The Eurostar connects Britain to Europe, but the beating heart of rail travel in Great Britain has always been the Midlands. For decades Crewe was synonymous with locomotive construction, and major rail companies to this day base their head offices in the Midlands.
The people who make a manager's life difficult aren't the ones who are incompetent. You can spot them and eliminate them without angst. It's semicompetent people who keep their managers awake at night.
We all have a tendency to only look directly at what we're doing today, and not step back and say: "What do I, what does my company, need to be focusing on now, for the future?" Taking that step back is the step toward innovation and away from stagnation.