Sarah sails the Solent!

Sarah joined with other members of the 100 Property Club on 4th October to enjoy a days sailing and networking on the Solent before the winter weather set in.  The day was brilliantly organised by Jeremy Needs and members included Ian Brown, Gavin Maber, David Tuffin, and Geoff Davis.

Market your way out of recession

I was reading Building magazine a year or two ago, you know the section “Building buys a pint”, and the usual senior people were present, but also their business development manager.  Anyway, the journalist from Building magazine asks “What exactly is business development”, and then silence ... no comment recorded.  “Was there any answer to this question?”  I asked myself.

This got me thinking...

If the key premise of any business is profitable growth, then surely one of the most important Board level roles has to be someone responsible for growth.  Yet how many construction companies or professional consultancy firms have people who are qualified and Board-level advising on sales and marketing?  If the Building industry doesn’t recognise or understand this important role, then perhaps the individuals who are employed in a business development capacity have failed somehow to impart the relevance and importance of the role.  Or is it that the title ‘Business Development’ is so broad and covers such a wide range of disciplines and activities that people aren’t quite sure how it delivers ROI?

Even our own industry publication doesn’t know what Business Development is... There are after all many Business Development people out there in the industry – but they cannot all be good at everything.  After all “isn’t the Business Development role supposed to do all of that stuff involving Marketing and Sales?”  Yet, how many people do you know that are good at truly good at it all?

So I sought to define it, after all, I do have 20 years experience in the role... And, after considerable thought, reflection, research and development and then a year of product ‘test marketing’ I believe I have defined business development into 5 key stages...,And I’ve developed a pretty little icon to help me explain it to you.

I often meet consultancy firms who say that their Directors do their Business Development – they don’t need to employ anyone at all in the BD role.  And, I suppose it comes down to aspirations and your medium term business plan  ... have they ever thought how much bigger and more profitable they could be if they did employ a BD on their strategy?  So, I’ve developed the Chapman Consulting view of what constitutes Business Development.

And, guess what - we’ve developed an amazing auditing tool made up of over 100 questions which enables us to assess very quickly where we would recommend you invest your time and money in terms of sales and marketing activity.

And, guess what – we deliver it to you in a month ... yes just four weeks!  Your marketing manager probably takes 6 months to do that and will cost you over £30,000!  We charge considerably less.

And, we have a brilliant team of associates with many years industry experience just ready to pounce on any little problems that are encountered as you ‘grow’ and ‘develop’ your business.

And, you don’t have to employ them on your books, nor train them, nor micro-manage them, nor deal with them being sick, pregnant, incompetent!

So, what have you got to lose – call me to book a meeting and find out how you can Market your Way out of Recession?

Chapman Consulting wins Web Site Rebrand project for professional consultancy firm

Chapman Consulting are delighted to announce we have been appointed by a leading firm of surveyors to rebrand their web site and develop a marketing strategy for a new business stream identified through our market research on regulatory changes in the surveying market.  This strategy will be rolled out in 2012 commencing with a rebrand of their web site for 2011/2012. 

A walk in The (Olympic) Park

Yesterday we pulled off a bit of a coup! In our capacity as organisers of the Interact London Second group; we gained exclusive access to the top management team of the Olympic Park Legacy Company with an invitation-only seminar delivered by Rosanna Laws the Director of Development. 

The OPLC Real Estate Manager, Ben Murphy, followed up with a dedicated tour of the Park itself.  There were so many interesting facts around the development of this key project for East London; most notably the focus here is on its long term use and the legacy of the site.  It currently houses the accommodation for the vast International press entourage and many of the officials involved in the events  Of course the main stadia - The Olympic Stadium whose legacy is in the balance but looks set to be with West Ham United Football Club standing strong next to the helterskelter of the Orbit designed by artist Anish Kapoor and engineered by Cecil Balmond - semi-completed but already impressive.  The Velodrome which will continue to generate income long after the games and its adjacent BMX park that will bring joy to many young people free of charge. The AquaPark with its impossibly suspended ceiling is an engineering masterpiece.  But in spite of the Park still being a vast building site - it is 85% complete - you can really feel the community of this area taking shape.  Colourful walkways and bridges are designed to pull all elements together; alongside the planned 2,800 homes, including 1,379 affordable ones, there is vast green space and wetland that will not only provide an excellent environment for residents and those using the park but will also encourage flora and fauna that might not have existed in this part of London were it not for the development.  As with the Westfield development next door it can only be hoped that the laudible aspirations for regenerating this area will be realised and that the East of London will be viewed as an essential stop on any visit to the Capital.  We were certainly impressed.  If you'd like to know more about opportunities at the Olympic Park please let us know and we will endeavour to put you in touch with development partners.

Movers & Shakers Annual Retail Breakfast

Chapman Consulting is hosting guests at the Movers & Shakers Annual Retail Breakfast on the 9th September. The speakers include Alex Gourlay - CE, Health & Beauty, Alliance Boots; Richard Akers - MD - Retail, Land Securities; Dame Judith Mayhew-Jonas - Chairman, New West End Company and Clare Barrett - Retail Correspondent, Financial Times and is to be chaired by Tim Danaher the Editor of Retail Week.  We hope our guests will enjoy this event and find it informative and interesting. 

Westfield Opens in Stratford

Chapman Consulting have organised a tour of the new Westfield Stratford Shopping Centre, which opens on 14th September.  With a total retail floor area of 1,900,000 sq ft, it is claimed to be the largest urban shopping centre in Europe.  Upon completion, it will become the largest shopping centre in the UK, taking the title from the MetroCentre in Gateshead.  This forms part of Chapman Consulting's research and development into the retail sector and we will report to our clients in the retail market on this exciting new scheme.

Chapman Consulting goes to the Olympics

Chapman Consulting are delighted to announce that they have managed to secure a tour of the Olympic Park in Stratford on September 15th for the Interact membership and their guests.  This has been arranged through the Olympic Park Legacy Company who are aiming the tour at companies interested in development opportunities after the 2012 games are completed.

Chapman Consulting wins exciting new project with consultancy firm

Chapman Consulting are pleased to announce that we have been appointed by a professional consultancy firm for their marketing audit and marketing strategy project for 2012.

Chapman Consulting host tour of Minerva's Walbrook Building

Sarah Chapman, as Chairman of London Second Interact group, hosted a tour of the Walbrook building.  This new landmark building in the heart of the City of London - comprising some 445,000 sq ft of office and retail accommodation was constructed by Minerva Plc and designed by internationally renowned architects Foster & Partners.

Sarah comments "On behalf of Interact London Second, I would particularly like to thank Peter Holroyd, Construction Director for Minerva Plc, who kindly offered his time and knowledge of this impressive building".  We believe marketing of this building is going well and a number of organisations are interested.

Movers & Shakers breakfast - 20th May

Sarah attended 'Residential Property 2011' at the Movers & Shakers breakfast with an excellent panel of speakers.

The effusive Tony Pidgley, Chairman of Berkeley Homes stated 'that the main challenges facing the housing market is mortgages and access to lending'.  Mark Clare, Chief Executive of Barratt Developments agreed with Tony saying 'that it's all about mortgages, the new build industry cannot respond particularly swiftly, however although he forecasts a thaw in the financial markets over the next twelve months, without lending from the banks small housebuilders cannot borrow and this affects supply'.

On a more positive note, Stuart Baseley of Home Builders Federation sensed a 'softening' of attitudes from lenders with more willingness to engage.  The newly launched "First Buy" initiative showed a real change of attitude from government with a £250 million fund.

Some concerns were expressed about the challenges facing affordable/social housing and the volume of government targets which were represented in social housing which are only 12,500 in 2011 growing to 16,000 in 2012 of the targeted 70,000.  All speakers felt that keeping this moving forward will be extremely challenging.

There was some heavy debate over the Office for National Statistics Construction figures and all believed that these were incorrect.  Mark argued that investment in residential property would be more profitable in the North of England as we come out of recession - so he advises 'invest in the North' - London is good for returns but not highly profitable.

Interact - National AGM

Nichola Crawshaw enjoyed taking part in the Interact National AGM in Manchester - Interact is a national networking group for senior construction and property professionals - of which our MD Sarah Chapman is Chair of the London Second Branch.  Great to meet a wide mix of senior professionals from across the UK and to share experiences of the market - everyone upbeat if a little battle-worn.  If you want to know more about Interact then please get in touch - we are keen to introduce more senior professionals to our network.

Sarah flies off to Dubai

Need some sunshine ..

I flew to Dubai this week on a fact-finding mission ... meetings with a variety of organisations based in Dubai.  On arrival, got shepherded through first class arrivals as I had got chatting with the lovely air stewardess - turns out she worked in the fit out industry in the City before deciding that she couldn't stand it any longer and is now an air stewardess for Emirates Airlines - anyway, got very nicely looked after by her and her team.  Checked into hotel and enjoyed seeing a little bit of what all the fuss is about ... Dubai made me think of Mars - dust clouds, extremely hot, arrid desert with incredible structures pointing skywards - could be a movie set ... anyway enough Blake's 7 ... had some good meetings - friend of mine is a Director of Mace out there ... Abu Dhabi busy, Oman busy but Dubai is dead.  Had dinner overlooking the Burj Khalifa which was lit up like a light sabre - with waterfalls!!  Dubai is an Arabic Las Vegas - what a fun place to live/work - got a bit of sunshine too - a great trip.

And..........another Doyle Club looms for next Thursday - it's been a while since i've met with the Monkeys In Construction!!!

Poppy

Yell.com tour

Chapman Consulting attended the Yell.com building tour last night, designed by Broadway Malyan. It was a great evening with a fantastic presentation by by Brian Szpakowski and an inspiring design for workplace.

New Year and New Look - Chapman Consulting has rebranded!!

As our business has grown - yes grown in a recession !! - we enter 2011 with a new refreshing 'look' and new web site.

We have changed our domain name to the new 'chapmanconsulting.co' which affords us a more international presence and we are proud to launch our unique process diagram to explain in more detail the business development process.

We hope you like our new look and would love to hear your comments.

Although trading conditions continue to be difficult - here's hoping 2011 brings success to us all.

Sarah Chapman