Having managed businesses through five recessions during my working life, I think I can reasonably claim to have been there, done that and got the tee shirt – although I also acknowledge that each new recession requires a new tee shirt!

As a result, I have the benefit of hindsight to know that many of my past cost cutting decisions were not the right thing for the business, either at the time or in the longer term.

Even in a recession the well worn saying “you’ve got to speculate to accumulate” holds true. It’s important to note that I don’t mean speculate in the sense of making high risk investments, but simply in terms of investing in potential future benefit, without absolute certainty about the outcome.

It’s on this matter of certainty that I think the whole thing really turns. Recessions are, by their nature, periods of uncertainty. No one is quite sure what will happen next, and this current one seems to be particularly prone to uncertainty. We’re hearing widely differing views emanating from a range of “experts”, and often several inconsistent opinions being expressed by the same person or group in just a matter of days.

It’s entirely natural that the people responsible for the success of businesses want to try and create some level of certainty and stability. They see one way of doing this as cutting costs - “saving” money – which appears to be safer than spending when you not quite sure what’s coming next. This is a completely valid viewpoint that in many, many cases is absolutely the right thing to do.

The problem arises when reducing expenditure becomes a dogma that no longer allows for imaginative investment, even in projects with a high likelihood of contributing significantly to the business’s short-term performance. The “we are undertaking no new expenditure for the next 6 months” approach, which appears quite widespread at the moment, simply fails to recognise that some projects can have immediate benefit and will contribute directly to increasing the stability of the business, rather than undermining it.

One area where carefully considered investment can produce huge benefit, and knee jerk cost cutting results in decimation, is people development. I know it’s a cliché, but whether or not they authentically acknowledge it, every business’s most important asset is their people.

The people are the one “asset” that has the ability to consciously decide for itself what its level of production will be, and the vast majority of people actually want to do what they do to the best of their ability. Well-crafted methods that support them in this are rarely wasted, particularly during a downturn.

On top of that, the simple fact that many of your competitors are currently holding back on their spending gives you an even greater advantage.

You gain a double benefit – the growth that you will always get from well thought out people development initiatives, plus the extra gap that is created by the competition’s lack of investment.

We talked about ways to open up the project to seriously widespread collaboration via the web. The idea of  bringing thousands of minds to bear on some of the world’s big issues is completely inspiring. We cannot not let this happen!

I do love being involved in big and inspiring games.

However, this is really the end of a good story…..

On Monday of the previous week I had wandered out from Brick Lane to Spitalfields to find some lunch. As I passed some bike racks I noticed a messenger bag sitting propped against one of the bikes. I ignored it at first, but then as it didn’t seem to have an owner around I said to the friend I was with, “I’m going to check that bag out - it looks like the kind of bag that could have a laptop in it, and if I don’t do something, then whoever it belongs to will probably never see it again.”

After gingerly lifting one corner to look for wires, I opened it properly and sure enough there was a laptop inside. I poked around to see if I could find some id and felt this squishy object and knew without seeing it what it was. I pulled out an envelope containing a very substantial wad of cash! Off I went to the police station in Bishopsgate and handed it in.

On the Wednesday morning the police called to say the owner had been traced and would like to thank me personally for handing it in, and gave me his contact details. I called him a few minutes later and we had a long chat about how he’d left the bag there in the first place, why I’d actually chosen to return to it and the results that had fallen out of these actions for each of us. Always one to recognise synchronicity I suggested we meet up for a coffee to discover “why” we’d bumped into each other’s lives like this. Which is how I ended up in the Hoxton Apprentice.

We discovered we have loads of things in common, some almost spookily so, and will be meeting up again soon - this time simply because we’re becoming friends.

So all in all, it worked out very well. I got to do my bit for another human being, he got his bag back, we’ve both got a new friend, and I discovered an excellent restaurant. And he also gave me a really lovely present to thank me for what I’d done.

And the sun shone for the only day this week, so we could sit outside and enjoy a leisurely lunch!

It’s a fascinating and fun book that looks at the poor choices we tend to make in all sorts of everyday decisions, often because we are influenced by natural biases, misconceptions and inertia.

The authors suggest that these behaviours are simply part of being human. However, they  go on to  demonstrate that by understanding how people think, we can design choice environments (or Nudges) that make it easier for them to choose what is best for themselves, their families, and their society.

I particularly like their concept of “choice architecture” - structuring choices in ways that nudge us in beneficial directions without restricting freedom of choice.

Definitely worth a read/listen.

Find the book at Amazon and the audio at Audible.

Also, listen and watch Richard Thaler talking about Nudge at the RSA.

On the business front it’s a great place to place to hold relaxed meetings, particulalrly outside peak times.

They’re all over London, take a look at the website for locations.

Thoroughly recomended - try it!