Management Today articles from March 2007

Management Today archives from March 2007

Editorial: When life began for forte.(Sir Rocco Forte)(Editorial)
March 1, 2007... Bounce-back tales are a delight. The narrative arc of the individual who soars to the heights, falls and then fights his or her way back up in the face of adversity rarely fails to compel. Just look at the continuing success of the ageing Rocky...

Contributors.(Brief article)
March 1, 2007... STEFAN STERN The only way Stern was ever going to see inside one of Sir Rocco Forte's plush suites was to interview him, so he did, for this month's cover story on bouncing back. If you think Stern (seen here at a recent conference in...

Chartered Management Institute: In my opinion.(Martin Gorham)
March 1, 2007... Chartered Management Institute Companion Martin Gorham argues that leaders must match strategy to changes in the external environment. Imagine you are the sole supplier of a life-saving product. The raw material is provided free by willing...

The MT Diary.(gambling at financial markets)
March 1, 2007... My casino hell; NYSE rings untrue; Gord 'n' Dave's Davos walkabout; global downside. I hoped I'd be able to avoid the Government's exciting new super-casino: there's no need ever to visit the Heseltine Dome, and Blackpool fell off my...

Ten ways to... Prepare for a break.(Employee vacations)(Brief article)
March 1, 2007... 1. Use all your allocated leave 2. Choose the optimum time-span 3. Give your team good notice 4. Sort your work out before you go 5. Don't leave your colleagues any surprises.. 6....and that includes festering crockery 7. Put your...

It'll Never Fly: The City of London.(Brief article)
March 1, 2007... Who would have thought back in 1698, as they downed their espressos, that the little band of stockbrokers from Jonathan's Coffee House in Change Alley EC3 would be the founder-members of what would become the world's mighty money capital?...

How does he manage? Barber - Mike Mason, head barber and manager, Geo F Trumper Mayfair Store.(Geo. F. Trumper Ltd.)(Interview)(Brief article)
March 1, 2007... - When did you become a manager? I have worked for Geo F Trumper for over 23 years, a long stint in today's market. I was made manager 21 years ago and have retained that position till today. - What does management mean to you? ...

Earning curve: Air Travel.(Richard Branson of Virgin Airlines)(Brief article)
March 1, 2007... Richard Branson, owner of Virgin Airlines, wealth: pounds 3bn BAA, revenue from airport stores ('06): pounds 616m Ryanair flight captain, p.a. up to pounds 100k Baggage handler, Heathrow airport, p.a. pounds 14k Bangor Birdman contest,...

Workplace rights: Don't quota us.(Hudson)(Brief article)
March 1, 2007... More than three-quarters of senior managers believe that an annual quota for staff dismissals would boost their company's performance, according to a survey by management consultancy Hudson. Almost half agreed that shedding up to 5% of staff...

History lessons: Spot the hidden talent - Emperor Claudius.(Brief article)
March 1, 2007... When Claudius became Roman emperor in AD41, he wasn't exactly a shoo-in for the role. He was sickly, he limped, stuttered and dribbled - an unlikely figurehead for a dynastic regime that despised weakness. His own mother called him a monster...

Your Route to the top: How to Hone the idea.(Success)(Brief article)
March 1, 2007... Define the evaluation criteria. Use these to make the initial cull Chuck out any suggestions that don't meet them, however appealing they sound. Be sure of the benefits. Know your audience and be clear about why this is something that they...

Why Business is like... Religious cults.(Brief article)
March 1, 2007... It's hard to think of a more powerful bunch of marketers than those who promote religious cults. Bosses might not wish to manipulate customers into purchasing their wares, but an understanding of how cults attract followers can challenge...

Do it Right: Managing a project.(Brief article)
March 1, 2007... Plan it. Know your goal and why you're pursuing it, then research how you'll achieve it. Get it all down on paper: who's on the team; where resources are going and at what cost; and deadlines. This statement allows everyone - including you - to...

Slogan Doctor: Google - Don't Be Evil.(informal corporate motto)(Brief article)
March 1, 2007... Look at Google's investor relations pages, under 'Google code of conduct', and you find a reference to its famous 'informal corporate motto'. The code itself takes 5,500 words, the slogan just three. At a meeting in July 2001, a dozen or so of...

We'd Love that Job: Production Designer - Tim Hatley.(Interview)(Brief article)
March 1, 2007... - What do you do? I design the costumes and sets - everything you see on stage - for shows like Eric Idle's Spamalot. I discuss the script with the director and do a lot of sketches and Photoshop work. Then I assemble a team of art...

Are you suffering from perfection infection.(Brief article)
March 1, 2007... Do you find that pieces of paper look better when stacked neatly on top of each other or, better yet, when they are filed away carefully? Do you find that no job that you undertake is ever quite right and could be improved with just a bit of...

Words-worth: Wii.(Nintendo Company Ltd.'s computer game)(Brief article)
March 1, 2007... 'Wii' is a trademark rather than a word, but intriguing nonetheless. Many thought Japanese games company Nintendo had gone mad when it called its new games console 'Wii', pronounced 'wee'. Yet a great deal of Japanese thinking went into...

Remember This.(Excellence)(Quotation)(Brief article)
March 1, 2007... 'We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit.' - Aristotle said it. 'They can because they think they can.' - Virgil said it

How he made his pile: Nicholas van Hoogstraten, Property owner, businessman, criminal.(Brief article)
March 1, 2007... Who is he? Once Britain's youngest millionaire, the property magnate - now 62 - is known for his thuggish business practices. A judge once called him an 'emissary of Beelzebub'. How did he make his millions? As a teenager he sold his stamp...

Stat of the Month: The big build-up - 1,200 - Total number of tower cranes in the UAE.(Brief article)
March 1, 2007... The United Arab Emirates and especially Dubai form one of the world's hottest construction markets at present, with a reported dollars 300 billion of large projects - witness the huge forest of tower cranes there. But their number has been the...

Sir Stuart Hampson: If I had to start again..(Brief article)
March 1, 2007... I'd have to work somewhere that had a similar approach to that of John Lewis - I couldn't work for an organisation that wasn't interested in what matters to its employees. I arrived here by accident. I was 35, and had been in the Civil...

Crash Course in... becoming carbon-neutral.
March 1, 2007... You used to think that being green was a luxury for your company, but climate change has made you realise that you can no longer ignore it. The buzz is about becoming carbon-neutral, but where do you start? Consider your drivers. Do you...

MT Masterclass: Compassionate capitalism.(corporate social responsibility of businesses)(Brief article)
March 1, 2007... What is it? The leader of the Labour party takes a pounds 2 million top-up fee from the world's leading steel magnate (Lakshmi Mittal), while the leader of the Conservative party holds an all-day conference in London to see how businesses can...

Decisions: Dr Jane Collins, NHS Trust chief executive - Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, London.(National Health Service)(Interview)(Brief article)
March 1, 2007... MY BEST... To help them, I moved a lot of resource - about pounds 700,000 - previously in the centre of the organisation to the front line. I needed to invest quite a lot to develop management skills in the clinicians, and over time I've...

Behind the spin: Pfizer.
March 1, 2007... THE DILEMMA Despite a sharp rise in profits in 2006 to dollars 19.3 billion (from dollars 8.1 billion in '05), the world's largest drug firm is worried - and with good reason. Prices in Pfizer's core US market are falling; it faces the...

Consuming conundrum.(green products)
March 1, 2007... The greening of Wal-Mart, M&S and Tesco is good, but it's not enough. Saving the planet requires using less stuff - and that means you and me. Al Gore, presenting Prince Charles with a Harvard University award for raising environmental...

Books: So many ways to be ethical.("Your Ethical Business: How to plan, start and succeed in a company with a conscience")(Book review)
March 1, 2007... Paul Allen ngo.media pounds 10.00 Last year, the National Union of Students gave Richard Reed of Innocent smoothies fame its 'most admired businessman' award. It seems that Britain's standing army of would-be entrepreneurs is going...

Books: Originality - the key business strategy.("Mavericks at Work")(Book review)
March 1, 2007... Mavericks at Work William C Taylor and Polly LaBarre Harper Collins pounds 14.99 US companies spent more than dollars 7.4 billion in one year to enhance their automated call centres. The result, Taylor and LaBarre explain, is that it...

Books: Three of a kind.("The FT Guide to Using and Interpreting Company Accounts")("Smoke and Mirrors")("Figures Mundane and Mysterious Finance for Non-Financial Managers" )(Brief article)
March 1, 2007... Figures Mundane and Mysterious Finance for Non-Financial Managers Philip Ramsden Teach Yourself pounds 9.99 Best of its kind The FT Guide to Using and Interpreting Company Accounts Wendy McKenzie FT Prentice Hall pounds...

Books: Is your company servicing a need - or changing society?("Meaning Inc: The blueprint for business success in the 21st century")(Book review)
March 1, 2007... This book's authors predict the rise of firms set up to create meaning for employees customers and stakeholders. John Knell finds rich seams here that aren't exploited. The danger of meaningless work has been long understood. Dostoevsky...

Bouncing Back with Sir Rocco.(Rocco Forte Hotels's Rocco Forte)(Interview)
March 1, 2007... Having taken over the reins of his father's business empire, he lost the lot in 1996 in a vicious pounds 4bn bid battle with Granada Starting from scratch in the following year, Forte began to rebuild the brand... Stefan Stern and Matthew...

The MT Interview: Philip Yea.(3i Group PLC)(Interview)
March 1, 2007... The head of 3i, the 60-year-old UK private-equity firm, is aware of the irony of a public enterprise engaged at the shadowy end of corporate funding. But he offers a powerful defence of capitalism working for the benefit of society - and superb...

People who can't let go.(obsessive behavior)
March 1, 2007... Attention to detail and a determination to do things properly are admirable traits. But for some, these virtues curdle into obsessive behaviour that stifles all self-expression in the workplace. Who are these people? Helen Kirwan-Taylor nails...

How to Pitch.(career development)
March 1, 2007... Life is not a pattern of gradually evolving improvement. It's a series of long, fallow patches punctuated by moments of crucial change How you handle the fallow stretches doesn't matter much. How you handle the moments of change is vital....

Well-kept data.(database management)
March 1, 2007... Companies need to retain ever more information, but too many bosses still regard storing it as the IT department's problem. Ron Condon lists 10 good reasons why managers should take more of an interest in what material is held, and by whom. ...

Table Talk: Where Sir John Tusa eats..(The Camden Brasserie)(Restaurant review)
March 1, 2007... I've been going to the Camden Brasserie for 20 years or more. I've now passed it on to my sons, who have become regular users themselves That's what happens when you deliver quality. My younger son uses it a lot for meetings. It's not a...

On the Road.("Volvo S80 D5 SE")(Product/service evaluation)
March 1, 2007... Protective highlights of the new Volvo S80 include a collision-avoidance device and a blind-spot system. A 'Personal Safety Communicator' sounds like a device for the paranoid, but it's a thoughtful optional extra from safety obsessives...

What's your problem?(organizational behvaior)
March 1, 2007... Q: I have a member on my team who is displaying erratic behaviour She has specialist skills and her technical ability can't be faulted. However, at the same time, she regularly regales other team members with stories about bizarre dates and...

First-class coach.(career chaning)
March 1, 2007... Q: I've been working in the same field for many years but have decided that I really don't enjoy my work. I'd like to do something completely different, but I'm not sure, practically, how to go about doing it. A: Changing your career can...

The Sharp End: A life on the open road.(highway driving)
March 1, 2007... The modern navvy's lot is tough but better paid than Rhymer Rigby expected. Roadmenders like to hit the road early: 7-7.30am is the normal start time. This is probably quite pleasant on a warm summer's day, but on a freezing cold February...