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IoD Scotland Annual Conference returns to Fairmont

Influential business body, the Institute of Directors (IoD) Scotland, has announced that it will return to the east coast shores of Fife for the third consecutive year, to hold its annual conference this October.

This year respected business management expert Professor John Seddon will join the platform of speakers, focusing on the theme ‘Shaping the Future: Preparing for Success’, to outline the changes firms need to make to survive the recession.

The conference, which returns to Fairmont St Andrews and takes place on October 31, regularly attracts around 150 of Scotland’s most prominent leaders from the private and public sectors.

Professor John Seddon, who in the past has been described as a ‘reluctant management guru’, is famous for challenging the orthodoxy of many leading management change programmes which are still in use today.

He is currently lead consultant and co-founder of management consultants Vanguard, and a visiting professor at the Lean Enterprise Research Centre, University of Cardiff. He has also published four books on his theories, and his most recent, ‘Systems Thinking in the Public Sector’, provided  a stinging critique of the UK Government public sector reform programme, in particular the adverse consequences of targets and specifications.

An occupational psychologist to trade, Professor Seddon is best known for adapting the Toyota Production System into a methodology for improving performance in service industries, which he describes as ‘systems thinking’. Seddon has developed this as an alternative to the rigid, top-down ‘command and control’ thinking that permeates most of today’s service industries.

He argues that adopting such an approach, which considers all aspects of a business model as a complete entity, can help companies to escape or minimise the effects of the slowdown which is currently threatening the nation’s economy.

Speaking in advance of his appearance in October, Professor Seddon commmented:

“At times like this the knee-jerk reaction is to manage costs, little knowing that managing costs drives costs up. Managers need to learn how to manage value; then costs fall naturally.”

The format of this year’s conference will be a little different this year, with the black-tie dinner for delegates being held the night before the conference, on October 30, instead of the same day.

IoD Scotland Executive Director David Watt said that the new format would give delegates and some of the speakers the opportunity network informally in advance of the main conference event. He said:

“We are delighted to have secured the John Swinney, MSP, Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Sustainable Growth, as the pre dinner speaker to set the scene for the whole event, with the comedian Jo Caulfield afterwards taking a somewhat more irreverent view.

“It’s also a real coup for us to attract someone with the vision and wisdom of John Seddon, to share with us his intriguing theories on why business in this country could be doing so much better. I have heard him speak before and he is both informative and challenging.

“John’s record as an accomplished business transformation expert speaks for itself. There’s no denying that there are some tough times ahead for a number of different industry sectors, so John’s advice on which approaches can save struggling firms cannot come at a better time.

“We’re trying something different this year and we hope that our delegates will find value in spending time with old friends or similarly minded business people they have not met before, in an informal environment. Hopefully the ideas and energy from the evening dinner will be further developed during the main conference the following day.”

This year’s IoD Scotland conference confirmed sponsors to date are Easynet Connect, Blackberry and Highlands and Islands Enterprise.

The conference is open to IoD members and non-members – to find out more, log-on to www.iodscotland.com  or call Kate Dow on 0131 557 5488

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Press contact: Mike McPartlin, The BIG Partnership, 01592 643200, 07739 299359, mike.mcpartlin@bigpartnership.co.uk .