this as we have here in many US multinational HQs in our area. If you tried to get them to do IiP, they would laugh at it’s crudity!” (this is from 1997!)

EU regional funds at odds with national policy! never!

“We have EU funding, which seems to be at odds with national policy... There’s a fundamental dichotomy between what the EU wants, which is jobs and output driven, and what you need to do - which is market- led.”

Crap managers in EDOs! I can sympathise...

“I think the [lack of attention to company management in development organisations] may be due to a large dollop of public money which enables this attitude. [Here] we’re very resource aware, and we don’t have any staff who sit and do nothing. The effective management of people and resources is essential.”

Yup the rich ones are the ones who won't let anyone else near their toybox...

“There’s a lot of money available. If you can get funds for your own agency, then you don’t really need to talk to other people.”

ah the dilemmas of performance reporting...

“In Business Links and TECs, targets are set by civil servants. They use the number of business and client enquiries as a measure of performance. This is like Heinz judging their success on who has seen the ads, instead of basing it on sales.”

The economic development mafia is what I prefer to call it... watch out for concrete boots...

“economic development is full of fiefdoms held by individuals, especially at higher levels.”

The Bill Shankly of bloody economic development... classic

That’s what the secret is - it’s all about people, and all you need to do is bring in good people. And if you bring in good people and you look after them, they will look after the company and the company can look after the area. I mean, maybe I’m the Bill Shankly of bloody economic development, but it’s as simple as that!”

German skills problems in ED...

Many of the people who are involved in regional development are hopelessly under-qualified, very limited in their outlook, don’t have the know-how to get projects going, have no strategic feeling, no real capacity for management of processes... You have the mismatch between jobs, jobs and the people who are actually involved in economic development. I shouldn’t use words like these, as they are emotional, but a blockhead is a blockhead, and there’s so many blockheads that are so ignorant really.” (from Germany)!

ED dictators...

“I feel that in many of those organisations there’s a wee measure of arrogance in there... Everyone’s a lesser in their eyes... what really compounds the felony is that in my view, a significant preponderance of those people who are employed by XYZ tend in their hearts to be top-down, tend in their hearts to be prescriptive, and tend to feel that they know the solutions and that their approach is to impose those solutions upon an unsuspecting and often unwilling community.”

This is my favourite one "you know where the smoking gun is... its in my hand!" classic. We should resurrect John Ford to make a movie...

“Every organisation needs it's creative geniuses - the dreamers - the people that put their finger in their mouth and just think about things. but... I [am not a dreamer], I just look after the company... In here you know where the smoking gun is - it's in my hand.”

I couldn't agree more, and I am writing these strategies too...

“People often think that having a strategy is having a document. Well they are wrong, because it’s got to implemented, which many of them don’t do.”