I was talking to a client today about how they should structure their companies (they operate a charity and a trading company). The answer lies in what they want to achieve, and to work backwards from there. The answer may be wrong, but the premise they base the decision on will be right.

When faced with a difficult decision, I learnt a long time ago that the best way of deciding was to toss a coin, having decided what to do if the coin lands heads up (it works best if there are only two possible solutions!). The hard bit is to listen to the little voice in your head that tells you whether you are glad, or sorry, with the result. Rather than go with the coin, always trust your gut reaction to the result.

This would suggest that we know what to do all along; it’s just that too often other factors crowd our thinking, making decisions harder to reach.

Even in business, unless there are compelling reasons to take one course of action over another, there seems to be a lot of sense in going back to the reasons why you are in business, remembering what you want to achieve, and start from there.

Raised a chicken and egg question: which come first, the housing or the jobs? This is made particularly tough by the fact that each is “managed” by a different body. How quickly can a local authority react to a change in business needs? Would you locate to where the staff are, or base yourself in a place you like to live? Which can be changed quicker: the skills, or the availability of staff?

Must be a tough job predicting what we will need in 10 years time when most folk don’t know what they will have in 10 weeks time.