Management Today articles from December 2003

Management Today archives from December 2003

LEADER: TRIUMPH OF THE TROLLEY KING.(most admired companies and their leaders)
December 1, 2003... December and the turn of another year. The past 12 months have been hard work for most in business, and a war in Iraq has not helped. It is still not clear when and where those green shoots of economic recovery are going to start popping...

CONTRIBUTORS.(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... NILS PRATLEY The Guardian's associate City editor and former editor of Sunday Business introduces MT's Britain's Most Admired Companies poll, outing those corporates that have failed to live up to their reputations. Away from work, Pratley...

IN MY OPINION: Chartered Management Institute.(the merits of sound judgment )
December 1, 2003... Chartered Management Institute companion Andy Harrison, chief executive of the RAC, sees sound judgment as the driving force for change The performance of business leaders and the rewards relating to success are under increasing scrutiny....

THE MT DIARY: Howard Davies.(Column)
December 1, 2003... Fuelled by a Shell power breakfast, our diarist ponders top-up fees and a Tory revival The Hansard Society publishes useful research on the workings of the British constitution. A recent paper, for example, discussed the accountability of...

BRAIN FOOD: Ten Ways to... Get noticed.(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... 1 Say hello 2 Visit HR before they visit you 3 Ask people what they do 4 Talk to senior management 5 Visit other departments 6 Have good ideas and keep the credit 7 Volunteer for projects 8 Write something for the industry paper 9...

BRAIN FOOD: It'll never fly bottled mineral water.(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... It costs 1,000 times more than the stuff that comes out of the kitchen tap. It looks exactly the same, though it's naturally, rather than chemically cleansed. And the taste - well, it's not meant to taste of anything. Yet, bottled mineral water...

BRAIN FOOD: Unlikely Managers - Turkey Farmer, Richard England, Somerset.(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... When did you become a manager? In 1978, when I took over the farm from my father-in-law. I manage 300 turkeys, 180 beef cattle, 100 acres of corn and a camping site. I started with five staff, now there's just me. What does management...

BRAIN FOOD: What do you love/hate about it?(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... I love the side of farming where I'm in charge and can dictate the price, like the turkeys - I don't have to rely on what Mr Tesco pays Bad weather can make life difficult to manage.

BRAIN FOOD: Earning Curve - Christmas Presents.(Brief Article)(Illustration)
December 1, 2003... Lawrence Stroll, chairman, Asprey & Garrard, worth pounds 320m Virgin's Best Christmas Album in the World Ever, sales, pounds 1m Kim Winser, chairman, Pringle (2001) pounds 300k Parcelforce Worldwide, depot manager, p.a. pounds 29.5k-pounds...

BRAIN FOOD: Workplace Rights - Never mind the frolics.(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... To what extent should employers carry the can for the wrongful actions of their staff? The law says this depends on whether employees were acting 'in the course of their employment' at the time. This test used to be generally interpreted in...

BRAIN FOOD: Look After The Pennies - Economy Class.(American Airlines' cost-saving idea)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... An olive. Who could suppose such an unassuming component of a salad, or rather its absence, could bring tens of thousands of dollars a year in cost-savings to a big multinational? The olive relates to a story of near-mythical proportions that...

BRAIN FOOD: Your Route to the Top - How to keep afloat.(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... Speak to others around you - they're probably just as swamped as you are. If in doubt, ask them. It feels better when we realise that we're not the only one with too much to do. Optimists outperform pessimists. Minimise the downside (which...

BRAIN FOOD: Words-Worth - Clueful.(evolution of words)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... It is always better to be useful than useless. Which helps explain why, having had 'clueless' for 100 years, we have now acquired 'clueful'. The adjective seems to have been coined by computer hackers, for whom cluelessness is a great crime....

BRAIN FOOD: Are You suffering from... Corollary Syndrome.(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... Corollary Syndrome is what happens to people who have just made a big decision. They have just bought a new Bentley, so conclude it is the only car of choice. Also called synchronicity, CS is about self-centredness. The executive, having...

BRAIN FOOD: We'd love that job - Cinema Projectionist - David Norris, Odeon Leicester Square, London.(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... What do you do? I take delivery of the reels, make them up and show the films. The 35mm film comes in 20-minute reels, which I check and splice together. We use the digital projector for animations. It's never boring here, there's always...

BRAIN FOOD: Remember This.(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... 'Leadership, like swimming, cannot be learned by reading about it' HENRY MINTZBERG SAID IT 'Retirement kills more people than hard work ever did' MALCOLM FORBES SAID IT.

BRAIN FOOD: Sir William Purves - If I had to start again..(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... I would like to have been a farmer in the lowlands of Scotland as my father had been. I love the countryside and fresh air. This is a far cry from my banking career, which started in 1948 when I became an apprentice in a country branch in what...

BRAIN FOOD: How He Made His Pile - Philip Green.(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... Owner of Arcadia and Bhs Who is he? A maverick retail entrepreneur worth pounds 1.85 billion. He is Britain's sixth-richest man and a Forbes billionaire. How did he make his millions? Green bought high street chain Jean Jeanie...

BRAIN FOOD: Us And Them - Poland.(Polish economic indicators)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... Next May, Poland will join the EU, its largest trading partner, after 77.5% of the nation's 38.6 million population said tak in June this year. At dollars 187.7 billion, Poland's GDP is less than half the EU average, although growth for...

BRAIN FOOD: Speaking Out - George Cox, Director General, Institute of Directors.
December 1, 2003... Every conference is keen to have a DG, if only to add kudos to an otherwise tedious event. Some speakers might like to appear an expert on every subject, but not George Cox. When he spoke to an audience of corporate social responsibility...

BRAIN FOOD: How To Get Ahead in Investment Banking.(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... 1 Get onto an internship, then a graduate traineeship with an investment bank such as Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch or Morgan Stanley. 2 Be prepared to put in the hours. Most investment bankers are at their desks by 7am and work for 12...

BRAIN FOOD: The Slogan Doctor - Nokia: Connecting People.(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... At first sight, 'Connecting People' is hardly a slogan at all. Where's the sell? It mentions people, a word most of us are programmed to like. But then it puts us on hold, grammatically speaking. The present participle, 'connecting', is...

BRAIN FOOD: Crash Course in... Exit Interviews.
December 1, 2003... Accounts has been haemorrhaging people and nobody knows why. Apart from the damaging effect on morale and productivity, it's costing a fortune to recruit new blood. It's time to ask staff why they're leaving. Publicise it Telling everybody...

BRAIN FOOD: MT Masterclass.(trends in corporate social responsibility)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY What is it? Do you believe that business is about more than simply making money? That your actions as a business leader may have serious consequences for your staff, your customers and the wider community? If...

BRAIN FOOD: Decisions - Harry Cragoe - Pete & Johnny Smoothies.(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... MY BEST... Developing and then launching a new product. I launched PJ smoothies after spending two years in California in the early 1990s. I used to drink smoothies every day when I was in Los Angeles, but when I got back to the UK I...

BRAIN FOOD: Behind The Spin - National Grid Transco.
December 1, 2003... THE DILEMMA As Christmas approaches and the mercury plummets, National Grid Transco must be praying that this winter will not be one of electrical discontent. Britain's electricity and gas network operator accepted responsibility for...

Investors as bouncers.
December 1, 2003... Non-exec directors at Carlton are right to be outraged at the ousting of Michael Green Sir Sydney Lipworth thought he knew how the City worked. His business career had taken him from launching the Abbey Life insurance company with Sir Mark...

Proud to be vulnerable.
December 1, 2003... Taking the development of emotional skills seriously is a challenge for society today Feeling anxious? Phone a helpline. Struggling with the way your Dad left when you were 13? Find a therapist. Discovered that your new boyfriend is a...

Techno Life.
December 1, 2003... Lastminute.com, which BRENT HOBERMAN co-founded in 1998, has come a long way from its humble beginnings as an online bucket shop. As well as being one of Europe's favourite travel and leisure websites, it is now that rare creature, a profitable...

BOOKS: Complacency is the enemy of modern management.(Book Review)
December 1, 2003... The latest book by Tom Peters is an iconoclastic, even nihilistic, rant, as its author is proud to proclaim. It's a blast, and highly provocative, declares Kai Peters. Tom Peters uses the word RANT at the start of each chapter to describe...

BOOKS: On the bedside table of Vanessa Leeson.
December 1, 2003... I usually have a novel or biography to read and a book to browse. I'm reading Yann Martel's Man Booker winner of 2002, Life of Pi, and also Meetings with Remarkable Trees. This gem by Thomas Pakenham has 60 awe-inspiring tree biographies - all...

BOOKS: THREE OF A KIND - MEET EXPECTATIONS AS A LEADER.
December 1, 2003... The Tools of Leadership Max Landsberg Profile pounds 8.99 The New Leaders Daniel Goleman Time Warner pounds 9.99 Leadership Styles Tony Kippenberger Express Exec pounds 10

BOOKS: The future as an ego trip.(Book Review)
December 1, 2003... Good on feelings, suspect on science is how Hermann Hauser sees these ideas. Reviewing a book about the future is as dangerous as writing one, since neither the assertions nor the criticisms of them can be proved. Any view of the future...

BOOKS: The wrong boss for the job.(Book Review)
December 1, 2003... At last, a book to help us deal with this recurring nightmare. Carol Fisher reports. Few people in business today have never suffered under the weight of an incompetent manager. Strangely, though, as Adrian Furnham argues in his preface to...

BOOKS: The Book that Shook Keith James.(Book Review)
December 1, 2003... The choice for a bookworm is not easy. If I had to pick a novel it would be The Leopard by Giuseppe Di Lampedusa - a wonderful account of a Sicilian aristocratic family in the 1860s facing political, economic and cultural change. The books...

BRITAIN'S MOST ADMIRED COMPANIES: TOP 10 COMPANIES AND THEIR CHIEFS.
December 1, 2003... MT's annual poll to find Britain's Most Admired Company and Most Admired Leader, presented in association with Hennessy XO Cognac, has an emphatic double winner for 2003. No wonder - its tills swallow an eighth of the nation's consumer...

BRITAIN'S MOST ADMIRED COMPANIES: SECTOR BY SECTOR.(Illustration)
December 1, 2003... BANKING 1 HSBC 63.67 2 Royal Bank of Scotland 63.43 3 Barclays 60.86 4 HBOS 58.38 5 Lloyds TSB ...

BRITAIN'S MOST ADMIRED COMPANIES: INGREDIENTS OF SUCCESS.(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... The top three performers measured against each of the nine criteria that determine the overall positions in the Most Admired Companies table. QUALITY OF MANAGEMENT 1 Tesco 8.7 2 BSkyB ...

BRITAIN'S MOST ADMIRED COMPANIES: MOST ADMIRED LEAGUE TABLE 2003.
December 1, 2003... '03 '02 COMPANY SCORE 1 3 Tesco 73.74 2 5 GlaxoSmithKline 69.50 3 12 AstraZeneca ...

The 9 billion pound gamble.(telecommunication industry and 3G licensing )(Industry Overview)
December 1, 2003... The man who founded Orange is trying another high-tech phone business. Is 3 one risk too many for Li Ka-shing? Scott Payton and David Bowen report. It was one of Stephen Byers' more satisfying days as a cabinet minister. On 27 April...

BRIT ART'S CASH COW.(contemporary art)
December 1, 2003... The output of contemporary artists, shocking and titillating, makes a regular splash in the dailies, both broadsheet and tabloid. But beyond the prurient outrage or cool analysis is a well-oiled business machine, says Anthony Thorncroft. ...

GET THE MOST FROM YOUR ADVISERS.
December 1, 2003... Getting the right professional help is a powerful tool in growing your business, says Alexander Garrett. Simon Confino once had an accountant who doubled in his spare time as a stand-up comedian. 'He was very young and bright,' says the...

MT SURVEY OF SURVEYS - AIR TRAVEL.
December 1, 2003... With shrinking travel budgets plus health and security worries, low-cost airlines have stolen the thunder of their older rivals. But MT's latest research round-up suggests that plenty of regular fliers still prefer the full-service treatment...

THE MT INTERVIEW - Tony Pidgley, Berkeley Group.
December 1, 2003... In MT's annual poll for 2003, his company Berkeley Group has come top of its sector for the third year running. But Britain's most admired builder, the adopted son of gypsies, has had his private life dissected in the tabloids and attracted...

FIRST-CLASS COACH.
December 1, 2003... Q: I've been in this company almost since it started five years ago. I've gradually been promoted, so now I am a senior manager, just below director level. I think I may have reached a ceiling, because people remember me when I was more junior....

WHAT'S YOUR PROBLEM?
December 1, 2003... Q: Our managers have introduced 360-degree appraisals, where colleagues, managers and direct reports give feedback on a particular individual. A month ago, my manager told me I was up for promotion, and that I would hear after my appraisal. My...

BUSINESS TRAVEL: ROOM SERVICE WHERE CHARLES WRIGHT STAYS.(Hotel Review)
December 1, 2003... FOR BUSINESS - I've stayed in dozens of business hotels and they're all equally unmemorable. I'm typically away from home two nights a week, and rarely in the same place each night. For me, any hotel stay is a fleeting visit just to sleep. All...

BUSINESS TRAVEL: ON THE ROAD.
December 1, 2003... Jaguar has worked a canny game with the list price and the fuel efficiency of the XJ6. You don't expect a bargain when you go shopping for luxury saloons, but that's what you'll find in Jaguar's XJ6. There are four contenders in this...

MT BUSINESS TRAVEL: FREQUENT FLYER - COLIN BYRNE'S GUIDE TO NEW YORK.
December 1, 2003... HOW TO GET THERE: In these cost-conscious times, I go premium economy with BA from Heathrow to JFK. You get enough elbow and leg room to work and get some sleep without the silly prices. JFK airport is slightly more convenient for Manhattan...

JOHN WEAK'S DIARY: Weak at the top.
December 1, 2003... MONDAY Got in late due to being a victim of HLD (Habitual Lateness Disorder). As a victim of HLD, it's actually my right to be as late as possible. In fact, people insisting on punctuality would be discriminating against me and...