Toby Watson left Oxford University, where he was a blue in rugby, to balance playing professional rugby for London Scottish, while holding down a full-time job at Deutsche Bank. He was recently headhunted from there by global investment bank Goldman Sachs. We interviewed him about his recent move and how to succeed at the highest level
Richard Parker, 21, is a trainee at KPMG having joined straight from Cambridge University, and has now been working there four months
Merrill Lynch Investment Managers is one of the world’s largest asset managers, with $525bn of assets under investment. We talk to Karen Hoggard, head of human resources about this unique working environment and get some invaluable advice for graduate applicants
James Davis, 22, is an assistant portfolio manager at Dresdner Kleinwort Benson. He assists in the management of private money in the private investment bank What is your role within the organisation? I help a manager and team with the investment process within the company as a whole and help deal with clients. How did
Pauline Leonard, 25, is an associate at the FSA. She has an MA in management studies from Glasgow University and began the FSA graduate training course five months ago
Summary The core theme of this book is Goldratt’s Theory of Constraints, otherwise referred to as TOC. Goldratt argues that manufacturing has for too long focused on producing, ignoring what is demanded by the market place, i.e. demand and capacity. Goldratt believes that one should balance flow through a system to meet the demand of
Thirty goals in 63 international matches for England, a remarkable average of more than 20 goals a season in the Premier League and a league championship medal for unfashionable Blackburn Rovers – you’ve definitely done well for yourself. But could you do better? Your decision to quit international football after the European Championships in the
Summary Handy’s book is a groundbreaking philosophical and practical guide to the inevitable changing ways of organizing work and the workforce. Handy starts from the viewpoint that radical change is not only desirable but essential, if economics and society are not to be irreversibly damaged. The book focuses on the necessity of becoming more creative
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
A Swede appointed by a Scot, to manage England. It is surprising how little fuss has been made over the appointment. Perhaps people have finally realised that English football and English managers are just not very good. Sven-Goran Eriksson has certainly been one of the most successful coaches in Europe. After a fairly undistinguished playing
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
An overseas posting can look like a perfect opportunity to leap-frog up the corporate ladder and enjoy a great lifestyle on the way. But there are risks to consider To get to the top of a multinational company it is almost essential to have international experience on a resume. A Coca-Cola executive has to know
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
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
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
According to Management Today magazine, two in three employees say they lie to their boss. Whose responsibility is it to maintain ethical standards in the workplace? There is little doubt that a company’s ethics are becoming ever more important in the way it is viewed by its investors, its employees and its customers. Two years
