THIS week we had our monthly Family Business Practice Meeting where 60 businesses got together and shared, amongst other things, best practice, and we discussed how we felt about commitment.

I often hear business and individuals quoting that they are highly committed to their clients and their workforce, yet demonstrating, in many cases, the complete opposite on a daily basis.

The BBC have been on the receiving end of questionable treatment with their much-loved programme ‘The Great British Bake Off’.

There are arguments for and against but it is clear the commitment of the organisation that brought the programme to the BBC is not to the corporation. Nor is it to its presenters or in fact its audience.

In my opinion (granted, as an outsider) it's simply a commitment to making money and self-interest. Interestingly the four presenters of the programme have also taken quite different moral standpoints and it will be interesting to see how it affects their careers in the long term.

Commitment to me is remembering my Dad working on a vital project called PLUTO (Pipeline under the Ocean) in the Second World War.

This supplied the fuel necessary to power transport in the D-day landings of 1944. He was one of a handful of highly experienced welders who had to be 100 feet in the air welding vital components for the project while buzz bombs were flying all around him.

My Dad was a man of few words and he simply said there wasn’t time to get down to safety anyway so he figured it best to get on with the job…

Commitment to me is watching (in awe) so many, many individuals performing phenomenal feats at the recent Paralympics in Brazil. Just consider Ibrahim Hamato a table tennis player who has no arms, plays with the bat in his mouth and serves using his foot – that’s commitment.

Commitment to me are the thousands of family businesses serving us locally and nationally going the extra mile time and again.

This is in stark contrast to so many major corporations who seemingly do not care on so many occasions, instead simply making decisions to keep the shareholders happy.

How about you and me?

Are we committed to what we are trying to achieve? Or do we use the same old tired language as everyone else?

It's worth taking the time to consider…