Management Today articles from June 2008

Management Today archives from June 2008

Contributors.
June 1, 2008... ANDREW DAVIDSON Davidson (pictured with younger sprog Rosa) does anything he can to avoid supermarkets, so he was intrigued to meet Ocado's founders for this month's cover feature. He ordered pounds 70-worth from their website - and paid...

Editorial: Three for the price of one.(Ocado Ltd.)
June 1, 2008... Strangely, here in the UK we pay HR leaders better than anywhere else in the world. I've had it with supermarkets. On one past trip to Sainsbury's, in addition to the usual grim mix of jousting for a car-park space, watching tetchy parents...

Chartered Management Institute: In my opinion.
June 1, 2008... Chartered Management Institute Companion Tim Melville-Ross challenges leaders to think carefully about the changes facing their organisations over the next decade. No-one would argue with the sentiment that the world of business has...

The MT Diary.(Management Today)
June 1, 2008... Politeness Swiss-style; truth about Gordon's 10p punt; Jordan hedges on its sharia rules. Basel has its charms, especially in early summer. The rolling Rhine, two terrific art galleries, a tram system to rival the Manchester Metrolink, and...

Ten ways to ... Admit you're wrong.
June 1, 2008... 1. Understand it's for the best 2. Don't stress about it 3. See it as a stepping-stone to success 4. Do it promptly 5. Be honest 6. Keep a level tone of voice 7. Hold eye contact 8. Don't grovel 9. Put it behind you 10. Don't...

It'll never fly: 24hr news channels.(British Broadcasting Corp. BBC News, British Sky Broadcasting Group PLC. Sky News, Cable News Network)
June 1, 2008... When the day's crucial events can be summed up in a 30-minute bulletin, do we need a constant drip-feed of news? There just isn't that much happening. Since the advent of multi-channel TV, rolling news stations have been desperately...

Dave's Eco-nomics: Plastic bags.(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... GREEN ALERT British checkouts distribute nearly 13 billion plastic bags a year These may contribute a mere 0.3% of our landfill, but it hasn't stopped the debate reaching the front pages. In February, the Daily Mail's 'banish the bag'...

Earning curve: Concerts.(Live Nation)(Table)
June 1, 2008... Live Nation, revenue ('07) pounds 2.25bn Rolling Stones' A Bigger Bang tour, sales pounds 286m Adrian White, CEO, Quintain (owns Wembley Arena), p.a. pounds 509k Roadie, starting salary, p.a. pounds 12.5k Night steward, Glastonbury...

Workplace rights: Watching brief.(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... Surveillance at work is becoming a contentious issue, with new technology creating ever more sophisticated methods of electronic snooping. Microsoft was recently said to be seeking a patent for office 'spy' software capable of analysing...

History Lessons: Take the longer view - McDonald's.(Ray Kroc)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... Ray Kroc stumbled on the McDonald brothers' San Bernardino burger joint in 1954, and soon negotiated a deal to launch a franchise around the US. Unlike most franchisers then and now, Kroc understood the benefit of looking after his...

Your route to the top: Be authentic.(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... Sell your differences. Authenticity is not just about knowing yourself but how you communicate that to others. Bill Gates plays on his 'geekiness' and is viewed as a passionate and knowledgeable techie. But be a chameleon. We can present...

Why business is like ... Monkeys, coconuts and rice.(business survival)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... Drill a hole into a coconut just big enough to squeeze a small hand into, hollow out the inside, then stuff it with boiled rice - you've built yourself a monkey trap. Put one of these outdoors in certain parts of southern India and there...

Do it right: Building an intranet.(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... Plan it. Have a good idea of what you want your intranet to achieve, and how it will grow. Clear thinking early on prevents total chaos later. Create a one-stop shop. Online pro forma documents, such as appraisal and expense forms, save a...

Slogan Doctor: Fiat 500: 'You are, we car'.(Fiat S.p.A.)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... For the launch of its new retro-styled 500 last year, Fiat introduced a striking slogan: four monosyllables, a comma and a rhyme. It was devised by an agency called 515 Creative Shop in Turin, and is used, in English, across Europe. But...

How does he manage?: CCTV Surveillance supervisor - Roy Hitching London Borough of Hackney.(interview)(Closed-circuit television)(Interview)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... WHEN DID YOU BECOME A MANAGER? I've been in this area for 36 years. I have some academic qualifications in emergency planning and I spent some time in the Army with bomb disposal - where you get to see the sort of disruption these things...

Are you suffering from: Sub-threshold Bipolar Disorder.(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... When Pepsi went 'lite', so did most other things. Once, all psychiatric disorders were either serious hospital cases or things one ignored, but these days it's all about the in-betweens. Bipolar disorder - where one minute you're happy as...

Words-worth: Outlet.(factory outlets)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... Is yours one of those businesses that has 'outlets'? The word has come to encompass any point of contact between a retail organisation and its customers: shops, supermarkets, petrol stations and pubs. There's something unpleasant about it,...

Remember This.(quotations)(Quotation)
June 1, 2008... 'We can lick gravity, but sometimes the paperwork is overwhelming' - Wernher von Braun said it. 'The best way to deal with bureaucrats is with stealth and sudden violence' - Boutros Boutros-Ghali said it

How he made his pile: Alisher Usmanov investor.(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... Who is he? A new entry at number five on the Sunday Times Rich List. Usmanov, 54, has interests in gas, metals, telecoms and the Russian media, and is now the largest stakeholder in Arsenal FC. He's worth pounds 5.7bn. How did he make his...

Stat of the month: Sales message - dollars 2.2bn The global value of mobile advertising (2007).
June 1, 2008... That's less than 1% of the value of all advertising, but the words 'new opportunity' must still be rattling round marketers' heads like a polyphonic ring-tone. There are about four billion handsets at work globally, and mobile advertising...

Sir John Parker: If I had to start again ..(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... I started out as a naval architect, and would have been content to stick with designing ships. It's a very special job. I sold ships for companies the world over, from China to Argentina to Scandinavia, and the industry still captivates me...

Crash Course in: Having effective meetings.
June 1, 2008... A survey by Sky TV two years ago found that 40% of us had imagined our boss naked during a business meeting. If you have a sneaky feeling that a large proportion of the meetings that take place under your roof are a waste of time, you need to...

Masterclass: Emotionally Intelligent Strategy.(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... What is it? You know all those thrilling off-site strategy get-togethers you've had to sit through over the years? The ones with flip charts, SWOT analysis, and earnest, lengthy and circular discussions? They are just so 20th-century....

Decisions: Adam Goodyer & James Perkins, Concert Live, Founders of the instant live CD business.
June 1, 2008... OUR BEST... We make recordings of live gigs - we'll have 400 CDs ready to go out within six minutes of a concert ending. Consumers buy our CDs, but our customers are the record labels and management companies. It was our best decision to...

Behind the spin: Nissan.(Nissan Motor Company Ltd.)
June 1, 2008... THE DILEMMA. Last month, Japan's third-biggest carmaker missed its profits target for the second year running. And Nissan, which is 44% owned by Renault, said the coming year would be difficult, with an expected 30% fall in profits,...

Lapses into laddishness.(women's rights)
June 1, 2008... Dealing with those 'harmless' little instances of sexism is difficult territory for a line manager, but who said being a manager was easy? A sales executive takes a picture of a female colleague to show to a new client. A worker in an...

Books: The right levers for change.(The New Age of Innovation: Driving Co-created Value through Global Networks)(Book review)
June 1, 2008... Another book on innovation, but it's worth taking seriously because it recognises the importance of putting in place the processes to drive it, says Julian Birkinshaw. The New Age of Innovation: Driving co-created value through global...

Books: Chocolatiers who redefined their industry.(Sweet Dreams)(Book review)
June 1, 2008... Craig Sams and Jo Fairley tell how they founded, nurtured, fought for and then sold Green & Black's. John Vincent relishes the tale. Sweet Dreams Craig Sams and Josephine Fairley Random House pounds 14.99 It tells about the...

Books: Three of a kind - Pedal power for fast-track executives.
June 1, 2008... Cycling to Work Rory McMullan Green Books pounds 4.95 City Cycling Richard Ballantine Snowbooks pounds 9.99 Two Wheels Matt Seaton Guardian Books pounds 9.99

Books: The art of breaking a middle exec down to build them up.(What Got You Here Won't Get You There: How Successful People Become Even More Successful)(Book review)
June 1, 2008... Marshall Goldsmith proffers the kind of advice that could take you all the way to the C-suite - if you change 20 bad workplace habits Octavius Black searches for insights. What Got You Here Won't Get You There: How successful people become...

The MT Interview: The Ocado Boys.(Tim Steiner, Jason Gissing and Jonathan Faiman)
June 1, 2008... The co-founders of the online grocery company, Tim Steiner, Jason Gissing and Jonathan Faiman - ex-Goldman Sachs brokers all - are closing in on profitability after eight years. And they just love to needle Sir Terry Leahy. Should Tesco's be...

Surprise packages.(wages and salaries)
June 1, 2008... MT's latest global salary survey is revelatory: HR and IT heads are better paid in the UK than anywhere - and just look at the spectacular rewards for failure, says Andrew Saunders. How times change. Back in 2005, when we last undertook our...

Come on, be honest.
June 1, 2008... Anyone starting up an enterprise wants it to be around for the long term - and that demands straight dealing. Integrity is the best policy because it builds confidence among customers and, internally, it fosters creativity among employees....

Captain sensible.(Ed Smith's What Sport Tells Us About Life)
June 1, 2008... Middlesex skipper Ed Smith despises platitudinous sports celebs who work the 'motivational' circuit. His writings betray a subtler approach, says Simon Kuper. When Ed Smith was picked for England's cricket team in 2003, one newspaper...

Russia's retail revolution.
June 1, 2008... In urban centres across the vast hinterland of the largest country in the world, people are shrugging off their grim communist-era preoccupations to go shopping. They're joining the international consumer society in droves - retail sales in the...

Motor Mouth.(Lexus LS 600)(Product/service evaluation)
June 1, 2008... Lexus' long-wheelbase hybrid limo can park itself and give you a massage. But it's as green as an oilslick, says Sathnam Sanghera. Probably looks easy, this part-time car-reviewing lark. Get a manufacturer to lend you a pounds 100,000 model...

Table Talk: Where roger parry eats ..(The Swan at the Globe)(Restaurant review)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... I usually discuss pressing issues at breakfast, and save lunch for more relaxed 'state of the nation' stuff. I'm chairman of Shakespeare's Globe Trust, the body that funds London's Globe theatre, and the Swan at the Globe has just the...

What's your problem?(employer relations)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... Q: What is the office protocol for having your boss round for dinner? I've just been promoted to manager and told my girlfriend that I thought it would be a great idea if I invited him and his wife round She refuses to have them, saying people...

What's your problem?(employer attitudes)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... Q: I work part-time in the voluntary sector and have been in my role for six months. The longer I spend with my manager, the more I realise what a pathological liar he is. He exaggerates promises to clients, will completely make up meetings he...

What's your problem?(business cards)
June 1, 2008... Q: This might seem petty, but I'm upset that all my colleagues and mates have business cards but I don't. I asked my line manager about it and he said that because I don't go out on client meetings and am quite junior, I don't need them. I...

First-Class Coach.(job pressure)
June 1, 2008... The process will warn your CEO that he has been exerting impossible pressure on the firm. Q: My CEO keeps coming up with ideas. We all admire him, but he's driving us mad. No sooner do we begin to make progress on one new project than he...

The Sharp End: How green was my day.
June 1, 2008... Pricking out and potting on, Dave Waller sings the petunia Wonderwave blues. I'm off to flex my green fingers at Hyde Park's plant nursery. I don't have high hopes. My desk plant, Henry, the only living thing I've ever nurtured, vanished...