{"id":7474,"date":"2020-01-17T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-01-17T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thomasjardineandco.co.uk\/high-street\/"},"modified":"2022-10-06T12:39:54","modified_gmt":"2022-10-06T11:39:54","slug":"high-street","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thomasjardineandco.co.uk\/high-street\/","title":{"rendered":"High streets, place , people and productivity"},"content":{"rendered":"

Future of the high street<\/h2>\n

High streets are changing. Our high streets should focus on the community needs rather on slightly modifying what we have always done. When faced with\u00a0 a change in business circumstances<\/a> ,Thomas Jardine & Co<\/a> always use Strategyzers excellent Business Model Canvas<\/a>.\u00a0 This focuses our attention on end users rather on our portfolio of services and products.\u00a0 In business life it is not a case of doing what you have always done.\u00a0 It’s about\u00a0 doing what your customer needs to get past their problems and improve their life.<\/p>\n

We have to meet the needs of the community in a way that is economically sustainable for both the high street businesses and those businesses or organisations that support them. For this productivity is key.\u00a0 Thomas Jardine & Co has a thing about productivity, Jacqui is an ambassador for Be the Business<\/a> who are tasked with driving productivity up across the country.<\/p>\n

The High Streets belong to a place<\/h2>\n

There is an extreme diversity in size and scope of our high streets (see Institute of Place Management<\/a>). They can be servicing a small catchment area with mainly retail services. Or act as an anchor for a vast catchment area offering a wide variety of services. The place the high street is set in is not dictated by political boundaries. Carlisle<\/a> for example has a catchment area that covers various counties and two countries.<\/p>\n

High streets are a community of people<\/h2>\n

Our high streets are made up of businesses that serve the community that chooses to use them. Our community looks to both the high street businesses and the council to provide a place that meets their needs.\u00a0 We often forget that a lot of the businesses and councils are made up of people who are part of the community.\u00a0 Your high street future will be about true collaboration of all those involved from users to businesses to council and business support.<\/p>\n

Productivity<\/h2>\n

The high street is based on service. Service industries such as retail , hospitality and food traditionally rely on a pool of lower paid workers.\u00a0 So the rise of minimum wage has a disproportionate impact on businesses in that sector that continue to depend on low wage work force .\u00a0 The problem the businesses have is that they are serviced based at a time when consumers are increasingly price conscious.\u00a0 Those businesses that adopt technology can increase productivity. This allows them to upskill their workforce and still offer a degree of personal service. The excellent essays from the Carnegie UK Trust and RSA<\/a> look at productivity in the UK. Productivity isn’t just about replacing low paid low productive jobs with high paid high productive jobs. It’s about creating an attitude to improving the future of the business and the worker. If business isn’t allowed to focus on this then the future of business and jobs is in jeopardy.<\/p>\n

Productivity and the High Street<\/h2>\n

High Street food and hospitality businesses need more focused support from the ‘business support sector’. From a business perspective:<\/p>\n