Management Today articles from August 2008

Management Today archives from August 2008

Editorial: Olympic dream or nightmare?(Editorial)
August 1, 2008... The controversial 2008 Beijing Olympics are about to kick off at last. China's first-ever Games have been dogged by their fair share of trials - from logistical and construction headaches to health concerns over the city's air pollution, via...

Contributors.
August 1, 2008... ANTHONY GIDDENS - Lord Giddens casts a responsible eye over The Necessary Revolution, finding it innovative, radical and excellent - much like the work covered in the book. Giddens is professor emeritus at the Centre for the Study of Global...

Chartered Management Institute: In my Opinion.
August 1, 2008... Neville Richardson, group CEO of Britannia Building Society and Chartered Management Institute Companion, suggests how leaders might respond to the economic downturn. Businesses reveal their true colours when the going gets tough. If you...

The MT Diary.(Gordon Brown)(Viewpoint essay)
August 1, 2008... Waiting for Brown's apologia; UK's woes delight eurocrats; avoiding Rock in the Ionian. In 1988, Nigel Lawson's reputation was at its apogee. Margaret Thatcher memorably described him as 'unassailable'. So it was with Gordon Brown in early...

Ten ways to... Generate bright ideas.(Table)
August 1, 2008... 1. Know your goals 2. Know what your rivals are up to 3. Keep a notebook on you 4. Look beyond your field 5. Stay in touch with da yoof 6. Read the papers 7. Know how they do things abroad 8. Take a walk 9. Ask someone else 10....

It'll Never Fly: Nightclubs.(Brief article)
August 1, 2008... Rivers of overpriced booze and brain-bludgeoning beats: nightclubs should come with a health warning. One recent study reported that 70% of clubbers had music-damaged hearing; another showed that heavy drinking means more sexually...

Dave's eco-nomics: Carbon offsetting.(Brief article)
August 1, 2008... GREEN ALERT The heat, it seems, is on. In June, Lord Stern calculated that the cost of averting catastrophic climate change had doubled since his landmark green report of 2006. It would now cost 2% of the world's GDP. For some, the answer...

Earning curve: Language.(Table)
August 1, 2008... UK English-language teaching sector, value p.a. pounds 1.3bn Berlitz, turnover, p.a. pounds 233m Ofcom, fining MTV for inappropriate language ('08) pounds 255k Freelance interpreter, per day pounds 200-pounds 700 Experienced sign-language...

Workplace rights: Topping up with tips.(Starbucks Corp.)(Brief article)
August 1, 2008... Earlier this year, Starbucks was ordered to repay more than dollars 100m in tips to its Californian 'baristas' (servers). A judge in San Diego decided the company's outlets had breached state law by allowing supervisors to receive a share...

History lessons: Don't be Impetuous - General Custer.(George Armstrong Custer)(Brief article)
August 1, 2008... General George Armstrong Custer was the brash young commander of the US 7th Cavalry who rose to prominence in the Indian Wars of the 1870s. His natural aggression and love of challenge led to early success, but masked an impetuosity that...

Your Route to the top: How to be humble.(Brief article)
August 1, 2008... Open up. Get the most out of your team by welcoming their views Appreciate everyone's contribution and you'll create more innovative solutions, together. Go for gold, not glory. Author Jim Collins compared the performance of high-profile...

Why Business is like... sporting talent.(David Beckham and Bert Blyleven)(Brief article)
August 1, 2008... David Beckham knows how to make his mark, from his tattoos and haircuts to the celebrity wife and underwear ads. Oh, and the odd flash of brilliance - as in 2001, when he secured England's place in the World Cup by scoring the vital qualifying...

Do it Right: Preparing a CSR report.
August 1, 2008... Mean what you write. Don't just pay lip service to the notion of corporate responsibility. Make your actions match your words - Enron's corporate responsibility tome now makes for an ironic read. Make it sustainable. CSR should form part of...

Slogan Doctor: Boots: 'trust boots'.(Brief article)
August 1, 2008... How minimal can a slogan be? 'Trust Boots' is brief, but it packs a punch. The high street chemist has had interesting times in recent years, having merged with Alliance Unichem, been bought by an American private-equity house, and moved...

How does he manage? Imam - Ahmed Saad, Finsbury Park mosque.(Interview)
August 1, 2008... - When did you become a manager? I've been an imam officially since 2003, but unofficially since I was 15. I was born into a family of scholars: my father, my grandfather and my great-grandfather did this, and at 10 I had memorised the...

Remember This.(Quotation)
August 1, 2008... 'It's only when the tide goes out that you learn who's been swimming naked' - Warren Buffett said it 'The uninspected deteriorates' - Dwight D Eisenhower said it

Are you suffering from: King Ludwig Syndrome.(Brief article)
August 1, 2008... With so many celebrities out there, it's no wonder that occasionally the people working for them mistakenly believe they are them. King Ludwig Syndrome was coined to describe the psychiatrist for the Bavarian royal family who drowned with...

Words-worth: Maverick.(Samuel A. Maverick)(Brief article)
August 1, 2008... A 'maverick' is an independent-minded outsider, a non-conformist, a rugged individualist. Think Michael O'Leary, John Madejski, Stelios Haji-Ioannou, Tom Cruise in Top Gun. The word is redolent of the American frontier, not least because...

Stat of the month: GAY abandon - Pounds 81bn - Value of the UK pink pound, 2007.(Brief article)
August 1, 2008... That's the annual income of country's gay and lesbian population. The pink pound has come a long way since Ivan Massow - the man often credited with inventing it - launched his gay-friendly insurance business back in the mid-90s (valued at...

How he made his pile: Michael Flatley.(Brief article)
August 1, 2008... Who is he? The 50-year-old Irish step dancer was the choreographer behind Riverdance and Lord of the Dance. He's worth a jig-inducing pounds 372m. How did he make his millions? Born in Chicago to Irish parents, Flatley was a precocious...

If I had to start again... Lord Puttnam.(Brief article)
August 1, 2008... I had loathed school and left with no qualifications, and replied to an ad for a messenger boy at the Evening Standard. I loved work, and was soon at an agency alongside Alan Parker, Ridley Scott and Charles Saatchi. It was an extraordinary...

Crash Course in... Internal communications.
August 1, 2008... You've found a cruel spoof of one of your staff memos stuck up on a wall. Maybe your mushroom management approach - keep your people in the dark and feed them s**t - isn't such a good idea. So is there a better way to do internal...

Masterclass: Brand extensions.(Brief article)
August 1, 2008... What are they? Could we interest you in an MT hip-flask? No? Fair enough. It could be a brand extension too far. (And MT readers are, of course, sober observers of the business scene.) But you get the idea: you stretch or extend a brand when...

Decisions: Caprice Bourret - Owner of the lingerie and swimwear business.
August 1, 2008... MY BEST... was to hire a full-time accountant. With a small business, cashflow is key - I have to know exactly what's coming and going for the next year. My biggest problem is that my company is growing tremendously from one season to...

Behind the spin: Church of England.
August 1, 2008... THE DILEMMA Dissent, schism and high emotion. When it comes to organisational crisis, you can't beat what the Church of England is going through right now. It all came to a head last month during the Lambeth Conference, an event held once...

When talent is a luxury.(recruitment)
August 1, 2008... Having developed a nurturing culture in the way they treat personnel, are HR departments finding it hard to frame the best strategy for their firm? This October, the luminaries of the HR world will make their annual pilgrimage to Harrogate...

Books: Positive case for drastic action.(The Necessary Revolution: How Individuals and Organizations Are Working Together to Create a Sustainable World)
August 1, 2008... Peter Senge and his co-authors encourage a can-do approach to sustainability, says Anthony Giddens. The Necessary Revolution: How individuals and organizations are working together to create a sustainable world Peter Senge, Bryan Smith,...

Books: How animal instincts set the tone at work.(The Ape in the Corner Office: Understanding the Workplace Beast in All of Us)(Critical essay)
August 1, 2008... If you think evolution has distanced us from our primate cousins, this book will surprise you, reports Stefan Stern. The Ape in the Corner Office: Understanding the workplace beast in all of us Richard Conniff Marshall Cavendish...

Books: Signals that female execs often miss.(A Woman's Place Is in the Boardroom: The Roadmap)(Critical essay)
August 1, 2008... This book makes many points that will resonate with struggling women managers, says Val Gooding, who advocates persistence. A Woman's Place is in the Boardroom: The Roadmap Peninah Thomson and Jacey Graham (with Tom Lloyd) Palgrave...

Books: Running on intuition: the fuel for success.(Outsmart!: How to Do What Your Competitors Can't)(Critical essay)
August 1, 2008... The champion of 'process' now celebrates 'people companies' - those that let staff 'do the right thing'. Henry Stewart reports. Outsmart!: How to do what your competitors can't Jim Champy FT Prentice Hall pounds 14.99 DLO is...

Books: Three of a kind - Advice for those moving overseas.(Brief article)(Recommended readings)
August 1, 2008... Going Dutch in Beijing Mark McCrum Profile Books pounds 7.99 Working Abroad Jonathan Reuvid Kogan Page pounds 12.99 The Guardian Guide to Working Abroad Nick Clayton A&C Black pounds 12.99

The MT Interview: Sebastian Coe.(Management Today)(Interview)
August 1, 2008... The Games double gold medallist is now chair of the London Olympics organising committee. After his track exploits - he once held three world middle-distance records - he developed powerful persuasive skills as a Tory MP and peer. In the run-up...

Business travel: Runway success.
August 1, 2008... Business is booming at Biggin Hill, the former WWII fighter base that is now London's fastest-growing airport. All thanks to the increasing number of travellers who forsake the hurly-burly of Heathrow, Gatwick et al for the speedy, tranquil and...

Business travel: Alone in a strange city?
August 1, 2008... What to do in the evenings is the solo business traveller's classic dilemma. Fortunately, there are now a range of social websites that make it easier than ever to network with like-minded executives, wherever your trip may take you. Alexander...

Business travel: Road Warriors.
August 1, 2008... Travelling salespeople are the engines of many a company, pounding the tarmac in relentless pursuit of bigger revenues and higher commission. They are free spirits by nature, but the life can be lonely... Managers should handle with care, says...

What I really learned at Harvard Business School.(What They Teach you at Harvard Business School: My Two Years Inside the Cauldron of Capitalism)(Excerpt)
August 1, 2008... The Daily Telegraph's former New York bureau chief Philip Delves Broughton forsook his trade to pursue an MBA at that most prestigious business school on Boston's Charles River. He experienced life in the classroom and on campus, studying...

A tiger by the tail.(Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam)
August 1, 2008... If peace really does break out in Sri Lanka after 25 years of deadly conflict between government forces and Tamil rebels, it could usher in a much-needed economic revival. Matthew Gwyther visits the island to see how tourism and the textile...

Motor Mouth.(Bentley Coupe)(Product/service evaluation)
August 1, 2008... Bentley mixes heart-stopping pace with space in its exclusive Brooklands Coupe. Now we're torquing, says Sathnam Sanghera. According to a recent survey of more than 1,000 women, the most seductive woman of all time has Jennifer Lopez's...

Table Talk: Where Tashi Lassalle eats ..(Pampano)(Restaurant review)
August 1, 2008... The best business lunch I ever had was in Helsinki. The Finns were so hospitable - we had a four-hour lunch with reindeer and berries, and they were throwing back the liqueurs. That's the secret to business lunches - get to know the other...

What's your problem?(bullying, job stress)
August 1, 2008... It's quite extraordinary the effect that a single, determined action can have on self-confidence. Q: I was recently offered a job, which I accepted, as I desperately wanted to leave my current post because of a line manager who was...

What's your problem?(gossips in the workplace)
August 1, 2008... Q: I have a problem with my colleagues. Individually they are nice, but together all they do is gossip, which I find distracting and demoralising, and they are reluctant to help me out. Luckily, I often work out of the office. I've felt I...

What's your problem?(employer's bad breath)(Brief article)
August 1, 2008... Q: My boss has bad breath. It's not full-blown halitosis, but it's extremely unpleasant and it makes it very difficult to talk to him face to face. Not everyone in the office notices it, so I don't know if I'm being over-sensitive. I've thought...

First-Class Coach.(employee promotions)
August 1, 2008... Good leaders seek input from relevant, qualified people and then make up their own mind. Q: I've just been promoted to head of department. I'm pleased, of course, but it means several people who are older than me now have to report to me....

The Sharp End: The word on the street.(marketing City Golf health club)
August 1, 2008... With just a fistful of flyers, can Dave Waller turn City drones into golf addicts? Looks like I've finally landed that City job. But instead of raking in the paper, I've been given the less appealing task of handing it out - distributing...