Catena Magazine October/November

FEBRUARY 2016
Issue 5: October/November 2017
SPORT AND BUSINESS
Notts Sport and Glamorgan
Cricket talk about this relationship
REFLECTION ON
A YEAR AS AN
INTERN
FIFTY IS THE
NEW FORTY
CDS on Career Crisises

CONTENTS PAGE
Editors Note
Upcoming Catena Events
Reflection on a year as an Intern
Sports and Business
Career Directed Solutions: Fifty is the new Forty
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Greetings
FROM THE
EDITOR
Hello and welcome to my final edition as Editor of the Catena
Magazine! As I am now in my Final Year of my degree at The
University of Nottingham, I am retiring from my role as Intern to
focus on my studies. I am incredibly grateful to Claire for this
amazing opportunity she has given me, and I am really proud of all
the magazines I have produced up to this point. A new intern will be
coming in to take my place so I'm really looking forward to seeing
how they move forward with the Magazine.
In this Mini-edition, we have words from Notts Sport and Glamorgan
Cricket on the relationship between Sports and Business; A fantastic
article from Nicky Smith at CDS on how to manage a career crisis
and an article from myself discussing the value of interns and a
reflection on the year that has passed.
I hope you enjoy reading this, and do send me any
feedback/comments to editor@catena-network.co.uk
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Upcoming events
Book all events HERE
9th November 6-8pm: CORPORATE WELLNESS - MILTON KEYNES
This is an informal networking event hosted with our friends from Tate
Recruitment, looking at ways of reducing sickness, improving productivity
and boosting staff morale with Gavin Denning of GWD Performance.
Please join us from 6pm when light refreshments will be served.
There is no fee to attend this event, however, registration is required.
Please contact Claire Bicknell in the event of any query claire@catenanetwork.co.uk
or telephone 07595 281315
22nd November 4pm: WINTER WONDERLAND - CENTER PARCS
SHERWOOD FOREST
We would like to invite you to join us with our good friends at Center Parcs
Sherwood Forest and experience their magical Winter Wonderland.
Join us in the Venue for a hot chocolate whilst networking with others.
It will then be time to wrap up warm before heading over to the lake to
watch the spectacular fireworks display.
The agenda that we will be working to:-
4.00pm Arrival at Village and Hot Chocolate in the Venue
4.30pm Hot Chocolate and Networking
6.00pm Fireworks
6.30pm Leave Village
There is not cost to attend this event but booking is essential. For further
information please contact Claire Bicknell claire@catena-network.co.uk or
telephone 07595 281315
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28th November 6-8pm: MULLED WINE & MINCE PIES -
NOTTINGHAMSHIRE HOSPICE
Help us start the corporate Christmas season (well, we know that corporate
festive events start well before December!) with Mulled Wine and Mince Pies
together with our friends at Nottinghamshire Hospice.
The event will be held in the attractive day therapy room, overlooking the
hospice's floodlit gardens, where we will be joined by the Hospice Choir as
they perform traditional carols.
This is a great opportunity to learn more about the amazing role the hospice
undertakes and to break down barriers towards hospice care.
There is no charge to attend the event but there will be the opportunity to
buy raffle tickets to support the Hospice's work.
29th November 4pm: WINTER WONDERLAND - LONGLEAT FOREST
We would like to invite you to join our good friends at Center Parcs Longleat
Forest and experience their magical Winter Wonderland.
Join us in the Venue for a hot chocolate whilst networking with others.
It will then be time to wrap up warm before heading over to the lake to watch
the spectacular fireworks display.
The agenda that we will be working to:-
4.00pm Arrival at Village and Hot Chocolate in the Venue
4.30pm Hot Chocolate and Networking
6.00pm Fireworks
6.30pm Leave Village
There is no charge to attend this event although booking is required.
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4th December: 4:30pm: POST-BREXIT BRIDGE BUILDING: A FIRST LOOK
AT GOVERNMENT PROPOSALS FOR EU NATIONALS LIVING AND WORKING
IN THE UK POST-BREXIT
Are you an EU national living, working or studying in the UK?
Are you a concerned business owner or HR professional, wondering how
some of your workforce might be impacted in post-brexit Britain? Be one of
the first to hear about the government’s latest proposals for EU nationals
living and working in the UK post- brexit!
The University of Derby is delighted to announce that on 6th December at
4:30pm they will host Thalej Vasishta, CEO and senior solicitor at Paragon
Law, who will provide the latest details and Immigration Rules to employ
international students. In his extremely current and topical talk, Thalej will
focus on the following areas:
1. The current Rules governing international students working during
studies;
2. Visa categories that allow international students to switch status to work
or do business In the UK;
3. The requirements to be satisfied by employers to be able to employ
international students and EU nationals;
4. There will also be an update on the government’s latest proposals for EU
nationals living and working in the UK post- brexit.
This is a fantastic opportunity for students, businesses, HR professionals and
recruiters who wish to address some current uncertainty as well as providing
a great opportunity to network with others in the community.
There is no charge to attend this event for Catena members and guests of
University of Derby, for all other attendees there is a small charge of £10
which will be invoiced following registration. Please contact Claire Bicknell
claire@catena-network.co.uk or telephone 07595 281315 for any further
information.
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A Y E A R A S
A N I N T E R N
It can be difficult to know where to start when looking for work experience
and internships whilst at University, and is often a very daunting task,
especially considering the likelihood of repeated rejection.
When I decided to apply for a placement with Catena Network through the
School of English at UoN, I had already been rejected from various other
placements I had applied for. This meant I applied for the role as Editor with
a certain sense of trepidation. Nonetheless, when reading the profile I
realised how suitable this role would be for me, spurring me on to research
more about the company and do some preparatory work before my
interview, something I would always advise people going for interviews,
since it shows you’re passionate about the job.
I was incredibly lucky to be offered the job with Catena, and I quickly
realised my passion for designing and editing. I was already apart of the Uni
magazine, Impact, so writing and editing articles was second nature to me,
but having the opportunity to write all my own content, and have the free
reign to design a magazine was incredibly exciting. Since December, I have
produced six editions of the Catena Magazine, as well as taking on the role as
Editor of the weekly Catenary newsletter, an undeniably brilliant
opportunity and experience.
I would highly recommend doing an internship, because of all the fantastic
skills I have gained, all of which look great on the CV. I’ve had the
opportunity to attend Networking Events, interview CEO’s of Businesses,
write articles, design magazine pages and so much more.
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THE RELATIONSHIP
BETWEEN SPORT AND
BUSINESS
Sports and Business as two different entities are not concepts I would have
put together in my head prior to researching for this article, but with so
many Sports Businesses within the Catena Network and the omnipresence
of sport in the media at the moment, it seemed only natural to pursue this
train of thought.
In many ways, Sport and Business compare in that they are team-work
focused, require leadership and requires all players/workers to maintain a
sharp eye ‘on the ball’ in order to get that all-important ‘win’. I was interested
in how Sport can help the local economy, so I spoke to Professor Brian
Morgan from Cardiff Met Business School, who wrote a report for Glamorgan
Cricket on what they have done to contribute to the local area and what
revenue they have managed to create as a result.
“Our assessment of the total impact of cricket in Cardiff is based on the
application of proven economic assessment methods to on-site and off-site
expenditures. Having analysed the data provided by Glamorgan Cricket, we
estimate that:
- Around £7.7m of the economic benefit is generated directly through on-site
expenditure after leakages from Wales are taken into account. This sustains
an estimated 82 jobs.
- Supply chain and wage spending by employees adds an estimated
£3.0m and sustains the equivalent of a further full time 25 jobs, most of
them in the Cardiff region.
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- Consequently, the direct, indirect and induced impacts of on-site spending
are a contribution of nearly £11m to Gross Value Added in a typical year. This
helps to sustain the equivalent of about 110 full time jobs.
- Further expenditures occur off-site in hotels, restaurants and tourist
attractions. This is estimated to contribute about £8m to GVA with an
employment impact equivalent to about 120 full time jobs.
What has Glamorgan Cricket done to increase revenue in the local area?
Redevelopment started in April 2007 and on 4th March 2008, Glamorgan
Cricket announced a 10 year sponsorship deal with SSE SWALEC worth
£1.5m.
The gates opened for the first time on Friday 9th May 2008 when the club
played Gloucestershire in a Friends Provident Trophy match. Since then the
stadium has hosted two Test matches, 8 One-Day-Internationals, five ICC
Champions Trophy fixtures and T20 Finals as well as 281 days of domestic
cricket.
Recently renamed as the SSE SWALEC, it continues to meet its primary
business purpose of accommodating paying spectators of first class and
international cricket matches whilst providing a home for Glamorgan Cricket
Club and Cricket Wales who coach players and promote participation in the
game of cricket throughout Wales.
Also, with its capacity to accommodate a wide range of business and social
functions the stadium is promoted as a multi-purpose facility set in parkland
alongside the River Taff, close to the centre of Cardiff, and the Cardiff Capital
Region. Hotels, leisure, shopping and entertainments are in walking distance
and access by public and private transport is straightforward.
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The India ODI in 2014 attracted 13,236 spectators. 51% were estimated to have
come from outside Wales with about 30% as day visitors. It is likely that about
10% of the total stayed overnight with friends and 10% used hotel or B&B
accommodation.
This compares with about 65,000 people expected to have attended the First
Investec Ashes Test of 2015 of whom 62% were expected to have come from
outside Wales and a higher percentage to make overnight stays in hotels and
B&Bs–with even higher restaurant use. Whilst an average year with 190,000
days of attendances might generate 19,000 overnight stays in hotels, a year
with several international matches and 215,000 days of attendances will
attract more visitors from outside Wales and perhaps up to 40,000 overnight
stays.
Therefore, assuming offsite expenditure by a local visitor to be £45 per day
and £300 for overnight stayers the total off site expenditure by 1.5m attendees
will have been in the region of £106m since 2008 assuming only 10% making
an overnight stay. This means that for an average year since 2008 the off-site
expenditure will have been around £15m p.a.
Whilst, in a year that includes the Ashes, it might reach about £18m. The
difference in expenditure on-site between an Ashes year and an average year
is likely to be up to £2m. So, with off-site expenditure differing by around
£3m it means that an Ashes year is likely to put £5m more into the economy
than an average year. However, focussing on the average year the
expenditures flowing into the economy are estimated to be £7m from onsite
activity and £15m from off-site activity.
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What are your plans for the future?
Assessing the economic value of this activity leads us to conclude that the
total economic impact currently being delivered by the SSE SWALEC is
around £19m (GVA) p.a., sustaining 230 jobs with most of these being
generated in the Cardiff City Region.
The first Investec Ashes Test of 2015 is likely to add a further £5m of economic
value taking the total impact up to around £24m this year. But, to maximise the
future economic benefits of sporting activity in the Capital Region the Ashes
Test should not be viewed in isolation. Other high profile global sporting
events will be hosted in the Cardiff region over the next 5 years.
These include Rugby World Cup matches taking place in 2015 and the World
Half Marathon Championship being hosted in 2016. The ICC Champions
Trophy takes place in 2017 alongside the Champions League Football Final. The
world leading Volvo Ocean Race returns to UK waters and Cardiff Bay in 2017-
18 and the ICC Cricket World Cup is in 2019.”
As Glamorgan have shown, Sport is hugely beneficial to the local economy, but
what about Sporting Businesses? I also had a chat to Duncan Bennett from
Notts Sport:
Why sports? What was the lure of creating a sports business?
“Notts Sport were set up in 1984 so the decision at the time would have been
quite different to creating a sports business in today’s political and economic
situation. Since 1984, we have evolved our service offer and product range to
suit changing market conditions and are currently doing this to suit the
economic circumstances both now and that are likely to change over the
coming years.”
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Do you think sports businesses are generally more successful? Why?
“I think sports businesses experience exactly the same type of impact, positive
and negative, as any other type of business. It is fair to suggest that because the
sport & leisure market is a key area in times of recession, sometimes the
austerity in front line public services takes longer to reach the play and sport
sector but it still gets there eventually. As a consequence, sport & leisure has
areas that do experience growth over and above other sectors and industries
but I can’t suggest that sports businesses per se are more successful than any
other sector that has growth potential and of course there are plenty out
there.”
How easy is it to market sport/a sports business?
“Notts Sport focus heavily on marketing and it is increasingly tough as more
and more companies in our industries see the benefits of good quality
marketing. This means that we try to innovate and do things differently so that
we stand out from our competitors. In this sense, I think marketing in our
industry is no different to any other – it is presenting what you do in a way that
is consistent with your brand position (either existing or aspiring) so that it is
attractive to the customer and in a way that makes you stand out from
competitors.”
Why do sports and business go so well together?
“Blimey good question! I think it is for any number of socio-economic reasons
that would take up whole essays and books and require far cleverer minds than
mine to give a reasoned & informed answered. At the risk of trivialising,
perhaps it boils down to the fact that sport plays such an important part in our
daily lives whether we like it or not.
As a result, over the past 30 or so years in particular, government, industry and
business has seen that level of interest across the world & helped to harness it
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across a wide and diverse range of sectors involved in the delivery of sport (in
all senses of the phrase). This, in turn, has created huge sums of money in
some sectors (e.g. TV rights, apparel etc.) and by association it has resulted in
smaller, niche industries such as the synthetic sports construction industry of
which we are a part. Doing something that you love being a part of always helps
in any walk of life so sport & business go hand in hand as a result.”
So, as has been shown, there’s no denying that Sport plays a huge role in many
people’s lives - not just economically or politically, but in terms of our own
well-being, and happiness. Investing in sport will undoubtedly reap rewards
for future generations and as I have now learnt, Sports and Business go hand in
hand far more than I realised!
Emily Harbottle
Visit Glamorgan Cricket at www.glamorgancricket.com
Visit Notts Sport at www.nottssport.co.uk
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FIFTY IS THE
NEW
FORTY
By Nicky Smith, Career Directed Solutions
If Fifty is the new forty, why do so many of us have a ‘career crisis’ when
faced with job hunting in the prime of our lives? And, will our ‘millennial’
colleagues face the same challenges when they reach the ripe old age of
fifty? More importantly, what can we do about it?
Those born today in the UK have a life expectancy of 107, their working
lives will be long (around 60 years) and varied (at least 3 distinct careers),
starting a new career at 50 won’t be unusual, neither will taking a career
break to retrain or even recharge and thoughts of retirement will, most
likely, be reserved for octogenarians.
Organisations will need to think differently in the future about ‘career
management’, age and life-stage will no longer be synonymous and
managers will need to tune-in to their individual team members, with
greater emphasis on individual career drivers and work/life planning.
Some things we do right now;
Don’t make assumptions: it’s easy to fall prey to our unconscious bias and
make assumptions based on current societal norms (age and life-stage), we
are already seeing people working and adding significant value well into
their 70’s, so don’t assume someone in their fifties is hankering after
retirement.
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Anyone can be hi-potential: high potential programmes were conceived as
‘fast-track’ development for bright ‘young’ things. In my experience, this is
already changing, with more companies investing in career development
across a broader age spectrum but it’s worth thinking about whether you
could be doing more to engage, develop and retain the fifty-something
knowledge-custodians in your business.
Create opportunities for shared-learning: You don’t have to formally
introduce mentoring/reverse mentoring for people of all ages share learning.
Create a culture that values diversity and the enabling conditions for joint
working and people will learn from each-other.
Build a diverse leadership team: Is your leadership team representative of
the workforce in age, gender and ethnicity? If not, how might this influence
succession planning?
Be kind to leavers: organisational change is unavoidable, redundancy is
mainstream and yet, many people in their fifties are experiencing it for the
first time. We speak to people on a daily basis with over 20 years’ service in
one company, who find job hunting baffling and are suffering a drop in
confidence as a result of consultation ‘processes’ which leave them feeling
cold. Remember the people at the heart of the process and make sure line
managers feel comfortable in supporting their teams through what is
inevitably a difficult time for everyone.
Finally, be kind to yourself. If you’re reading this as someone who has had a
long and successful career and you’re looking for your next move (through
redundancy or otherwise), you are good enough, you do have valuable skills
and experience to offer and you will find a new role. You will also
experience a few knock-backs along the way, that’s normal – the secret is to
not only find the organisation looking for the things you offer, but also the
one that’s the right fit for you.
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Nicky is an HR specialist with more than 16 years’ experience working with
250+ organisations, ranging in size from multi-nationals to SMEs, in both
the public and private sectors. Her areas of speciality include career
development, change management, leadership and talent management.
Email nicky@careerds.co.uk to discuss career management in more detail
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