Management Today articles from February 2007

Management Today archives from February 2007

Editorial: Suddenly Samsung is cool.(Samsung Electronics Company Ltd.)(Editorial)
February 1, 2007... The other day, I asked my 11-year-old son who made the coolest mobile phones. 'Samsung,' he replied without hesitation. He is baffled by my soldiering on with my old Nokia 6310. But then, to him, I'm about as chilled as global warming. I...

Contributors.
February 1, 2007... CHARLES HANDY - The management thinkers' Michelangelo had a busy 2006, with the arrival of his first two grandsons and two new books, Myself and Other More Important Matters and The New Philanthropists. Here, he reviews Russ Ackoff's f-Laws....

Chartered Management Institute: In my Opinion.
February 1, 2007... Chartered Management Institute Companion James Smith, chairman of Shell UK, advocates market-driven solutions to climate change. With scientific opinion largely united in identifying climate change as a threat that needs to be tackled, the...

The MT Diary.(economic growth)
February 1, 2007... Indian leaders offer chewy fare; chasing the Chinese hare; Blair stumped in Abu Dhabi. Indian politics is full of surprises. On the day the LSE held a major academic conference in Delhi, a member of the lower house (a former cricket...

Ten ways to... Make a tough decision.(Brief article)
February 1, 2007... 1. Take time out 2. Think: is it right for the company? 3. Consider those who'll be affected 4. Believe in yourself 5. Do your research 6. Focus 7. Stick to your guns 8. Be prepared for fallout 9. Remember: it can only make you...

It'll never fly: Valentine's day.(Survey)(Brief article)
February 1, 2007... 'Can't Buy Me Love,' sang the Beatles in 1964. If only Valentine's Day had the same purity: Brits blew pounds 40 million on flowers for the 'special' day last year. It goes beyond the odd red rose - nowadays it's fluffy teddies, love hearts...

How Does he Manage?: International lawyer.(Robert Amsterdam)(Interview)
February 1, 2007... Robert Amsterdam, Partner at Amsterdam & Peroff (Mikhail Khodorkovsky'S defence counsel) WHEN DID YOU BECOME A MANAGER? Twenty-five years ago, when I became an international business lawyer. You can't work in emerging markets and...

Earning Curve: Mobile phones.(Brief article)
February 1, 2007... Vodafone, global revenue (2005-06) pounds 29.4bn UK spend on handsets ('05) pounds 1bn UK mobile phone download sales ('05) pounds 340m Virgin Mobile customer salesperson, p.a. from pounds 13k Mobile phone factory worker, China, per hour...

Workplace Rights: The retirement riddle.(Brief article)
February 1, 2007... The most controversial aspect of the UK's age discrimination laws is their application to retirement. What could be more ageist than forcibly terminating a person's career solely because their 65th birthday has arrived, regardless of their...

History Lessons: What's in a name? - Accenture.(Brief article)
February 1, 2007... When Andersen Consulting changed its name to Accenture in 2000, eyebrows were raised. The brand was trusted worldwide, while the new made-up moniker sounded more like a course of French language tapes than a consultancy. But the licence to use...

Your Route to the top: Control your ego.(Brief article)
February 1, 2007... Concentrate on the outcome. Remember, it's the result that matters rather than your role in it. Searching for glory will only damage your chance of success. Let others speak. Listen to their views and allow them to influence yours. A...

Why business is like... pebbles in a pond.(Brief article)(Column)
February 1, 2007... The history of marketeers seeking the advice of physicists is a short one, but an understanding of the Theory of Resonance may give communications experts the edge. Resonance Theory explains the curious phenomenon of how very small pebbles...

Do it Right: Offering work experience.(Brief article)
February 1, 2007... Find the right people. Make yourself known to colleges or universities that can supply people of genuine value, who've studied something relevant to your field. Like you, they'll get something concrete out of it. Get them involved. Go...

Slogan Doctor: Condom - essential wear.(Brief article)
February 1, 2007... What do you do if you want to promote sexual health to an audience when it's never going to happen to them? Research has shown that young people are so unconcerned about venereal disease that they're more likely to take a stick of chewing gum...

We'd love that job: Lord of the Manor - Alexander George Thynn, marquess of bath.(Brief article)
February 1, 2007... WHAT DO YOU DO? I'm the figurehead of the Longleat estate. My job is to know what can be achieved here, and to initiate things in the estate's best interests. I also have to keep in focus my personal endeavours, like writing and painting....

Remember This.(Brief article)
February 1, 2007... 'Seize opportunity by the beard, for it is bald behind.' - Bulgarian proverb 'Mistakes are part of the dues one pays for a full life.' - Sophia loren said it.

Are you Suffering from: Leisure sickness.(Brief article)
February 1, 2007... You spend the better part of a year planning the great getaway exotic holiday. You organise your work in such a way that you can leave without a care in the world, and as soon as you arrive and you get over the jet lag, disaster strikes. You...

Words-worth: Profession.(Brief article)
February 1, 2007... The motive for wanting to be a 'professional' is obvious: more money. Restrict entry to your trade and you can put up prices - thus, we now have 'HR professionals', 'software professionals' and 'health professionals' (instead of 'health...

Stat of the Month: It's raining M&A - dollars 3.6trn - Value of global takeover deals in 2006.(mergers and acquisitions)(Brief article)
February 1, 2007... That's up a whopping 33% on the previous 12 months. It tops even the boom times of 2000, a vintage year for mergers and acquisitions, when companies were tripping over themselves to buy anything that had a dot.com label. Last year's surge,...

How She made her Pile: Elizabeth II Monarch.(Brief article)
February 1, 2007... Who is she? Ruler of 125 million people across 16 states, she controls the Crown Estate, Britain's biggest property portfolio, worth pounds 5 billion. This includes most of London's Regent Street, more than 600 commercial properties and the...

Sir Jeremy Isaacs: If I had to start again..(Brief article)
February 1, 2007... It may have been natural to become an MP. I enjoyed being involved in politics at Oxford and, having studied Classics, I had no idea what else to do. The general secretary of the Labour Party in Scotland put me right: five tough questions...

Crash Course in... Corporate blogging.
February 1, 2007... Everyone's doing it - your competitors all run one, even your teenage children have one. So why shouldn't your company have a blog? After all, isn't it just a souped-up newsletter? Come on, take me to the blogosphere. Think strategy. Like...

MT Masterclass: Skills.(Brief article)
February 1, 2007... WHAT IS IT? The ability to do things well - speak languages, programme computers, serve customers, manufacture machine tools: this is what the skills agenda is all about. And although the best British firms have always understood that the...

Decisions: Shaa Wasmund, Serial entrepreneur, dot.commer, Former boxing promoter and PR consultant.(Brief article)
February 1, 2007... MY BEST... Another good decision was to interview boxer Chris Eubank, having won a competition to work for Cosmopolitan. He ended up asking me if I wanted a job. I found myself responsible for putting on the largest fight that had ever...

Behind the Spin.(Templeman)
February 1, 2007... THE DILEMMA When it comes to retailing, Christmas sorts the pedigree porkers from the runts of the litter. And so the New Year trading updates were nervously awaited: had the festive season's sales made them winners or losers? Rosettes...

The Right kind of Person.(Column)
February 1, 2007... A policy of hiring 'people like us' makes a firm sound snobbish and prejudiced. Wouldn't the old-fashioned notion of 'character' serve us better? If you really want to shred someone's reputation, at least in the leafy Home Counties, all...

Books: Home truths for the office.(Management f-Laws)(Book review)
February 1, 2007... An octogenarian soothsayer lays down 81 laws for managers who aren't afraid of self-examination. Charles Handy soaks up the wit and wisdom of Russell Ackoff. This book is fun - not something one can often say about a management book. It's...

Books: Batting average that can't be sustained.(The Three Tensions: Winning the Struggle to Perform Without Compromise)(Book review)
February 1, 2007... This is a book whose big-hitting ideas seem to be stating the obvious. Yet Andrew Wileman finds important insights here. The Three Tensions: Winning the struggle to perform without compromise; Dominic Dodd and Ken Favaro; Wiley pounds 18.99...

Books: Three of a kind.(How to Get a Job You'll Love, Test Your Own Aptitude, What Color Is Your Parachute?)(Book review)
February 1, 2007... GET READY TO START YOUR DREAM CAREER; How to Get a Job You'll Love; John Lees; McGraw-Hill pounds 12.99 A jewel of a book to help even the most luckless and career-panicked person. Claiming to be the UK's best-selling careers guide, it's...

Samsung: Korean Sony killer.(Samsung Electronics Company Ltd.)(Company overview)
February 1, 2007... A 1960s startup in a dust-blown field, the firm survived the Asian financial crisis to become a hi-tech colossus. Its wily boss Jong Yong Yun now has his Japanese rival in his sights. Andrew Saunders reports. First impressions of downtown...

The MT Interview: Peter Erskine.(Biography)
February 1, 2007... From hardworking east London origins, he cut his commercial teeth in sales and marketing before heading to BT, where he masterminded the recasting of struggling Cellnet into soaring O2, now the UK's leading mobile operator. Then he sold it to...

Migrants at work.
February 1, 2007... Foreign workers make a huge contribution to the UK economy, bringing skills, creativity, experience and willing hands. We should welcome them, says Philippe Legrain. Who would have thought that a poor immigrant from India would transform...

Try a finer brushstroke.(Managing talent)
February 1, 2007... Not all your people are glossy high-flyers, so how do you keep the working majority fresh and bright, and tackle the dismal few who hold the firm back? John Morrish reports. Managing talent is one thing, but how do you deal with those...

MCA Management Awards: MT teams up with the MCA again to applaud the best in management consultancy.
February 1, 2007... Now in their 11th year, the Management Consultancies Association's Awards have become the criterion by which the business consultancy industry measures the effectiveness of its activities. Category by category, they are keenly contested by the...

Table talk: Where Brett Akker eats..(Lighthouse)(Brief article)
February 1, 2007... Our office is just round the corner from the Lighthouse in Wimbledon, and I have very fond memories of the restaurant. We used to use it as a meeting room when the company was first starting out, as we didn't have one of our own. It's actually...

On the Road.(Mini Cooper S)(Product/service evaluation)
February 1, 2007... The new Mini Cooper S's lusty engine is vastly more economical and less of a global warmer than of old. Seeing the latest Mini is a bit like seeing a familiar friend, noticing something different about them but not being sure what it is -...

What's your problem?(business management)
February 1, 2007... Q: I RUN AN IT HELPDESK FOR A FAIRLY BIG COMPANY. I'm sick of always being taken for granted and moaned at. No-one ever has a good word for us and blames us for things that aren't our fault, mainly because they don't understand what we do. The...

First-class coach.(skill management)(Column)
February 1, 2007... With a poor performer, the key question is whether it's an issue of skill or will. Q: It really annoys me that my company regularly pays off lazy or incompetent people instead of sacking them or trying to improve their performance. This...

The Sharp End: Can I gut it as a porter?(Column)
February 1, 2007... At a Loch Fyne restaurant, the tricky customers are mussels, finds Rhymer Rigby. Being a kitchen porter is one of those culinary jobs that most people think they understand but, when pressed, struggle to define. Everyone knows that a chef...