To Coyne A Phrase

Is it time for the tie to die?

FASHIONS change. Spats and the cummerbund, once the height of sartorial elegance, are now unlikely to be considered part of the everyday business wardrobe unless your chosen garb is 1920s Chicago gangster or Fred Astaire lookalike.

But what about ties? Has anyone got a policy on them anymore?

I went to a meeting recently with a senior manager of a large retail centre and a senior representative of an accountancy firm. I was wearing a tie – largely because I was meeting them – whereas neither of them were. But they both dragged ties out of their pockets to put on because the meeting was being photographed.

Both admitted that they very rarely wear a tie these days – the retail centre manager claiming their use wasn’t widespread in his industry and the accountancy firm chap saying his firm took the view that ties should be worn ‘where appropriate’.

But that’s the problem isn’t it? When is it appropriate? 

I always put a tie on when I’m off to meet people and to do interviews but more often than not the top executive shaking my hand across the table is tieless.

Men don’t even always wear ties at weddings these days. Not even if they’re the groom!

Is it not time that we voted en masse to declare that appropriate office attire these days for men is a suit, or shirt and trousers, with a smart shirt and no tie?

I’d be interested to hear your views. Feel free to use the comment box below.

I want to be like you

THERE was a glorious moment at around 5pm last Saturday when the football results came through. Aston Villa 3 Manchester City 2 spurted the modern equivalent of the teleprinter, quickly followed by Manchester United 1 West Bromwich Albion 2.

It was a Narnia moment where we had slipped into a parallel universe in which the local football clubs were top of the pile and our friends in the north were the also-rans.

Things will soon return to normal unfortunately.

Away from the football field the perceived competition that rages between Birmingham and Manchester isn’t something that distracts people during their normal working lives.

But in the field of inward investment it is important to differentiate between the two cities and their surrounding regions when ‘selling’ ourselves to potential investors from overseas.

Which is why I was astonished recently when Birmingham Chamber of Commerce Group (BCCG) and the Black Country Chambers of Commerce (BCCC) called on the region to adopt the “Greater Manchester Protocol”.

In a call to follow the ‘city region’ lead of Manchester, Leeds and Sheffield they produced a joint document calling for urgent action on transport issues across the West Midlands “without boundaries”.

Let’s be honest, they’re probably right. The local authorities in this part of the world have traditionally fought like cats in a sack and to have three local enterprise partnerships (LEPS) covering the Birmingham area, Coventry & Warwickshire and The Black Country seems nonsensical even if you live and work here (goodness knows what the outside world makes of it).

In the North West the city region idea is much more readily accepted.

But it’s one thing knowing it and another saying it publically.

Surely it’s a massive own goal to put out statements to the press saying we should be more like Manchester.

If I worked for Manchester’s inward investment team I would be licking my lips. “Our biggest rival is saying we have got it right and they haven’t,” I would be telling everyone.

And I would sack my PR team. After all why do they need to pay for positive publicity when we’re giving it to them for free?

Language barriers

DESPITE being a journalist I try not to be sniffy about the use of language, taking the view that it is forever evolving and has to adapt to an age in which brevity isn’t so much the soul of wit as the sole way of communicating.

But there is one mistake that does get my goat and there have been quite a few examples of it coming across my desk of late.

And while I’m not going to name and shame the culprits, some of them have been from PR professionals and one was from, gulp, an experienced journalist turned PR man.

I am, of course, talking about complimentary and complementary. I won’t insult your intelligence by explaining the difference between the two words but the next time I go past a restaurant with the words ‘complementary glass of wine written on a blackboard’ outside I will insist that the tipple that goes best with my meal is a Chateau Mouton Rothschild 1970.

Have a great weekend.