Hunting for green shoots..

It is among the favourite pastimes people fall back on during a recession : the hunt for signs of a recovery in the economy. On all too many occasions, the treasure hunt turns out to be a fruitless exercise. Nevertheless, the very act of engaging in such activities can be good for morale.

The best place to look for good things is in the area of exports. In recent weeks, the graph for new export orders has turned up after a lengthy period of decline. This is occurring while much of the domestic economy remains in the doldrums.

A recent profile of the recruitment sector in the publication, Business Plus, is instructive. According to one interviewee, Fergal Brosnan of the Berkeley Group, “we are already seeing companies who shed staff beginning to come back looking for temporary and contract staff, with a view to full time employment.. we believe that many companies are over culled and are struggling to deliver to a more demanding client.”

Talking to Mr Brosnan, last week, he suggests that the momentum in his business has been maintained, the company enjoying its busiest week since the first quarter of 2008.  

Elsewhere, the response is more cautious with leading hirers such as KPMG indicating that clients remain cautious.

According to Mr Brosnan, the rebound in activity is strong in IT, and commercial, with sales people in particular demand.

Interestingly, recruitment by Pharma and life science firms, here, has slowed. This trend is probably related to the wave of mergers currently tasking place in the sector. Economies, of course, run in cycles and are heavily influenced by factors such as confidence. Nothing goes on forever, bad as well as good.

New to the board.

An interesting opinion piece by life and pensions specialist, Colm Fagan in the September issue of Finance Dublin. 

Mr Fagan, describes his experiences as a neophyte on the board of a financial institution. “As a new non executive, the fist thing you realise is how little you know about the internal workings of the company to which you are appointed. Every organisation is unique, has its own special culture.”

In his view, there has been insufficient recognotion of the need for non execs to gain a good prior understanding of the business.

Colm Fagan goes on to suggest that “directors should have been more persistent and sceptical in challenging claims that risk ( in finance ) had been tamed or eliminated.” Few would quarrel with that sentiment. But he goes on to make this interesting point :

“Life can be difficult for the cerebral types in this environment where the ultimate put down can be : ‘That’s an academic point.” In his view, “one of the main lessons of this crisis is that directors, particularly non executive directors, cannot allow their powers of judgement and commonsense to be subverted by fancy mathematical models and financial legerdermain. They must not be afraid to ask the blindingly obvious question.”