Management Today articles from January 2004

Management Today archives from January 2004

WHERE BRITAIN LEADS THE WAY.(entrepreneurship)
January 7, 2004... In the snowstorm of stats that assails us week after week came a largely unnoticed little gem last month. When the Office for National Statistics released employment figures for the past year, it was revealed that the rise in the number of...

CONTRIBUTORS.
January 7, 2004... CAROLYN McCALL The CEO of Guardian Newspapers reviews Women Don't Ask by Babcock and Laschever for our book pages. A new entrant in MT's Britain's 50 Most Powerful Women list and a self-confessed negotiation lover, McCall says the book...

IN MY OPINION: Chartered Management Institute.
January 7, 2004... Chartered Management Institute companion Peter Muir CBE, group CEO of Avebury International, argues that energy fuels business success. In January, many of us reflect on the previous year and develop resolutions on how we can energise our...

THE MT DIARY.
January 7, 2004... Our diarist globetrots: westwards cap-in-hand, and east to help solve a Chinese riddle. It looks like a long hot winter in store for Britain's university campuses. Higher education policy struggles towards the top of the political agenda...

BRAIN FOOD: Ten ways to...Good business timing.(Brief Article)(Illustration)
January 7, 2004... 1. Time is money; think twice how you spend it 2. Watch for straws in the wind 3. Co-ordinate actions for maximum impact 4. Be in the right place at the right time 5. Remember that everything has a cycle 6. Seize opportunities as they...

BRAIN FOOD: It'll never fly - The Gym.(Brief Article)
January 7, 2004... Picture a windowless room filled with heavy-duty machinery whose straps and metal rods bear a resemblance to torture devices. Sweat rises, forms a malodorous mist overhead, then slowly condenses down the walls. It's no place to pass five hours...

BRAIN FOOD: Unlikely Managers - Air Traffic Controller.(Adrian Dolan)(Brief Article)(Interview)
January 7, 2004... ADRIAN DOLAN, NATIONAL AIR TRAFFIC SERVICES, HEATHROW AIRPORT When did you become a manager? Three years ago. There are 12 of us on a watch and we rotate the jobs of arrivals, departures and ground control. What does management...

BRAIN FOOD: Earning curve - The weather.
January 7, 2004... Arnold Fulton, chairman, Fulton Umbrellas, worth pounds 50m Peter Ewins, chief executive, Met Office, p.a. pounds 105k BBC weather presenter, p.a. pounds 22k-pounds 26k Meteorologist, newly qualified, the Met Office, p.a. pounds 12k Storm...

BRAIN FOOD: Workplace Rights - All things equal.(Brief Article)
January 7, 2004... This spring, the Government is to table proposals for a powerful new organisation - working title 'The Commission for Equality and Human Rights' - to champion equal opportunities in the UK. This will mean scrapping existing bodies covering sex,...

BRAIN FOOD: Look after the pennies - Zero tolerance.(British Airways changes number for switchboard operator)(Brief Article)
January 7, 2004... It's easy to misdial a phone number, but you'd be surprised at the financial repercussions that such a small error can have for your company. British Airways benefited to the tune of pounds 18,000 a year after one of its employees suggested a...

BRAIN FOOD: Your route to the top - Spot the bullshitter.(Brief Article)
January 7, 2004... Ask direct questions that can be answered by 'yes' or 'no'. If you get a long-winded response, start to get suspicious. Little in life is perfect. If an explanation, set of benefits or a case study about a past success sounds too good to...

BRAIN FOOD: Words-worth - Cellular Macarena.(everyone reaching for their cell phone when a ring is heard)(Brief Article)
January 7, 2004... The Greeks have a word for it, we used to say, but these days the linguistic action has gone west. In America, no new phenomenon goes unrecorded, unreported or unlabelled. Which brings us to 'Cellular Macarena'. What we now know as a 'mobile'...

BRAIN FOOD: Are you suffering from ... Aspiration deficit.(Brief Article)
January 7, 2004... Do you think 7.30 is an unreasonable time to start work? Do you leave early, even though the boss is still in his office? Chances are you're suffering from an increasingly common disorder called Aspiration Deficit. The South of France is...

BRAIN FOOD: We'd love that job - Downhill skier.(Kirsten Clark)(Brief Article)(Interview)
January 7, 2004... Kirsten Clark, ski racer, US National Team What do you do? My job involves lots of training on the hill in winter and a lot of conditioning - cycling and weight-lifting - in the summertime. To be a good skier you have to be physically...

BRAIN FOOD: Remember this.(J.P. Morgan)(Andrew Carnegie)(Brief Article)
January 7, 2004... 'A man has two reasons for what he does - a good one, and the real one' JP MORGAN SAID IT 'No man will make a great leader who wants to do it all himself' ANDREW CARNEGIE SAID IT.

BRAIN FOOD: Tom Peters - If I had to start again ..(Brief Article)
January 7, 2004... The past 30 years have been an extremely exciting time for management, and I am thrilled to have been allowed to play in the middle of that. I look at life as a series of experiments. There are things that didn't work out as well as they might...

BRAIN FOOD: How he made his pile - Bernie Ecclestone, Founder, Formula One Management.(Brief Article)
January 7, 2004... Who is he? A self-made Bexleyheath man who turned F1 into a billion- dollar business. He and his wife Slavica are worth pounds 2.4 billion. How did he make his millions? He began car racing in 1949, switching to management after a...

BRAIN FOOD: US and them - Mexico.(Brief Article)
January 7, 2004... As a member of the North American Free Trade Agreement, Mexico has a competitive advantage over its Latin American neighbours. Its 101 million citizens enjoy the highest purchasing power in the region, while sound macroeconomic management has...

BRAIN FOOD: Speaking Out - Alastair Campbell, former Downing Street director of communications and strategy.(Brief Article)
January 7, 2004... He has certainly written a speech or two, but can he deliver one? Alastair Campbell, bete noire of, well, just about everyone, stood before several hundred delegates at the Marketing Society's annual conference to speak on 24-hour media and the...

BRAIN FOOD: How to get ahead in - Retailing.(Brief Article)
January 7, 2004... 1. Graduates should aim to join a management scheme at one of the large chains such as Tesco, Sainsbury's, Marks & Spencer or Arcadia. 2. Alternatively, start your own business (online is an easy route) or work in a local store and use...

BRAIN FOOD: The Slogan Doctor - McDonald's: I'm Lovin' it.(Brief Article)
January 7, 2004... Poetry, said Robert Frost, is that which gets lost in the translation. But that didn't stop McDonald's buying an English slogan from Heye & Partners of Munich, a German advertising agency. It will be used in 118 countries, alongside a version...

BRAIN FOOD: Crash course in ... Going private.
January 7, 2004... City analysts don't understand your business and the share price is languishing. The business pages are interested only in the size of your salary, and letters are piling up from disgruntled shareholders. Maybe it's time you took your firm...

BRAIN FOOD: Masterclass - Innovation.(Brief Article)
January 7, 2004... What is it? There's nothing new about innovation. Adam's fig-leaf, the wheel and man-made fire were all historically significant examples of it. In business, innovation has long been regarded as a silver bullet, an essential step to beating the...

BRAIN FOOD: Decisions - Chris Moss, The Number 118 118.
January 7, 2004... MY BEST... Taking on the role of chief executive at 118. After launching Orange, I set up my own marketing and communications agency and I loved it. I'd been running that and working on the 118 account for about nine months, helping to...

BRAIN FOOD: Behind the spin - Royal mail.
January 7, 2004... THE DILEMMA Despite having posted its first profit in five years last November - a modest pounds 3 million for the first half of 2003 - the postal service remains in a parlous state. Both Parcelforce and Post Office Counters lost big money...

Dodging the City code.(private equity)
January 7, 2004... Former corporate stars are migrating to private equity to avoid strict governance rules. When David Verey, the former Lazards chairman, lunches at the Savoy Grill, he may feel just a touch proprietorial about the place. Last year Verey...

What does a firm care?
January 7, 2004... The root causes of sexual inequality in the workplace must be analysed and exposed. When the Equal Opportunities Commission issues a report entitled 'Who Runs Britain?', the answer is a foregone conclusion. It is rather like Muhammad Ali...

TECHNO LIFE.(Robin Saxby)
January 7, 2004... As you'd expect, ARM's chairman Sir Robin Saxby is a confirmed technophile. After all, many of the microchips that the company makes end up powering mobile phones and PDAs. But his interest in technology doesn't stop with the latest laptop and...

BOOKS: Negotiation has become a survival skill for women.(Women Don't Ask)(Book Review)
January 7, 2004... The key theory is that women do not ask for what they want, thus inhibiting their careers. But, says Carolyn McCall, this book fails to tell them what action to take Women Don't Ask Linda Babcock and Sara Laschever Princeton University...

BOOKS: On the bedside table of Iain Lumsden.(Brief Article)
January 7, 2004... 'I've just finished A View from the Sidelines by the Queen's press secretary Michael Shea, who now lives in Edinburgh. To replace it, I've begun The Scots' Crisis of Confidence by Carol Craig, which was recommended by a friend. Finally, there's...

BOOKS: Three of a Kind - Sail through your job interview.(Brief Article)(Bibliography)
January 7, 2004... Great Answers to Tough Interview Questions; Martin John Yate; Kogan Page pounds 8.99 First published in 1985, this is the classic job-hunter's book. The 'tough questions' are only one part of the book, which includes sections on...

BOOKS: Your career from A to Z.(I Don't Want Any More Cheese, I Just Want Out of the Trap)(Book Review)
January 7, 2004... Francis Beckett finds most management literature ruled by gimmicks and celebs. Career books are the new flower power. If you're unhappy at work, you can pick up glossy little books, with big type, cute titles, pretty graphics, gobbets of...

BOOKS: An action plan for leaders.(A Manager's Guide to Leadership)(Book Review)
January 7, 2004... This guide is sound and practical, even if its premise is flawed, argues John Adair. This book is an active guide to leadership rather than a stock of knowledge... With this opening sentence, the authors nail their colours to the...

BOOKS: The Book that Shook.(Maverick by Ricardo Semler)(Brief Article)
January 7, 2004... I was about to start up my own company when an occupational psychologist recommended I read Maverick by Ricardo Semler. He took over his father's firm and threw the old processes in the bin. He wanted to run a company that treated people with...

TOP 100 ENTREPRENEURS: Enterprise Nation.
January 7, 2004... If Britain is bursting with commercial energy while other economies are flatlining, we have our independent business-builders to thank. Philip Beresford names the best. Britain's entrepreneurs are the true heroes of the British economy....

A TALE OF TWO DYNASTIES ..(BMW and Fiat)
January 7, 2004... BMW is on course for record profits and sales this year, while Fiat is enduring the most torrid time in its history. What's gone right and wrong for the carmaking families, asks Richard Bremner. This is the decade for centennial party time...

TRAINING A LA MODE.(Directory)
January 7, 2004... If blue-chip lawyers and high street banks use them, alternative training courses can't be all that daft, can they? Emma de Vita invites you to decide for yourself. If the mantra for management training in the 1990s was 'who dares wins',...

PUBLIC ATTRACTION.(public service)
January 7, 2004... Long regarded as a bed of nails or a resting place for executives who failed in the marketplace, the public sector is now being reinvigorated by an influx of commercial talent. With everyone from bankers and publishers to accountants and...

MT SURVEY OF SURVEYS: Medical Insurance.
January 7, 2004... This pounds 3 billion sector is struggling for growth in a market sapped by the rare virus of inflation. With take-up of individual policies falling, providers are looking to company schemes, but to progress they need more efficient insurance...

THE MT INTERVIEW: Barbara Stocking.
January 7, 2004... Oxfam's first female director runs on a warm whirlwind of energy and enthusiasm for getting things done and listening to what others have to say - lessons she learnt from years in the NHS and which she is now applying to the complexities of...

BUSINESS TRAVEL: Room Service - Where Stephen Cronin stays.(Cleltic Manor at Coldra Woods (Newport, South Wales))(Le Touessrok (Mauritius))(Brief Article)
January 7, 2004... FOR BUSINESS: The Celtic Manor at Coldra Woods in Newport, South Wales, is one of the key hotels that meet all my business needs. We used it for our highest-profile customer engagement event this year, inviting our top 300 customers to share...

BUSINESS TRAVEL: On the road - The Nissan 350Z's ride is sportingly firm but absorbent, the driving position near-perfect.
January 7, 2004... We Brits like coupes and right now the coupe we love most is the Audi TT, whose Bauhaus style has become as commonplace as cappuccino bars - in London, at least. The Audi, however, is about to see its supremacy challenged not by one rival but...

BUSINESS TRAVEL: Frequent Flyer - David Marsden's guide to Hong Kong.
January 7, 2004... HOW TO GET THERE: There are about 35 non-stop direct flights a week between London and Hong Kong. I fly economy with Cathay Pacific or BA to Hong Kong International airport. The flight is 12.5 hours out and 13.5 hours back. AIRPORT TO...

WHAT'S YOUR PROBLEM?
January 7, 2004... Q: I indirectly manage a team of about 45. Although I'm their ultimate boss, I have little contact with individual employees. I've tried staff away days, but they have only a short-term impact. I would like to improve the situation, but I have...

FIRST-CLASS COACH.
January 7, 2004... Q: My new boss has come from a company where they set great store by their vision and values. He's very keen for us to go through the same kind of process and, although in principle this would be a good idea, this company is nothing like the...

JOHN WEAK'S DIARY: Weak at the Top.
January 7, 2004... MONDAY I think I've had the perfect day. Got in very late just as Shirley on reception was on her break, so no earache from her. Everyone in the office had decided I wasn't going to be around so they'd solved their own problems. I deleted...