Management Today articles from July 2006

Management Today archives from July 2006

Contributors.
July 1, 2006... JOHN NAUGHTON Observer columnist, Open University professor and respected IT commentator, Naughton reviews The Long Tail by Chris Anderson. This examines the internet's startling impact on retail. Amazon addict Naughton has kept a close...

Editorial: The Marzipan Phenomenon.(Editorial)
July 1, 2006... When our picture editor returned from the photographic studio with the shots for this month's cover and the subjects' biographies pinged into my in-box, I got my customary annual feeling of mild envy. As usual, our 35 Women Under 35 are all...

In my Opinion: Chartered Management Institute.
July 1, 2006... Chartered Management Institute Companion Keith Mackrell argues that custom corporate education can meet the needs of global business. In my early business years in the 1950s, giant multinationals largely provided their own internal...

The MT Diary.(management of capital markets)
July 1, 2006... A weekend among the Tatars; putting a drag on the Dragon; the John Prescott hoop-la. Just spent a weekend in Tatarstan, as one does. Kazan, the Tatars' capital, had its moment of glory in the 1550s, when the besieged inhabitants resisted...

Brainfood: Ten Ways to... Get Something Done.
July 1, 2006... Accept that it needs doing Don't think about it, do it Remember: it's your job Do it now Do it well - within reason Find a way to enjoy it Smile while you do it Reward yourself afterwards Think of the money Delegate

Brainfood: It'll Never Fly - Tanning.(prevention of osteoporosis)(Brief article)
July 1, 2006... Skin-stain from a spray can, hours spent naked in a giant sandwich toaster getting frazzled by UV rays - people go to absurd lengths for a 'healthy' glow. After putting their bodies through all this, today's 'tanorexics' might just feel bronzed...

Brainfood: How Does He Manage? Tennis Referee, Andrew Jarrett, Wimbledon.(Interview)(Brief article)
July 1, 2006... Q: WHEN DID YOU BECOME A MANAGER? A: When I started coaching. It's like management, in that it's about getting the best out of someone else. As a referee, I know what pressures players face. And I understand what it's like to sit on the...

Brainfood: Earning Curve - Sleep.
July 1, 2006... Sleeping pills, global sales, p.a. pounds 1.1bn Horlicks, GSK valuation ('05) pounds 319m Michael Clare, founder, Dreams beds, wealth pounds 75m Wayne Munnelly, director of sleep, Travelodge, p.a. pounds 60k Melissa Bielecki, sleep...

Brainfood: Workplace Rights - Age and Redundancy.(Brief article)
July 1, 2006... New laws prohibiting age discrimination in employment with effect from October will present challenges for business. One tricky issue is the regulations' impact on severance pay schemes. Companies have established a wide variety of such schemes...

Brainfood: History Lessons - To boldly go - Rupert Murdoch.(Brief article)
July 1, 2006... As Goethe said: 'Boldness has genius, power and magic.' It has taken some unbelievably audacious decisions to put Murdoch imperiously on the world's media throne. The Battle of Wapping in 1986, when he beat the all-powerful print unions,...

Brainfood: Your Route to the Top - Facing a Predicament.(crisis management)
July 1, 2006... Acknowledge your strengths. Have you been here before? You've probably dealt with something similar, perhaps even worse. Remembering how you coped in the past will give you the confidence to do it again. Take a deep breath. Breathing has...

Brainfood: Why Business is like... Cheetahs vs Hyenas.(achieve business success by simulating crisis)(Brief article)
July 1, 2006... When a cheetah makes a kill, it conducts a brief recce to check whether it's safe to settle down and eat its prey. If it spots a hyena, it has to make a quick decision: stick, or twist? In times of plenty, it will abandon its bounty to the...

Brainfood: Mind Your Manners - On The Awayday.(involvement in problem solving)(Brief article)
July 1, 2006... It's not a sticking plaster. A day of primal screaming won't cure a crisis. Solve the problem in the office first, then take your team out as a reward - and an opportunity to identify the next challenge. Think it through. If you see an...

Brainfood: Slogan Doctor - Sony: Like. No. Other.(uniqueness needs a slogan different from others)(Brief article)
July 1, 2006... Sony's currrent advertisement for the Bravia television is a beautiful thing: a torrent of colourful balls bouncing down a precipitous San Francisco street. It ends with Sony's current slogan 'like. no. other'. The curious punctuation is...

Brainfood: Are You Suffering From - Stendhal Syndrome.(too much choice causes Psychosomatic disorders)(Brief article)
July 1, 2006... Named after the 19th-century French author, this ailment describes the reaction many of us get when exposed to too much art. The author first describes its effects in Rome, Naples and Florence: a Journey from Milan to Reggio, after his visit to...

Brainfood: We'd Love That Job - Performing Surfer - Laird Hamilton, Big-Wave Pioneer.(Interview)(Brief article)
July 1, 2006... WHAT DO YOU DO? I specialise in riding the biggest, most severe waves in the world, like the 80-foot waves of Tahiti. Surfing is about self-expression. On the pro circuit, your success is governed by other people's opinions, and a lot of...

Brainfood: Words-Worth - Green.(environment friendly)(Brief article)
July 1, 2006... These days, most businesses profess to be 'green', meaning 'conscious of the environment'. Old English green symbolises jealousy. To be green is to be fresh and youthful, but also immature, gullible and naive. The environmental sense came from...

Brainfood: Remember This.
July 1, 2006... 'There's no good idea that can't be improved on' - Michael Eisner said it 'If you are going through hell, keep going' - Winston Churchill said it.

Brainfood: Stat of the Month - Cloners' spoils - Dollars 35 BN.(Brief article)
July 1, 2006... The World Wide Cost of Piracy to Software Publishers last year. Dodgy pub salesmen are more likely to peddle copies of Mission Impossible 3 than Microsoft Office XP, but software piracy is still a big problem. The world's businesses and...

Brainfood: How She Made Her Pile - Ruth Parasol, Founder, Partygaming.(Brief article)
July 1, 2006... Who is she? The 38-year-old founder of online gambling group Partygaming. She and her husband, who operate out of Gibraltar, have a combined fortune of more than pounds 2 billion. San Francisco-born Parasol might face a summons if she...

Brainfood: Julia Cleverdon - If I Had to Start Again..(opinions)(Brief article)
July 1, 2006... I'd like to be reincarnated as someone who didn't operate so closely to deadlines, just to see how different things could be. I don't think anyone could describe me as terribly strategic. When McKinsey came to write my business plan in 1992,...

Brainfood: Crash Course in... Psychometric Testing.(solution to treat underperformance)
July 1, 2006... You're proud to tell others that yours is a people organisation. The trouble is, your people are letting you down, quitting early or under-performing. So how can you find the ones who've got the right stuff? Could psychometric testing...

Brainfood: MT Masterclass - Mobility.(Brief article)
July 1, 2006... What is it? Today, we're all members of the Martini workforce - 'any time, any place, anywhere'. It's no longer acceptable to fail to communicate or miss a meeting due to 'logistical difficulties'. We should all be able to hook up with our...

Brainfood: Decisions - Carole Caplin, Lifesmart - Entrepreneur and Former Lifestyle Guru to Cherie Blair.
July 1, 2006... MY BEST... In my early twenties, I went into sales and marketing with a progressive young company called The Exhibitionists, which put on exhibitions for other firms. We also provided personnel to sell the products on the stands. One...

Brainfood: Behind The Spin.(Thames Water)
July 1, 2006... THE DILEMMA It's hard to do well in business when you can't rely on your supplier. Most firms can renegotiate prices or find another source. But if your supplier is an uncontrollable force, like the weather, life can be tricky. ...

Neither here nor there.(physical and mental presence of employees is required)
July 1, 2006... Kneejerk reactions to absenteeism just make it worse. What's needed is clear direction, a culture of trust, and the odd afternoon off to watch football. Absence supposedly makes the heart grow fonder, but not at work. Absenteeism is a...

Books: Shelf space that never ends.(Book review)
July 1, 2006... This book identifies a powerful phenomenon of e-tailing that turns conventional precepts of marketing on their head. John Naughton buys the author's argument. Chris Anderson is the editor of Wired magazine, one of the bibles of the...

Women of steel.
July 1, 2006... They may look more tender than tough, but the young achievers on MT's latest list show a determination to venture where others fear to tread. EMMA DE VITA reports. This is MT's fourth '35 Women Under 35' list and it contains many firsts: a...

The MT Interview - Paul Myners.(Biography)
July 1, 2006... Famous for being the M&S chairman who helped repel Philip Green's takeover bids, he is now leaving the rejuvenated retailer. A boardroom spat may have caused his departure, yet he bears no grudges. He'll miss the job, but he's a portfolio man...

New Company Towns.(shift business enterprises affects economy of the place)
July 1, 2006... Are we in a re-run of Victorian civic paternalism? Some communities would be all but dead were it not for the presence of a dominant firm in their midst, handing out the jobs and even shaping their surroundings. Dave Waller reports on an uneasy...

Should you switch to VoIP?(voice over internet protocol)
July 1, 2006... The flexibility of internet telephony offers the full office experience, even when you're on the road. But is it time to say goodbye to your old phone just yet? RON CONDON dials in. Just three years ago, a company called Skype launched...

Table Talk: Where Lady Sylvia Jay eats..(Goring Hotel Restaurant )(Hotel review)
July 1, 2006... I have to recommend the Goring Hotel Restaurant in SW1. I'm not alone in this - it won the Tio Pepe restaurant award for the best British restaurant in 2005 and it's in all the restaurant guides as a good place to eat. I first went there...

On The Road.(Honda Civic hybrid product info)(Product/service evaluation)
July 1, 2006... Honda's complex Civic hybrid is hardly on a par with simpler diesels in fuel consumption and emissions. A proposed pounds 2,000 road tax on high-emission vehicles from the LibDems. Tory leader David Cameron's choice of a Lexus hybrid as...

What's Your Problem?(human resource management)
July 1, 2006... For all its potential trickiness, the temporary promotion seems a real opportunity for you. Q: I'VE BEEN ASKED TO take on a board position temporarily for six months. I am the newest arrival at the managerial level below the board and...

First-Class Coach.
July 1, 2006... Don't position yourself as an expert but work side-by-side with staff to tackle the challenge. Q: I'M RESPONSIBLE FOR project managing an IT initiative that will be crucial to the company's success. All the senior management have signed up...

MT Business Lifeforms: The boy from IT.(information technology)
July 1, 2006... What is it that makes Martin Dwight and his pals different from the rest of us? Martin Dwight slouches into the office. Fleshy and pallid with a mane of curly hair, he looks like he should be at a nu-metal concert, an image cemented by the...