It has been a bleak period for the north-east economy.
Muirfield Construction’s collapse was a brutal blow to Dundee, while the sudden demise of Tullis Russell in Fife last month left families across the region in the mire.
Late last week there was another sucker punch as training group Claverhouse called in the liquidators.
For the hundreds of staff those three businesses collectively employed, all that is left is uncertainty for the future. I wish them well.
But those job losses set me thinking. Why so many eggs in so few baskets?
I think the answer may lie in the fact that, for the majority of young Scots, setting out on their own in business is neither encouraged nor a financially viable option.
In school the goal for most pupils is gaining entry into university and
following a set career/life from there.
It is a tunnel vision that ultimately leads to (hopefully) safe jobs within the public or private sector.
But what our education system does not currently properly provide for is those who want to follow another road.
How different would our economy be if entrepreneurialism was actively encouraged from an early age?
Yes, there would be baskets dropped and eggs smashed. But those failures would be on a smaller scale and the mess more easily cleaned up than when a large corporate suddenly goes under.
Surely the state must see the benefits of encouraging and providing real support to those with an entrepreneurial vision at a young age?
And hopefully the broader business base that would emerge would help insulate generations to come from the misery of being handed their P45.