Strategic steps on a collusion course

Monday 23 February 2004 - Hotelympia day one: arrive around 8.30am, an hour before the show officially opens. I begin to walk the aisles. By lunchtime, I've paced 1.6 miles, taking 4,136 steps at an average speed of 2.65mph. (I know this because I am wearing my son's pedometer.) Chef Brian Turner says I have short steps. What does he know? At this rate, by the end of the week, I will have covered 16 miles at the show, which is the distance between Kinlochleven and Fort William in Scotland, the final stage of the West Highland Way long-distance footpath. This is a tough exhibition.

But what's the mood of the exhibitors? After only a few "how's-it-going-what's-new?" chats, I begin to realise that something has changed since the last Hotelympia, two years ago. And it's not just that the venue is ExCel in London's Docklands. It is obvious that there is much more communication going on between supplier and customer. The recession (yes, admit it now, there has been a recession of sorts) seems to have created a much clearer need for dialogue between the parties.

Take Stoke-on-Trent-based Steelite - no longer a pottery manufacturer, but an all-inclusive table-top supplier, dealing in crockery, glassware, cutlery and, should the customer require it, finance to buy the goods as well. Or Winterhalter, with a service deal that says to its customers: "Hi, we were just passing - any problems?" Or P&G Professional, where the supplier of cleaning fluids asks the client: "How can we help with your hygiene training needs?"

For years, the industry has moaned about its own divisions and fragmentation, but now a mood of complicity really seems to be developing between various businesses. The new way is multi-layered, an extension of multi-skilling and multi-tasking. It's about breaking down old-fashioned concepts that restrict the development of enterprise - we do this and someone else does that. It's about providing common ground to deliver the best results.

I can tell that, by the time I have covered my 16 miles at this show, the china clay used to make porcelain plates will be mined by a company that supports the college that educated the entrepreneur who opens the restaurant that recruits the chef who cooks the food that is served on the plates made by the porcelain potter who provides the finance to buy the oven that the chef uses to cook the food that is served to wealthy customers like the china clay manufacturer…

I suppose you could call it support chain business management. I'd call it common sense.