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Colin Mackenzie, Director of Housing and Social Work for the shire, had only to walk across a room in Woodhill House to his new office to take charge of the council recently voted the best in Britain to work for, and serving the best rural area of Scotland to live.

Sue Bruce had to travel 140 miles from East Dunbartonshire Council to St Nicholas House, the city's HQ, which appeared to be permanently under siege as a result of a major financial crisis and a series of condemnatory reports.

What they have in common is refreshing enthusiasm, a desire to move forward and not to dwell on the past, good or bad, and a recognition of the importance of working in partnership with the business community to ensure the future prosperity of the area.

It was the problems which beset Aberdeen City Council and the potential for the future which attracted Sue Bruce to the job. She was already the Chief Executive of a forward-looking council and had worked in local government for 32 years in education, social work and housing but the draw was the opportunity to drive change in Scotland's third city. So is she enjoying the challenge?

"I am loving it," she told Business Bulletin.

"It is hard work, but that's what I came for and I have had a very warm welcome. Everyone within the council, elected members and officers alike, are enthusiastic about moving forward and embracing the changes I want to introduce in conjunction with the elected members."

She has already drawn up plans to scrap the current controversial management structure and reinstate key posts in education and social work. Two proposed models which provide "crystal clear accountability" for services in the city will be decided upon by councillors later this month. She plans to work closely with the business community with the benefits of partnership going both ways.

"Aberdeen City Council has an important role in ensuring that Aberdeen remains an attractive place to do business and, in the case of this city, it is in many ways big business. The oil and gas industry is important to the Scottish economy and the UK economy.

"The universities are attracting leading intellectuals and academics and equally the small business sector is prominent so between us is a range of interests we can serve. We now have a lead role in terms of economic development following the change of remit of Scottish Enterprise and I would like to see us couple that up with a relationship with business to make sure we look ahead and scan the horizon for the changes that are bound to come.

"The external economy makes it an interesting time, a challenging time, and it is important we sustain small business and commerce in the city to meet the needs of local people as well in terms of the shopping and leisure interests. I haven't got any grandiose plans at the moment but it is about ensuring that we as a city council support a healthy lively city centre so we can compete with other cities.

"I know people who go from here to Edinburgh and Glasgow for their shopping days out and it would be really good if we could retain some of that trade here in Aberdeen. "

Many believe Sir Ian Wood's offer of £50 million of his personal fortune to raise Union Terrace Gardens to the same level as Union Street and create a green heart to the city could be the catalyst for such city centre success.

Ms Bruce describes it as "an interesting and very generous proposal."

"At the moment the council is awaiting the feasibility study and we would anticipate that significantly more capital investment would be required to take the project forward," she said. "Sadly we are not in a position to do much about that because of the demands on the capital programme within the council - but it is an interesting prospect and would be a big legacy and we look forward to seeing what comes forward for consideration.

"One of the key things to do here is to ensure we sustain a stable financial position within the council and the council has made significant decisions to take us towards that point.

"All of that is in the context of the shrinking public sector economy and the Prime Minister has made it quite clear that the public sector in Scotland will take its share of the pain in terms of the shrinkage of the economy.

"The actual population growth in Scotland is relatively slower than in the rest of the United Kingdom so there is less tax base and if you look at the demographics we are an ageing population as well so in overall governance terms there are some interesting challenges to make it an attractive place for people to come and work and live."

She says she will be working closely with Aberdeenshire to make that happen and has already discussed where they could work together.

"I think partnership between us and the shire is important. I would suggest there is a lot of interchange between their population and ours in terms of people commuting to jobs and I would also suggest that with the downward pressure on the public service economy the more we can do in partnership with the shire the better it is for both of us. I don't think the public are that bothered where they get their services from as long as they are effective and efficient and if we can save resources that is something we should be looking at."

Colin Mackenzie too is keen to see the councils combine forces in battles, for example, to win government assistance to support efforts to attract inward investment.

Mr Mackenzie said: "The big challenges for the council are the same challenges for the community in the North-east and nationally. Obviously the economic downturn and financial crisis is going to have an impact on us. We have seen this coming for some time and know we are going to have to face this challenge. We are already a council which has 20% less staffing that any other comparable council.

"Our funding is £60 million below the Scottish average so we are a lean council, an efficient council and we are probably going to have to get leaner and even more efficient.

"I will be looking particularly at how we can drive continuous improvement through the council to an even larger extent that it already has been.

"I want to increase the pace we do things and I want to make sure people are flexible in how they approach their work and are not working in the silos people have often criticised local government for - although I don't think we do that in Aberdeenshire.

"We have been good at working across services and taking a corporate approach but the future means we are going to have to be more flexible than we have been in the past."

He has little optimism that there will be more Scottish Government money available.

"I think if we can retain our share and build on that incrementally we will be doing quite well. The North-east always suffers from the perception that it is an affluent area and unemployment is low which means that the sorts of services which are targeted towards the more disadvantaged in our community are not as well funded as they are in other parts of Scotland."

Mr Mackenzie sees working closely with local and national businesses as crucial.

"We spend a significant amount of time in Europe trying to encourage inward investment and making sure the fishing industry is well represented," he said

Other aims are to ensure the shire's small to medium sized business are protected and start up businesses given the help they need. He has a lot of optimism about the future.

"I think you could get quite depressed about what is happening in terms of Britain and the world at large but here in the North-east, at this point in time, the impact is not as negative and that is a huge positive for us.

"The other side to that is we may not therefore attract some of the assistance the government needs to give to business and industry and local authorities.

"We need to make sure we step up that campaign with the government so they don't forget about the North-east and we will be doing that in partnership with business, with Aberdeen City Council and other partners like the NHS and the Police."