What is wrong with the England National Team?

The good thing about being English is that as a nation we are always optimistic right? Now I am not naive enough to think that we put one of the best sides ever out against Chile last week, although I would start Jay Rodriguez every time & why hasn't Danny Ings got a call up yet to the senior squad? Also while I am on the subject, how can you leave somebody with the fire and passion that Joey Barton shows out of our national team? Most men would love Roy Hodgson's job as the England manager and we would all probably make lots of changes to the side that is starting tonight against what can just about be described as a German reserve side. The last time we played a full strength German side we lost 4-1 so maybe I am a little bit glad of that. 

I saw a stat before tonights game that showed 48% of German players play in the Bundesliga compared to 26% of English players playing in the Premier League. Now I know straight away people will say, "but the Premier League is the best league in the world". No, it is not. What the Premier league is, is everything that is wrong in this world. It is full of players who came to play in England for the highest bidder of their "talent". Once they are here, they either move around to the club who offers them the most money or pretend they want to move so their current club gives them more money. We only have to cast our minds back to this summer and the exploits of Rooney, Suarez and Tevez to name a few to see this is the case. For a start to stop this being the case, we need to introduce wage caps into the game across at least all the European teams. This needs to be put in place sooner rather than later. I totally think that quotas on the amount of foreign players in squads in the EPL should be put in place. This will force clubs to develop our own national talent at grassroots level. This used to be the case, before the Bosman ruling many leagues across Europe placed quotas on the amount of foreign players allowed in a team. In fact in the Champions league and UEFA cup, UEFA had a rule that prohibited teams from naming more than 3 foreign players in these competitions!. 

Until all this happens England have little chance within the next few decades of dominating world football. Who am I though to say what must and mustn't happen for the England national side to be successful. I am too young to remember Euro 96 in our own country. The first memories of me watching England are France 98 with the likes of Scholes, Beckham, Owen and Shearer playing. In the second round we came up against Argentina, Owen scored THAT goal, Beckham got sent off and we lost on penalties, I cried. Admittedly I was only 11, but still thats how much it meant for me to see the the national team do well. That is how much it will always mean to me. That is how much it should mean to each and every player, every coach, and every manager every time they go and and represent our country friendly or not. Everyone saw the heart and passion Greece played with in Euro 2004, maybe just maybe if England can recreate that, we might have a glimmer of hope next year in Brazil.   

      

(Good) Customer Service

Yesterday, I let Colin talk of his experiences with bad customer service and if you haven't read his blog yet, you can do so here (Lack of) Customer Service. So I thought today I would chat about good customer service. Which is something I am very passionate about. Before I start, I just want to say that I agree with everything he is saying in his blog about how large companies often forget the very basics. It is no secret that I work for a large multi national company with the biggest DIY market share in the UK and much of Europe. Now people will argue that we have forgot the little guy and customer service is not important. In fact a quick look at the B&Q twitter feed will tell you that all we seem to do is dealing with problems or giving bad service across our stores. As consumers, we expect good service all of the time and rightly so. But I often feel that we don't shout enough about good service as individuals enough. If somebody is really nice to us in a shop or a store, we might tell one or 2 of our friends but rarely write a letter or take to twitter to tell the company.

I have recently started on the showrooms department in my store and this is an area that as a customer you would expect the best kind of service, especially if you are spending 5 or 6 thousand pound on a kitchen. I don't work in a  massive store so naturally we don't have all the stock of everything we sell and a lot of items have to come from our suppliers or from our large fulfilment centre. So my job often involves negotiating earlier delivery times for bits of customers kitchens. Naturally at this time of year they want it before Christmas, but with a few things we haven't had enough stock etc. In one case, my colleague drove around the whole of the region picking up bits of stock for various customers so we could get it to them in time because the supplier or fulfilment centre had not got them to our store on time for delivery. There is another colleague who works tirelessly in her office all day often correcting everyone elses mistakes so nothing does go wrong with a customer's order then she will coach that person on what to do right next time. Her job role tells her to escalate it to a manager, but then it wouldn't get done in time anyway and there would be far more issues. Me, well it has just gone 6 o'clock and I "finished" work an hour ago after not even getting chance to have a lunch break properly because I was that busy. Also, I have just got off my mobile phone to a customer and a colleague in store so they could arrange another delivery for the customers order.

I think what frustrates me personally is that from the outside it seems very easy to criticise big companies but from the other side I know there are individuals like myself and many other of my colleagues who do their utmost every single day to give the best customer service every day. I am not saying there are not people who could not care a less because there are people like that in every organisation unfortunately. Or even that  we don't get things wrong because we are only human at the end of the day. But to me and many people in similar roles such as mine the little guy is still important because that little guy is me, its you, its our brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers. it is all of us.

   

What if money were no object?

Today I watched this video after a friend shared it on twitter.

A little background info: Alan Watts is a British-born American philosopher best known for bringing Eastern wisdom into the Western world. 

Obviously, as you can see I was inspired to write this blog after watching this video. It also sort of ties in with my previous blog (What shall I do now?) The concept of money not being an issue in life is certainly a strange one to most people. For me, money has always been an issue. I come from a very working class background where money was always short in my house, but we got by on the little money we did have. I got a paper round when I was 13 and suppose I have been in some sort of work ever since. That would make 13 years work experience, wow I feel old! Anyway at school I did well and was offered a place to study A levels at my sixth form but there was just one problem, money...

 I didn't go to sixth form but instead joined the army which I had always been fascinated with and if I'm honest seemed like a much more exciting option than doing my A levels anyway. I was earning more money than I have ever seen in my life and training to be a soldier all at 16!. I talk more about this in another blog (War, What is It good for? ). For me at that point in my life I suppose money wasn't much of an issue. All my accommodation expenses etc came out my wage before I even noticed them, I'd bought a car out right and could easily afford the things I wanted to buy. In terms of other jobs the army wage is quite modest but I was doing something I wanted to do without thinking about the money.    

Since then I have had jobs I have enjoyed, but It has always been about the money and doing the job as a means to survive and get by. That is part of the reason I eventually came to university and got a degree. But now I seem to have come full circle and find myself asking what would I do if money were no object? Well, I was speaking to a friend last night and we were discussing my future career and she assures me I will be running B&Q one day and I love it more than I want to admit. It is true, I do have huge passion for the company I work for and some great ideas on what it should do to grow in an international marketplace, the only problem is I work in my local store not in head office. Kevin, I know you are only just settling in to your new role as CEO but if by some miracle you are reading this please sort me out a transfer onto your new team.  

So for me I suppose the answer to the question is I want to be in a position where I can use my degree and experience to its full potential while helping others. I have a degree in International Business with Philosophy and 13 years work experience in a variety of industries (including my local paper shop!). If anyone reading this knows of any jobs where I could use that potential, then let me know. 

Oh yeh, it must pay good money of course :P ...       

 

The Value of Love....

It has just gone 1 am and my brain won't switch off,  I have been thinking about a few things I wanted to write about while I was at work tonight but just kept dismissing them in turn but now I have just decided to write anyway and see where this takes me. If you have read my other posts, you can see by now I don't really have any logical order about the way I discuss things and just say what I am feeling or thinking about. 

 If you are a twitter user like me (@Stewart_Martin1) maybe you follow UberFacts. Well, according to one post I saw recently, love can be valued at $263,158 or £164,000 to those of us who like to keep things nice and British :). Now, I don't really agree that something like love can have a monetary value on it. People are worth lots more than any amount of money, whether it is friends, family or partners. They are all unique to us and part of our life stories in different ways. In the last 16 months or so I have lost 4 people who I loved all in unique ways that have disappeared out of my life story.

We all wonder that inevitable question "What If?" at various points of our lives. What if I had spent more time with someone?... What if I had said yes ... or even no? What if I had uttered I love you or told someone I loved them more?... What if I had shown more compassion... or even anger?  What if I did it all differently? Would this have changed anything? Perhaps, maybe I would feel less guilty about just little things I could've done differently before people died or simply walked out of my life for good. But the thing about the past is that it can not be changed, although I sometimes wish I had a time machine. We are all going to make mistakes in our lives, because that is what makes each of our lives unique, there was nobody like you on this earth before you and never will be again.

 If you are ever wondering What if? and are in a position to do something about it, than do it. Because life is to short for regrets. Say yes more, make contact with your old friends, don't be afraid to say I miss you, If you care about somebody than show them, always try to smile, tell people you love them and spend time with the people you treasure in your life.  I wish that I had lost £656,000 in the last year, that would have been so much easier to take away from me than the value of those people. Love is unique to each and every person which is what makes it so special I guess. No value should ever be given to the importance of love, it is priceless.