Governments (bless them!) often do things with good intentions.. but often fail to think through the unintended consequences of their actions. Take energy subsidies as an example. Quite a few governments subsidise energy prices ... to help businesses be more competitive, perhaps. However, business will only take a cold, hard look at energy usage when
I've talked in the past about the need to improve agricultural productivity to keep the world fed. This was brought home to me this week when I read an astonishing fact. (Assuming, of course, that this is true ... and I have no reason to doubt it.) "The world will need as much food in
At the recent Rio summit (the less than spectacular one) there was some discussion about whether GDP is the best measure of a nation's well-being ... in an age where we are increasingly looking at the negative impact (on the environment) of increased industrial activity. The World Confederation of Productivity Science has been looking at
You will recognise the 3 word in the title to this post as being .... well, what, exactly? related terms? or synonyms? If you do a search for these terms online, you can find lots of definitions and lots of ratios ... many go which are just plain wrong! In descriptive terms, efficiency is doing
It is almost important to run a high productivity company at the moment. The shadow hanging over Europe from the Euro crisis is sucking all the energy out of the European market ... and pulling other markets down with it. We know that we are already in a long-term difficult period ... if 'they' cannot
Business seems to have lost its ethical context. Business decisions are taken according to whether they are within or outside of legal and regulatory frameworks ... not whether they are within or outside of prevailing value sets or ethical frameworks. . If we cannot put ourselves in the shoes of others (and empathise) how can
Creating a Socially, Economically and Environmentally Responsible World Date: 2nd-5th November 2010 The theme for the XVIth Congress in Antalya, Turkiye (from 2nd – 5th November) was: Productivity at the Crossroads: Creating a Socially, Economically and Environmentally Responsible World The Congress was - for the first time held in partnership with the European Productivity Conference
Together The Gilbreths formed one of the great husband-and-wife teams of science and engineering. In the early 1900s, they started work on the development of motion study as a performance improvement technique. Frank, who started his working life as a bricklayer, had noticed that no two bricklayers seemed to use the same method - each
Elton Mayo was born in Adelaide, South Australia on 26 December 1880 and died in Guildford, Surrey on 1 September 1949. He was the second child of a respected colonial family. Elton was expected to follow his grandfather into medicine, but failed at university studies and was sent to Britain. Here he turned to writing,
Charles E. Sorensen went with his parents to the USA from Denmark when he was four years old. His first job was at the Buffalo Stove factory, where he trained as a pattern maker and foundry man. His interest in casting was to remain with him all of his life. A firm of custom foundry-men