Case Study Porn

Case Study Porn

Business population and their associated employment and turnover

At the start of 2012, there were an estimated 4.8 million UK private sector businesses, employing an estimated 23.9 million people and with an estimated combined annual turnover of £3,100 billion.

Almost all of these businesses (99.2 per cent) were small (0 to 49 employees). Only 30,000 (0.6 per cent) were medium-sized (50 to 249 employees) and 6,000 (0.1 per cent) were large (250 or more employees). These percentages have remained fairly stable since 2000 (the earliest point for which comparable data exists).

There were an estimated 4.8 million UK private sector SMEs at the start of 2012, employing an estimated 14.1 million people, and with an estimated combined annual turnover of £1,500 billion. 

99.2% of all private sector businesses in the UK employ fewer than 50 people.

In his talk at the CIPD HR Dvelopment Conference this week, Andy Lancaster used this fact to help illustrate an all too common dilemma, ‘how do you develop talent in smaller, flatter organisations?’ Based on the numbers in the BIS research – this challenge matters to an awful lot of us. Even if you take the large numbers of micro businesses out of the equation – the SME marketplace is huge.

So why is it that when we go to conferences, the main ‘attractions’ are often mega brands? Come and listen to sexy companies like Google, Mercedes Benz, BBC, Marks and Spencer etc. I should state I’m not against these companies, I use three of the four I just mentioned on a regular basis. I just don’t particularly want to be like them, and I think that there is a danger that these companies are positioned as the way ahead, with little consideration given to the distorting effect of trying to compare a business employing 25,000 people, to one that employs 250.

At the risk of contradicting myself (I’m sometimes wrong, sometimes right, I rarely know which is which and I reserve the right to change my mind), I do think there are possibilities to learn from bigger companies, and based on what I’ve experienced directly this week, and heard from other sources I trust, those possibilities are being hampered. Hampered by the ‘Case Study Porn’ (CSP) effect.

I’m unsure whether the CSP effect starts when Sexy Mega Brand Incorporated puts themselves on a pedestal (or should that be a pole), or when we do. Either way, my Bullshit Detector (copyright Joe Strummer) went off the scale several times in a direct response to Sexy Mega Brand Incorporated this week.

This week I found I learned much more from smaller organisations, and ones that get useful stuff done (or at least try) in a fussless, humble kind of way, than from organisations like the BBC, Google and Chelsea Football Club, all of whom came across to me as a bit guarded, a bit arrogant, and too assumptive.

Maybe it’s just that Sexy Mega Brand Incorporated can afford better fluffers – but I think conference organisers need to think more carefully about their audience and what their needs and wants are, and less about Case Study Porn. How about you? What influences your decision to attend a conference? And what would encourage you to come back again next year?

Author: Doug Shaw

Artist and Consultant. Embracing uncertainty, sketching myself into existence. Helping people do things differently, through an artistic lens.

7 thoughts on “Case Study Porn”

  1. I didn’t attend the conference and I won’t until there’s a more inclusive/relevant agenda.
    I am consistently disappointed that CIPD conferences are not designed with SMEs in mind or with for the growing army of independent consultants/advisors that support it.
    The agenda for this conference is consistent with previous years – mostly big companies telling small companies how they did stuff. And reading some of the blogs about the seminars/talks, with one or two exceptions, it doesn’t look any different or more inspiring than other years!
    SMEs employ 60% of the UK workforce so yes they deserve a bit more airtime. ( It’s not just the CIPD; Engage for Success I think I am right in saying there was only one SME on the taskforce?)
    Why haven’t we got more SMEs on the platform? It isn’t because they aren’t doing some great stuff. Are organisers (wrongly) making an assumption that what they are doing isn’t relevant etc. Are SMEs not putting themselves forward? Are we asking them?

    1. Hello Michelle

      It’s a challenge for an event organiser to please everyone – and yet I imagine if the CIPD were to mine its database it would find a lot of members are in smaller businesses. And I should say that there was some useful learning to be had from bigger businesses too, it wasn’t completely clear cut. However – I do think there is a growing relevancy issue to be thought about and preferably acted upon too. This slavish addiction that somehow only the big guns know anything needs to shift.

      On the whole – I found the event useful and enjoyable, and it could be a whole lot better still I think.

  2. From long experience on CIPD Council I must concur with Michelle. It’s why I left CIPD to become an FCIPD (Former CIPD).

    Massively good at doing events. Massively poor at understanding their customer base’s profiles / needs.

    No real sense of ‘customer’ as per the title of your blog Doug.

    1. Rightly or wrongly – I’ve just joined the CIPD. I’m keen to experience things as a member. Keep you posted.

      Cheers – Doug

  3. Yes, it’s not all bad. In London they still have meetings for networking purposes. After 15 years hard labour I had not got much back for my discretionary effort. Don’t mind that at all for genuine charities but it was all take and no give.

    1. Thanks Peter – I don’t have time for 15 years hard labour – I’m going to try smart labour and see where that takes me. This thread folds back neatly into that whole expectation thing to some extent huh? Keep on rocking!

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