Solihull

Many of England’s oldest football (soccer) clubs were formed in order that cricket teams might maintain their fitness levels during the winter. Ian Botham was (probably) the last person to play both cricket and football at a professional level. As a youngster he had to choose between cricket or join Crystal Palace. After an injury he once played for Scunthorpe United. However, it is inconceivable that a cricket player having a career at the highest level would play in the Premiership nowadays. The demands of professional sport are too great.

So what to make of a company, Tata of India, that is a conglomerate of every thing from agrochemicals to watches, insurance to steel – and now Land Rover and Jaguar?

I think a clue can be found from their web site, www.tata.com/0_about_us/group_profile.htm ,  

The Group was founded by Jamsetji Tata in the mid 19^th century, a period when India had just set out on the road to gaining independence from British rule. Consequently, Jamsetji Tata and those who followed him aligned business opportunities with the objective of nation building. This approach remains enshrined in the Group’s ethos to this day. 

I would suggest that Tata have not so much bought an enterprise as made a political statement – capturing a manufacturing icon from its old imperial ruler that was once the world’s pre-eminent manufacturer. In much the same way as India’s cricket team is a world super power, having mastered another of England’s icons.
Of course, the above statement could be just a bit of PR posturing. Company bosses do like to talk big. But, from the same site, Tata claims to contribute 3.2% of India’s GDP. In other words, Tata is corporate India. In much the same way that it used to be said what ‘s good for GM is good for the USA. So how well grounded is this deal?
Business is about management bringing capital and labour together. Patently any firm requires investment and over time car firms require huge investment. For Toyota to develop the Lexus it took 5 years, billions of dollars and the production of 150 prototypes. This is the world Tata have now entered. 
There is a view amongst management theorists that conglomerates have an advantage over ‘focused’ companies (firms, like Ford, that concentrate on one type of product) when raising capital if the cost of capital borrowed from a bank (external capital) is expensive. A conglomerate, rather than having to raise external capital, can use internal capital – money it generates itself from a wide-range of activities.
In addition, not all industries share the same pattern of demand so one part of the empire can bolster another.
Certainly Tata would seem to have this capacity, in 2006-2007 it generated revenues of $28.8 billion. Then again, Ford in 2007 generated $173.9 billion but still made a loss of $2.7 billion (see http://media.ford.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=27534).
These losses stem from its North American operations but the purchase of Land Rover and Jaguar in 1989 for $2.5 billion has not been a happy one. It is thought that Ford has sunk $10 billion into Jaguar and the indications are that it has still to become profitable. Land Rover cost Ford $3 billion and the indications are, again, that it has also lost money – warranty claims have been substantial.
In the short term, investment may well not be an issue as part of the deal is that Ford will supply Tata with parts and the powertrain. They (Ford) will also supply engineering support including research and development. The key short term issue was the pension fund (Gordon Brown’s pension fund raid in 1997 runs and runs and runs). It is always though that the demise of Rover was the pension fund. It’s hard to persuade lowly paid Chinese and Indian workers that efforts subsidises rich westerners. I would think Indians, with their colonial history, would be very reluctant to let the British raid their wealth for a second time. Furthermore, the investment Ford made in Jaguar will either pay off or Jaguar will join the ranks of Rover, Triumph, Wolseley and the other marques of a by-gone age. It certainly doesn’t warrant any more investment. But where does that leave Land Rover and Lodes Lane?
At some point in the not too distant future the Land Rover models will need some sort of investment – that’s only to be expected. The Defender and Range Rover are niche products that almost certainly do not deliver much profit. The Freelander and Discovery have to be their profit makers (potential or otherwise). The Freelander has suffered from quality issues and is not particularly prestigious. Furthermore, a car purchase is a lifestyle statement. In a world of high oil prices and carbon footprints, these vehicles will probably need significant investment in new engine and material technologies sooner rather than later.

The cost of buying Land Rover/Jaguar probably means that Tata will need to raise any investment for Land Rover from within the assets of the purchase. As part of the deal Tata also have the names to past marques - Lanchester, Daimler and Rover. Selling brand names would be one way, either to other manufacturers or as new models. Rover is probably worthless. Lanchester too unknown, So that leaves Daimler. But who would want to buy it? And could Tata afford to develop it? I suspect the answer to both questions is no.

I suspect Jaguar is a dead brand walking. The current models will earn some money but not enough to pay for future investment in a crowded (BMW, Mercedes, Lexus) world. Furthermore, Jaguar suffered initially when bought by Ford due to snipings that a Jaguar was a Mondeo is disguise. Jaguar soon took on Ford’s brand image. How soon will Jaguar become associated with Tata’s offerings of the world’s cheapest car and the City Rover? Trust me, it’s really easy to write Tata as Tat!!.

In any event, Land Rover is a better brand, will need investment sooner and more likely to produce a return. Tata are very keen on joint ventures. That is an option but prone to managerial problems - who does what and do we trust them? Furthermore, many of these ‘joint ventures’ look more like foreign companies bypassing Indian non-tariff barriers to trade by engaging in joint ventures with a local ‘partner’. For example, we have Tata-BP solar power, TataSky, Tata-McGraw Hill Publishing, Tata-AIG insurance. I’m not sure how much ‘managing’ actually goes on in these companies by Tata.

From now until 2012, when the current Land Rover models wiil probably need replacing, will be the decisive time. Bearing in mind that Toyota took 5 years with the Lexus but that new Land Rover models probably don’t need quite that amount of time, the next two years or less will call for some decision making to be made by Tata. One possible and obvious solution, move production from Lode Lane to Halewood and Castle Bromwich, would pay some dividends. Normally, this would require terrific organisation and the Lode Lane site, 308 acres (125 hectares) doesn’t have great scope for raising money by being sold. The government’s Communities Plan envisages increasing housing density to between 30 and 50 houses per hectare compared with 25 per hectare in 2001. So even at 50 houses per hectare that would only produce 6250 houses. Land price is around a third of house prices so assuming £300,000 per house in B91, that would generate between £360 and £600 million. A lot but not enough really bearing in mind both Ford’s and Toyota’s experience as experienced car manufacturers when spending money on development.

 Of course, it could borrow the money from either outside Tata or internally, make the investment and then pay off the debt having moved production by new models being built elsewhere. In addition, the Lode Lane site is often described in the same terms (‘sprawling’) as the Longbridge site was and seen by many as the cause of the Freelander’s initial quality problems.

However, it will still need Tata to find a lot of money for new models and then there is the managing of it all. Tata is a sprawling company so devolved decision making has to be key. It is often regarded as a truism that BMW’s failure at Rover was not to have replaced British management by German managers. Quite how Indian managers in Mumbai are going to trust British mangers in Gaydon spending money like water remains to be seen. Indeed since Ford so spectacularly failed to manage these brands, despite a very common culture and great experience, it is very hard to see how Tata will do it better.

Ultimately, the only way any investment (cars, houses or anything else) can be justified is that the flow of profits, discounted over time by bearing mind alternative investments and risk, exceeds the investment. The key to that is the quality of the management and their organisational abilities. So far, in the UK, only the Japanese and the Germans (BMW at Cowley) seem to have pulled that off. There is no reason to believe that Tata is the equal of the Japanese and Germans and will succeed where the French and Americans have failed.

I would like to announce the presence of the new Age Concern Solihull website, http://www.ageconcernsolihull.org

It shows how Age Concern Solihull can address the needs of those over 50 in ways you may find surprising. 

Age Concern shops are an Aladdin’s Cave of abundant attractive artefacts and a cornucopia of collectable curiosities!

We have three shops in

·       Castle Bromwich  at Hurst Lane North off the Chester Road

·       In Solihull on Station Road opposite John Lewis

·       In Shirley on the Stratford Road near to Woolies

We never ceased to be amazed both at what people bring in and their generosity. Only recently we had a bag of Puritan (Pilgrim Fathers) clothes with hats, breeches and dresses – all in immaculate condition. We have a constant flow of fine china – Wedgewood, Wade and Spode. And of course we are more than grateful to both M&S and John Lewis for their contributions line – some real bargains there.

People are so generous that we have never had to distribute any bags for collecting clothes. We even have donations from local celebrities! And, as more bargains, come in we’ll keep you up todate.

You can shop until you drop here because we don’t need to bag drop!

‘My insurance policy, my insurance policy. My Kingdom for a decent insurance policy’. I’m sure Shakespeare would have penned these words had he spent any time outside what is now the M40. But the message is still clear, when you’re stuck you’ll give anything for a decent bit of protection.
Travel insurance is a case in point. Concerns over insurance bought from travel agents  have arisen recently as travel agents are governed by ABTA and not by the very strict Financial Services Authority - as Age Concern Trading is.
Also, the cover ABTA provides doesn’t allow for fraud.
At The Priory (find us here) we have all successfully completed FSA approved training. You don’t need to try and sort out problems over the phone or over the Internet, we deal with you face-to-face. And it won’t cost you your Kingdom.

Chris Weston Trading and Marketing Manager

It will come as a surprise to most people what value for money Age Concern Trading is. In fact it’ll probably be a surprise even where we are. So here’s a little map to find us plus some photographs to help recognise us.

 Click here for a bigger map

 Click here for a full picture

First of all, we are the UK’s largest face-to-face personal arrangers of motor, travel and house and contents insurance. We arrange insurance through Fortis. We do exactly what we say; we will help you arrange insurance that meets your specific needs face-to-face. Not via a computer over the Internet or over the phone with a hard to understand call centre, but face-to-face.

Why should this matter? Well, first of all (as you can see from the photos) we’re nice to look at. Also, you don’t have to guess what the questions mean and their implications, we’ll explain them. ALL our staff and volunteers are trained to the levels required by the Financial Services Authority (FSA). Face-to-face matters as in this competitive world we aim to offer superior personal service to help you get the best deal for you. You won’t be dealt with by someone for whom you’re just one of the hundreds of calls to be handled that day. Nor are you left to fill out a form on your own, the FSA obviously believes insurance is more than simply ticking boxes. We’re your personal insurance organiser.

For example, Mr. B comes in, tells us his needs (we then find some more by talking to him) and he goes away a happy chappy as we have done most of the work to get him the insurance he wants.

We complement the motor insurance service by being able to arrange breakdown cover too.

We can also help you get a better deal on your gas and electricity through Powergen (link to their site).  It only takes 5 minutes to get a quote in the office.

Because of our face-to-face approach you aren’t left on your own (or on the end of a phone line) should any problems arise with switching or bills.

This face-to-face approach lies at the heart of what Age Concern Solihull is about. All charities benefit the common good but, as our CEO Anne Hastings points out in her opening blog, we put our approach to practical use. For example, the Aid-Call safety system we supply would appear, at first sight, to be intended for older people who need to call medical assistance. In fact, it can be useful for anyone who lives on his or her own (no matter their age) and would like some peace of mind regarding security. You see we’re always thinking of the individual.

Benjamin Franklin once said ‘The only thing certain in life is death and taxes’. We can help ensure that one doesn’t mean the other. Our funeral plans mean that those certain future needs are met with a tax-free payment. This leaves people free to enjoy their lives. The funeral plan becomes a fun plan.

The fact is that our face-to-face approach means we listen to you so that we can become your personal arrangers of a wide-range of services. And now you even know where we are.

Chris Weston Trading and Marketing Manager

We live in a complicated world of rules, regulations and different organisations. It can be a confusing world for everyone not least older people. It is a world where high quality information and advice is very important. We’re here to ensure that no one need feel alone.
Age Concern Solihull is committed to giving older people comprehensive and high-quality information and advice. Any information we provide is of good quality, free, independent, understandable, confidential and clear.
This is no idle boast as we have achieved both the Community Legal Services Quality Mark and the Age Concern Federation Quality Counts Standard 5 - Information and Advice Statement of Expectation - be reassured that our advice isn’t as long-winded as that.
These awards have real meaning. We are constantly measured and in order to consolidate the Community Legal Service Quality Mark award in early 2005 we had
a formal audit in July 2006. We were required to demonstrate that our service is well organised and that all relevant procedures are in place.
As part of Age Concern Solihull’s Quality Counts assessment, the Information and Advice service was reviewed again to check that we meet the Age Concern Federation standards.
We were successful in both assessments.
We NEVER rest on our laurels and both ourselves (Age Concern Solihull) and the Federation that we are a part of are looking constantly at ways in which the services can be improved.
Later in 2006 the Age Concern Federation began to look at quality of advice we give. Do we ask the right questions and give the right information and advice to our clients?
It isn’t an easy matter to answer that question, as all our clients are different, and it will take some time. However, we are committed to understanding that.
Our Enquiries Service provides basic information and points callers in the right direction. Callers with more complex enquiries are transferred to the Information and Advice service.
As our Chief Execute Officer - Anne Hastings - points out in her article, all of this is meaningless unless it can be translated into action. In 2006 we helped nearly 850 people.
A typical example was Mrs S whose father had been admitted to hospital and needed 24 hour care. Her mother was also disabled and able to continue living at home but only with support.
Mrs S was in contact with us on several occasions over a couple of months. This resulted in looking at the issue of care homes and funding. This included NHS funding and third party top-ups, benefit checks for both father and mother along with the father’s eligibility for Attendance Allowance, Enduring Power of Attorney, hospital discharge procedures and social care.
In order to support older people in Solihull, we put technology to use. Mrs R rang us from Switzerland about her father. We communicated by email after this as we addressed Mrs R’s concerns and helped meet her father’s need to socialise. He now lives in a care home in Solihull.
Mrs P was experiencing a good deal of anxiety with respect to a neighbour dispute.  She wanted help and support and came to us for advice. We listened to     her concerns; just doing that was very helpful, as she felt very isolated and afraid.
We gave her some advice on possible courses of action and made some calls on her behalf. Eventually we referred her to another organisation that was able to help her.
So, even if we don’t have the information ourselves, we almost certainly will be able to advise on who does.
Lucy Coton, Information and Advice Officer 

I would like to welcome you to the Age Concern Solihull ‘blog’. For those not familiar with the term, ‘blog’ is short for ‘weblog’ or an on-line diary.

The Age Concern Solihull blog, or on-line diary, documents the work of the tremendous and wide-range of people, volunteers and staff. Their ongoing dedication and commitment to the values and aims of the organisation and their tireless work contributes so much to making life better for older people in Solihull.

2006 was the year we, Age Concern Solihull, embrace quality assurance in not just one but three areas, achieving

• the Investors in People award
• the Community Legal Services Commission Quality Mark, and
• the Age Concern Federation Quality Counts Standard

All of these are meaningless,  of course, unless it makes a difference to older people, their families and carers and the community we serve.

We hope that these achievements will prove that we want only the best standards for older people in Solihull and that we are prepared to work to achieve that goal.

I am personally gratified by the achievement of our long-term goal of opening a base for the Charity in the north of the borough. We have long recognised the need to serve older people from that area and recognised that making a 20 mile-round trip into central Solihull in order to access our services, good as they are, was not easy.

Our new offices at Windleaves Road have the capacity to act as a conduit to all the Charity’s services, wherever they are based. That means easier access to our excellent Information and Advice services that are free, impartial and, most importantly, independent. Our Carers Support Scheme that offers much needed respite breaks to the carers of older people with dementia and memory loss. The office also gives access to a further wide range of services from computer taster sessions, opening up a whole new world to many older people, to the very practical help and support offered to older people by the Neighbourhood Care Scheme.

It has also further cemented our relationship with Age Concern Castle Bromwich, whom we have much admired for their hard work and dedication in that area over many years.

There are many challenges ahead and you will be able to keep abreast of those challenges and the actions of our hard working staff and dedicated volunteers as they meet then. As we continue to help make life a positive experience for older people in Solihull.

Anne Hastings, CEO Age Concern Solihull

The much anticipated PS3 machines will be out soon, and we’ve  been reviewing what those people in the US fortunate enough to get their hands on one have been saying.
Their experience is based on playing with an assortment of games and Blu-ray movies (remember, the PS3 is a movie player, too).
Sony has made a problem for itself, really, with the PlayStation 3. After years of eager expectations and delays, plus all the stories about what people are prepared to do, wildly overpaying and even shooting each other for these machines, anything short of miraculous would be disappointing. Let’s put the cost of owning and using a PS3 in perspective: The retail price of one of these machines is likely to be in excess of £400 as suggested in a press release by Sony in March 2006 that gave prices in Euros. That, along with the cost of any games, would be enough to buy a whole bunch of PS2 games.
But, there’s not much status or excitement in that, and so we must take the PS3 for the electronic playtime indulgence that it is.  The PlayStation 3 is certainly a thing of beauty, from the elegant root menu to the layered lighting effects and roiling smoke in titles like Call of Duty 3 and Resistance. Unfortunately, it’s also Kate Moss-skinny and glassy-eyed, starved for games - nothing to truly flex the  hardware. It’s in the same position the Xbox 360 was when it was launched in 2005 - the beginning of a next-generation strip-tease, whose ardour is dampened by the sexy-as-bedsocks news that it would take at least a year before the Full Monty. The PS3, because  we’re now familiar with stunning graphics in high-definition, has significantly less shock value than the 360. .
That means any review of the PS3 is likely to be extremely loaded. The comparisons are inevitable, and then there’s its price.
The look of the console itself, big, black and chrome but without appearing too bulky, is attractive. This is a console your girlfriend won’t immediately wince at when you stick it next to the living room TV. The touch-sensitive power and eject buttons are nice. It’s also very. quiet. The Xbox 360, by comparison, can be a fan-roaring monster when running games (some games more than others). The on-screen user interface is straightforward, intuitive, and appears to be a definite improvement on previous consoles.

The experience of noodling around with several PS3 games has been that they range from fairly impressive to extraordinary.  Some, like the swords and shoji-screens saga Genji, have such wonderful graphics that they might as well have been painted on the screen. Although it must be said that when the never ending cut scenes did, finally, end, the fixed-view slash-’em-up action was monotonous and uninspiring.
Other titles, like Resistance: Fall of Man, offer dazzling gameplay filled with impressive detail, but still manage to display the occasional collision-detection and lighting glitches that third-generation consoles were supposed to resolve.
When the programmers want the graphics to shine, they explode into life. Fire ripples behind curtains of shimmering heat waves. Debris floats in shifting eddies over devastated battlefields.
There are moments when, as we’ve all come to expect in gaming, everything falls apart. Press your face to a brick wall, and it dissolves into a haze of colours with zero texture. That’s terrible collision detection, just as terrible as it’s been in games for every system, for as long as anyone can remember. And the best lighting effects seem to be reserved for game intros or cut-scenes between the action. This is the next-generation, for sure, and some of the graphics look at least slightly better than the Xbox 360, but there’s still plenty of room for improvement.
Early consoles may have a few technological hiccups that you can’t be sure could be due to early machines, the PS3 in general or unsuitable TVs. For example, on multiple occasions, the HDMI connection to High Definition TV sets caused the image to blink on and off repeatedly. This was solved by simply unplugging and replugging the cable. Was this a PS3 fault or the TV? But other devices don’t behave in this way.
Don’t forget, this piece of machinery is a Blu-ray player, too. The PS3 is, generally, an impressive cinema machine. The quality of Blu-ray movies varies from title to title. Some can look grainy whilst others are crisp and clear. It seems that the compression and encoding of Blu-ray films yields inconsistent results.
While it does have collision issues, its textures, shading and environment are incredibly detailed.
So what’s the bottom line? Is it worth it? Well,  if you don’t already own a High Definition IV set (preferably a 1080p set), then the PS3 is simply a waste of money. You’re going to miss out on the potential of the PS3.  Even if you do have a HD set, it might be best to wait out the storm. The price of the console might eventually drop (although not too soon), and the games will definitely get better.
The launch games are very good, but they only give a taste of  the enormous potential of this machine. If games developers do manage to combine the stunning look of Genji with the gameplay of Resistance, then the results would be truly impressive.

Is it better than the 360 and the Nintendo Wii?  It’s a good idea to wait as long as you can, however, to see whether the programmers and the studios take full advantage of the PS3’s powerful CELL processor architecture and the motion-sensing SIXAXIS controller.
If you can wait a year, and then weigh the PS3’s array of titles against the Xbox 360’s, then you should. If you don’t plan to use it to play either HD-DVDs or Blu-ray discs, then it’s a dead-heat between the Xbox 360, which has a better line-up of games, and the PS3, which has more potential and free on-line access.
Even if you’re determined to buy a PS3, get the version with the 20GB hard drive, the same size as the Xbox 360’s. Do you really need Wi-Fi and memory card-reading slots? If you need a game console to display your digital photos, you need to re-evaluate your needs..

Does the PS3 live up to the hype? The simple answer is no. The hype needs to calm down,  shelves to be fully stocked and, most importantly, for game companies to exploit fully the system’s capabilities.



Let us know what’s happening in your area with any sports teams or events.

The Premiership isn’t everything, you know.