Sunday, December 30, 2012

Talent Pool

August 23, 2010
For an informed view on connected entertainment in the UK & Ireland, visit Cue Entertainment 


The cutback in university places apparently has left up to 150,000 students in limbo. Some achieved top grades but had cold water poured unexpectedly on their hopes and expectations, and must ponder their next move. 
Although the majority will be avid consumers of content, many will not give a second thought to a career in the industry that provides it. Unprompted, few of the A-grade school-leavers of 2010 will likely contemplate a career in packaged media or digital content distribution.

Yet among the young people who did not get a place on a degree course this year there are some who could prove a valuable long-term asset to potential employers in the home entertainment supply chain. The investment in employing the brightest of them will be considerably lower and possibly more cost-effective than recruiting them subsequently as graduates.

Management taking the longer view will be aware of the advantage to be gained from giving new employees an early grounding in what makes the company tick. In addition to the opportunity for the employer to study how the new entrant performs in a variety of situations, the individual learns the business from the inside with commensurate benefits as he or she climbs the ladder.

In a period of rapid transition, the need for management to understand the motivation of the younger generation is ever more important. The buying habits consumers form in their teens will carry through to their 20s and shape the market for a decade to come.

It will be a world in which the ability to understand and manage change in retailing will be more important than ever. How many of the senior management in British companies aspire to own an iPad, let alone know how to use one? Even those who are up-to-date might find it hard to decide whether it is a passing fad for Apple enthusiasts or a market-changer that will spawn a whole new category. More important, how exactly do you monetise the delivery of digital content to such devices?

The class of 2010 is highly computer literate despite the fact that its interests might lie elsewhere. Gone are the days when anyone with the ability to download and install an application risked being branded a geek. Even if their A-levels are in law, biology or economics, school leavers are savvy about social networks and smart phones, adept in using Twitter, and capable of cramming more information into 160 characters than older generations ever dreamed possible. These are the potential candidates this week wondering where they go from here.

Few of us could say that we set out with a burning ambition to reach the position we occupy today. Tomorrow’s home entertainment category directors, supply chain managers and VMI specialists probably don’t know that these jobs exist let alone what career path they would need to follow to reach a senior position. Companies within the sector should take a close look at their recruitment policies in the months to come. Only by attracting the stars of tomorrow to their ranks will they ensure that the next generation of home entertainment enthusiasts will be their customers.

While there’s no guarantee that sustained growth will be back on the agenda anytime soon, there are signs that demand is picking up again on the high street. The Office of National Statistics (ONS) published figures that show a month-on-month increase in retail sales of 1.1% in July. Following 16 consecutive months of year-on-year decline, July saw the first glimmer of growth for the music, video recordings and equipment sector, which was 0.2% up compared to the same month in 2009.

London continues to outperform most other areas, in part as a result of tourists attracted by the lower value of the pound, according to a report last week from property agents Cushman & Wakefield, which also shows that retail occupancy increased in July.

The top high streets in Britain saw availability drop from 12.6% in August 2009 to 9.8% on Aug. 1 with South West England and Wales outperforming the rest of the country. The report signals an artificial boost to sales in the period before the VAT rise in January, which might distort the figures and lead to a short-term spike in retail sales over the Christmas period. Although this will be matched by a decline in spending in Q1 of 2011, the report’s authors say that as long as consumers retain confidence in the government’s handling of the economy, and interest rates remain low, spending might not suffer adversely.

The demand for home entertainment is set to increase no matter how it is distributed. The incentive to recruit is diminished in times of recession but the average age of employees grows inexorably in any business whatever the economic situation. Unless there is a proactive attempt to enrich the decision-making process with the ideas and enthusiasm of the young, most organisations will not be ready for future growth.

As the saying goes: You have to keep running to stand still.

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