The Campbell Academy Blog (58)

Our Bankrupt Britain - PEST

There was an election last week - I don't know if you noticed.

On Friday morning I was in work early for various reasons, waiting for a patient to arrive about 7.50am. The practice was actually closed so I was opening the front door for this individual (a special patient to me) and I picked up the telegraph, one of the newspapers we had in the practice and read an article on why Britain is now bankrupt.

It turns out that when you reach 112% of GDP as loans where the value of what the country has loaned against its gross domestic product (what it produces in a year). This means that you are effectively bankrupt and that your currency has been downgraded by the IMF.

We currently sit at about 109%.

The only way we can get that changed is to increase our gross domestic product, make more stuff, and pay off some of the debts (unlikely).

Soon enough, regardless of what colour the government is, we're about to be bankrupt.

This is probably why the roads are so bad (try riding a bike)

It's why the airports are absolutely terrible (try taking a plane from anywhere in the UK and then compare to the airport you land in).

It's probably why the trains are so unpredictable, miserable, overcrowded and unluxurious.(They cancelled my train last Friday back from Leeds, and an hour later I stood almost the whole way home, even though I had a ticket).

And so, if you want to apply this in business terms to your PEST analysis (political, environmental, social and technological).

We've had a change of government; we're not having another one soon.

In the environmental or economic aspect of this do you think things are going to get markedly better or markedly worse?

I actually believe they're going to be pretty much markedly the same.

We don't have any more money to invest, and our economy and population are pretty flat. So, if you reflect that back onto the claims that are being made by the new government and all the things they're going to do, the only way they can win is by spending the money better, not spending more money.

Historically, Labour governments borrow money more than conservative governments but we've now had 14 years of conservative borrowing so labour can't borrow any more.

Do you think NHS dentistry will be better or worse in four years, or will it remain the same?

My bet is that it will definitely not be better; my hope is that it might remain the same (but for a section of society that needs it most).

My fear is it will be markedly worse.

Do you see this as a threat, or do you see it as an opportunity?

And this is how business principles are applied to the PEST analysis of every single person's business.

You should be reading the articles in The Telegraph or the Times or The Wall Street Journal on the future of the economy, because if you run a business or work in a business, it directly and fundamentally impacts what your life will be like three years from now.