Summary Management consultant Bob Garratt told us that he wrote his latest book as ‘a counterblast to myopic thinking’ among senior managers in the quest for company efficiency. Garratt shifts the focus away from the current vogue for downsizing and cost cutting, towards a value-system that preserves and encourages employees at all levels. Get employees doing
Summary In 1979 journalist Keith Waterhouse was commissioned by his editor at UK national tabloid the Daily Mirror to write an instruction manual for the newspaper’s new recruits. The result was a booklet that became an instant success, with half the hacks in Fleet Street trying to beg, borrow or photocopy what had started as
Summary Jack Welch Speaks is precisely what its title suggests: a collection of quotations from the chairman of General Electric Corporation (GE), one of the biggest companies in the world. These quotations are arranged by subject and deal partly with his own life, but mainly with his competitive, ruthless style of management, making it a
Summary Goffee and Jones – the BBC director of human resources – reject the assumption of some business books that the character of a corporation is a uniform, single concept. They see it as complex and multiple-faceted. Every firm is composed of several cultures, they explain. These are fluid, liable to change, and are sometimes
In the fictitious advertising agency Miller Shanks nothing ever seems to go to plan. When The Sun picks up a story that Gloria Hunniford has been groped by a client on an film shoot in Mauritius and PAs are making mock suicide attempts back at the office in London you might be tempted to think
Summary When Giants Learn to Dance sets out to show how truly innovative organizations are winning in the business world, pitting the bureaucratic management of corporate America against the post-entrepreneurial organization.
Summary Tom Peters’ 1994 book, The Pursuit of Wow!, is very much a product of its time, geared towards the contemporary and future marketplace and concentrating its energies upon the Internet, the open-plan office and the happy workforce.
What is it that causes the mighty to fall? Why do so many of the ultra successful perish as a result of their own misjudgment? We take a look at some of the sufferers of this phenomenon of success You will not be surprised to hear that Sigmund Freud had a theory about this. In
Entrepreneur: in the last 12 months that word has taken a bit of a battering. It is a word seldom seen without the prefix ‘dotcom’, and automatically brings to mind the champagne-toting, get-rich-quick schemes of Boo and its confrères. ‘I saw an article in the Evening Standard the other day, saying the demise of the
Redundancy is becoming much more prevalent in the working society and it is now more likely that you will be the victim of a round of redundancies in your working life. But how you deal with a redundancy is extremely important; it can provide a wonderful opportunity or it could be devastating.
After a two year blip, the seething capitalist haven of Hong Kong is back to its booming ways again. And that means job opportunities and money to be made, as Richard Willsher reports from the Asian business hub The Special Administrative Region of Hong Kong, as it was renamed after the 1997 handover from the
Adeline Iziren takes you straight to the top Is your dream to reach the top of your profession? Do you sometimes sit at your desk and visualise what it would be like to do your boss’s job or – even become CEO of a major company? Whether you want to make it to the top
If you work anywhere other than a convent, there’s likely to be a mild element of flirting somewhere in your office. While a bit of banter lightens the mundane and fuels esprit de corps, overdoing it can be as annoying as it is embarrassing. Now that the office has become an increasingly legislative area, a
The concept of bullying at work is usually subject to two equally fallacious extremes. The first seems to exist solely on the internet where self-help sites proliferate, spreading the bullying gospel and painting gloomy pictures of the extent of workplace victimisation. One website even goes so far as to claim that one in thirty people
So you’ve accidentally put salt in the client’s coffee. Or you’ve pressed the ‘delete everything’ button on your PC. In the words of the late, lamented Douglas Adams, Don’t Panic! Handling mistakes is as important an aspect of work experience as any. ‘Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new’, Albert
Men and women now have equal rights in the workplace. But some, says Emma John, are still more equal than others An overwhelming 93% of employers are confident they offer women fair, unbiased pay systems, according to a new survey. Yet the poll, by the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC), is only one of a number
Want a super relationship with your boss? Then learn how to manage them properly, says award-winning writer Adeline Iziren Helen Sears has a great relationship with her boss Graham Lancaster. Key to its success is Helen’s ability to manage Graham. No, she doesn’t order him about, but rather than passively responding to his demands, she
Get the Most Out of Your Employees Without Breaking the Bank Money Isn’t Everything Many employers lose good employees, thinking a pay raise or bonus will keep them going. Of course, money is always a solid motivator, as is a strong compensation plan, but a bigger paycheck is not always the better answer. Gas,
