WCPS has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with JAFCON Ltd of Bahrain to host a World Productivity Congress in Bahrain in 2015. The picture shows John Heap, President of WCPS signing the agreement with Mr Ebrahim Radhi, representing JAFCON.
Businesses seem to be unwilling to invest in new facilities and even new skills for their employees. I think part of the reason is that investors have become used to the rollercoaster of the tech boom and bust cycle. On the one hand, many expect new technology to keep arriving and providing them with relatively
Last week I talked about the problem of national productivity measurement when we fail to count lots of 'intangibles. Musing further, I got to thinking about companies like Google and Yahoo who give away many of their services for free (at least to the end user at point of use). Google and Yahoo put lots
The Board of WCPS met in New York to finalize plans for the forthcoming World Productivity Congress in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and to consider a proposal to hold the next Congress in Bahrain in 2016. This proposal was approved and the Board looks forward to taking the Congress to the Middle East for
In a recent paper, the governor of the Central Bank of Barbados said that even though Barbados is relatively prosperous as a Caribbean nation, it will only move up the international 'league table' by improving its labour productivity. He then suggested that this is difficult because only about 30% of the Barbadian workforce feels fully
In small businesses low productivity is rarely the fault of the workers - it is because the owner/manager has not set up production processes properly -or has failed to manage them effectively. Too many owner/managers want to micro-manage ... they see their job as 'keeping on top of things'. It is - of course... but
There has been discussion on the Productivity Futures LinkedIn group this week discussing whether productivity and innovation are natural enemies or bedfellows. Of course I chimed in - well, I can't resist - and my view is that real productivity development - revolutionary rather than evolutionary - is unlikely without innovation. Innovation can transform productivity.
I have started this blog before with words such as ..."I read a survey the other day..." Sometimes reading the results of these 'business surveys' can be interesting .. but too often it seems the results are so obviously in favour of the organisation who commissioned the research. I read a survey the other day
Teams are sometimes more productive than the sum of their parts - because the 'chemistry' among the team is 'right'. We've all seen such 'chemistry' at work - in working teams and in personal relationships. But is it a lucky accident - or can we create it? Team building is not about taking teams on
Productivity is a 'neutral' measure - it doesn't come with praise or blame attached. To understand the reasons behind the figures we have to dig deeper, sometimes much deeper, than the headlines. For example, we might read that the construction industry has had a poor quarter in terms of measured productivity - but a scratch