Meet F, who works for Jim Mann in Group Operations and Technology and who doesn't have a job following the GHO cuts. Group Ops is going down from 50 to 12 people; apparently Jim Mann is not at all happy - he has been told he has to take a policy role rather than the facilitation role he has tried to develop.
His people should develop strategies and policies but let the businesses get on with the actual "doing". F manages our relationship with BT, NatWest's biggest supplier. He has close contact with my people and it will be a shame to lose him; he is competent and a nice guy.
My team are working hard on the Cheadle warehouse closure, talking to suppliers about timing and trying to get then lined up to take over at the end of the year. Getting everything in place is looking a bit tight. I also put in my nominations for the Group Achievers award - a couple of hundred staff are taken for a weekend to Barcelona in January to recognise effort or performance above the call of duty. I'm nominating three of my team; all of whom I think should stand a reasonable chance. I'll be disappointed if none of them get accepted.
Meet with Andrew, an Andersen partner who specialises in supply chain issues. He is very sharp and also lives just down the road from me at the expensive end of Sunninghill (he's at the expensive end, I should stress). We talk primarily about Redgrave, but he tells me that they have a lot of ideas around e-procurement, purchasing outsourcing and similar. I guess if all this doesn't work out for me personally there could be some opportunities there.