Management Today articles from April 2003

Management Today archives from April 2003

EDITORIAL: Men at work ... and men at home.(Editorial)
April 14, 2003... Suma Chakrabati is an unlikely trailblazer. The high-flying senior civil servant from the Department for International Development created a stir last year when it was revealed he had negotiated a child-friendly employment contract with his...

IN MY OPINION.(Sir Michael Bichard)
April 14, 2003... Chartered Management Institute companion Sir Michael Bichard, rector and CEO of the London Institute, believes vision is vital for public-sector leaders. Clarity of vision, creativity, the ability to inspire, motivate and challenge, and a...

CUTTING ROOM.
April 14, 2003... How Airbus leapfrogged Boeing; gifts I can turn down; the forgotten explosion that rocked Toulouse; beware baggage-snatchers... Evan Davis at large. So this is the year that Airbus is set to overtake Boeing. In recent years, the...

BRAIN FOOD: Matters for the mind to chew on - Ten ways to .. Manage office politics.(Brief Article)
April 14, 2003... 1 Be transparent in your actions 2 Communicate with all sides 3 Network extensively 4 Keep well informed 5 Identify and watch the politicians 6 Never get personal 7 Maintain good upward contacts 8 Anticipate...

BRAIN FOOD: Matters for the mind to chew on - It just might work Dynamic change.(Brief Article)
April 14, 2003... Dynamic change demands adaptable people. But what kind of questions establish whether a candidate matches up? John Hamm, in Harvard Business Review, proposes the following: (1) Have you ever fired someone? (2) Describe three priorities from a...

BRAIN FOOD: Matters for the mind to chew on - Unlikely managers - Harbour master - Harwich Haven Authority, Essex.(Brief Article)(Interview)
April 14, 2003... Name: David Shennan When did you become a manager? As pilotage manager before becoming harbour master in 2000. I look after the five Haven ports, which see 26,000 ships come and go every year. I'm responsible for 96 staff, including 36...

BRAIN FOOD: Matters for the mind to chew on.
April 14, 2003... 'Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm' - Winston Churchill said it.

BRAIN FOOD: Workplace rights - Equal payback time.(Brief Article)
April 14, 2003... The right for women and men to receive equal pay for equal work is under the spotlight. Following a recent change in the law, workers can use questionnaires to get information from their employer about colleagues' remuneration packages....

BRAIN FOOD: Earning curve - Animal care.(Brief Article)
April 14, 2003... Philip L Francis, chairman, Petsmart (2001) pounds 885k Veterinary surgeon, 20 years' practice, p.a. pounds 55,578 RSPCA inspector, p.a. pounds 17k-pounds 19.5k London Zoo keeper, p.a. pounds 14,020 Qualified veterinary nurse...

BRAIN FOOD: Route to the top ... How to avoid making bad decisions.(Brief Article)
April 14, 2003... Watch your initial assumptions. We have a tendency to look for information that supports rather than contradicts our current view. Value your information source - as well as the information. People tend to put more weight on friends' views...

BRAIN FOOD: Room service Where Piers Morgan stays.(The Mandarin in Hong Kong and One Aldwych Hotel in London)
April 14, 2003... FOR BUSINESS: The most extraordinary experience I ever had in a hotel was at the Mandarin Oriental in Hong Kong. Landing late from Australia, I requested not to be woken early. At 7am, I was awakened by a window cleaner. I pressed a red button...

BRAIN FOOD: Speaking out - Paul Walsh, group CEO of Diageo.(Brief Article)
April 14, 2003... Paul Walsh waited his turn to speak at a Business in the Community conference looking like a nightclub bouncer as he balefully surveyed his audience. Would it be a menacing presentation, I wondered? He launched into a talk called 'Global...

BRAIN FOOD: If I had to start again.(Sir Bryan Nicholson)(Brief Article)
April 14, 2003... There were two things I wanted to be when I was growing up: a fighter pilot and head of the Foreign Office (the latter because someone from my school had achieved it). While doing my national service, I realised that business offered as many...

BRAIN FOOD: Are you suffering from ... A senior moment.(Brief Article)
April 14, 2003... This phrase is a polite expression for 'I can't remember what I was talking about'. It describes the moment in a meeting when everything you were going to share with your colleagues and CEO vanishes from your mind. 'I'm having a senior moment'...

THE HUMAN FACTOR.
April 14, 2003... Power comes with personality as much as with board structure. A domineering chairman can be all-powerful - as the BAE debacle shows. Congratulations to Daphne Statham and Alan Dexter, two little-known heroes of the boardroom. Not only have they...

STATE OF THE UNION.(Google)
April 14, 2003... Someone called Rachel said she began dating an internet start-up guy when she found, on Google, that he'd sold his stake for dollars 10m. In William Gibson's new novel, Pattern Recognition, the heroine doesn't research, she 'googles'....

INSIDE OUT.
April 14, 2003... France has long sought to undermine Nato, but it cannot also have been Chirac's aim to cripple the EU as a force in international affairs. Saddam Hussein cannot win against a concerted Anglo-American attack, but whatever the outcome in...

REALITY BITES.
April 14, 2003... We are awash with moderates today. Even the environment movement talks about sustainable growth rather than questioning the growth ethic. One of the myths of modern life is that orthodoxy has been banished. That we live plural, diverse,...

TECH KNOW: The people and products shaping your future - Things to come ... Methane-powered mobiles.(Brief Article)
April 14, 2003... Recharging phone, laptop and PDA batteries is a pain, and the coming of power-hungry mobile broadband will make it worse. PolyFuel, a spin-off of SRI International based at Menlo Park, California, hopes to introduce a lightweight power pack...

TECH KNOW: The people and products shaping your future - Tech talk.(Brief Article)
April 14, 2003... Arachnerd (n): The office spider, someone who spends all their work time on the web. Cigarette science (n): Flawed, biased or spurious 'facts' used to shore up a crumbling argument. A technique popularised by the tobacco industry.

TECH KNOW: The people and products shaping your future - Pushing the envelope - Replacement hearts.
April 14, 2003... If you've ever been chucked by a boyfriend or girlfriend, you'll have been consoled with the expression 'no-one ever died of a broken heart'. Yet a broken heart is one of the UK's biggest killers, accounting for 120,000 deaths - 20% of total...

TECH KNOW: The people and products shaping your future - Smart tools - Nokia camera headset.(Brief Article)
April 14, 2003... What is it? A digital camera attachment for (some) Nokia phones. What does it do? These days, texting is out, picture messaging is in. After all, if your phone takes photos you can back up your claim to have bumped into David Beckham at the...

BOOKS: Farewell to blue Mondays.(The Seven-Day Weekend)(Book Review)
April 14, 2003... The Seven-Day Weekend; By Ricardo Semler; Century; pounds 16.99 The Semco boss's account of his company's ultra-liberal culture is persuasive, says Rocco Forte, even if his ideas couldn't possibly work for most businesses. Conventional...

BOOKS: On the bedside table of ... John Boyd.(Brief Article)
April 14, 2003... 'I am reading four books at the moment: Martin Gilbert's Churchill: The Wilderness Years; Religio Medici by Sir Thomas Browne; I Promessi Sposi, a 19th-century Italian novel by Alessandro Manzoni; and for reading in bed when I can't sleep,...

BOOKS: Bending the regulations.(INFECTIOUS GREED)(Book Review)
April 14, 2003... INFECTIOUS GREED; By Frank Partnoy; Profile Books; pounds 17.99 This is a breathtaking chronicle of greed and stupidity, yet it leaves Robert Peston more confident that the financial system is robust. If you ask any investment banker or...

BOOKS: Three of a kind ... Learn to mind your manners at work.(BUSINESS ETIQUETTE)(BUSINESS ETIQUETTE FOR THE 21ST CENTURY)(Book Review)
April 14, 2003... BUSINESS ETIQUETTE; Josy Roberts; Trotman; pounds 4.99 A short book, which still manages to cover the basics, such as how to answer the phone, how to arrange and run a meeting, and how to write a business letter. A useful guide for those...

BOOKS: St Luke's Gospel.(EXPERIMENT AT WORK)(Book Review)
April 14, 2003... Does the ad agency's Utopian management style offer lessons? A few, says Warwick Cairns EXPERIMENT AT WORK; by Andy Law; Profile Books; pounds 15.00 This is a book about an ad agency called St Luke's, written by its founding partner...

Working dads who want it all.
April 14, 2003... Men have had to adjust to the loss of status as sole breadwinner and in the modern world are expected to play an equal role in the household. Are they coping? MT, in collaboration with BT and the Work Foundation, polled 500 working fathers to...

BARBOUR: Reproofing the brand.(John Barbour and Sons)
April 14, 2003... The fortunes of John Barbour & Sons, maker of the eponymous jacket, waxed profitable in the '80s and '90s on the back of Sloane Ranger chic. But how has the Tyneside firm faced changing tastes and fierce new competition? Roger Trapp reports....

Rupert Howell's 10 steps to start-up.
April 14, 2003... Howell has made his impact and his fortune in the ad agency world via HHCL and Chime, but won't be resting on his laurels - or anywhere else. With Robin Price and Piers Schmidt, he's planning his next startling move. Andrew Davidson witnesses...

RELEASE: Your inner succeeder.(L. Vaughan Spencer)
April 14, 2003... Motivational speaker L Vaughan Spencer is inspired by the Laotian guru Sooti-n-Tsu. Now back in Britain, the so-called Warrior of Watford has hit the road with his tribal drums and his unique management creed. Is he for real? asks Neil...