Well you’re now into the final quarter of this year, I guess you’re either in Period 3 or 4; how’s it shaping up? Is the year as disastrous as we were all led to believe it would be, or are you in good shape and reaching out for new business?

I think that the bunker mentality that was firmly in place at the beginning of the year is still there and current banking evidence indicates that although lending is just about on plan, companies are just refinancing to get rid of debt at a lower rate.

Greece has officially defaulted and the consequential knock on effect appears to have been averted by the Eurozone and IMF stepping in with a 109b Euro support loan. Spain, Portugal and Italy have yet to be so firmly addressed, is it this that makes us so nervous or is there something else closer to home?

I believe that there have been some fundamental shifts in our paradigms, the basis for our business planning and operational efficiency are being firmly tipped over by the new business models whereby data and its ready availability has led to a price transparency; that in turn has led manufacturing, racing, to shift its cost base to the poorer paid quarters of the globe and raise it’s aspirations to niche added value segments. Service industry meanwhile looks to the web as it’s saviour for the delivery of everything from customer service to sales order processing and ready access to even more data from which to claim it’s differentiation.

So what has actually changed this year for you? Has your mindset changed or are you still thinking that things will get better? – They won’t, the business environment will just change and then change again and then change yet again.

Unless you have already fundamentally changed how your organisation addresses your market or at least are thinking about how you will change your approach, Q4 2012 really won’t be any different from Q4 2011, that is, unless your competitors have already stolen a march on you and taken your market.