We know Christmas day was yesterday, and we know some readers do not celebrate Christmas ... but we send greetings anyway. We also remind you that 'festivities' are valuable in the workplace - to celebrate, and cement, success. So, take what chances you can to combine seasonal cheer with rewards for effort and success.
Every business - and every manager in that business - should know what are the critical success factors … what must the company do - and do well - if they are to be successful. What are the factors that underpin the mission. The aim is not to identify lots of these - but the essential (‘critical’)
We have all been in situations where we have received efficient, friendly service from someone with a smile. Efficient AND friendly service is so much more effective at creating customer well-being and customer loyalty than merely efficient service. We remember it. We value it. We react to it. It must be more than ‘smile training’
Lots of workers (in manufacturing) are concerned about losing their jobs to robots, as the inexorable rise of automated machines and AI gathers pace. One common ‘defence’ is to suggest that robots only take over the drudgery - leaving the humans to take on more skilled, more knowledge-based tasks, and making the workplace safer. This
It is amazing how a problem, and especially a disaster, can focus the mind ... focus efforts of individuals and teams ... focus organisations - and even focus nations. The current pandemic has been very much ‘pan’ - crossing countries and continents. It has seen remarkable global cooperation and collaboration in the search for an
The obvious answer is ‘Yes’ but is that the right answer? it depends on what you means by ‘worry about’. The CEO needs to worry about ‘big issues’ - those that directly affect achievement of strategic aims and the overall mission. Of course, productivity is important. It is a useful measure of ‘future profit’, of
Two trends have come together to transform attitudes to technology. Firstly, hardware (closely followed by software) has become so advanced that many tasks previously thought incapable of being computerised or digitised have now come within application areas Secondly, people have become used to using technology since they now use their mobile phones for a range
A crisis like the one the world is at the moment changes political, economic and business thinking. Long-strategy understandably gives way to survival thinking.... “How can we get through this?” So, longer (but not that long) issues such as climate change become very much a ‘future nice-to-consider’ rather than an impending issue. Individual firms (and
Which governments succeeded and which have failed in meeting the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic? Well - as ever - it depends on your definition of succcess. There are two main factors against which the future will judge governments: the first is public health and well-being; the second is economic performance. The first will
Many, if not most, companies are looking to improve productivity these days. They may design single, initiatives or projects to look at key issues or, if they are smart, have an ongoing ‘movement’ that systematically addresses all business processes. Too often, however, even the smarter companies concentrate on ‘up front’ processes and tasks - the