Have you ever been on a ‘Finance for non-financial managers’ course? Did it not strike you as an odd concept? Who do they mean? Which managers are ‘non-financial’ and should there not also be a counter-balancing course for finance people: offering some broader yin to their narrow yang? According to Insead (“the business school for […]
It is amazing what a skilled maturity analyst can learn about any large organization’s systems from their calling cards. E-on, my gas and electricity supplier, still employs two meter readers to visit my property even though I have been happily submitting my own meter readings online for some time. In the picture on the left […]
Yesterday two NHS nurses were struck off the UK nursing register for bringing their profession into serious disrepute. One of the features of this case was the falsifying of records so that ‘performance targets’ could be met. The NHS has been trying to copy ‘lean’ for some years (as has every manufacturing business in the […]
‘Beyond the corporation – Humanity Working’ (Bodley Head 2011) by David Erdal is written so lucidly and with such passionate argument that it should leave you in a state of euphoria if you share his ideals. This will not be your typical short-lived, feelgood-factor though; it offers a deep-rooted yet heightened sense of awareness and […]
In the last few weeks, I have been reminded several times of how an organization needs to be a whole and truly interconnected system, and particularly how leadership relates and integrates through to the rest of an organization. Firstly, a new report by the Institute for Leadership & Management describes the importance of ethical leadership […]
How long does it take for mature thinking in HR to take hold? Let’s consider this question in relation to how the problematic topic of performance management has fared over the last 20 years or so. Back in 2000, I wrote in my book “Measuring and managing employee performance” (Financial Times Executive Briefings series) – […]
One unintended joke, often heard during the total quality ‘revolution’ of the 1980’s/90’s, was the statement – ‘Oh yeh, we did TQM some years ago’. Another was the widespread belief that a revolution in management culture had actually taken place. Manufacturers flocked to Toyota, to find out their secret recipe, and were made very welcome, […]
The Puritan Gift – Reclaiming the American Dream Amidst Global Financial Chaos – Kenneth Hopper & William Hopper, 2010 (I.B.Taurus) An investigative, business journalist calls me for an interview. He is in the closing stages of writing his “definitive” account of the downfall of the Royal Bank of Scotland. The last stone he wants to turn […]
Having worked with a number of large global pharmaceutical (or ‘life science’) organisations, one of the issues raised consistently with me over the last few years has been how to deal with the lack of new medicines coming through their ‘pipelines’, and what these firms should do to get research & development teams to be […]
Are you Linkedin? Would linking-in to a Linkedin HR group make you a better HR professional? Peer pressure can be insidious and when Linkedin first appeared on the scene I was not sure whether I wanted any part of it. All of a sudden I was being forced to decide whether to connect with someone […]