IF only mothers could take over the world… Nikki King, who has just won a lifetime achievement award in the First Women Awards, didn’t start her career until she was 41 when her husband left her. Within seven years she was headhunted by businessmen who wanted to bring Isuzu trucks over from Japan.

Five years ago she led a £32m management buyout of the company.

Not bad for a late starter.

What helped her, she said, was what she had learned brining up three children.

“When you are a mother you automatically learn a whole skills set that is invaluable in the work place. Anger management, good time-keeping, multi-tasking, all vital for staying ahead in business.”

And that’s just the start of it.

I’ve always thought the Apple and Cake Principle, for instance, could probably solve at least half the world’s arguments.

It’s a simple mother’s ploy – one child divides the apple or slice of cake, and the other child chooses which bit to take. It makes for scrupulous fairness. Worth trying anywhere in business. And maybe even in the Middle East come to that.

Ridiculous bonuses – like sweets and fizzy drinks – could be strictly rationed and awarded only as a special treat.

Show-offs, tantrums and sulks would all get short shrift. Hard work and decency would be rewarded.

And if politicians had to tidy up all the consequences of their legislation before they left government – like tidying your toys before bedtime – then wouldn’t the world be a better place.

The other thing that mothers are good at is thinking of the greater good. Most mothers most of the time are happy if their family is happy. If the family is functioning peacefully and harmoniously, then mothers reckon they’ve done a good job. Their own wants come lower down the list.

If only our politicians had the same attitude.

The skills of a good mother are – as Nikki King proves – precisely the skills that are desperately needed in business and politics. When women take a few years out to raise their children, it can be as much of a learning curve as a business degree.

Those skills are rarely recognised and often undervalued.

But they could be just what many struggling organisations need.

Mother knows best – even about business.

From teenager to toddler

LAST week I thought Hazel Blears was behaving like a show-off teenager by resigning her cabinet post on the eve of the elections and wearing a “Rocking the boat” badge to make the grown-ups realise what a rebel she was.

Since then, she has come back to say tearfully that she realises she was wrong, that she shouldn’t have done it and she’s very, very sorry.

So that’s all right then.

That’s not even teenage behaviour. That’s the fantasy world of a toddler.

She probably believes in the tooth fairy too.

Football and the real world

DOWN here in the real world, times are hard.

Every organisation is cutting costs, trimming staff and trying to battle their way somehow through recession.

Meanwhile, out there on Planet Football, Cristiano Ronaldo is sold for £80m and Newcastle United pay ex-jailbird Joey Barton £675,000 a year just for image rights.

Image rights? Good grief.

I’m not even sure what they are, though I’m quite certain they’re not worth that ridiculous amount of money.

My only hope is that the world of football will eventually float so far out of reach from the rest of us that like some doomed star it will implode and vanish into a nice big black hole.

Ideally in the few brief weeks before the season’s due to start again.

Naked japes

A NAKED Greta Scacchi clutching a giant cod close to her bosom is enough to send your Omega 3 levels plummeting.

If she wanted to stop us eating fish, then she has succeeded splendidly – though probably not in the way she intended.

In fact, it’s been a bit of a naked week.

There was Michael Fish in his bath... David Beckham in his underwear clutching a rope and trying to look moody, but only looking ridiculous… ... and finally the Naked Bike Ride last weekend which was meant to draw attention to the environmentally friendliness of cycling, but which actually conjured up too many images that I’d really rather not have in my memory bank.

I thought we were meant to be a shy, reticent, buttoned-up nation, but now we’re letting it all hang out at every possible opportunity.

I blame the WI. But at least they did it with style, wit and a professional gloss.

As for the rest, it’s not a pretty sight, so get your clothes back on sharpish. Especially, please, those cyclists . If nothing else, you’re making my eyes water.

Mercy

MADONNA has at last been allowed to adopt baby Mercy. After all the fuss and difficulties let’s wish Mercy at least 16 years of privacy and anonymity and a chance for a normal family life.

Well, as normal as it can get with Madonna as your mum.

Backchat

Dear Sharon,
MY mother always found a use for screwtop jars for storing everything from nails and screws to buttons, beads and bits of old soap. She was also for many years a great maker of jam, marmalade and chutney, so it was perfectly sensible to keep jars for re-use.

But she still couldn’t bring herself to throw a jar away even when her jam-making days were over. When we cleared her house we found boxes and boxes of clean and washed jars, enough for a whole shop full of jam.

She was also a great hoarder of the little packets of sugar you get in cafes. Not taking sugar herself, she would take them home as she’d paid for them. We found nearly a hundred of those too, all stored safely in screw top jars.

Megan North, Darlington.

Hi Sharon,
WHEN it comes to recycling, perhaps you should mention the fabled old lady with her tin marked “Pieces of string, too short to be of any use”.

Eric Gendle.

Dear Sharon,
MANY years ago when I had to organise an “international” pageant as part of our college celebrations, we were stumped when it came to English national dress. Finally, we went for the yeoman look, with the men dressed in traditional smocks and the women as milkmaids in simple dresses and aprons.

Other suggestions were for morris dancers or the briefcase, bowler and brolly image.

Whatever we thought, it was always easier to come up with ideas for the men, rather than the women.

Doris Freeman, Darlington.

Dear Sharon,
I ALWAYS thought you could tell an Englishmen on holiday by his old suit, flat cap and muffler, which was the working class uniform for many generations and is still worn by Andy Capp.

These days it is even easier as the English abroad go for national un-dress combined with sunburn and drunkenness and are always easily recognised and best avoided.

John Grant, Northallerton.