Saturday 28 July 2007

The Great North-South Divide

Jim Symcox interviewed me yesterday. He asked how events that I ran (for Barclays) in the North compared with the South - a loaded question, I suspect, as he runs the Manchester Blog.

To quote from the interview:

  1. Northerners are more friendly, more chatty and more blunt, or straight forward (eg Oldham)
  2. Southerners are less accessible, they’re “lean back” people rather than “lean forward”
  3. Londoners are very much busier, everyone is time poor and has shorter attention spans

Before everyone 'flames' me, please note that these were huge generalisations!

In the full interview I also talked about the provinces - I believe that the best business networks are usually found in the smaller cities and towns (eg Truro, Newmarket), slightly off the beaten track: the business community is smaller, tighter and tends to work harder and more together.

But the fact is that doing business is different in different parts of the country. So, are you a Northern business or a Southern business? How does it affect how you do business with others? Could you be missing a trick?

Prove me wrong! Sign up to one of the forthcoming Let's Talk events and get me to eat my hat!

RELATED BLOG COMMENT:
Newmarket Let's Talk Event : "one of the best! but why?"
North and South Divide Reveals Attitude

RELATED LINKS:
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2 comments:

Jim Symcox said...

Hi Robert, thanks for the great interview which obviously had no "business school bollocks" in it.

Actually the question wasn't really loaded because as a Southerner myself, but an adopted Northerner, I was interested to hear your view because you'd been up and down the country with your seminars.

Jim

PS like the blog colour scheme

Unknown said...

Artisan Communications make the point that I am making sweeping generalisations in the original interview - I wholeheartedly agree - see their blog at
http://artisanmc.blogspot.com/2007/07/north-south-business-divide.html
"In terms of people, generalisations are always dangerous. When you think you have a fool proof formula, an exception comes along to challenge it."

Robert