Management Today articles from February 2006

Management Today archives from February 2006

That leading question again.(leadership quality in executives)
February 7, 2006... Over the past few years the Big Thing in business thinking has undoubtedly been leadership. Everybody wants to know its secrets. How you can create it, develop it, buy it, learn it. Answers come in the cascade of business books on the subject....

Contributors.
February 7, 2006... JESSICA SEATON: The co-founder of cult womenswear retailer Toast reveals how her decision to sell direct to customers gave her more control, but admits she took on too much as the company grew beyond its pyjama-based origins. Toast, which...

Chartered Management Institute: In my opinion.(Paul Freeston)
February 7, 2006... Chartered Management Institute Companion Paul Freeston, CEO of apetito, argues that innovation is the key to sustainable business success. My favourite word in business is 'sustainable'. A management team's ability to deliver sustainable...

The MT diary: Lament for Lamont; Hermitage home-from-home; Cameron de-clutters; ID card tricks.(Norman Lamont, Hermitage Museum, David Cameron)
February 7, 2006... These days, I don't often come across solid evidence that a crime has been committed. At the FSA, of course, it was an everyday occurrence. But in a university, luckily, it doesn't happen very much. So I was shocked the other day, as I slaved...

Brainfood: Ten ways to ... recover from a fall.(Brief Article)(Illustration)
February 7, 2006... 1. Get straight back in the saddle 2. Stay visible 3. Be open about your mistake 4. Remember, everyone fails at some point 5. Learn from the experience 6. Don't dwell on it 7. Believe in yourself 8. Use it as a catalyst for change...

Brainfood: It'll never fly - Red bull.(beverages sales on high)(Brief Article)
February 7, 2006... Devising a new (and legal) product that deliver a mind-altering hit is no easy business, especially if it tastes like cough medicine. Sickly sweet, Red Bull doesn't even contain alcohol to compensate; instead, it offers caffeine,...

Brainfood: How does he manage? - Tube station manager - Jason Collins, Waterloo and Westminster.(Brief Article)(Interview)
February 7, 2006... When did you become a manager? I joined the Underground in 1997, and within 18 months was a duty manager at London Bridge. We had a highly pressurised year getting the Jubilee line stations ready for the opening of the Dome, finishing the...

Brainfood: Earning curve - Pugilism.(Brief Article)(Illustration)
February 7, 2006... Michael Buffer's 'Let's Get Ready to Rumble' trademark pounds 230m Tyson vs. Lewis, HBO pay-per-view takings ('02) pounds 60m Oscar De La Hoya, world's highest-paid boxer ('04) pounds 13m Ring card girl, London, per night pounds 200...

Brainfood: Workplace rights - Gender pay.(Equal Pay Act of 1963, inequality pay)(Brief Article)
February 7, 2006... The gender pay gap is one of the most stubborn of nuts for equality campaigners to crack. Official statistics published last autumn revealed that average hourly earnings for women working full-time were 17.2% lower than for men, while female...

Brainfood: History lessons - Be authentic - Genghis Khan.(Brief Article)
February 7, 2006... These days, business schools say that being a good CEO is less about emulating a business hero than about just being yourself. So tear the Jack Welch posters from your bedroom wall and look inwards instead, because 'authenticity' is where it's...

Brainfood: Your route to the top - Handling interruptions.(Brief Article)
February 7, 2006... Find out if it's necessary. Ask what they want, whether it has to be you, and if it has to be now. How we treat an interruption affects not only how our time is spent now, but also the likelihood that we will be interrupted later. Relish...

Brainfood: Speaking out - Michael Jordan, Chairman & CEO, Eds.(Electronic Data Systems Corp.)(Brief Article)(Interview)
February 7, 2006... Years ago, a producer from the BBC's Horizon programme said the main drawback of his show was that most major scientific activity went on in the US, and that Americans made the most boring of interviewees. After witnessing Michael Jordan's...

Brainfood: Business manners - Networking.(Brief Article)
February 7, 2006... Know your stuff. Do some research, so you can chip in with intelligent comment. Find out who'll be at the event and decide who to meet - you'll be more likely to make that contact and less likely to stumble when you do. Put yourself about....

Brainfood: Slogan doctor - Bold 2in1: Part of the fabric of life.(Brief Article)
February 7, 2006... At one time, detergents promised only to make things cleaner, fresher and whiter. Now they have grander ambitions. Daz, for instance, is a 'soap you can believe in', while Bold 2in1 (a detergent-cum-conditioner) claims to be fundamental to...

Brainfood: We'd love that job - Cocktail mixologist - Jamie Walker.(Brief Article)(Interview)
February 7, 2006... What do you do? I travel the world giving courses in making cocktails and holding workshops with the top mixologists. I soak up local ideas and share them. In Singapore, they use things like chilli and melon; in Poland, it's beetroot. I've just...

Brainfood: Remember this.
February 7, 2006... 'Too many people overvalue what they are not and undervalue what they are' - Malcolm S Forbes said it 'When your dreams turn to dust, vacuum' - Desmond Tutu said it.

Brainfood: Are you suffering from fat finger syndrome.(typos)(Brief Article)
February 7, 2006... It cost the Tokyo Stock Exchange pounds 1.6 billion - and a few jobs - so all in all, it's a pretty serious condition. Fat Finger Syndrome (FFS) is a combination of dyslexia, dysgraphia and ADHD. It affects mostly the index finger. Symptoms...

Brainfood: Words-worth - Intelligence.(business intelligence)(Brief Article)
February 7, 2006... 'Intelligence' has two different but related meanings. Confusing them can have unfortunate consequences. In management use, 'business intelligence' means the acquisition of information, often by the use of technology, about one's own operations...

Brainfood: Stat of the month - Biggest talent pool.(Brief Article)
February 7, 2006... 28% India's share of all the graduates in the developing world suitable for work in multinational companies. Figures from McKinsey make talk of India's eclipse by China seem grossly exaggerated. Educated, skilled in English and willing to...

Brainfood: How he made his pile - Malcolm Glazer - Investor.(Brief Article)
February 7, 2006... Who is he? The 'Leprechaun' has a 60-year history of investment, and is worth dollars 1.1 billion. Described by one US judge as 'a snake in sheep's clothing', he has had difficulty getting the Manchester United fans to follow him since his...

Brainfood: Sir Tom McKillop - If I had to start again ..(Brief Article)
February 7, 2006... I'd hope to be half as lucky as I was this time. I never set out to be a chief executive or even a businessman - it was pure accident. I was a scientist conducting research in Paris, and on a trip back to Glasgow I met a bloke in a pub who...

Brainfood: Crash course in ... Rebranding your business.
February 7, 2006... Your company's branding isn't what it used to be. The world has moved on, your use of design looks tired and the organisation itself is completely different from what it was five years ago. It's time to call in the brand doctors. But is it just...

Brainfood: mt masterclass - Co-opetition.(competitions among businesses)(Brief Article)
February 7, 2006... What is it? Does business have to be a zero-sum game? Is there only death or glory, or can we compete in some areas while co-operating with rivals in others? Co-opetition stems from the idea that fight-to-the-death competition is inefficient....

Brainfood: Decisions - Jessica Seaton - Toast - Co-founder and MD of the mail order fashion brand.(selling of Toast products)(Interview)
February 7, 2006... MY BEST... - was the decision my husband and co-founder Jamie and I made to sell Toast products direct to our customers, primarily by mail order. Before starting Toast, we had a wholesale business selling knitwear, and we frequently found...

Brainfood: Behind the spin - Kookai.
February 7, 2006... THE DILEMMA When it comes to British and French fashion, one size doesn't fit all, as Kookai has discovered. The French fashion retailer's UK franchise went into administration in January. Private-equity firm Forminster owned the UK...

Cameron's dilemma.(David Cameron)
February 7, 2006... Business needs, and deserves, a climate of appreciation and encouragement. Business does not ask a lot of government. A stable economy and an absence of unnecessary intervention would be the prime requests of most in the commercial world....

Going nowhere slowly.(employee retention is the key factor for business success)
February 7, 2006... Retentiveness is not, typically, seen as a term of praise. It is shorthand for being boring, over-analytical, buttoned up, emotionally illiterate. British, in other words. But businesses are the exception to this rule. For most firms,...

Books: Big pharma in big trouble.(Book Review)
February 7, 2006... This urgent exposure reveals a pharmaceutical industry suffering a catastrophic collapse in its reputation. Can it heal itself? Richard Horton salutes a must-read. The pharmaceutical industry displays the best and worst traits of modern...

Books: Three of a kind - Make the most of your customers.("Converting Customer Value", "Customer Mania!", "Return on Customer")(Brief Article)(Book Review)
February 7, 2006... RETURN ON CUSTOMER Don Peppers and Martha Rogers Cyan Books pounds 14.99 CUSTOMER MANIA! Ken Blanchard, Jim Ballard and Fred Finch Harper Collins pounds 6.99 CONVERTING CUSTOMER VALUE John A Murphy, Jamie Burton, Robin Gleaves and...

Books: You too can get rich slowly and steadily.("The Winning Investment Habits of Warren Buffett and George Soros")(Book Review)
February 7, 2006... The author's investment gods may fit awkwardly into his template, but it's a helpful one, reports Alastair Ross Goobey. Mark Tier is an Australian living in Hong Kong. His career has included periods as a gold newsletter writer and a...

Books: Designer disease? Tell that to those who suffer from it.("The Truth About Stress")(Book Review)
February 7, 2006... Rather than releasing people from the fear of stress, which this author dismisses as an 'intellectual construct', she is taking us back to a darker age, says Angela Clow. The Truth About Stress sets out 'to release people from fear', yet...

The mt interview: Arun Sarin.(Vodafone Group PLC)(Interview)
February 7, 2006... The boss of Vodafone, the world's biggest mobile phone operator, is having a tough time, as criticism of performance rises. But he is not about to apologise for the deep changes he feels are necessary to supply the ethical underpinning the...

Docu-soap can get in your eyes.(corporates in television programs)
February 7, 2006... Reality TV programme-makers are zooming in on the world of work and business. If one of them hammers on your company door, should you grab the chance of free publicity or batten the hatches? For most of its half-century of media dominance,...

Lead your way.(Why Should Anyone Be Led By You?)(Book Review)
February 7, 2006... The pressures of being in charge are many and varied, but whether you're a newly minted boss or a seasoned occupant of the corporate hot-seat, one thing that you will not be short of is advice. 'Celebrity' CEOs and experts of every stripe line...

Luxury: The great American import.
February 7, 2006... Working to a proletarian impulse, US companies are too busy making money to pay attention to fripperies. They leave the dollars 167bn American prestige goods market to foreigners. Stephen Bayley reports. Washington's National Museum of...

World class: English is a global business.(English learning)
February 7, 2006... Teaching our native tongue contributes pounds 1.3bn to the UK economy. Yet we are losing out to our foreign rivals, discovers Ian Wylie. When the French government reluctantly decreed that English lessons be made compul- sory in schools,...

New model networks.(Voice, video over Internet Protocol)
February 7, 2006... Can companies emulate consumers to achieve a seamless integration of voice, data, video and mobile communications media via the internet? Ron Condon shows them the way forward. We all know there is a communications revolution going on. You...

mt business travel: Frequent flyer - Michael Cuthbert's guide to Moscow.
February 7, 2006... HOW TO GET THERE: BA runs two flights a day, at 9am and 12.30pm. It takes about four hours. Aeroflot also has a perfectly good service - the business class is actually better than BA's, and it offers a morning return flight. AIRPORT TO...

On the road.(Lexus GS 300)(Product/Service Evaluation)
February 7, 2006... The Lexus GS300 can be hustled through corners, but it's really about balmingly effortless progress. When Toyota, the world's mightiest motor company, decides it is going to sell more cars, the result is usually just that. So plans to...

Table talk: Where Tom Bloxam eats.(Restaurant Bar & Grill)
February 7, 2006... I tend to have short lunches with no alcohol, although I actually prefer long lunches with lots of it. I avoid drinking too much until the deal's done. Equally, I try not to talk business if I'm out to celebrate something. The place I use...

What's your problem?(handling the situations with managers)
February 7, 2006... It would be a betrayal to leave him with fond words and nothing said, then grass to his boss. Q: I'm leaving my job in three months' time and will be given an exit interview with my boss' boss and a member of HR. It's a tricky one because...

First-class coach.(mid-career boredom)
February 7, 2006... How much would you miss the relative security and comfort that employment affords? Q: I've been in the same large management consultancy since I left university 12 years ago. I've got a good salary and all the benefits, and since I had my...

MT business lifeforms: The accidental boss.(Management Today)(Simon Walkern, Sorrex)
February 7, 2006... Simon Walkern has just been promoted. How on earth is he going to manage? For three years, Beth, Alex, Nigel and Simon were all pretty good mates, beavering away happily in the marketing department at the head office of high street...