You Need
A quiet place to thinkJuly 2001 A holiday does not take you entirely away from your work. But you can often view things much more clearly from afar. The stressful reactive way we mostly work, with others clamouring to set our agenda for us, is replaced by a quiet reflective time where, when we think about our jobs at all, it is likely to be creative and proactive planning - and fun. For once the woods are not cluttered up with pesky trees. Actually you can achieve the same effect by painting your front door, very slowly, on a sunny day. Last month I went on holiday and painted my front door. Just as well. We are nearing a huge change in the way we run things at Inclusive Technology. |
 Martin's newly painted front door |
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The Greek island of Naxos allows you to view life in Britain from two thousand miles away; from a perspective of five thousand years of history; and from Europe! Greece is one of the twelve European countries in the Euro zone. I loved Naxos, and we may drive there next year. If we do, whichever way we go, the only currency I will need (or be able to use) is the Euro (provided I keep my foot down through Switzerland). Only a northern insecure and conservative crescent is holding out against the Euro: Britain, Denmark and Sweden. We already supply training and software to Ireland. The Euro will be their currency in six months time. If we price and accept in payment Euros as well as pounds we will make things easier for our Irish friends and remove barriers for eleven other major European countries from Finland to Greece. |
 Cycladic marble figures from Naxos dating from 2,800 BC |
The Netherlands are switching currencies on a single day - and with few hang ups (according to Franz seated at the next table in the beach bar). But then the guilder (FL) is less than 800 years old, a relic of an earlier pan-European currency emanating from Florence. The pound has been a single relatively stable national currency for eleven hundred years. But the drachma dwarfs this. It was the first currency and Plato and Aristotle were debating its nature around 400 BC. Its origins must go back to the seventh century BC when marble masons on Naxos were putting the final touches to the temple of Demeter and roughing out giant statues, Kouroi, for export.
Unfinished Kouroi were left where they lay. Our Naxian friends swore that there were only two Kouroi on Naxos. In fact there is a third Kouros that is little known and takes some detective work and thorn torn ankles to find. In my mind these three Kouroi, abandoned seven centuries before Christ, ghosted as the three aspects of Inclusive Technology, which from 1st August this year will divide and form the Inclusive Group Ltd.
Inclusive Inc.It is 4th July today: Independence Day - but we are back! Our new American start-up is based in Boonton, New Jersey, just half an hour from Newark Airport. SwitchIt! Maker, Teddy Games and much else from LaraMera, VariTech height adjustable computer tables, SwITch Box, SwITchboard, metal keyguards: we have so much to offer the Americans. They have a great deal to offer us too. We already spend weeks over there looking for new resources for our Inclusive Technology customers. Great US resources like AbleNet switches, AlphaSmart note takers, Big Keys, IntelliKeys and AMDi TechTalk units - all making a difference for thousand of pupils in the UK. This Kouros will be the largest (the US market size will see to this) but is barely formed at present. A great deal more chiselling needed here. |
 Kouros of Apollonas: a very unfinished and huge statue of Dionysus. Spot the bearded old reveller with a love of wine. |
Inclusive Technology Ltd - ITFor five years now an established UK software publisher, giver of advice by telephone and talk, and supplier of special needs resources by mail order. This year resources supplied have grown by more than 50% (89% for the June just passed) and may touch £3 million pounds in value. We will know the final score next month, as our year ends on July 31st. |
 Kouros of Melanes: the nearest to its final state. Must not be caught knapping |
Inclusive Consultancy and Training Ltd - ICTServices the ICTS Consortium providing NOF training for learners with Severe and Complex Special Educational Needs. Also organizes Special Needs IT exhibitions in Bolton and Islington and the Special Needs Fringe (formerly "Not at BETT"). This company will continue to develop its three exhibitions and to run network days for special educators. However the end of the NOF programme in March 2003 presents new challenges. NOF has been huge and the company will need to create new opportunities in training and conference organization. |
 Kouros of Potamia: Less well known. Well worth visiting. Great potential. But has it got the legs? |
Inclusive Group Ltd.Each of the operating companies has a distinct and challenging role: starting a new business in America; managing the supply in the UK of five hundred products and finding or creating new products which are better; or building on the great burst of awareness which ICTS NOF training has kicked off so effectively. These companies need to share the rich feedback of ideas from special schools we are training and turn these into better products. The US and the UK need to swap product knowledge and best practice in service to schools. Resources need to be distributed where they are likely to be most effective. All of this is the work of Inclusive Group Ltd. |
 Temple to Demeter: seventh century BC like the Kouroi. Spiritual HQ for surrounding settlements including some overseas. |
Poor sad sod! Planning a company structure in the midst of Greek island sun, sand … and more sun. Well not really. Favourite activity was sitting amid the truckers at the pandemonium end of the harbour pier with a small coffee and large ouzo, reading yesterday's British papers. Blair wins, Cook and Hague go, pound plunges, DfEE becomes DES (again) and Jeffrey Archer finds a new use for last year's diaries.
Meanwhile large lumps of marble are ingeniously loaded on to small ships as they must have been on most days for the last three thousand years.
Greek to no one: simple but effective menu at hut near
Kouros of Melanes
Martin Littler
4th July 2001