Management Today articles from December 2004

Management Today archives from December 2004

Contributors.
December 2, 2004... DAVID BUTCHER As a borderline hypochondriac, Butcher jumped at the chance to interview a series of ex-doctors for MT's feature on millionaire medics. He didn't dare quiz them on his mystery rash, but he did learn a lot about how the...

Admired For Their Character.(corporations)
December 2, 2004... Tesco's cut-throat methods are not in keeping with the concerned Noughties. The turn of another year signals it's time for Britain's Most Admired Company Awards, and this year marks their 10th anniversary in MT. It's intriguing that both...

In my Opinion: Chartered Management Institute.
December 2, 2004... Chartered Management Institute Companion Rhiannon Chapman assesses the latest thinking on human capital management. When speaking at management conferences, I cannot resist asking the audience whether they know what proportion of their...

The MT Diary: Howard Davies.
December 2, 2004... Perlman's Christmas cracker; a haze over Hong Kong; alternative credit; plain sailing. Plausible business novels are remarkably rare. Tom Wolfe's Bonfire of the Vanities and A Man in Full showed his acute understanding of Wall Street, but...

Brain Food: Ten Ways to... Run a Christmas Party.(Brief Article)
December 2, 2004... Book the venue the year before Create a really good theme Think twice about inviting partners Design your own entertainment Encourage people to dress up Help people to mix Have a free bar until 10 o'clock Organise transportation...

Brain Food: It'll never fly karaoke.
December 2, 2004... You've been whisked off by your company for a lavish Christmas party. Surprisingly, your workmates have scrubbed up well, the food is decent and the bar is free, but things suddenly go downhill when out of nowhere appears a black box and a...

Brain Food: How Does he Manage? - Mayor Frank Branston, Mayor of Bedford.(Brief Article)
December 2, 2004... When did you become a manager? When I founded my local newspaper business in 1977. I was elected mayor in October 2002. What does management mean to you? I manage the day-to-day business of the council. When there are potholes or...

Brain Food: Earning Curve - Comedy.(Brief Article)
December 2, 2004... Rowan Atkinson aka Mr Bean, estimated worth pounds 60m Jim Carrey, Liar Liar fee dollars 20m Maria Kempinska & John Davy, sale of Jongleurs venues pounds 7m Matt Le Blanc, 'Joey' in Friends, per episode dollars 1m Six principal voice...

Brain Food: Workplace Rights - Minding the Gap.(Brief Article)
December 2, 2004... Gender is back on the agenda. The Government has set up a Women and Work Commission to investigate the disparity between male and female earnings. With an election in the offing, cynics will dismiss this as a blatant play for the female vote....

Brain Food: Look After The Pennies - Call in the Experts.(Brief Article)
December 2, 2004... We have a love-hate relationship with IT. We like to upgrade to the latest gadgets, yet few of us understand them, let alone use them to their full potential. Take mobile phones, for example. They look good, with their cameras and organisers...

Brain Food: Your Route to the Top - Get a budget through.(Brief Article)
December 2, 2004... Establish clear links between your budget and strategy. If people can see the real benefits to the business for the year ahead, then the costs will be much easier to swallow. Allow room for a contingency plan - but be careful not to add too...

Brain Food: Words-Worth Values.
December 2, 2004... Businesses have always been about value. Now they are also expected to have 'values'. These are guiding principles, usually expressed through sanctimonious platitudes on motivational posters and corporate websites, where they mostly go...

Brain Food: We'd love that job - Video games scout - Jeremy Chubb, Business Development Manager, Electronic Arts.(Brief Article)(Interview)
December 2, 2004... What do you do? I work for a division that finds new games from external developers, and my responsibility is to find the best in Europe and bring them to Electronic Arts. The coolest thing is playing games, talking through new concepts...

Brain Food: Speaking Out - Don Peppers, Peppers & Rogers Group.
December 2, 2004... The notion of 'return on customer' should be a natural for attendees at the European Conference on Customer Management. Combine that with Don Peppers, often called the guru's guru, and you should have a winner. He wasn't. Peppers knew his...

Brain Food: If I had to start again - Felix Dennis.
December 2, 2004... I wouldn't have stayed in the magazine business, I'd have moved into TV, radio and movies. My problem is that I'm quite a big fish in a small pond. I should have jumped ponds 27 years ago when I was 30, but I was too busy fishing in the...

Brain Food: Crash course in... Sponsoring MBAs.
December 2, 2004... The latest management thinking isn't exactly buzzing around your building, and you would benefit from having a higher MBA quotient on the team. But who should do it, and how will you avoid disrupting the day-to-day? Be selective. Barry in...

Brain Food: MT Masterclass.(Brief Article)
December 2, 2004... CRISIS MANAGEMENT What is it? In ancient Greek, the word crisis means 'judgment' or 'decision'. It implies that you have reached a fork in the road. Smooth-talking conference performers sometimes claim that, in Mandarin, the symbol for...

Brain Food: Peter Wheeler - TVR - Former owner of and consultant to the british carmaker.(Brief Article)
December 2, 2004... MY BEST... I suppose that on the technical side, my best decision was starting 10 years ago to make our own engines. We did it purely for the fun of it; it wasn't a commercial decision. Everyone said: 'It can't be done - you need to spend...

Brain Food: Behind the Spin - General Motors.
December 2, 2004... THE DILEMMA Buy One, Get One Free is a promotion usually reserved for shampoo and toothpaste. But for cars? In a ploy that betrays GM's bloated inventory, Kansas City dealers have been giving away a dollars 10,000 Chevrolet Aveo to buyers...

Patience Wheatcroft: Pru is in good hands.(Jonathan Bloomer of Prudential)
December 2, 2004... Some shareholders are criticising the CEO, but his strategy seems to be working. Jonathan Bloomer has, according to his critics, lived down to his surname. In recent weeks, a vociferous minority of Prudential shareholders have been...

Richard Reeves: Counsellors' con trick.
December 2, 2004... It's the fastest-growing training practice, but does coaching really help companies? A current series of advertisements promotes the coaches of famous sports-people; rather than Tiger Woods or Pete Sampras, we see pictures of the powers...

Techno life.(Katja Helm)
December 2, 2004... The founder of motorsport promotions agency KHP Consulting KATJA HELM moved to London from Germany 10 years ago and has since been instrumental in taking the Formula One Grand Prix circus to new locations, including China and Bahrain. She loves...

Books: Dirty hands and dirty lives.(Berlusconi's Shadow)(Television, Power and Patrimony)(Book Review)
December 2, 2004... Silvio Berlusconi has done little to stem the endemic corruption in Italy, and these books are not about to give him the benefit of the doubt, says Matthew Gwyther. What is one to make of Silvio Berlusconi, Italian prime minister? On...

Books: Will tough guys always come first?(Book Review)
December 2, 2004... This title of this readable book may be misleading, but its sporting message hits the nail on the head, says John Ritblat. HARDBALL By George Stalk and Rob Lachenauer; Harvard Business School Press pounds 14.99; MT price pounds 13.99;...

Books: Journal of an obsession that knows no bounds.(Book Review)
December 2, 2004... As a contemporary satire of the City's compensation structure, says Paul Donovan, this book fails to provoke a smile of recognition. AT BONUS TIME, NO-ONE CAN HEAR YOU SCREAM By David Charters; Elliott & Thompson; pounds 9.99; MT price...

Cadbury's Sweet Reward.
December 2, 2004... In MT's Most Admired Companies poll, presented this year in association with Mercer Human Resource Consulting, mighty Tesco is demoted in favour of the soft drinks and chocolate firm. Perhaps it's no surprise, says Nils Pratley. Have we...

Top 10 Companies: Leaders in Front.
December 2, 2004... 1 CADBURY SCHWEPPES TODD STITZER CHIEF EXECUTIVE The company founded by the British Quakers broke the mould when it appointed all-American Stitzer as CEO. The former attorney joined Cadbury Schweppes in 1983 and has worked his way to the...

Most Admired League Table 2004: How the winners were chosen.
December 2, 2004... In conjunction with Nottingham Business School, MT asked Britain's 10 largest public companies in 22 sectors to evaluate their peers. Participants rated their nine sector rivals on a scale of 0 to 10 (zero representing poor, five average and 10...

Most Admired League Table 2004: The Measures of Success.
December 2, 2004... 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 Royal Bank of Scotland 8.5 2 BP ...

The MT interview: General Sir Mike Jackson.(Interview)
December 2, 2004... The rugged features of Britain's most senior soldier first became familiar through newsreel reports from Kosovo. As Chief of the General Staff, he is more deskbound now, but his forceful pronouncements on military restructuring and the army's...

Is IT outsourcing still the answer?
December 2, 2004... Business may be booming for the providers of corporate services, but some of their clients are finding that the contracts are beginning to feel like straitjackets, says Mark Vernon. Business process and IT services outsourcing is booming:...

Making money out of Medicine.(doctors as businessmen)
December 2, 2004... The worlds of medicine and business may not appear to have much in common, but some former doctors have hung up their stethoscopes and successfully put their skills to commercial use, reports David Butcher. Do doctors make good businessmen?...

Secrets of the networkers.
December 2, 2004... In modern business, everyone networks, and the ability to make and use connections has become a necessary attribute in the climb to the top. But how do you go from bit part to power player? Rhymer Rigby offers advice. Brilliant academics,...

MT Survey of Surveys: Music Biz.
December 2, 2004... The end of the record industry may have been long predicted, but the online world is now seen as an opportunity rather than a threat, says Dave Waller. The death knell sounds regularly in the record business these days. Every few...

MT Business Travel: Frequent Flyer.
December 2, 2004... Dorothee Elemans' guide to Dublin. HOW TO GET THERE I fly with BA or Aer Lingus. Ryanair also does cheap flights. AIRPORT TO TOWN The Aircoach goes to Dublin's centre, and stops at all major hotels. A return ticket costs EUR12. Taxis...

MT Business Travel: On The Road.(Ford Focus Zetec)
December 2, 2004... The new Ford Focus Zetec rides like a bigger car yet has lost none of the wieldiness of the original. Never mind the badge - feel the quality. Sit yourself upfront and squeeze the top half of this Ford's dashboard. It's soft and malleable,...

What's Your Problem?
December 2, 2004... Q. The transnational nature of our manufacturing company means that various product assemblies are made on different sites. Unfortunately for my immediate colleagues and me, the way we operate means that we are suffering from a distinct lack of...

First-Class Coach.
December 2, 2004... Q. Some of my female employees tend to bring their emotions into the workplace, which I find inappropriate. They are high achievers, but I don't think their attitude in this respect does them any favours. Shouldn't people keep the lid on their...

MT Business Lifeforms: The ethics girl - Madeleine Duggan, chief executive, GreenFeast plc.
December 2, 2004... Trailing a flock of silk scarves and five minutes late, Duggan flaps into the boardroom, spilling the contents of an oversized ethnic handbag onto the reclaimed English oak table. She throws back a mane of greying blonde hair and stares at the...