In his column looking at the finance industry, GuernseyFinance chief executive Peter Niven answers those who claimed he was painting too rosy a picture of the island I APPLAUD the comments of Ian Walker on the marketing of the island that appeared in the Guernsey Press of 12 March.

Also his endorsement of the work that GuernseyFinance is doing to raise the island’s profile on the world stage using our new branding as the backdrop to our efforts.

‘No news is bad news,’ he is quoted as saying. ‘As long as the island is marketed,’ he added.

I support that view particularly when there are so many Jeremiahs out there who are all too quick to do the island down and not effectively contribute to taking us forward positively. All take and no give.

I make no excuses for being a so-called Pollyanna, as I have been described in another article, and yes, that is my job, but at least I can be positive for the island while at the same time realising and understanding that not everything in the garden is rosy.

I try to take a balanced approach to marketing this island on the world stage. I strike a position between those who are, I believe, totally blinkered and think that everything in the island is perfect and that we live in Utopia and those who need the oxygen of the media to feed their relatively petty jealousies and gripes and seek, for some reason, to cast the island in a negative light.

We would probably best associate them with the Victor Meldrew school of life.

No journalist I speak to is going to accept the rose-tinted glasses view of the island if I try to portray it in that light. There has to be a balance.

Yes, we are an amazing business community and the island spirit of entrepreneurship and innovation is still alive and well.

That holds for the finance industry, but equally for tourism, horticulture and the light industry sector.

But there are strains and stresses – that is inevitable in a small island community that has limited resources of all types.

But we have to position those into the total picture as they are a part of it and not the whole thing. Let’s have some perspective.

And so I look back to a conference we attended last month when we showed off our new branding internationally for the first time – and what a hit it was.

Immediately understandable and in its new modern and vibrant form it brought delegates to the stand wanting to know more about what we can offer.

All the industry people we had with us – and that was about two dozen – had enormous opportunities to get new clients and new business.

We also this time took with us a huge supply of Guernsey fudge provided by the Strawberry Farm that advertised another side of Guernsey and again showed another side to our character.

That, and the visitor literature we always take with us as we travel internationally, will be a continuing feature of our marketing effort and we are looking for other Guernsey products that we can take with us to give a more rounded picture of the island to an international audience.

So, let’s have more of the ‘can do’ mentality and positive actions in support of the island whether that is through the wearing of the Guernsey flag in our lapels or whether that is telling the balanced story of who we are and what we do.

No one else will do it for us – they will be in the Victor Meldrew camp – and let’s hope no one in the island wants to be there.