I've had an extremely busy few weeks, but I wanted to share a few things I have been thinking about...

I was at the Institute of Directors conference last Friday, and the theme was "Leading out of Recession" - a great positive title that I think many of our journalists could learn from...  One of the messages was that growth will be slow for a number of years, and we won't see the speedy recovery of the last few recessions.  Having gone trhough two of these recoveries, I remember having to make various compromises I was unhappy with in order to achieve the growth the markets expected, especially in hiring people and expanding into new markets.  I wonder if a slower recovery will build a more robust platform for the future, enabling companies to scale their systems and staff at the same rate as they grow instead of contantly playing growth-catch-up?  One or two of our speakers observed that much of the work they were doing was in removing "bad habits" their companies had acquired during a period of rapid growth rather than fundamentially redirecting their efforts...

I have also been at the GlobalScot conference and it is worthy of mention here as an inspiring occasion.  To see how many "friends in high places" Scotland has around the world and hear them talk passionately about helping Scottish businesses is very encouraging!

Finally, since getting back to the UK I have got involved in a charity I've written about before and I recently saw a very bold blog from their CEO, one that starts by denying the existance of the very field he works in:

"Having spent a year or so at Forth Sector I have come to two conclusions: social enterprises don’t really exist and our social firms have no future. At this point I should go home..."

If you have any interest in social enterprise, go and read the full post.  It's great to see this sort of leadership in action - he's not just talking about this stuff, he's really working hard to transform the nature of the business and I am proud to be associated with him and the rest of the team.