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There's nothing like a good clear out

1/7/2014

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So after over twenty years in our house we are on the move.  It took ages to find a buyer but a few weeks ago we struck a deal and we're on our way in August (fingers crossed).

"It's fine, we'll go into rented for a bit whilst we find somewhere, it'll be straightforward enough".  She said. Yeah right. We had a real family day yesterday packing up the kitchen, not all of it as we'll need some stuff until we go ...... six full - big packing cases later! The family were frazzled and tired (well I was OK as I'd been in meetings all day away) and there was a car load for the charity shop and a 'layer of stuff' in the bottom of the skip. What's it going to be like when we get to the loft!?

It got me thinking, what it would be like if businesses did this on a regular basis and maybe countries?

When I worked at ASDA, Archie Norman arranged a 'clear out day' and everyone had to clear their office cupboards, files, desks and what not.  All 2000 people in the dream factory had to get involved. We had a line of skips right across the car park and got rid of tons and tons (literally) of 'crap'. It was hard work but amazing and created a real buzz with all the teams around HQ.  It also made us a lot more efficient. For a while at least.

So, what about UK plc?  We have this confounded coalition, which sounded cool but hasn't been that good overall.  They've reneged on various promises and spent too much time dealing with the inevitable squabbles.  There's an election next year, so why don't we encourage the politicians to throw out their crap, become more efficient (for a while at least) and maybe then they'll be worth voting for?

Everyone get involved. Chuck out your crap ................... it's great!


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I quite like the UK but I don't use most of it ......

16/5/2011

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So you might have heard that Apple got into a spot of bother recently because they 'forgot' to tell iPhone owners that their 'Mobi' was constantly logging their location and saving it to a mysterious file in their phone, on their computer and at Apple HQ on that deserted island in the middle of the tropical sea, the one that the top of the mountain comes off (actually that's not true, I was just winding you up, I believe the data was only recorded on your phone and PC).  Here's the Guardians coverage in case you don’t know what I’m on about. Now this may worry a lot of people, you know those types that are 'getting up to no good' (the miscreants) and those that just don’t like firms like Apple doing their big brother act on them (the liberty warriors).  Personally I wasn't that fussed because I don't spend every minute of the day looking over my shoulder and so ferreted out a nifty bit of software that maps the results from that 'secret' file and I have to say it was quite cool. If you are interested, here's a link to my UK map (it covers the world - but who wants to know where I’ve been on holiday and which European cities I’ve been to?) click here for the map.  The thing that struck me, and it’s obvious when you think about it, is how much of our fair land we (well I) don't actually 'use' - ever.  My map shows me spending time in a sort of big 'T' from Liverpool to Hull and down to London.  No surprises there, its where most of the big cities are and I spend a lot of my time working with businesses that are based in the main populations.  The thing that spiked my interest was seeing the actual data on a map.  Looking at the image, I reckon I only actually use about 10% of the UK. So, any ideas what to do with the other 90%?
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    Andy Brown
    Husband, father,
    gadget freak 
    and
    business helper
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