Management Today articles from November 2007

Management Today archives from November 2007

Editorial: Why trust is not a soft issue.(trust in business)(Editorial)(Brief article)
November 1, 2007... Who do you trust? The government? Marmite? Michael Fish? Persil? George Bush? Your spouse? Northern Rock? Radiohead? The weather? Innocent? Your kids? Tesco? MT? - we hope so. This is not a frivolous question. The issue of trust in business...

Contributors.
November 1, 2007... DEANNE JULIUS - Chatham House's chairman was a founder member of the Monetary Policy Committee at the Bank of England, as well as a senior economic adviser at the World Bank. And she's a dual US/UK citizen: just the credentials to review the...

Chartered Management Institute: In my Opinion.(labor relations and management)
November 1, 2007... Chartered Management Institute Companion Des Benjamin urges leaders to take action to sustain health and wellbeing in the workplace. We're seeing a few chickens coming home to roost in 2007. It's to do with the quality of our working lives....

The MT Diary.(Alan Greenspan)
November 1, 2007... Greenspan at the LSE; even Texas cools to George W; New Yorkers weep at RSC's Lear. The Browns really pushed the boat out for Alan Greenspan when he came to London to promote his new book, The Age of Turbulence (see review, p33). Breakfast...

Ten ways to... Spot unhappy staff.(employee attitudes)(List)
November 1, 2007... 1. They arrive just in time for elevenses 2. They're aloof 3. It's six months since their last idea 4. They keep ducking out with their mobile 5. Doctor's appointments are on the up 6. There's an interview suit in the cupboard 7....

It'll Never Fly: City Rickshaws.(an alternative mode of transportation)(Brief article)
November 1, 2007... As a mode of urban transport, the rickshaw is an odd choice. In heavy traffic, these flimsy tricycles expose their passengers to noxious fumes and the threat of death by motorised wheel - with all views blocked by the rider and their heaving...

Dave's Eco-nomics: Drink from the well.(usage of tap water)
November 1, 2007... GREEN ALERT - Mains water used to be perfectly socially acceptable to drink - if you ignored the rumour that, in our major cities, your supply will have passed through several others en route to your tap. Nowadays, it's all about splashing out...

Earning Curve: Wine.(Brief article)
November 1, 2007... Bordeaux wine region, turnover ('05) pounds 2.18bn LVMH champagne and wine sales, first-half 2007 pounds 444m Languedoc Roussillon vineyard, starting price pounds 1.36m Top London sommelier, per year pounds 32k 'Undrinkable' bottle of...

Workplace Rights: Wager Slaves.(employee's discipline due to online gambling)(Brief article)
November 1, 2007... Statistics from the Gambling Commission suggest that as many as 378,000 people in Britain are hooked on gambling, with nearly one in 10 online gamblers having an addiction problem. Lifting restrictions on TV and radio gambling ads is likely to...

History Lessons: Walk The Talk - Anita Roddick.(business ethics)(Brief article)
November 1, 2007... When Anita Roddick founded Body Shop in 1976, ethics was something to trouble philosophy students, not bosses of big business. Thirty years on, however, the corporate world has caught on: ethics sells. Tesco, Asda, Arcadia and M&S are among...

Your Route to the Top: Winging it.(The Mind Gym: Give me time)(Excerpt)(Brief article)
November 1, 2007... Begin with a bang. Establish credibility with a compelling hook - say, a fascinating fact or an engaging example. No need to be an expert on everything, but know one thing well. Follow the leader. When put on the spot, listen and gauge what...

Why Business is like... birds and worms.(business management)(Brief article)
November 1, 2007... 'The early bird catches the worm': a proverb extolling the virtues of getting up and out there promptly in order to claim the prize. It's easy to see how it relates to business, where companies have to exploit any advantage in order to snap up...

Do it Right: Your next AGM.(annual general meeting)(Brief article)
November 1, 2007... Plan. Talk to your board beforehand and allocate areas of expertise for the Q&A session. Don't let your resident limelight-stealer poach questions. Work the floor. Get your corporate communications team out there. Have them talk to the...

Slogan Doctor: Zurich - 'because change happenz'.(insurance company's advertisement slogan)(Brief article)
November 1, 2007... Insurance firms are in a difficult position. They know they are there for the bad things in life, but if they're too explicit about those they are likely to frighten us away. 'Because change happenz', a slogan developed with ad agency Publicis...

How does he manage? Ethical shoemaker - Galahad Clark, Terra Plana.(Interview)(Brief article)
November 1, 2007... WHEN DID YOU BECOME A MANAGER? - Five years ago, I was working in China for a firm developing businesses in the west of the country when my mother became ill. I came back to be with her. I'm a shoemaker at heart - the seventh generation of...

Are you suffering from: Wealth Fatigue Syndrome.(Brief article)
November 1, 2007... The Aston Martin has a six-month waiting list, so you sign up and pay out only to find that after three weeks of ownership, the engine makes too much noise and the new Audi looks better. Making money is never dull, but the spending of it gets...

Remember This.(quotation friom Andrew Carnegie and Moliere)(Quotation)(Brief article)
November 1, 2007... 'Debts are like children, begot with pleasure but brought forth with pain' - Moliere said it 'He who dies rich dies a disgrace' - Andrew Carnegie said it

Words-worth: Traffic.(Brief article)
November 1, 2007... With the internet booming again, many of us ask searching questions about 'click-throughs', 'page impressions' and, most of all, 'traffic' The word is first recorded in the languages of the Mediterranean, as early as the 1300s, as a term for...

Stat of the month: Categorical comeback - 1,778 - Number of pages in the Argos catalogue.(Brief article)
November 1, 2007... Argos' new catalogue, its 68th, is 1,170 pages longer than Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - and almost as adored by the middle classes. The Telegraph recently recommended catalogue sources of 'chic gardening gear' and 'mediaeval and...

How she made her pile: Sharon Osbourne - Self-styled 'housewife superstar'.(Brief article)
November 1, 2007... Who is she? Wife of shuffling rock star Ozzie, mother of three, and a judge on ITV's 'talent' show, X Factor. Her website unblushingly calls her 'possibly the most successful businesswoman the entertainment world has ever fostered'. How...

Christopher Ondaatje: If I had to start again..(the spirit of entrepreneurship)(Brief article)
November 1, 2007... Before I left the world of finance, I'd have said I should have been an explorer. In 1972 I read a book on Victorian adventurer Sir Richard Burton and realised that this was the life for me. Instead of hacking through the jungles of finance, I...

Crash Course in... boosting productivity.
November 1, 2007... You've visited one of your rivals and been astonished to find that they're taking the same market share as you with half the people. It's time to take a look at your productivity. Define it. Your productivity is the ratio of your inputs to...

Masterclass: 'First 100 days' plans.(Brief article)
November 1, 2007... What are they? New hires and the newly promoted often find themselves being judged after the apparently arbitrary deadline of 100 days. The figure has a plausible roundness to it, hinting at something significant. You might feel that business...

Decisions: Nick Newbury - Original Travel, Co-founder of the 'big short break' travel company.(Brief article)
November 1, 2007... MY BEST... We started trading in 2003, so the war in Iraq was going on and the global financial markets were taking a turn for the worse. We pumped all our start-up capital, which was just personal savings, into creating the brand. We...

Behind the spin: Krispy Kreme.
November 1, 2007... THE DILEMMA The iconic American creator of such doughnuts as the New York Cheesecake, the Caramel Kreme Crunch or the paradoxically named Doughnut Hole is in a sticky predicament. Founded in 1937 in North Carolina, Krispy Kreme reached a...

Merv the Swerve skids.(Mervyn King)
November 1, 2007... In propping up Northern Rock, the governor of the Bank of England is tacitly condoning casino capitalism - with public money as the stake. A decade ago, I wrote a column calling for the installation of the Bank of England's chief economist...

Books: US's great interventionist.(The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a new world)(Book review)
November 1, 2007... Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan stayed on top for so long thanks to his activist approach and wide contacts. DeAnne Julius reviews a crisp autobiography. Review by DeAnne Julius. Alan Greenspan's autobiography is a 'three for the...

Books: Be a management innovator.(The Future of Management)(Book review)
November 1, 2007... Gary Hamel's agenda for improving the way companies are run is ambitious, but the underlying logic demands to be taken seriously, argues Julian Birkinshaw. The Future of Management; Gary Hamel; Harvard Business School Press pounds 15.99....

Books: Pearls of hard-won wisdom.(Gerald Ratner: The rise and fall... and rise again)(Book review)
November 1, 2007... Gerald Ratner's 'crap' speech cost him his family business, but he bounced back, still not sure what he did wrong. Chris Salt reviews a life story with real lessons. Gerald Ratner: The rise and fall... and rise again; Gerald Ratner;...

Books: Quiver of tricks for winning customers.(Yes! 50 secrets from the science of persuasion)(Book review)
November 1, 2007... Familiar and new tales on the art of persuasion are sharpened for business relevance. Octavius Black salutes a punchy read. Yes! 50 secrets from the science of persuasion; NJ Goldstein, S Martin and RB Cialdini; Profile Books pounds 8.99....

Books: Three of a kind - Presenting... a more confident you.(Brilliant Presentation, The Confident Speaker, Presentations That Change Minds)(Brief article)
November 1, 2007... Brilliant Presentation Richard Hall Prentice Hall pounds 9.99 - Best of its kind The Confident Speaker Harrison Monarth and Larina Kase McGraw-Hill pounds 10.99 Could be useful Presentations That Change Minds...

The MT Interview: Carolyn McCall.(Interview)
November 1, 2007... One of the toughest operators to have risen through the Guardian Media Group's ranks, her role as CEO is to shore up its national newspapers as it pushes deeper into online media and broadcasting. But what's it like working with an all-powerful...

A Question of trust.(customer relations of multinational corporations)
November 1, 2007... As commerce globalises, the personal relationship between business and consumer is lost. But for any firm, intimacy - real or false - sells. How does a distant corporation become a friend? And should it? Emma De Vita reports. The cat at...

The Problem with size.
November 1, 2007... In big companies, bureaucratic inertia and loss of clarity start to outweigh advantages such as sheer purchasing muscle. David Sadtler points out the elephant in the room. Does corporate size necessarily confer an advantage in business?...

Doing good do it right.(corporate social responsibility)
November 1, 2007... You're keen to implement CSR, but it's a demanding exercise to establish a sound and effective policy that percolates through the entire organisation and shapes everything it does. Mark Vernon and Craig Mackenzie offer 20 top tips to put you on...

Britain's most admired companies.(Brief article)
November 1, 2007... The winners of the 2007 Britain's Most Admired Companies awards will be revealed exclusively in December's MT. Which company and leader will win the acclaim of their peer group in these prestigious corporate awards? The top contenders are...

Motor Mouth.(Peugeot 207 GTi)(Product/service evaluation)
November 1, 2007... Green the Peugeot 207 GTi ain't, but this hot hatch wears its boy-racer credentials with subtlety. Sathnam Sanghera reports. Insincerity is an inevitable part of the management game. It's impossible to like everyone you work with and for....

Table Talk: Where Guy Farrant eats..(Le Caprice)(Restaurant review)(Brief article)
November 1, 2007... I used to be head of food at M&S, and business dinners have always helped me to keep up with emerging restaurants. I'd often choose ones that were 'on trend', so that I could see what the latest restaurant fashions were, and use those to point...

What's your problem?(problems in business partners)
November 1, 2007... Q: I am a director sharing a small business 50/50. Times have changed over the years, and I have developed skills to remain productive. Unfortunately, my business partner seems stuck in a rut and unable to apply himself. He is also spending...

What's your problem?(employee dismissal due to behavior)
November 1, 2007... Q: I was fired from my last job at a legal firm for sending an e-mail about my stag weekend to my e-mail address book, some of whom were clients. The story got some local press and I'm finding it quite difficult to explain away the situation in...

First-Class Coach.(employee attitudes)
November 1, 2007... Q: Up to now, I've always agreed to do everything I'm asked to do by senior managers and colleagues, so I end up taking on a lot of extra work and pressure. I get praise for doing it, but I'm wondering whether my inability to say no is holding...

Wealth Management: Pickings get richer.
November 1, 2007... Banks and financial consultants, from the venerable to the brash, are queuing up to handle the cash and investments of a burgeoning elite - those ultra-wealthy citizens at the apex of the economy. David Bain reports. If the 10 years of the...

Wealth Management: How They Spend it.(financial management of rich people)
November 1, 2007... What do the seriously wealthy spend their cash on, and who do they trust for advice? Tara Craig asked four of MT's Top 100 Entrepreneurs to reveal their attitude to money and what use they put it to. CHEY GARLAND Garland, 50, started...

Wealth Management: Ultimate toys.(leisure class' hobbies and recreation)
November 1, 2007... Not everyone in the upper strata of the super-rich consumes conspicuously, but for those who do there are a million ways to spend their hard-won megabucks. So let's narrow it down. Here are three ideas for really splashing out. Each brings a...

The Sharp End: Handing out bouquets.(office decorations)
November 1, 2007... This month, MT's roving reporter Rhymer Rigby is planted in the cut flower trade. Have you ever wondered how those cute flower displays in corporate receptions get there? No, neither had I. But it's always fun to find out what lies beneath...

Accelerator: Editorial - Squeezing value, getting a result.(Editorial)
November 1, 2007... So, here we are with accelerator3. We've had some really encouraging feedback from you all for the first two, so we're staying with the same formula. The idea is that accelerator works for you as a practical guide to business success - take...

Accelerator: Just Do It - Stick with your big idea.(business management )(Column)
November 1, 2007... I strayed from the path of commercial virtue, admits Leon Restaurants' co-founder John Vincent. Writing this column is the closest I've ever come to attending confession. Forgive me, fellow entrepreneurs, I have been a bad businessman....

Accelerator Survey: A downturn in the air?(entrepreneurs)(Brief article)
November 1, 2007... This latest poll of our accelerator advisory panel reveals that you entrepreneurs are a pretty fulfilled lot - the vast majority of you love running your own show and are committed for the long term. But there are some signs of trouble brewing:...

Accelerator: Vox populi.(threats and opportunities in business)(Brief article)
November 1, 2007... We asked: 'What will be the biggest opportunity for your business in the next quarter?' You said: 'A dedicated US sales director in New York City. There's no substitute for face-time with US retailers' 'Re-launching with a new and...

Accelerator: Tools of the trade - Safe and sound.(Buyers guide)
November 1, 2007... Security is a perennial hot topic in business, but for SMEs it can be hard to sort the wheat from the chaff, especially when it comes to protecting your digital assets. But important though IT security is, you can't ignore the dangers of plain...

Accelerator: Keep it Legal - Don't take it personally.(legal liability in business)
November 1, 2007... Avoiding individual liability should be a key concern for company directors, advises Tessa Briggs. First, the good news. Directors of limited liability companies are not generally liable to third parties unless they have given a specific...

Accelerator: Q&A - Simon Nixon, Founder of moneysupermarket.com and accelerator editorial board member.(Interview)(Brief article)
November 1, 2007... WHY DID YOU SET UP YOUR OWN BUSINESS? I can't be good at things I don't believe in, and I like control over my own destiny. After dropping out of university, I started selling mortgages, and found there was no tool to help brokers find the...

Accelerator: People - The gentle art of letting people go.(Employment terminations)
November 1, 2007... The days when you could slap a P45 into the hand of an offending employee are long gone. You must adhere to strict procedures when dismissing someone, or risk a summons to appear before an employment tribunal. Alexander Garrett helps you...

Accelerator: Take Charge - 20 Leadership Tips.
November 1, 2007... When you're busy at the helm of a small business, it's easy to forget that as well as just running it, you need to lead it too. Not only will a good leader inspire and motivate employees to give of their best, he or she will keep a firm hand on...

Accelerator: Marketing - Your first ad campaign.
November 1, 2007... Are you ready to meet the demand for your products that advertising could create for you? First, identify your most likely users, figure out the best channels to reach them - TV, press, internet? -and allocate your budget. Alexander Garrett...

Accelerator: Finance - Squeeze more from your bank.(small business banking)
November 1, 2007... However else you describe the relationship between your business and your bank, you cannot call it under-researched. Small-business banking was the subject of the Cruickshank Review of 2000, then of recommendations by the Competition Commission...

Accelerator: Technology - Big IT on a small budget.(information technology on small business)
November 1, 2007... Professional help in planning and maintaining your data-handling and communications systems will ensure your team works smarter, says Ron Condon. Technology can be so appealing for smaller businesses. It offers the tools they need to do...

Accelerator: From little acorns.(Dixon Group PLC's Stanley Kalms)
November 1, 2007... Stanley Kalms turned an ailing photographic studio into Dixons, the mighty consumer electronics chain. Dave Waller reports. In 1937, Charles Kalms flicked through the phone book in search of a name for his new photographic studio. He...

Accelerator: Red tape bonfire.(Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order)
November 1, 2007... The new fire regulations - The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order, which came into effect in October 2006, changed the nature of fire safety law. The new regulations put the emphasis on preventing fires and reducing risk and make it the...

Accelerator: I wish I'd known... How to sell my business.(the right way of business selling)
November 1, 2007... When you've decided to cash in, you need to manage your own unreasonable expectations, says Nick Hood. So the time has come. You've built a great business and you've got your head round the idea of parting with your creation. Now for the...