Management Today articles from January 2003

Management Today archives from January 2003

EDITORIAL: Welcome to a new age of enlightenment.
January 13, 2003... Thinking of a change of career? It's that time of year. You could, apparently, do worse than consider a move to professional football. Even the more modest journeymen toiling in the first division command an average of pounds 175,000 a year....

IN MY OPINION.
January 13, 2003... Chartered Management Institute companion David Thomas, Whitbread's CEO, outlines how the leisure sector is responding to rising consumer demand. Simply put, the majority of us have got less time and more money. Unless, of course, you've...

CUTTING ROOM.
January 13, 2003... My debt to three Lib Dem moles; Pizza Express on the rack; campaigning for an earlier Budget; look inside the box first; feelgood factors... Evan Davis at large. As we see an old year out, I feel I should update some previous items...

BRAIN FOOD: Ten ways to ... Find the right business partner.
January 13, 2003... 1 Clearly understand your own goals 2 Identify key competencies required 3 Target known pools of required expertise 4 Try project partnership before full commitment 5 Talk to your partner's customers, suppliers, staff 6...

BRAIN FOOD: It just might work - Talking talent.
January 13, 2003... If you want to find and keep the best talent, answer 'four core questions that every employee wants clarified'. These questions, says Richard J Leider of the Inventure Group in Business - The Ultimate Resource (Bloomsbury) are (1) Where are we...

BRAIN FOOD: Unlikely managers - Auctioneer.
January 13, 2003... INTERNATIONAL HEAD OF BRITISH AND IRISH ART, CHRISTIE'S KING STREET, LONDON Name Jonathan Horwich When did you become a manager? In 1982, when I began being involved in the business, and I also began auctioneering. What does...

BRAIN FOOD: David Brent said it.
January 13, 2003... 'If at first you don't succeed, remove all evidence you ever tried' David Brent of 'The Office' said it.

BRAIN FOOD: Webspace rules - Dangers of online activism.
January 13, 2003... Taking the microphone at the AGM to press fat cats for a straight answer has been the right of shareholders the country over for many years. But such behaviour may not be so tolerated online. Ponder the misfortune of investors who recently...

BRAIN FOOD: Earning curve - New Year resolutions.
January 13, 2003... Stephen Covey, Seven Habits... book royalties pounds 44.4m John Patterson, Dateline founder, private fortune, pounds 8m Plastic surgeon, private, UK, p.a. pounds 500,000 Fiona Harrold, UK's leading life coach, per hr pounds 250 Matt...

BRAIN FOOD: Route to the top ... Power presenting.
January 13, 2003... Focus on your desired outcome. What do you want your audience to think, feel and do differently as a result of your presentation? What do you want them to think about you? Write down your key message. It should be compelling and short. Ask...

BRAIN FOOD: If I had to start again ..
January 13, 2003... I suppose we should not be surprised - given their competitive nature - that many businessmen would like to have been a professional sportsman. It would be wonderful to win the Open golf tournament or to score a try at a Twickenham...

BRAIN FOOD: Are you suffering from ... Learned helplessness.
January 13, 2003... As Pavlov discovered, if you routinely give a dog an electric shock, it soon becomes helpless, feels unable to change and becomes depressed. In humans, learned helplessness is often hijacked by cunning office workers. We all know...

BRAIN FOOD: Words-worth - Kanban.
January 13, 2003... Kanban is not a campaign to bring back bottles but a manufacturing system related to JIT (just in time). A kanban is a signboard identifying traditional Japanese shops. In production, it's the card attached to components as they pass through a...

BRAIN FOOD: Room service - Where John Madejski stays.(Hotel Review)
January 13, 2003... For business Well, of course I'd have to say the Millennium Madejski Hotel, Reading. It provided me the luxury of designing exactly the business hotel I'd wish to stay in. It's more than just a soccer stadium add-on - you are quite unaware...

BRAIN FOOD: Speaking out - Trevor Baylis OBE, Inventor, and founder of the Trevor Baylis Foundation.
January 13, 2003... At the Finance Directors' Forum, Trevor Baylis was billed as 'inventor and showman'. His inventions are well-known - his clockwork radio brought communications to thousands in the developing world - but how would a 65-year-old maverick, looking...

THE HUMAN FACTOR.
January 13, 2003... Carly Fiorina's message for the CBI was that boardrooms need to be generating a culture that they'd wish to see operating on the shop floor. Cried Cassio in Shakespeare's Othello: 'Reputation, reputation reputation! Oh, I have lost my...

STATE OF THE UNION.
January 13, 2003... Sensible investors have written off the online media sector - which is why it offers good opportunities now, especially in private equity. It 's the great dilemma of the deflation-era investor: what to do with the money. Prices for prime...

Inside Out.
January 13, 2003... If business is to have a better profile in Britain, we need to rear more flamboyant entrepreneurs - where is the British Bill Gates or Rupert Murdoch? A senior BBC executive opined to me recently that the problem with British business is...

Reality bites.
January 13, 2003... Research has found that job satisfaction scores differ depending on whether the questionnaire was completed by employees on a Monday or a Friday. Please circle the statement that most closely reflects your own view: i) I love my mum; ii) I...

TECHKNOW: Things to come ... Potato Crates.
January 13, 2003... It takes about 100 years for a plastic bag - that scourge of the environment - to degrade. But could the humble potato save us from ecological Armageddon? Potatopak of Henstridge, Somerset, believes that bags, sachets and cartons made of...

TECHKNOW: Tech talk.
January 13, 2003... Cellphone yell (n): Inane mobile phone conversation of the 'Hi, I'm on the train' variety, conducted at a Dom Joly rate of decibels in a public place Stuckholder (n): Technology stockholder whose shares are so far under water they...

TECHKNOW: Pushing the envelope - Supertrams.
January 13, 2003... Ever since the days of Dick Whittington and his peripatetic cat, the British have been leaving the countryside and heading for the bright lights in search of fame and fortune. So many people are now cramming themselves into our urban centres...

TECHKNOW: Smart tools - Handspring Treo 270.
January 13, 2003... What is it? A web-enabled mobile phone-cum-personal organiser. What does it do? It's a dual-band GSM mobile phone, 16Mb personal organiser and mobile internet browser, all in one discreetly styled, reasonably pocketable flip-front...

BOOKS: Like a well-balanced meal.
January 13, 2003... Those who haven't yet got a grip on how economics works could pick up more than a few crumbs from this tasty, myth-blowing little book, argues David Miles. In this short, chatty and illuminating book, David Smith, economics editor of the...

BOOKS: On the bedside table of ... Michael Osbaldeston.
January 13, 2003... 'As I get most of my current affairs analysis from Newsnight, I've long been a fan of Jeremy Paxman. I'm reading his latest book, The Political Animal: An Anatomy, which provides a witty and perceptive insight into modern politicians and the...

BOOKS: Just taking you for a spin.
January 13, 2003... Two how-to books on the stratagems of PR consultancies offer useful advice, but Francis Beckett finds George Pitcher's free-wheeling anecdotes more fun. Spin is very much alive, and George Pitcher's book The Death of Spin makes no attempt...

THE MT INTERVIEW BY MATTHEW LYNN: Patricia Hewitt.
January 13, 2003... The DTI's Secretary of State is our most senior female politician. She has endured a rough ride in a department that still struggles for a true identity, but rather than just cheerleading for UK business, she sees her own role in the wider...

WHO CARES WINS.(corporate social responsibility)
January 13, 2003... Boardrooms are abuzz with talk of corporate social responsibility. Yet attempting to establish a working definition of CSR is like nailing jelly to the ceiling. Get it right, though, and everyone could win - you, the company, society and the...

25 SIGNS THAT IT'S TIME TO MOVE ON.
January 13, 2003... Does it matter if you've been at the same desk for so long you can't remember your last job interview? After all, experience is a valuable commodity, and the best way to acquire it is to let the grass beneath your feet grow awhile. Or is it?...

FOOTBALL PAYS THE PENALTY.
January 13, 2003... Man United CEO Peter Kenyon has predicted that fewer than half the 92 soccer league clubs will survive the financial crisis besetting English football - a predicament manifested by the sorry state of grounds such as Saltergate (pictured), home...

COMING UP FAST: How to launch a brand into the luxury market.(Pearl Motor Yachts)
January 13, 2003... A cachet attaches naturally to the highest quality product lines, but this needs to be nurtured and enhanced by clever promotion. Sheridan Winn cites the case of a bold yacht-making venture. The moody black-and-white photograph shows a low,...

COMING UP FAST: Andy Law, St Luke's.
January 13, 2003... DECISIONS MY BEST... I took a risk and extended the ad agency brand to different markets. We wanted to go to a marketplace where the managers had an appetite for our rather curious brand of entrepreneurialism. You can only go where you...

COMING UP FAST: Building to last - Whistleblowing.
January 13, 2003... DILEMMA: My friend has just had a nasty scare. Yet thanks to a brave whistleblower, she found out that her finance director was ripping her off before it killed the business. It made me wonder if someone would blow the whistle here. We...

COMING UP FAST: Net result - COstume drama.
January 13, 2003... In 1985, Sue and Bernard Crowder launched Charlie Crow, a children's costume designer and manufacturer, as a wholesale supplier. They were consistently frustrated by the piecemeal nature of wholesalers' orders. They would send out...

COMING UP FAST: Stressbuster - Manage Anxiety.
January 13, 2003... Athough some anxiety is natural in stressful situations, constant worry impairs performance and prevents rational thought. KNOW THE SIGNS. List changes in your language, behaviour or health that indicate anxiety, and keep it by you. ...

COMING UP FAST: Young Meteors - Daniel Mitchell, The Source.
January 13, 2003... Not many boys dream of getting into insurance when they grow up, which is probably as it should be. When it comes to exciting careers, handling insurance claims isn't much of a match for a career as a footballer, WWF wrestler or fighter pilot....

MOTOR MOUTH: Aggression on four wheels.
January 13, 2003... If Mitsubishi were a person, we would diagnose bi-polar personality disorder. It makes some of the dullest cars that have ever existed. Trades Descriptions should prosecute the Carisma, while even teams of experts cannot decide what the Space...

WHAT'S YOUR PROBLEM?(WINNING A PAY RISE)
January 13, 2003... STRATEGY FOR WINNING A PAY RISE Q: I know I'm underpaid for what I do, yet my employer won't hear me out. I've now seen a competitor and been offered a job with a vastly increased salary. Can I use this as a bargaining chip for a pay rise...

FIRST CLASS COACH.
January 13, 2003... I've been in my job for a few years, and have worked my way up. I'm now next in line for my boss's job as head of department. Trouble is, I'm not sure I really want it. I detect a certain guiltiness in you at contemplating turning down the...

WEAK AT THE TOP: John Weak's diary.
January 13, 2003... SATURDAY Rugby trip cancelled due to call from Sir Marcus summoning me to an emergency board meeting. As far as I'm concerned, asking people to work weekends is like shooting someone after they've surrendered. Was in foul mood by the time...