M & A Rainmaker

Danny Brown – someone who I have great respect for wrote this blog a while ago..

http://dannybrown.me/2012/07/18/advance-the-conversation/

following up a Tweet from Geoff Livingstone and apparently aiming to shut down the debate about CEO’s Tweeting and being involved in other forms  of social media and Internet marketing.

Danny’s view is clearly ” The CEO has much more important things to do than mess about with Social Media ” . Except ….. that the first role mentioned for a CEO is as ” Communicator ” and Social Media is a communications channel …………. Hmmmm !!

Other communications channels that the CEO might choose are: Face to face meetings; the phone; emails; Press Releases; articles; ……….. etc etc

There are perhaps two ways to take this discussion

One is to say No !! – it’s someone else’s job..

and it probably is ( in the main ) someone else’s job. ( Of course this depends very much on how big a company we are talking about and how many people are supporting him/her ).  A CEO would not ( necessarily ) actually organise the face to face meetings ( his secretary or P.A.  would  at his/her initiation. ) He/she would not necessarily phone someone ( but he might organise it and then take the call ).  He/she might email someone. He/she might say ” Fax this to someone “. He/she might speak to the ” PR/ad. company  to get something going ( but if there is a Marketing Director leave it to them ). He/she probably initiated or agreed to a website being set up. ( Initiated by someone in house or outsourced ) and so on and so on… which leads us to …..

The other is to say – Social Media is a communications channel like any other and that it should be used as ” one of ” the ways of communicating for a CEO ….

( but this assumes that you already have the Social Media channels set up ?? )

What does Danny do ?

What, I was thinking, does Danny do now ???  Turns out he has a new role – Chief Technologist at http://thearccompany.com/ where Hessie Jones is C.E.O. http://hessiej.wordpress.com/. Now, I am pretty sure that this is one C.E.O. that Tweets !! However, maybe it’s ” not fair ” to pick on a ” Digital Business ” C.E.O.

What do ( some ) CEO’s do – like Richard Branson ?

Let’s see what the great man has to say shall we …… HERE  !!! ok – I rest my case 😉

What do ” Social Media ” CEO’s do ?

See above 😉

More  about  ’why external drainage is required, if eco friendly permeable driveway, path and road surfaces are used’. There’s a few more things to say here.

The North West of England should take the lead in terms of building eco friendly driveways, paths, roads and carparks

Within any development, regardless of the external surfacing, there’s an underground drainage system to take away foul and waste water from the buildings (sinks, toilets etc.), which connects to the public sewers and ends up being carried away to processing plants for filtration etc. and reuse. This underground system within and outside of the site is the same sewer system external surface water from roofs, ground etc. is discharged to – so even if there were no requirement for a piped system to get rid of rain water there would still need to be a system in place. The only visual difference being that you wouldn’t see drainage channels, grates, gullies etc. on the road surfaces if a site were discharged solely using eco friendly permeable surfaces but you would still see the manhole and inspection chamber covers externally that are part of the buildings foul and waste underground drainage system.

Above ground and underground drainage requirements (and foul and waste pipework) up to the public sewer connection are a few of the many things Building Regulations governs – which require statutory compliance (like planning). The various parts of the building regulations documents get updated every so often to reflect changes in standards, technology, planning policy etc. so permeability – I think now is part of the Regulations and overall strategy for rain/surface water discharge.

Many potential users of eco friendly green driveways are home owners on existing, built residential neighbourhoods and developments where the either/or issue doesn’t really exist (underground drainage vs permeable surfacing) – since there will already be an existing drainage system in place. So it’s really about the added benefits of environmentally friendly permeable surfacing which are aesthetic, environmental and practical (It looks better in most cases, it aids discharge to the ground which is good for surrounding planting/trees, it reduces the strain on the existing public sewers and the potential for localised backup/flooding and in winter helps reduce the likelihood of surface ice from rain that has settled etc – which can cause accidents to people from slipping etc. ) Planning is also keen on d.i.y sustainability and generally they are quite encouraging towards people who install solar panels, permeable paving, water butts etc. because it reduces energy use and in the case of the paving relieves pressure on the public sewer system – which has financial implication, through renewal, repair, maintenance etc. There was a broadcast on Radio 4 last year that was about these issues and permeable surfacing to individual properties was mentioned. It was mentioned that it is worth finding out what, if any grants are available for it – as there are financial incentives for solar panels to domestic properties. In the current climate I’m sure most people would find that of interest if they were already interested in the idea for some of the above reasons.

More on Eco Friendly Driveways, paths, roads and Car parks here >>>>>> Eco Friendly Driveways  <<<<<<<.