This week's blogs: too cool for school

I hope my colleagues don’t mind if I keep humming ‘School’s Out For Summer’ by Alice Cooper. Yes, at long last, I’ve passed my final case study. And not only do I never again have to sit another exam (and what a satisfying feeling that is), I am also set up for life! Well, that might be an exaggeration, but that’s the sort of sunny mood I’m in.

It’s funny to think that I am now a fully qualified chartered accountant. Joining this select group of respected people feels like one of those achievements that are milestones in your life, and it was a particular relief to learn that a bowler hat and black umbrella are no longer compulsory parts of the uniform. We are even allowed to be interesting these days, apparently.

Anyway, now that the world is at my feet, my initial plan is to try and get a secondment within my firm.

At the moment, corporate recovery looks like a good bet, not just because the economic crisis is causing something of a boom in that area of business, but also because the work itself looks interesting, varied and you get to help struggling businesses back on their feet. It sounds like a good way to get job satisfaction, doesn’t it?

Daniel Chown, qualified CA at PKF
younggun.accountancyage.com

There is renewed hope that LDV could yet be rescued, with a number of ‘very credible parties’ bidding. One factor that might encourage retention in the UK is LDV’s special vehicles operation, which makes tailored vans for customers such as Royal Mail, on the track without the delay and cost of converting finished vehicles.

But, if a better offer comes from someone planning to rip out the Maxus presses and tooling and shift it all abroad, that’s what will happen. The administrator wants to claw back as much money as they can; they are not paid to have consciences, no matter how much they might want a happy outcome for LDV, its 850 employees and suppliers.

This raises the wider question of whether the UK has the right institutional arrangements in place for dealing with these situations, though this is not to question the professionalism and skill of the PwC administrators.

The point here is that there is no evaluation of the public interest in the UK’s administration process in terms of jobs and economic development. All in all, we need a review of how well the administration process works and whether we can learn from procedures elsewhere. The danger is that without such a change, we will continue to lose viable companis that might have been saved.

Professor David Bailey works at Coventry University Business School
blogs.birminghampost.net/business