David Parkin bids farewell to Lurene Joseph and finds readers like a bit of bully

I read with considerable interest yesterday’s announcement that Lurene Joseph is to step down as chief executive of Leeds and Partners.

It came just a couple of days after the organisation held a “stakeholder” event which trumpeted its achievements with the same narrow-minded, cockeyed view of itself that you might expect from North Korea.
If you want one word to describe Joseph’s two-and-a-half year tenure as head of the city organisation tasked with marketing and inward investment then it would be FAILURE.
If the capitals don’t make the point strongly enough then perhaps unmitigated, disastrous waste of money does.
I see she won’t actually leave until next spring. I suppose paying her another six months of her 170 grand annual salary isn’t that bad – she’s been a lame duck chief exec for months after a series of damaging stories emerged about her dominant management style, expense claims and more recently personal bankruptcy – which has since been annulled.
What surprises me is how Leeds and Partners chairman Andy Clarke – the CEO of Asda – and Leeds City Council chiefs have stuck by her for so long.
Announcing her departure yesterday, Clarke almost sounded sad to be losing her, rather than relieved that finally the organisation has been able to jettison its biggest liability.
Among the words of praise, he also said she “will leave a lasting legacy for future delivery”. Well, the organisation needs to deliver, because it certainly hasn’t up to now.
I’ve always been supportive of Lurene and Leeds and Partners. I felt they deserved backing. TheBusinessDesk.com avoided throwing mud at her when other media were queuing up to do it. I felt she deserved time to deliver.
But the sad truth is that deliver she hasn’t. And the ridiculous words of praise heaped on her by Clarke yesterday don’t do him any favours.
He claims Leeds and Partners has created more than 1,200 jobs and a “£10m incremental spend in the visitor economy”. I see an organisation that claims to be behind all the positives in the city region and piggy-backed Welcome to Yorkshire’s brilliant Tour de France Grand Depart coup.
Apparently Joseph believes that against the backdrop of such success, the time is now right for her “to pursue new challenges in the private sector and to continue her work on private sector boards”.
I’ll be interested to see which private sector organisations want her on their boards.
And in the meantime those ploughing serious public and private sector cash into Leeds and Partners should have a long, hard look at whether this organisation really does deserve a future.
What it can’t justify is another highly paid chief executive who can talk the management-speak drivel but can’t walk the walk when it comes to delivering real success.
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THE fire at the Majestic building in Leeds brought the city centre to a standstill this week.
The former Majestic cinema, later the Majestyk nightclub, has been restored close to its former glory by developer Rushbond and, as the economy continues to improve, would have provided an impressive home to upmarket bars and restaurants.
Sadly the fire, which looks to have devastated the domed roof of the Grade II listed building dating from the 1920s, will now leave it empty for quite some time.
Inevitably social media was abuzz with people commenting – some even suggesting the cause of the fire before it had even been put out. It certainly shows the worst aspects of social media – people base their opinions on misinformed headlines and incorrect information delivered in 140 characters or less.
They’d rather share their views on Twitter before learning any facts. But the truth might get in the way of their half-baked opinions.
The only reason the Majestic is still empty is because Jonathan Maud of Rushbond, which has restored the building so sympathetically, would want the right tenants for the City Square landmark.
I’m sure it could have already been filled with convenience stores, sandwich shops or coffee shops but it deserves better than that and an entrepreneur like Jonathan will deliver it in spite of the devastation wreaked by this week’s fire.
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THE comment section of our website was red hot yesterday as readers reacted with delight to a headline on a story.
“Bull semen specialist swallowed up by National Milk Records”, said the headline, written by our West Midlands editor Andy Coyne, a proper journalist with a great talent, sense of humour and a wry eye for the unusual and ridiculous.
Somebody had to explain the double entendre to me: our readers are clearly more worldly-wise.
How times have changed.
Soon after TheBusinessDesk.com launched almost seven years ago, I was searching for a photograph to accompany a story about a bathroom manufacturer which had undergone a management buyout.
Going to the firm’s website, I found a promotional shot of one of their shower enclosures with a woman stepping into it holding a towel. As you might do when you have a shower, she was naked, but the photo was taken from behind so in pretty good taste.
As soon as it was published, a comment was added by a reader who lambasted me for using explicit, chauvinistic images on a family website.
I was just considering changing said photo when another comment popped up, from a senior executive at a well known Yorkshire firm.
“Great stuff David, this is what we want. Keep up the good work.”
Any photos of scantily clad women used since then have been purely in the interests of keeping up Yorkshire business morale rather than desperate voyeurism on my part.
Have a great weekend.

 

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