Management Today articles from June 2003

Management Today archives from June 2003

EDITORIAL: Working on different premises.
June 9, 2003... Martian landing in Middle Britain on a mid-week evening might suspect that, as a nation, we suffer from an obsession about property that verges on a clinical mania. As the little green man from the red planet peered through our front windows he...

CONTRIBUTORS.
June 9, 2003... CHARLES DUNSTONE For many years Britain's most eligible bachelor, Charles Dunstone, founder of the Carphone Warehouse, takes a white-knuckle ride in MT's book pages this month with Trevor Merriden's Rollercoaster: The Turbulent Life and...

IN MY OPINION.
June 9, 2003... Chartered Management Institute companion Ram Gidoomal, chairman of the London Sustainability Exchange, says integrity is vital for good leadership. What would you expect if you brought together a small but unlikely group of people, such as...

CUTTING ROOM: Evan Davis at large.
June 9, 2003... Lord Lawson's confidence paradox; ECB coins it with the euro-cent; London cabbies pull the Brentford trick; how low can a logo go?... An enjoyable time had by all at the Council of Mortgage Lenders' recent annual lunch. With 900 people...

BRAIN FOOD: Ten ways to ... Motivate people.
June 9, 2003... 1 Be motivated yourself 2 Understand what motivates them 3 Give them a challenge 4 Treat them with respect 5 Listen to them 6 Help them learn 7 Stick up for them 8 Let them do things their way 9 Reward achievement 10 Say...

BRAIN FOOD: It just might work - Sales incentives.
June 9, 2003... Incentives are the hoariest sales weapon, and the internet is the newest. Combine old and new and you could be pleasantly amazed by the results. John G Fisher's Sales Rewards and Incentives describes how IBM's eServer people adopted this...

BRAIN FOOD: Unlikely managers - Tennis umpire, Lawn Tennis Association.
June 9, 2003... Name: Mike Morrissey When did you become a manager? I've been a professional umpire since 1993, and head of officiating since 2000. I'm in charge of more than 1,000 umpires, referees and other officials. What does management mean to...

BRAIN FOOD: Workplace rights - Stubbing out smoking.
June 9, 2003... Three people die every day in the UK because of passive smoking at work, according to recent research. Small wonder the Government is coming under pressure from trade unions and pressure groups such as ASH, the anti-smoking charity, to act. It...

BRAIN FOOD: Earning curve - Weddings.
June 9, 2003... OK!'s fee for the Zeta Jones wedding snaps pounds 1m Wedding planner, p.a. pounds 20k-pounds 60k Marriage, births and deaths registrar, p.a. pounds 17k-pounds 23k Professional toastmaster, per wedding pounds 250-pounds 350 Disco DJ, per...

BRAIN FOOD: Route to the top - How to deal with criticism.
June 9, 2003... Keep your cool. Listen without showing any negative or defensive emotions (difficult but essential). Summarise the key points. Outline what the other person has said to make sure you've understood them correctly and also to show that you...

BRAIN FOOD: Room service - Where Ray Webster stays.
June 9, 2003... For business: I frequently use the Hotel des Deux Continents in St Germain des Pres, Paris. I've been going there for five years with my wife: she's Parisian and one of her friends recommended it. Once, I turned up on the summer solstice during...

BRAIN FOOD: Speaking out - Simon Woodroffe, Founder, Yo! Sushi.
June 9, 2003... As a devotee of sushi, I was looking forward to hearing from Simon Woodroffe. I was disappointed. True, he followed on from business-speaking greats who included Charles Handy and Tim Waterstone - hard acts to follow. But his presentation,...

BRAIN FOOD: Peter Ellwood CBE - If I had to start again ..
June 9, 2003... When I was in my twenties I thought I'd like to be a professional musician. My violin mistress said if I was to work incredibly hard, I could probably get to the back row of the second violins in a provincial orchestra. I decided banking would...

BRAIN FOOD: Are you suffering from ... Disinhibition effect.
June 9, 2003... Neuropsychologists define disinhibition as an uncontrollable desire to say what's on one's mind, whatever that may be - a condition associated with strokes. 'Disinhibition effect' happens when people are let loose with e-mails. Psychologists...

BRAIN FOOD: Words-worth - Procurement.
June 9, 2003... Procurement is an excellent career, so long as you don't try procuring. The dictionary defines that as 'obtaining women for the gratification of lust'. Which explains why procurement executives are not called procurers. They could use...

THE HUMAN FACTOR.
June 9, 2003... Were he not his father's son, Nick Ritblat would be the obvious contender for CEO at British Land. But investors are wary of such family advancement. By the end of summer, the fraught debate over the Higgs Report should have quietened and...

STATE OF THE UNION.
June 9, 2003... The success of HBO, the channel that brought you Six Feet Under and The Sopranos, shows that elevated programming can be profitable. As a disciple of the free market, I have always had an ambivalent attitude towards state-supported culture....

INSIDE OUT.
June 9, 2003... Business and Brown are in the divorce courts because he has become a serial adulterer in ways that are bringing British business to its knees. British business's long-running love affair with Gordon Brown is over. The chancellor has been...

REALITY BITES.
June 9, 2003... Companies might do better to employ more women because, being both cheap and cheerful, they are better value than money-grabbing men. Like the poor, the pay gap between men and women seems always to be with us. After a period following the...

TECHKNOW: Things to come ... Big Brother for bugs.
June 9, 2003... Creepy-crawlies account for more than half the known species on the planet. Better understanding of their behaviour could yield breakthroughs, not least in the fight against insect-borne diseases such as malaria and sleeping sickness. But...

TECHKNOW: Tech talk.
June 9, 2003... Screenager (n): Someone who has grown up using, and is comfortable with, PCs, video games and all kinds of personal technology. Retronym (n): Terms like snail mail, facetime and acoustic guitar, applied retrospectively to...

TECHKNOW: Pushing the envelope - Wireless Internet.
June 9, 2003... The word wireless, echoing the days when radio was the cat's whiskers and there were just two channels on the telly, is about to come into geekspeak fashion again. But this time round it relates to surfing the web rather than listening to the...

TECHKNOW: Smart tools - The Teleadapt SIM back up.
June 9, 2003... What is it? Disaster recovery for your mobile phone. What does it do? It copies the names and numbers on your mobile's SIM (subscriber identity module) card into its own memory. Just take the card out of your phone, pop it into...

BOOKS: The Sense of the Possible.
June 9, 2003... The story of Vodafone's rise is a compelling read, says Charles Dunstone, but there are too few insights into Chris Gent's style and how he made it all happen. A few pages into this book, I was taken back to the '80s, to Thatcherism and...

BOOKS: On the bedside table of ... John Roberts.
June 9, 2003... 'I've just finished The Last Dive by Bernie Chowdhury, the story of a father and son who died while wreck-diving in the US. I'm interested because my hobby is scuba diving, and this captures the excitement and the risk of diving. I'm also...

BOOKS: The way to a better board.
June 9, 2003... Hack through the thicket of lists and dodge the prejudices and you'll find sensible ideas on how to train directors, finds Howard Davies. Bob Garratt is big on lists: Thin on Top is full of them. Every element of corporate governance can,...

BOOKS: Three of a Kind - Improve your surroundings.
June 9, 2003... The New Office; Francis Duffy; Conran Octopus pounds 50.00 Dr Frank Duffy of architects DEGW is a guru of office design. This book is probably the most accessible and richly illustrated of his many works. It divides different workplaces...

BOOKS: Calculated Risks.
June 9, 2003... This biography does justice to the IBM founder's daring personality, says James Woudhuysen. In the 1930s, Americans dubbed Thomas Watson's products 'electric brains'. His management mantra, 'THINK', set in block capitals in rectangular...

BOOKS: The book that shook John Bowmer.
June 9, 2003... 'The book that sprang to mind was Letters From a Self-Made Merchant to his Son, by George Horace Lorimer. It was published in 1903, and is now on the reading lists of quite a few business schools. I first read it when I was young, before I...

THE MT INTERVIEW: Sir Martin Sorrell.
June 9, 2003... You'd expect the enduring head of WPP, the world's biggest communication services agency, to influence his peers. But he has far more clout than that - he's listened to as an oracle at Davos. So where are we headed, Sir Martin? When will the...

THE MT WORKSPACE SATISFACTION SURVEY: Workspace Heaven?
June 9, 2003... Research and common sense tell us that the work environment has a big effect on employee efficiency and morale. But are firms meeting the hopes and expectations of staff in workplace facilities? Are managers proud to invite clients or suppliers...

BIZ TECH HELL.
June 9, 2003... The catalogue of gadgetry that the 21st-century manager relies on offers plenty of work for the devil's hand - PC crashes, data traffic jams, viruses, mishaps and keystroke cock-ups. MT confronts these everyday opportunities for digital...

GREAT HOLIDAYS COME IN SMALL PACKAGES.
June 9, 2003... War and recession have hit the UK's four giant travel firms hard - yet the minnows in the industry are thriving. Stephen Cook reports on how the big boys are acquiring, and aping, their tiny rivals to retain their market share. At one...

KEEP STAFF SWEET.
June 9, 2003... Plummeting pensions and dismal stock options mean there's not much inside the corporate sweetie jar at present. But with new flexible benefits, firms can offer tailored perks packages, as well as making the best of a lean time. Andrew Saunders...

A SECTION FOR ENTREPRENEURS: How To Play The Franchise System And Win.
June 9, 2003... Some business ideas lend themselves well to this branded operational technique, offering sound opportunities for making steady profits - if both sides are diligent and reliable, says Rebecca Hoar. Russell Hand (left) and his brother...

A SECTION FOR ENTREPRENEURS: Henry Engelhardt, CEO, Admiral Insurance - Decisions.
June 9, 2003... MY BEST... I was recruited by Lloyds of London in 1991 to set up Admiral and I negotiated a SWEAT equity stake for myself and my management team. It's a form of equity you get in the business in return for your work and effort rather than your...

A SECTION FOR ENTREPRENEURS: Building to last - Time to delegate.
June 9, 2003... DILEMMA: I can't believe it, I just forgot my quarterly review meeting with the bank. I was so wrapped up in finishing the technical spec for our big pitch with the Americans that it slipped my mind. It wouldn't be so bad if it was the first...

COMING UP FAST: Net result - A piece of cake.
June 9, 2003... Patisserie Valerie has been keeping Soho's urban crowd in coffee and croissants since Madame Valerie hopped over from Belgium in 1926. Its present owners - brothers Enzo, Victor and Robert Scalzo - bought the cafe in 1987, and have opened seven...

COMING UP FAST: Stressbuster - Don't be nervous.
June 9, 2003... Everyone is capable of panic before a big event - even the greatest orators and performers. Be like them and prepare your nerves. PRACTISE TILL NEAR PERFECT. But have courage to stop on the night before to allow yourself time to re-charge....

COMING UP FAST: Young Meteors - Ben Harris, New Brand Vision.
June 9, 2003... As Britain sinks deeper into economic gloom, companies cut PR, marketing and advertising first in a bid to reduce costs. So surely the past 12 months has been the worst time to launch a new marketing agency? Apparently not. For Ben Harris, the...

Motor Mouth - Drive a true bargain.
June 9, 2003... It is nearly your last chance to participate in one of the weirdest ever experiments in automobile economics. The Volkswagen group is, by some technical measures, the most impressive and successful manufacturing organisation in Europe. By...

WHAT'S YOUR PROBLEM?
June 9, 2003... I'M DESPERATE TO AVOID THIS RINGSIDE EVENING I'm a senior manager for a Birmingham-based sports equipment manufacturer. We happen to sponsor a local boxer who's been doing very well. He's got a big match coming up, and I've been asked to...

FIRST CLASS COACH.
June 9, 2003... My last boss was regarded as a failure. He's left and I've been promoted. Now I'm the leader, I know expectations of me have changed, but I'm not sure what I should be doing. What do good leaders do? One shorthand answer is that they create...

WEAK AT THE TOP: John Weak's Diary.
June 9, 2003... MONDAY Got in late because I knew it was going to be a pig of a week. Smokehouse results were the worst since the fall of Rome and Sir Marcus is getting divorced. It's a toss-up who's losing money at a faster rate. We've also got our staff...