Management Today articles from June 2005

Management Today archives from June 2005

Balancing on the Pinnacle.
June 6, 2005... Few of us will ever know what it's like to be the boss of a big corporation. We just gaze up at the heights of the super-executive floor and wonder. This month, however, MT offers an insight into the minds of those who view us from the summit....

In my opinion: Professor Leo Murray.(leadership development)
June 6, 2005... Chartered Management Institute Companion Professor Leo Murray reports on a new CMI survey of attitudes to management development. Throughout my career in line management in industry, consultancy and as the director of Cranfield School of...

The mt diary: Howard Davies.(Management Today)
June 6, 2005... The DTI rises again; Europe, France and perfidious Albion; Bloomer will blossom again. After months of Whitehall rumours forecasting its demise, the Department of Trade and Industry was finally abolished by the prime minister on 6 May...

Brainfood: Ten ways to take a Sabbatical.(Brief Article)(Illustration)
June 6, 2005... 1. It's not a holiday, so set yourself a challenge 2. Be clear what you want to achieve 3. Be bold - the time is never right 4. Sell your career break to your manager 5. Put your finances in order before you go 6. Involve your...

Brainfood: It'll never fly - Chewing gum.(Brief Article)
June 6, 2005... Why do we need it? Where is the pleasure in masticating a stick of grey, inedible gum until your jaw aches, and long after the flavour has gone? Not only does it make you look uncouth, but it is of no obvious benefit. Then, there's the mess....

Brainfood: How does she manage? Festival director Kathryn McDowell, City of London Festival.(Brief Article)(Interview)
June 6, 2005... When did you become a manager? When I was marketing assistant at the Welsh National Opera - I couldn't claim to have been a manager of lots of people, but I was certainly managing projects. What does management mean to you? I think of...

Brainfood: Earning curve - The movies.(Brief Article)(Illustration)
June 6, 2005... Steven Spielberg, worth pounds 1.37bn Sir Anthony Hopkins, worth pounds 75m Tim Bevan, co-chairman, Working Title, worth pounds 10.5m Scriptwriter, US, per original screenplay (min) pounds 53k Film production runner, p.a. from pounds 10k...

Brainfood: Workplace Rights - Bullying tactics.(Brief Article)
June 6, 2005... Bullying is largely perceived as an issue for schools. But playground bullies grow up, get jobs and often replicate the same behaviour in the workplace. A recent TUC survey indicated that bullying leads to 18 million lost working days a year,...

Brainfood: History lessons - Business takeovers - Niccolo Machiavelli.(Brief Article)
June 6, 2005... To be Machiavellian is to be shrewd, opportunistic, even amoral. The Florentine diplomat who lent his name to such calculating practices wrote the bible on power, The Prince, in 1513. Every scheming businessman would do well to read this...

Brainfood: Your route to the top love the job you're in.(Brief Article)
June 6, 2005... Think back. Try to remember the day you decided to join your organisation. Think about what excited you back then and where you can find the thrill now. Look forward. What are the goals that would make you feel good if you achieved them by...

Brainfood: Speaking out - Allan Leighton, chairman, Royal Mail Group.(Brief Article)
June 6, 2005... Why does Allan Leighton have a string of chairmanships and non-exec directorships? Because he has a refreshing approach to business success that casts aside conventional management thinking. Not that you'd know at first - I thought I was in the...

Brainfood: Business manners - Killer presentations.(Brief Article)
June 6, 2005... Know your audience. Find out who you'll be speaking to. Then pitch tone and content to the lowest common denominator (no smutty jokes, mind). Prepare fully. Practise on colleagues beforehand to uncover problem areas, and rehearse timing....

Brainfood: Slogan Doctor Homebase: make a house a home.(Brief Article)
June 6, 2005... Most of us endure it to a degree, but DIY is hardly a commercial goldmine. Homebase, created by J Sainsbury, is the second-biggest chain in the UK, but it has not had an easy time. Sold to Schroder Ventures in 2000, it became part of Argos in...

Brainfood: We'd love that job - Millionaire - Tracey Orton - pounds 2.9 million Lotto winner.(Brief Article)(Interview)
June 6, 2005... What do you do? I gave up work as a recruitment assistant after winning in March 2004. We moved last September into a lovely five-bedroomed house that backs onto open countryside. I've done all the decorating. It's something I enjoy, especially...

Brainfood: Remember this.(business)(Brief Article)
June 6, 2005... 'The truly successful businessman is essentially a dissenter' J PAUL GETTY SAID IT 'There is no gap in the market unless you have sharp elbows' ANDREW NEIL SAID IT.

Brainfood: Are you suffering from constructive procrastination.(Brief Article)
June 6, 2005... If you regularly clean out the kitchen cupboards when you should be paying bills, and paying bills when you should be filling out tax forms, you may suffer from constructive procrastination. The term simply means substituting one useful...

Brainfood: Words-worth - Float.(Brief Article)
June 6, 2005... When a company is floated, what is the correct word to describe that event? Obviously, it's a 'flotation'. But increasingly, that word has become just a little too formal for the modern world. CEOs nowadays prefer something snappier: 'We talk...

Brainfood: If I had to start again.
June 6, 2005... I think I would be able to avoid lots of the pitfalls and mistakes I made. If you're successful, there are always mistakes you make along the way, especially with the business I am in - it's very risky. I follow my heart sometimes rather than...

Brainfood: How he made his pile - Silvio Berlusconi, Italian prime minister and media tycoon.(Brief Article)
June 6, 2005... Who is he? Italy's wealthiest man is a super-slick, self-made business mogul, sitting on an estimated dollars 12 billion personal fortune. He is also Italy's prime minister. How did he make his millions? After university, Berlusconi...

Brainfood: Us and them - Republic of Ireland.(Brief Article)
June 6, 2005... Ireland's economy continues to grow steadily, driven by a healthy export industry, increasing consumer spending, and construction and business investment. Average growth between 1995 and 2004 was a robust 7%. Salaries are good too - Ireland...

Brainfood: Crash course in charity in the workplace.(Payroll Giving)
June 6, 2005... Your staff are a generous bunch, but they might give a lot more if they were better organised. The charities they give to are probably missing out on tax incentives, and a workplace-giving scheme might help the company in other ways. Put...

Brainfood: Master class - Re-engineering.(Business Process Re-engineering)(Brief Article)
June 6, 2005... What is it? Business Process Re-engineering (BPR) is a radical, back-to-the-drawing board approach to organisational change. Supporters argue that many businesses cling on to inherited systems and processes simply because those are the ones...

Brainfood: Decisions - Tessa Strickland - Barefoot Books - Co-founder of the Children's Book Publisher.
June 6, 2005... MY BEST... In 1999, we decided to create a strategy that enabled us to speak more directly to the customer on the street. Traditionally, publishers sell books to booksellers, librarians and so on, who then sell to customers. But Barefoot...

Brainfood: Behind the spin - fcuk.(French Connection Group PLC)
June 6, 2005... THE DILEMMA French Connection is not the brand it once was. The in-your-face fashion retailer, founded in 1969, was known for its high-fashion designs, but it seems to have lost its way. Year-on-year sales to the end of January 2005 were...

China's challenge to us.
June 6, 2005... China Worldbest is just the vanguard of a merciless, advancing commercial army. Since the immodestly titled China Worldbest Group was founded in 1992, it has striven to live up to its name. It started in textiles but spread into machinery...

Numbed by numbers.(intuitive thinking)
June 6, 2005... Trying to prove everything arithmetically leaves little room for intuitive thought. Numbers are in their prime. Few activities in contemporary life escape the scrutiny of the slide-rule. Surveys, league tables, indices, performance...

Techno life.(gadgets of executive)
June 6, 2005... Clare Hart, chief executive of information business Factiva, is based in the US, but travels regularly to the UK and Europe. She never leaves home without her Palm Treo and her IBM laptop, but has had to abandon the idea of upgrading to the...

Books: A scramble for supremacy.(Trolley Wars)(Book Review)
June 6, 2005... The UK retail food sector is the most competitive in the world, and this book is a vivid account of the battles that have shaped our high street, reports Stuart Rose. TROLLEY WARS Judi Bevan Profile pounds 17.99 MT price pounds 15.99...

Books: Sound lessons, but too many tripwires.(Building a Better Business)(Book Review)
June 6, 2005... This is not a bad book, admits Mark Derry, but he struggled through a text overburdened with quotations and mnemonics. Building a Better Business Patrick Dixon Profile pounds 9.99 MT price pounds 8.99 To order, visit...

Books: Three of a kind - Coaching me, coaching you.(Brief Article)
June 6, 2005... SUPERCOACHING Graham Alexander & Ben Renshaw Random House pounds 9.99 COACH: BE YOUR BEST... AND BEYOND Steve Bavister & Amanda Vickers Hodder & Stoughton pounds 4.99 THE COACHING MANUAL Julie Starr Prentice Hall Business...

View from the top.(business leaders)
June 6, 2005... What goes on inside the heads of British business leaders in the 21st century? We read what they say in countless interviews, but what do they honestly feel about the roles they play and the impact these have on their personal lives? MT sent...

Vatican Inc.(papacy)
June 6, 2005... With the new chairman installed, Dominic Midgley wondered what kind of firm Pope Benedict XVI is running. When Chile's Cardinal Jorge Estivez stepped onto a Vatican balcony on the evening of 19 April to declare 'Habemus Papam' - We have a...

High flyers - Low risers.(indentifying, nurturing talent, people management)
June 6, 2005... How do you recognise and nurture employees who display great prowess without demotivating their less gifted colleagues? By developing all staff, whatever their altitude, says Stefan Stern. Keith Talent, Martin Amis's grotesque creation in his...

Entrepreneurs: Is insecurity their fuel?(entrepreneurship)(Panel Discussion)
June 6, 2005... As one-off mavericks, they elude categorisation, yet the characters who launch and nurture businesses all seem to have something to prove. The subject of this MT Round Table, in association with Royal Bank of Scotland, is that hottest of...

The mt interview - Nick Buckles.(Nick Buckles, Group 4 Securicor)(Interview)
June 6, 2005... After a swift rise up the ranks, which culminated in leading a big merger, Group 4 Securicor's CEO is one of Britain's youngest top bosses, presiding over a pounds 3.8bn turnover. Part of his success lies in his natural appeal to frontline...

Tall order for Sage rivals.(Sage Group PLC)(Company Profile)
June 6, 2005... The Tyneside tech company's accountancy software still dominates the SME market, but competitors are queuing up to knock the leader over, says Mark Vernon. Last year, Sage - the accountancy software vendor that dominates the market among...

How to build a property portfolio.
June 6, 2005... A quarterly series to help you get the most out of your money, presented with UBS Wealth Management. Steve Lodge's theme is bricks and mortar. The propery market has historically been the most popular, and frequently one of the most...

Business travel: Frequent flyer - Paul Molyneux's guide to Hamburg.
June 6, 2005... HOW TO GET THERE: I normally fly with BA. It takes an hour and 20 minutes from Heathrow. AIRPORT TO TOWN: Taxis take 25 minutes and cost about EUR27. The drivers are very friendly. BEST HOTEL: I like the five-star Dorint Sofitel Am...

Business travel: On the road.(Aston Martin DB9)(Product/Service Evaluation)
June 6, 2005... The graceful proportions and restrained detailing of the Aston Martin DB9 are decidedly tasteful. Beautiful cars? They're surprisingly rare in today's showrooms. Visually arresting machines are plentiful, and at all price ranges - think of...

Business travel: Room service - Where Nick Davidson stays.
June 6, 2005... FOR BUSINESS: Luckily for me, some of Century's radio stations are in the UK's best cities, so I get to stay in good hotels. My third favourite hotel is Brighton's Hotel du Vin, which has a funky suite with twin baths and a telescope. I also...

What's your problem?(promotions, bonus, job and personal work)
June 6, 2005... You won't need to repeat this conversation - it'll be around the office with the speed of a spicy rumour. Q: My boss was fired for his incompetence, and I've taken his place. I'm struggling with my new team. Before now, we were friends who...

First-class coach: Our mental attitude has a strong bearing on how we get through difficult times.
June 6, 2005... Q: I'm trying to cope with a nasty divorce and an ongoing legal battle over contact with my children. It's taking up all my emotional energy, and I have little motivation left for work. My previously sympathetic boss and colleagues think it's...

Business lifeforms: The networker.(Francesca Semple)(Biography)
June 6, 2005... Queen of facilitators Francesca Semple can put you in the loop. Roll out the Rolodexes, power up the palmtops and bring on the business cards. It's time for another Netorious salon or soiree or gathering, or whatever they style their...