Management Today articles from May 2004

Management Today archives from May 2004

Contributors.
May 1, 2004... HELEN KIRWAN-TAYLOR - American journalist and MT regular Kirwan-Taylor sympathises with her 'Work with Meaning' interviewees: 'Many people find themselves trapped by a decision they never meant to make.' She is currently writing her first book...

Journey Towards Fulfilment.
May 1, 2004... High job expectations can lead to disillusion and disappointment - the meaning gap. To be poor is a bad thing, but to be born into big money can be a curse too. Whatever the offspring of the seriously rich do, they cannot win. If they toe...

In my opinion - Chartered Management Institute.
May 1, 2004... Chartered Management Institute companion Chris Lendrum, vice-chairman of Barclays Bank, offers a checklist for managing change effectively. I have been with the Barclays Group for more than 35 years, and during this time the business has...

The MT Diary.
May 1, 2004... Our man takes a spring trip around Asia, where sport is a bizarre barometer of change. Spring is in the air. Lambs gambol, daffodils bloom. In Covent Garden, midriffs reappear. So a university director's thoughts naturally turn to...

Brainfood: Ten ways to ... manage success.
May 1, 2004... Take time to enjoy it Understand how you succeeded Don't get complacent Look out for new threats Think about the succession Help other people to succeed Catch up with your paperwork Share the fruits with all who grew it Indulge...

Brainfood: It'll never fly - Rollercoasters.
May 1, 2004... As humans, we're conditioned to avoid life-threatening situations. 'Run like hell,' screams every cell in your body when you are faced with a physically precarious predicament. Either that or stand still and square up to the threat. This...

Brainfood: Unlikely Managers.(Interview)
May 1, 2004... Lead scientist, Beagle 2 Prof Colin Pillinger, head of planetary and space sciences, The Open University. When did you become a manager? I've been a professor since 1990 and I've headed teams since I was 35. By 1971, I was in a science...

Brainfood: Earning Curve - Modelling.
May 1, 2004... Claudia Schiffer and family, estimated worth pounds 39m Elizabeth Jagger, a Lancome 'face', contract pounds 1.5m Head model booker, London agency, average, p.a. pounds 50k Supermodel, Storm Models, per day, from pounds 25k Catwalk model,...

Brainfood: Workplace Rights - A temporary fix.
May 1, 2004... The growth of temporary agency work in recent years has been exponential. Following a 250% increase between 1992 and 2001, the UK now employs more than half of all temps working in Europe. Not before time, a major overhaul of the law...

Brainfood: Look after the pennies - Personal hang-ups.(HSBC Bank PLC)
May 1, 2004... British bank HSBC hit the headlines last year for the wrong reasons when it ordered head office employees to pay for personal phone calls. Branded penny-pinching by staff and unions, this unwise drive for cost efficiency came at the expense of...

Brainfood: Your route to the top - Handling altercations.
May 1, 2004... Allow each person to talk for five minutes without being interrupted. That way, everyone gets to vent their views and make their case. Listen sensitively but dispassionately. If you are going to diffuse the situation, you must be seen to...

Brainfood: Words-Worth - Focus.
May 1, 2004... As the picture ahead becomes more blurred, you may feel the need to adjust your 'focus'. But be careful you don't get burned, because - as the dwindling population of Latinists can tell you - the word really means 'fireplace'. But a...

Brainfood: We'd love that job - Professional golfer.(Interview)
May 1, 2004... David Rennie, club professional, Wentworth Club What do you do? I have to be a master of everything. I'm supposed to play like Tiger Woods, and if on the way round the course, the captain's club breaks, I'm supposed to fix it as we...

Brainfood: Are you suffering from ... Approval addiction.
May 1, 2004... Do you find that making the slightest decision involves the equivalent of a MORI poll? Does everyone in the office get involved in where you plan to spend the weekend? Approval Addicts have an uncanny way of making others do all the deciding...

Brainfood: Remember this.
May 1, 2004... 'Price is what you pay. Value is what you get' - Warren Buffet said it 'The higher the monkey climbs, the more you see his ass' - Henry Mintzberg said it.

Brainfood: Speaking out - Laurel Powers-Freeling, CEO, Marks & Spencer Financial Services.
May 1, 2004... A US accent always perks up an audience, especially one from the financial services industry. Those with an American twang are seen as being imbued with business savvy and financial probity, as surveys by my own company show. So Laurel...

Brainfood: How to get ahead in - Corporate Law.
May 1, 2004... 1. Achieving consistently high academic standards is a prerequisite to joining the Magic Circle of top corporate law firms: Allen & Overy, Clifford Chance, Linklaters and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer. 2. Apply early for work placements in...

Brainfood: The Slogan Doctor - Stella Artois: Reassuringly expensive.
May 1, 2004... These two words turned an obscure Belgian lager into one of the UK's biggest booze brands - with annual sales of about pounds 33.7 million - and spawned a barrel full of 'premium' imitators. All by making a virtue out of necessity. At 5%...

Brainfood: How he made his pile - Sir Kenneth Morrison, Executive chairman, William Morrison Supermarkets.
May 1, 2004... Who is he? Sir Ken's recent pounds 2.9 billion acquisition of Safeway made the Bradford-based retailer head of Britain's fourth-largest supermarket chain. He and his family are worth pounds 1.25 billion. How did he make his millions?...

Brainfood: Us and Them - Russia.
May 1, 2004... Geographically the largest country in the world, at 17.1 million square kilometres, Russia will become an economic giant too - Goldman Sachs estimates that its economy will overtake the UK's in 2027 and in terms of income per head catch up with...

Brainfood: Origins of GDP.(gross domestic product)
May 1, 2004... According to the World Bank, 36 million Russians live below its poverty line, yet the country has a literacy rate higher than that of the UK. Mobile phone subscribers in Russia total 3.8 per 100 people, compared with 78.3 over here. There are...

Brainfood: Crash course in ... Handling drink and drugs abuse.
May 1, 2004... A client says one of your employees always seems to be drunk on the job. The sales department is permanently half-skinned, and a cleaner has found a line of white powder in the directors' loos. Are alcohol and substance abuse damaging your...

Brainfood: Decisions - Sean Phelan, Multimap founder and chairman of the internet-based map provider.(Interview)
May 1, 2004... MY BEST... In the days of the internet boom, all the gurus and suits were trying to encourage us to throw our resources into our public Multimap website - the business-to-consumer (B2C) side of our business. When the bubble burst in 2000,...

Brainfood: Behind the spin - MG Rover.
May 1, 2004... THE DILEMMA Britain's last independent volume car-maker just can't seem to shake off controversy or slumping sales - in March, the start of the 2004 registration, sales slid 14%. The four directors of MG Rover's parent, Phoenix Venture...

Brainfood: MT Masterclass.
May 1, 2004... EMPOWERMENT What is it? Henry Ford pointed out that with workers, you get a free brain with every pair of hands. Management have long been aware that they were not getting all their staff to perform to their potential. How to improve? Why...

Pot calling kettle black.
May 1, 2004... When the big corporate bosses met their investors over lunch, they turned the tables. The communique issued after company chiefs and investment managers shared a meal at the RAC Club recently declared the meeting 'constructive and...

Cry freedom, cry wolf.
May 1, 2004... Whistleblowers rightly enjoy legal shelter, but there are dangers in openness too. A British train operating company has discovered a way to make its trains run on time: blow the whistle. Staff have been issued with ultra-loud and...

Techno life.(Sinclair Stockman, British Telecommunications PLC)
May 1, 2004... Dr Sinclair Stockman, chief information officer of BT, owns at least five PCs, but hates cables. Irish-born, he spends the week working in London before boarding Eurostar to head home to his wife and family in Paris at the weekend. Little...

Books: The perfect antidote to fear and loathing in the office.(Trust Matters)(Book Review)
May 1, 2004... Trust is a black and white issue in commerce. But although this book reminds us of bedrock values, its message is awkwardly delivered, reports Derek Higgs. Trust Matters; By Sally Bibb and Jeremy Kourdi; Palgrave Macmillan, pounds 25; MT...

Books: On the bedside table of Bill Archer.(Brief Article)
May 1, 2004... 'I love to read, it's a way to let my mind relax. I'm currently reading The Murder Room by PD James. I'm a big fan of mysteries, British novelists and of sophisticated and involved storylines, of which this is a great example. I've read...

Books: An education too narrow.(Managers not MBAs)(Book Review)
May 1, 2004... This book pleads for management focus at business school. Chris Brady is all ears Managers not MBAs; By Henry Mintzberg; FT Prentice Hall pounds 24.99; MT price pounds 22.99 (see panel, p36) To begin, I should mention some relevant...

Books: The book that shook Richard Brown.(The National Dream)(The Last Spike)(Brief Article)(Book Review)
May 1, 2004... Two books that have had a major impact on me are The National Dream and The Last Spike, both by Pierre Berton, which together tell the story of the building of the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) across Canada They provide deep insight, highly...

Books: Three of a kind - Off you go, you need a change.(Taking a Career Break)(Planning Your Gap Year)(The Virgin Travellers' Handbook)(Brief Article)(Book Review)
May 1, 2004... Taking a Career Break; Joshua White; Vacation Work Publications pounds 11.95 Plenty on volunteering, travelling and working abroad, but also advice for those who want to return to education, travel with their family or spend time in a...

Books: A bank under siege.(Unpopular Culture)(Book Review)
May 1, 2004... The story of how a failing institution retreated into itself has important messages for management, says Bryan Sanderson. Unpopular Culture; By John Weeks; University of Chicago Press pounds 13.50; MT price pounds 11.50 (see panel) ...

The MT interview: Mark Getty.(Interview)
May 1, 2004... Heirs to fortunes rarely manage to increase the family wealth, and in the case of the Getty family some of those heirs have done their best to dissipate that fortune - with one exception. Mark Getty has not only proved himself, but has put the...

Work with Meaning.
May 1, 2004... Searching for a purpose in life is nothing new, but more and more of us are looking for a meaningful life at work. Rebecca Hoar finds out whether employers are really to blame for that Monday-to-Friday malaise. Case studies by Helen...

The Go-between.
May 1, 2004... In a world of spiralling legal costs, mediation has become a working alternative for resolving commercial disputes. Alexander Garrett explains the advantages. Quintin Cornforth's first direct experience of mediation came almost three years...

Pharma families.
May 1, 2004... Britain's pharmaceutical distribution industry has become the stamping ground of half a dozen Asian entrepreneurs whose families were expelled from East Africa 35 years ago. It's a story of enterprise overcoming adversity. Nils Pratley examines...

Pixar: To infinity and beyond.
May 1, 2004... The highly successful animation studio has fallen out big-time with its partner Disney. But would the House of Mouse dare to go it alone and bring back Buzz Lightyear in Toy Story 3 without the creative genius of Emeryville? Mark Lasswell...

MT Survey of surveys: Private banking.
May 1, 2004... As the numbers of the extremely wealthy have swelled worldwide, so has the business of the private banks. Transparency is hard to achieve here, but banking secrecy is not what it was. David Bain reports. A part of the financial services...

MT Business Travel: Room Service - Where Sir Richard Carew Pole stays ..
May 1, 2004... FOR BUSINESS - I do a lot of business in Cornwall, and I particularly like the Abbey Hotel in Penzance. It's quiet and secluded, and everything is done to a high standard. It has a country house atmosphere, with a lovely sitting room and views...

MT Business Travel: On the road.(Bentley Continental GT )
May 1, 2004... The Bentley Continental GT's styling, rich interior and British exclusivity make it hard to resist. The Bentley Continental GT isn't just another car - it's a door onto another world. This most handsome, elegant and athletic-looking of...

MT Business Travel: Frequent Flyer - Chris Pinnington's guide to Paris.
May 1, 2004... HOW TO GET THERE - Even with the dawn of Eurostar, I prefer to fly with BA from Heathrow to Charles de Gaulle. It's slightly faster and normally on time, and you can enjoy a drink and arrive with more time to spend in the city. AIRPORT TO...

What's your problem?
May 1, 2004... Q: I was promoted to spares manager in my engineering job, and the spares business performance improved. The company was then restructured and my role abolished, and I was moved elsewhere. The job is now being reintroduced, but they have...

MT Business Lifeforms: The Toxic Director.(Claire Franck, Bourne Communications)
May 1, 2004... CLAIRE FRANCK, chief executive of Bourne Communications Break out the options! Claire Franck has been appointed CEO of Bourne Communications. Wafting into the firm's Holborn HQ on a wave of glitz and well-connected glamour, she takes over...

First-Class Coach.
May 1, 2004... Q: My boss has suggested I try for promotion to a senior job that's going here. I'm not sure I'm ready for it, especially as I would be the first woman in the company at that level. A: 'Ready'. It's an interesting concept. Most often, it's...