Management Today articles from April 2006

Management Today archives from April 2006

Salutory lessons from inside.
April 1, 2006... This month, MT really is the business magazine that gets to the parts its rivals cannot reach. Our cover feature comes from inside Her Majesty's Prison Springhill and contains a long interview with Prisoner LG8356, an accountant called Ian...

Contributors.
April 1, 2006... ALEXANDER GARRETT: Our regular Crash Course contributor dons the MT towel to visit Bath's troubled spa. Garrett, whose other outlets include the Observer and Grand Designs magazine, has discovered a keen interest in spas in his capacity as an...

Chartered Management Institute: In my opinion.(importance of engineering)
April 1, 2006... Chartered Management Institute Companion Kenneth Sanders says an understanding of technology is vital in managing modern enterprises. Perhaps it is because we are so comfortable with our standard of living these days that we do not stop to...

The MT Diary: Howard Davies.(BBC White Paper)
April 1, 2006... Giscard reconstitutes treaty; cross-border merger-phobia; Charter debate a damp squib. 'The French are a very intelligent people, but they vote in a state of madness,' wrote the Duc de Broglie. It was the former President Valery...

Brain Food: Ten ways to ... Combat negativity.(Chart)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... 1. Spot what's wrong and change it early 2. Be there as a sounding-board 3. Respond to people's concerns 4. Lead with trust, not rules 5. Be consistent 6. Show people the effects of their griping 7. Involve moaners in solutions 8....

Brain Food: It'll never fly - Blogging.(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... Pub bores may be unbearable, but at least they come alone. Imagine a network of these narcissists, in love with the sound of their own opinions, computer-linked to each other's ramblings - it's enough to send right-minded news junkies cowering...

Brain Food: How does she manage? - Cathedral Curator.(Leslie-Ann Thompson)(Ely Cathedral)(Interview)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... Leslie-Ann Thompson marketing and events manager, Ely Cathedral. When did you become a manager? Before coming here, I managed European communications at MCI, the telecoms company. I was like a virtual manager, getting staff across 10...

Brain Food: Earning Curve - Fantasy.
April 1, 2006... Lord of the Rings film trilogy, profit pounds 650m John Woodward, owner, Fantasy Island, Skegness, wealth pounds 67k Online fantasy game environment artist, p.a. pounds 24k-pounds 32k Telegraph Fantasy Football Europe, top prize pounds 20k...

Brain Food: Your route to the top - Think Differently.(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... Redefine your work. Research shows that activities we label as 'work' are naturally less pleasurable than 'play'. Blur the work/life boundaries - there is little difference between a challenging meeting and an argument over dinner. Seek...

Brain Food: Workplace rights - The trouble with TUPE.(Transfer of Undertaking (Protection of Employment) Regulations)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... The long-overdue overhaul of laws protecting employees' rights on business transfers and outsourcing happens this month. The Government is finally implementing new Transfer of Undertaking (Protection of Employment) Regulations - known as...

Brain Food: History Lessons - Be Persistent - Ingvar Kamprad.(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... Ikea's Swedish founder Ingvar Kamprad has every right to sound messianic - twice as many people visit his stores as attend church, and his catalogue's print-run outstrips the Bible's. But it all could have been so different. In his early...

Brain Food: Speaking Out - John Grant, co-founder of St Luke's.(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... The thought of listening to an advertising guru waxing lyrical about 'Brand Reality' is enough to fill most people with dread. So it was with some trepidation that I headed to a hotel in Essex to listen to John Grant, formerly of St Luke's...

Brain Food: Business manners - Getting promoted.(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... Keep your eye on the ball. It's good to be ambitious, but don't be so focused on that board position that you neglect what you're doing now. Be confident. You're well within your rights to want to progress, so don't fret that you're...

Brain Food: Slogan Doctor - Norwich Union: Quote me happy.(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... It may annoy you incandescent, but 'Quote me happy' seems to be doing a good job for Norwich Union Direct. The problem Norwich Union had was that potential customers saw it as a classy but expensive operation - bad news in the cut-throat...

Brain Food: Are you suffering from tall poppy syndrome.(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... The term originates from Livy's History of Rome, Book I, which tells the story of a son, Sextus, putting to death all the important people in his town of Gabii after his father Tarquinius Superbus symbolically cuts off the heads of all the tall...

Brain Food: Words-Worth - Vision.(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... Once, 'visions' were associated only with Old Testament prophets, religious mystics and the mad. These days, everyone in management wants to be a 'visionary'. If you're adventurous, you might write down those intimations of a better world...

Brain Food: We'd love that job - Games Entrepreneur, Rachel Lowe, RTL Games.(Interview)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... What do you do? I run a company that produces the board game 'Destination'. The game uses real cities, so I visit each one, photograph landmarks and speak to the locals to decide what should be included, and work with the illustrators to...

Brain Food: Remember This.(Quotation)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... 'Honest disagreement is often a good sign of progress' - Mahatma Gandhi said it 'It's amazing what you can accomplish if you don't care who gets the credit' - Harry S Truman said it.

Brain Food: Stat of the Month - The Global Saleroom.(eBay usage)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... eBay users are clearly shifting a lot of gear - up from dollars 23 billion-worth in 2003. If the turnover of the online auction house was a state's GDP, it would rank alongside Morocco. That's not bad for a website, especially one...

Brain Food: How he made his pile - Fidel Castro, Cuban President.(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... Who is he? Cuban socialist dictator since 1959. Forbes magazine estimated his wealth at dollars 550 million - and Castro threatened to sue. How did he make his millions? Castro led the revolution against Batista's fascist regime, becoming...

Brain Food: Sir Digby Jones - If I had to start again ..(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... It has been said I have a fabulous face for radio, and if I was starting again I'd consider journalism - quality reporting, not celebrity stuff - either broadcast or in print. I'd also be suited to a marketing role, as I found through working...

Brain Food: Decisions - James Beaton, Discovery Foods, Founder of the UK's leading Mexican food brand.(Interview)
April 1, 2006... MY BEST... Being the first to introduce wrap sandwiches to the UK. About 10 years ago, I was in LA and went to eat at a place called WorldWraps, where they served huge sandwiches with all kinds of fillings - Thai, Chinese - wrapped in a...

Brain Food: Behind the spin.(C&W)
April 1, 2006... THE DILEMMA Another year, another strategy for ailing telecoms giant C&W. New UK boss John Pluthero announced plans to shed half the UK workforce - about 3,000 jobs - and ditch the least profitable 90% of its customers to concentrate on...

Brain Food: Crash course in ... Handling redundancies.
April 1, 2006... Your CEO has just told the top team that 2006 is going to be a year of downsizing. Some operations will be moved, others shut down. Either way, the payroll is going to have to shrink. Time to find out how to organise a redundancy programme. ...

Brain Food: MT Masterclass - Management.(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... What is it? We may think we know what management is - communicating with staff, setting goals, supervising work, and holding people to account for their actions. According to the late Peter Drucker: 'Management is tasks. Management is...

Help yourself to UK plc.(foreign takeovers)
April 1, 2006... Despite a spate of takeovers of British firms by foreign acquirers, the Government remains unperturbed. Should it be worrying a bit more? Overseas collectors are racing to acquire British companies as if they were the hottest new fashion....

Our muscular heroes.(athletes as motivational speakers)
April 1, 2006... High achievers in sport may be loved and admired by us ordinary toilers, but do the ingredients of their success transfer to mundane corporate life? I lost a game of pool, many years ago, to a guy who was in the process of dropping out of...

Books: Whither the US after Bush?(After the Neocons)(Book review)
April 1, 2006... Disillusioned with neo-conservatism, Francis Fukuyama posits a new framework for conducting America's foreign policy. It's a good start, applauds Howard Davies. A decade ago, Francis Fukuyama famously announced, in 1066 And All That style,...

Books: Three of a Kind - The art of giving appraisals.(Bibliography)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... Appraisal and Feedback Clive Fletcher CIPD pounds 26.99 Conducting Staff Appraisals Dr Nigel Hunt How to Books pounds 9.99 Performance Management Michael Armstrong Kogan Page pounds 25.00

Books: Sorry lifecycle of a government project.(Plundering the Public Sector)(Book review)
April 1, 2006... An ex-consultant lambasts New Labour for incompetence and waste in IT schemes. Andrew Wileman admires his disgust. Plundering the Public Sector David Craig with Richard Brooks Constable & Robinson pounds 9.99 To order, visit...

Books: A good decision-maker will always weigh the evidence.(Hard Facts, Dangerous Half-Truths and Total Nonsense)(Book review)
April 1, 2006... Senior managers too often allow hunch, hope and imitation to shape their strategy rather than the hard facts. Chris Hyman finds this book a necessary corrective. Asked why managers often choose to rely on bad advice rather than sound...

White-Collar Crime: The Inside Story.
April 1, 2006... Crimes of deception committed at work by outwardly respectable employees are on the increase. Emma de Vita talks to the players on either side of this corporate shadowland. Ian David Selby is prisoner LG8356. A 58-year-old co-founder of a...

Barclays back in South Africa.(Barclays Bank)
April 1, 2006... In the face of customer protest, the bank abandoned its interests there in 1986. Now it is returning to the post-apartheid fray. Matthew Gwyther sees a reconciliation. The welcome is rarely warm when a bank manager makes a visit. The news...

The MT interview: Stephen Carter.(Office of Communications)(Interview)
April 1, 2006... Since taking on communications super-regulator Ofcom, he has quickly proved his skills as a pragmatic enabler - a watchdog who wants to deregulate in the interests of a dynamic industry. But don't mention the jumbo salary he takes, or his last...

Spirituality Sells.
April 1, 2006... Attaching a transcendental or religious dimension to a product satisfies our craving for both God and Mammon, with potentially lucrative results, says Mark Vernon. Few would have predicted in the free-love years of the 1960s, or the...

Spa wars.(Bath, England)
April 1, 2006... Bath should have been basking in the tourist revival brought about by the inauguration of its restored baths. But it all went wrong, reports Alexander Garrett. On 7 August 2003, Pavarotti, Carreras and Domingo - the Three Tenors - gave a...

Working the Web.(World Wide Web)
April 1, 2006... Too many companies still don't know how to make money on the internet. Rhymer Rigby points out the ways of the winners. For we Brits, the high noon of the dot.com boom was probably Friday, 14 March 2000, just over six years ago. This was...

What's your problem?
April 1, 2006... Don't keep promising to get home early and then day after day keep failing to do so. Q: I was promoted six months ago to manage a big project for the company. At first, I didn't mind the long hours as I'm familiar with deadline-driven work...

First-Class Coach.(employee-manager relations)
April 1, 2006... Helping your boss to fulfil his goals is likely to lead to greater autonomy for you. Q: I work in a creative industry, managing a team of talented, enthusiastic and bright people. There is a great atmosphere in the office, which feeds into...

MT business travel: Table Talk - Where Sue Farr eats ..(The Greenhouse)(Restaurant review)
April 1, 2006... Our industry is very small, so it's vital to maintain old relationships as well as make new ones. Business lunches are a great way to do this. I always take clients somewhere I know and trust, so that I won't be let down by the venue....

MT business travel: On the road.(Jaquar XK)(Product/service evaluation)
April 1, 2006... Jaguar's XK comes with a controlling brain that has a near-psychic ability to select the right gear. The new Jag is a car that has gone on a diet, gone to the gym and been to a health farm. And come back totally renewed. Indeed, it's...

MT business lifeforms: The celebrity-guru.(Steven Smalley)(Biography)
April 1, 2006... Steven Smalley's on your telly, on your bookshelf... and the brand is growing. What it is to be Steven Smalley. Here he is holding forth on Channel 4 news (last week it was the BBC, the week before Sky); he has the ear of the PM (and the...

MCA Management Awards 10 Year Anniversary.(Management Consultancies Association)
April 1, 2006... A decade ago, the first MCA Management Awards were celebrated as a drinks reception for just a handful of people in the basement of the association's modest offices. This year, the awards' 10th anniversary (and the MCA's 50th) is marked at a...

MCA Management Awards 10 Year Anniversary: Platinum Award Winner - Platinum winner and International category.(Management Consultancies Association)(PA Consulting Group)
April 1, 2006... GOLD WINNER - PA CONSULTING GROUP WITH THE GEORGIAN GOVERNMENT AND THE US AGENCY FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT The peaceful Rose Revolution of 2003 brought a change of power to Georgia, but PA Consulting Group was already at work in the...

MCA Management Awards 10 Year Anniversary: Best Small Firm.(Management Consultancies Association)(Troika UK)
April 1, 2006... GOLD WINNER - TROIKA UK WITH BRADFORD & BINGLEY When Bradford & Bingley, best known for bowler hats and mortgages, chose to hand over the selling of pensions and savings products to insurer Legal & General, the move was applauded as...

MCA Management Awards 10 Year Anniversary: Business Strategy in the Private Sector.(Management Consutancies Association)(Atos Consulting)
April 1, 2006... GOLD WINNER - ATOS CONSULTING WITH RESOLUTION LIFE GROUP Little more than two years ago, Resolution Life Group (RLG) had just two employees - founder Cliver Cowdery and COO Brendan Meehan. But what the pair lacked in colleagues they more...

MCA Management Awards 10 Year Anniversary: Business Strategy in the Public Sector.(Management Consultancies Association)(Atkins Management Consultants)
April 1, 2006... GOLD WINNER - ATKINS MANAGEMENT CONSULTANTS WITH THE DEPARTMENT FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT A British dependency in the tropical South Atlantic, 4,018 miles from home, 1,200 miles from the nearest landfall, 1,500 miles north-west of Cape...

MCA Management Awards 10 Year Anniversary: Technology in the Private Sector.(Management Consultancies Association)(PA Consulting Group)
April 1, 2006... GOLD WINNER - PA CONSULTING GROUP WITH SEVERN TRENT WATER Water companies aren't judged only on what comes out of the tap. Regulator Ofwat also monitors their quality of customer service. Aware that its eight IT systems for keeping...

MCA Management Awards 10 Year Anniversary: Technology in the Public Sector.(Management Consultancies Association)(IBM Business Consulting Services)
April 1, 2006... GOLD WINNER - IBM BUSINESS CONSULTING SERVICES WITH THE DRIVER AND VEHICLE LICENSING AGENCY Handling more than 43 million relicensing transactions a year, the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA) is one of the busiest government...

MCA Management Awards 10 Year Anniversary: Outsourcing Consultancy in the Public Sector.(Management Consultancies Association)(Atos Consulting)
April 1, 2006... GOLD WINNER - ATOS CONSULTING WITH THE DEPARTMENT FOR WORK AND PENSIONS One of the biggest financial transitions since decimalisation, the move to pay benefits directly into claimants' bank accounts, was a complex process that the...

MCA Management Awards 10 Year Anniversary: Outsourcing Consultancy in the Private Sector.(Management Consultancies Association)(Accenture)
April 1, 2006... GOLD WINNER - ACCENTURE WITH THOMAS COOK Thomas Cook is a household name in the UK and Ireland, with a 167-year history in the travel business and market share of about 30%. But after the acquisition of the C&N Touristic AG business in...

MCA Management Awards 10 Year Anniversary: Innovation.(Management Consultancies Association)(Propaganda)
April 1, 2006... GOLD WINNER - PROPAGANDA WITH SPEAR & JACKSON Spear & Jackson might be the UK's oldest tool manufacturer, but it didn't want age to stand in the way of innovation, even in a business where the new is often rejected in favour of the tried...

MCA Management Awards 10 Year Anniversary: Corporate Social Responsibility.(Management Consultancies Association)(The Environment Council)
April 1, 2006... GOLD WINNER - THE ENVIRONMENT COUNCIL WITH BRITISH NUCLEAR FUELS LIMITED Nuclear power has a controversial history and many of the relationships between the industry and its stakeholders have been difficult. Six years ago, a small group...

MCA Management Awards 10 Year Anniversary: Change Management in the Private Sector.(Management Consultancies Association)(PA Consulting Group)
April 1, 2006... GOLD WINNER - PA CONSULTING GROUP WITH WESTINGHOUSE RAIL SYSTEMS Being in the business of supplying safety-critical signalling systems for railways is high-pressure enough. But when Network Rail further demanded that signalling suppliers...

MCA Management Awards 10 Year Anniversary: Change Management in the Public Sector.(Management Consultancies Association)(PA Consulting Group)
April 1, 2006... GOLD WINNER - PA CONSULTING GROUP WITH HM REVENUE & CUSTOMS Lean production techniques are routinely applied in the manufacture of cars from Detroit to Beijing, but could they be applied to the processing of self-assessment tax returns?...

MCA Management Awards 10 Year Anniversary: Human Resources in the Public Sector.(Management Consultancies Association)(Hay Group)
April 1, 2006... GOLD WINNER - HAY GROUP WITH THE NATIONAL HEALTH SERVICE Trevor Phillips, chair of the Commission for Racial Equality, once likened the NHS to a snow-capped mountain where the boss is almost always white. Close to 35% of doctors, 16% of...

MCA Management Awards 10 Year Anniversary: Human Resources in the Private Sector.(Management Consultancies Association)(Rightcoutts)
April 1, 2006... GOLD WINNER - RIGHTCOUTTS WITH BRITISH AMERICAN TOBACCO Decline in local demand for British-made cigarettes had prompted British American Tobacco (BAT), maker of the Dunhill and Lucky Strike brands, to close its Darlington factory and...

MCA Management Awards 10 Year Anniversary: Marketing.(Management Consultancies Association)(Propaganda)
April 1, 2006... GOLD WINNER - PROPAGANDA WITH SPEAR & JACKSON The winner of the innovation category also picks up this year's gong for marketing excellence. Spear & Jackson - the UK's oldest tool manufacturer - operates in a market where the new is often...

MCA Management Awards 10 Year Anniversary: Best In-House Consultancy.(Management Consultancies Association)(LogicaCMG)
April 1, 2006... GOLD WINNER - LOGICACMG Can consultants achieve the same results 'at home' as they do for clients? That was the question put to executives at Logica and CMG after the merger. They needed to streamline and standardise finance and accounting...

MCA Management Awards 10 Year Anniversary: Operational Performance in the Private Sector.(Management Consultancies Association)(Rossmore Group)
April 1, 2006... GOLD WINNER - ROSSMORE GROUP WITH INFAST GROUP More than a million manufacturing jobs in the UK have been lost in the past five years as a result of offshoring. But sourcing production overseas is not a cure for every domestic problem, as...

MCA Management Awards 10 Year Anniversary: Operational Performance in the Public Sector.(Management Consultancies Association)(PA Consulting Group)
April 1, 2006... GOLD WINNER - PA CONSULTING GROUP WITH THE ASSOCIATION OF CHIEF POLICE OFFICERS AND THE HOME OFFICE POLICE STANDARDS UNIT Catching more road tax dodgers would have been a result in itself - some 1.76 million vehicles on the road are untaxed...

MCA Management Awards 10 Year Anniversary: The Judges.(Management Consultancies Association)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... Jeremy Beadles, chief executive, The Wine and Spirit Trade Association Tom Black, chief executive, Detica Alan Buckle, head of Risk Advisory Services, KPMG, and formerly chief executive of KPMG Consulting Professor Timothy Clark,...

MCA Management Awards 10 Year Anniversary: MCA Management Consultancies Association - 50 Years.(Management Consultancies Association)
April 1, 2006... The Management Consultancies Association (MCA) was formed in 1956 to represent the consultancy industry to its clients, the media and government and is this year celebrating its 50th anniversary. Management consultancy is an increasingly...