Management Today articles from April 2008

Management Today archives from April 2008

Editorial: Simple isn't always best.
April 1, 2008... Simplicity is a seductive concept. It's often associated with beauty, purity and clarity - all noble qualities. Leonardo Da Vinci called it 'the ultimate sophistication', a far more elegant aphorism than the vulgar KISS ('Keep it simple,...

Contributors.
April 1, 2008... - Marian Salzman Despite her 20-year career in advertising, Salzman describes herself as a 'doom-and-gloom person'. As such, she didn't relish some prospects heralded by Robert Shapiro in his persuasive Futurecast 2020, especially his...

Chartered Management Institute: In My Opinion.
April 1, 2008... Chartered Management Institute Companion Jonathan Slack believes sustainability is the main challenge facing management education today. UK business schools are doing extremely well in the international quality rankings, outperforming many...

The MT Diary: Our boys in Brazil; bankers huddle against the storm; Rose doubles up; Spitzer's legacy.(Management Today magazine)(Stuart Rose, Eliot Spitzer)
April 1, 2008... There are many worse places than Rio de Janeiro to spend an early spring weekend, especially one that was marked in London by the worst storm of the year. The sun shines, the caipirinhas slip down a treat, and you can watch beach...

Ten ways to ... Partner with a friend.(Brief article)
April 1, 2008... 1. Be absolutely sure they're the right person 2. Go in with your eyes open 3. Define your roles 4. Be clear who owns what 5. Criticise, but not too much 6. Don't overdo the time together 7. Have a contingency plan 8. Remember:...

It'll Never Fly: Binge drinking.(Brief article)
April 1, 2008... Getting totally blotto makes no sense: why spend a small fortune on losing all your dignity and winding up immobile and wishing the room would stop spinning? Brits spend more than pounds 30bn a year on booze, despite the damage caused to...

Dave's Eco-nomics: Why bother with bio?(Dave Waller, biofuels)(Brief article)(Column)
April 1, 2008... - Green alert A quarter of the UK's carbon emissions come from cars. So everyone agrees we need to get off the black stuff, especially with oil prices soaring. But even as biofuels are being touted as the alternative, some say they do more...

Earning Curve: Jewellery.(Brief article)
April 1, 2008... Global jewellery market, value pounds 75bn De Beers, underlying net profit ('07) pounds 250m Sierra Leone, diamond exports ('07) pounds 80m Michael J Kowalski, CEO of Tiffany's, salary ('07) pounds 498k Store manager, H Samuel, p.a....

Workplace Rights: Pet theories.(Brief article)
April 1, 2008... A survey by insurance firm Petplan found that a third of its customers admitted to skipping work to look after their pets, often for a week or more. Some companies are introducing formal 'peternity leave' policies, granting extra time off...

Your Route to the Top: Be a Winning Brand.(Brief article)
April 1, 2008... Specialise. Think like Google, Virgin and Coca-Cola - what do you want to be renowned for? Find your forte and focus on it. Clarify your vision. What do you want to achieve with this brand? How can you align it with personal and career...

History Lessons: Build the best team.(formation of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration)(Brief article)
April 1, 2008... NASA The launch of Sputnik 1 in 1957 gave the US the willies. Would the ominous bleeping ball orbiting above its citizens lead to atomic bombs from space? Faced with rising public hysteria, President Eisenhower convened Nasa, assembling a...

Why business is like ... a climbing party.(Brief article)
April 1, 2008... Last year, 19 high-flying businesswomen swapped their Manolos for mountain boots and set off to climb the highest peak in North Africa, in a trek organised in aid of the Prince's Trust. Accustomed to success, none of them had quite prepared...

Do it Right: The Working Environment.(Brief article)
April 1, 2008... Involve the team. Giving them a say in how the office looks and feels can help reduce stress. After all, they may well be there half their waking week. Enhance your brand. Plants and art are good for morale, and confident choices send out...

The Slogan Doctor: match.com - 'Make love happen'.(Brief article)
April 1, 2008... The traditional view of love is passive. You have to wait for Cupid's arrow to strike. The more you want it, the less likely you are to find it. That's why agony aunts advising the lovelorn invariably suggest that they find a new interest...

How Does She Manage?: Horse Whisperer - Kelly Marks Intelligent Horsemanship.(Interview)(Brief article)
April 1, 2008... - When did you become a manager? I'm a former show jumper, and started teaching horse whispering in 1995 We've now helped 3,000 students. I'd met Monty Roberts, the original horse whisperer, in 1993 by sheer chance, in a French petrol...

Are you suffering from ... Charity Anxiety.(Brief article)
April 1, 2008... Every day, we're bombarded with choice - which mobile to buy or what's the best Sky package. We fret over brands but, deep down, we know that if we get it wrong, it won't matter much. With charity, it's different. Not a day goes by when an...

Words-worth: Brainstorming.(Brief article)
April 1, 2008... Do you still brainstorm? Or are you into cloudbursting, or thought showers? The word 'brainstorming', meaning a free-form pooling of ideas, has fallen into disrepute because it's said to offend people suffering from, for instance,...

Remember This.(Quotation)(Brief article)
April 1, 2008... 'Life is too short to be living somebody else's dream.' - Hugh Hefner said it 'Find out who you are and do it on purpose.' - Dolly Parton said it

How they made their pile: Michael & Xochi birch - Co-founders of Bebo.(Brief article)
April 1, 2008... - Who are they? According to their Bebo profiles, she's 36, has 195 friends and drinks wine; he's 37, loves Guinness and is happiest writing code. Bebo, of which they own a significant chunk, was sold to AOL in March for dollars 850m. ...

Stat of the Month: Prophet and Profit - dollars 30bn.(economic profits brought by pilgrimages to Mecca)(Brief article)
April 1, 2008... Mecca's spend on construction over the next four years And that's all within a 2km radius of the Grand Mosque. With each of the world's 1.4 billion Muslims obliged to complete Hajj - the pilgrimage to Islam's holiest city - at least once,...

If I had to start again ... Steve Gilman.(Brief article)
April 1, 2008... I was born a retailer, so whatever I did would have to involve people. I love the customer contact. That's probably why I joined the police force for a year, although that turned out to be just a diversion. At 13, I started working on a...

Crash Course in ... Mentoring.
April 1, 2008... A bright young interviewee you'd like to offer a job has asked if she can join your mentor programme if she comes on board. You haven't got one. Time for a swift incursion into the wisdom market. It's not just coaching. 'The basic...

MT Masterclass: Focus Groups.(Management Today magazine)(Brief article)
April 1, 2008... - What are they? Gather round, everyone. Form a circle. Here's the low-down on the state-of-the-art way of finding out what people think. The idea is to take a group of people - they may be randomly selected, or chosen to represent a...

Decisions: Nick Ross, Art History Abroad.(Brief article)
April 1, 2008... Managing director of the gap-year tour company. MY BEST... That's really at the core of the business. A lot of adults come to us wanting to do some serious study but don't want to go back to university - we've just launched our 'gap...

Behind the spin.(share buyback troubles of Taylor Wimpey PLC)
April 1, 2008... THE DILEMMA Is it all going pear-shaped for Britain's biggest housebuilder? Poor old Taylor Wimpey had to suspend the pounds 750m share buyback programme that it set up when its two component companies, Taylor Woodrow and George Wimpey,...

The art of apologising.
April 1, 2008... As companies are starting to realise, saying sorry can take the heat out of a situation, but you must show real contrition rather than distant regret. Despite what Elton John sang, sorry seems to be the easiest word. In February, the...

Books: Doom, gloom and wildcards.(Futurecast 2020: A Global Vision of Tomorrow)(Book review)
April 1, 2008... Robert Shapiro's predictions on global politics and economics are alarming but challenging. His 'pragmatic realism' had Marian Salzman reaching for the Valium. Don't pack Robert Shapiro's book for an afternoon on the beach. I began reading...

Books: Behind the scenes of a thrilling takeover.(Cold Steel: Britain's Richest Man and the Multi-billion Dollar Battle for a Global Empire)(Book review)
April 1, 2008... This account of Mittal's successful tilt at Europe's champion steelmaker gripped Bob Jones, but it's the victor's version. Cold Steel: Britain's richest man and the multi-billion dollar battle for a global empire Tim Bouquet and Byron...

Books: Three of a Kind.(The Essential Guide to Work-place Mediation and Conflict Resolution, Tackle Office Nightmares, Managing Difficult Conversations at Work)(Brief article)(Book review)
April 1, 2008... No more workplace trouble and strife - The Essential Guide to Work-place Mediation and Conflict Resolution Nora Doherty and Marcelas Guyler Kogan Page pounds 19.95 Written by two professional mediators with the manager in...

Books: A minor variation on the old 'moving average' technique.(Big Money, Little Effort: A Winning Strategy for Profitable Long-term Investment)(Book review)
April 1, 2008... Consistently capturing the upside potential of the stock market is more useful than ever in volatile times. This author shares his secret Does it work for John McLaren? Asquadron of 'buts' is airborne and heading your way, so before the...

How to survive complexity.(dealing with the complicated aspects of business)(Discussion)
April 1, 2008... How can business cut a swathe through the ever more tangled thicket besetting strategy, operations and decision-making? In association with consultants PricewaterhouseCoopers, MT gathered some of the UK's best-known corporate leaders and...

Simplicity: not as easy as it looks.
April 1, 2008... Keeping things simple has become a modern mantra, but one that big business finds it easier to say than act on. Perhaps you need to trust the obvious, says John Morrish. Simplicity is considered a virtue. It brings with it a clarity of...

The MT interview: John Varley.(Management Today magazine)(Interview)
April 1, 2008... His actions belying his quiet, patrician looks, the CEO of Barclays is having to battle an international credit storm as he seeks to transform the group into a global player. Losing out to RBS in the battle for ABN Amro has done nothing to...

From Bournville to Brazil.(Cadbury Schweppes' philanthropy even as it fights for business survival)
April 1, 2008... Cadbury keeps up the philanthropy of its founding fathers even as it pursues painful rationalisation plans for its survival in a globalised economy. Emma De Vita reports. The Cadbury Schweppes story is one of an unwieldy, post-colonial...

Is the price right?
April 1, 2008... As much art as science, determining how much to sell your goods and services for is a make-or-break topic for any business. It repays close study, finds Andrew Saunders. How much?' 'Quanto costa?' 'C'est combien?' It's the crux of...

Get smart on data security.
April 1, 2008... Spectacular data mishaps in the public sector should have alerted boards to the dangers of sloppy practices. Paul Fisher urges senior managers to keep asking awkward questions. Alistair Darling was not having the best of afternoons on 21...

MT Business travel: Why do business in ... Perth.(Management Today)(City overview)
April 1, 2008... Rated as one of the world's top five most liveable cities, Perth, the capital of Australia's largest state, Western Australia, has been reaping the benefits of an unprecedented boom in the growth of resources in recent years; output from the...

Motor Mouth.(Kia's Cee'd SW)(Product/service evaluation)
April 1, 2008... Handling adequate, interior acceptable: Kia's Cee'd SW is deeply boring. Yet Sathnam Sanghera finds something to love about it. You probably won't be surprised to learn that I've been single for some time now. And if one thing puts me off...

Table Talk: Where David Kershaw eats ..(restaurant, St. Alban)(Restaurant review)
April 1, 2008... Meetings rarely bring out honest conversation - they're more like setpieces. But business relationships change when you have enjoyable, relaxed conversations over lunch. I go to St Alban at least once a week You walk in and feel like the most...

What's Your Problem?(workplace diversity)(Brief article)
April 1, 2008... Q: I work in a company of about 40 people that includes a handful of evangelical Christians. Their religious fervour has never been a problem until quite recently, when they started asking others in the office to come to their church meetings....

What's Your Problem?(on customer relations)(Brief article)
April 1, 2008... Q: I work for a business whose new client is headed by my husband's ex-wife. We've yet to have our first meeting and I don't think my colleagues know that we have a connection. She has a frosty relationship with my husband but I don't see why...

What's Your Problem?(a co-workers leave of absence)(Brief article)
April 1, 2008... Q: One of my colleagues broke his wrist snowboarding six weeks ago and is yet to return to work. The rest of the team have taken on his workload and we're all getting a bit resentful of the situation. Our manager says he'll be back soon, but he...

First-class coach.
April 1, 2008... Ask yourself how you would most like to spend the precious period when you still feel well. Q: I'm at executive-board level of a plc and found out recently that I have a serious illness. I feel well now, but my performance at work will...

The Sharp End: A chance to make a pile.
April 1, 2008... To Wigan for a day on the carpet tiles, but is Rhymer Rigby cut out for the job? When you tell people you're going to Wigan, there's a sharp intake of breath. 'Wigan?' they say, 'oooh,' like a mechanic sizing up your car for a costly...