The rise and (continuing) fall of prominent British institutions…

MY, how some great institutions in their heyday in the last century have already imploded (like Jimmy Savile) while others seem to have completely lost their way – like Marks & Spencer, Tesco and the BBC.
As for M&S, where to start with this 131-year-old retailer? Despite a recent modest rise in sales, I can only repeat what’s been asked of it again and again. Listen to your core customers, get back to basics with good quality, well-made clothes and leave the sequins, netting and gaudy colours to others.
And Tesco? During the 1990s, it built itself into the biggest retailer in Britain and the second biggest retailer in the world. However, along the way, this ‘Tescopoly’ alienated suppliers, local communities and, finally, consumers alike. Only time will tell if it manages to claw back its market share.
And the BBC? Well, Auntie’s been accused, yet again, of “mind-blowing” inefficiency after its latest accounts suggest it spends less than half of its £5.1 billion annual budget on programmes, the remainder spent on offices, middle managers and services. You’ll recall it has been criticised before by the National Audit Office for its running costs and staff pay-outs.
But who’s the least surprised by this? The BBC’s been managed for years by overpaid mediocrities who believe the label ‘public service’ means it’s the duty of the licence-paying British public to provide them with enormous salaries for minimum ‘talent.’ Even by public sector standards, this bloated and wasteful bureaucracy seemingly exists for its own good.
Slowly damning itself into extinction, the BBC is politically-biased and rapidly losing out to others with respect to quality, productivity and general coverage. Far superior drama and nature production is evident on other channels, news reporting is meaningless and, frankly, it’s ‘pointless’ discussing the licence fee when, reportedly, so many under-30s use their tablets/laptops either free (iPlayer, YouTube, etc) or paid (Amazon, Netflix, etc). In 10 years, there’ll be hardly anyone left to fund it!
Like M&S and Tesco, the BBC, too, needs to start thinking long and hard about how it’ll survive in the 21st century…

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Comments


    • Lynda Haynes

      26 June 2015 • 14:24

      Totally agree! Spot on about all these monoliths but especially the BBC! Even its “stars” have criticised it. David Dimbleby’s said it should be scaled back while Absolutely Fabulous’s Jennifer Saunders has called it an “executive-run place for idiots”.

      Former head of BBC TV news and 2012 Olympics boss Roger Mosey also believes it should be cut back, while Lord “The Apprentice” Sugar’s called it “heavily overstaffed”.

      Keep up the good work!

    • john chambers

      05 July 2015 • 08:10

      Online BBC NEWS makes me angry and hostile these days. For every story you click on, you have to put up with a great slab of meaningless commercial advertising garbage … with no way to cut all these useless repetitions short. An overview of the day’s ‘news’ is important for me and many of my business associates, but ‘chasing the advertising buck’ is now discrediting the online BBC NEWS so badly that we are all moving over to other news services … goodbye and good riddance to online BBC NEWS.

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