At the personal level, many people associate the word ‘productivity’ with working (too) hard, suffering a poor work-life balance and increasing stress. At the organisation level, many people associate the word ‘productivity’ with working harder, restructurings and layoffs. At national level, few people understand the word ‘productivity’ - talk about it confuses and frightens them.
Most of us have done some form of study that involves a section on improving communications. We learn about the importance of making any message appropriate to the target audience - using the right language, using appropriate images, and so on. We also learn about choosing the medium for the message according to factors such
Just imagine you were the CEO of Walmart several years ago. You can see that Amazon is starting to gain a foothold in markets beyond the books and music where it started. You know you have to have some kind of response, some preparation for when Amazon (or someone like Amazon) starts to intrude on
Sometimes keeping things simple yields the best results. This is particularly true for start-ups and small businesses. Don’t get sucked into complex (and expensive) systems of control or ‘improvement’.Stick to the basics. Set realistic goals (consistent with your declared mission and vision). If the goals are long-term, set intermediate targets. Communicate those goals/targets throughout the organisation (especially
Climate-change activists often insist theirs is the right way. They insist that everything we do (or more often not do) must help ‘save the planet', rather than make us richer or more secure. Yet, in all fields of human activity, the two can co-exist, even help each other…. If we look at green policies and practices
Of course it does! However, concentrating on squeeing every last drop of productive output from each day and multi-tasking to get more done can lead to burnout, to stress and anxiety and to a drop in performance. If this sounds like your existence, then think about what it represents. Time is managing you, rather than
Doug Conant was the CEO of Campbell Soups in 2001 when the company’s business was at rock bottom due to several organisational issues including a toxic culture. Among the many leadership strategies, Doug adopted, one of them was to engage with each staff member and personally, connect with them. He did something that was unheard of
I have talked previously about the need to balance the pursuit of efficiency with a need for resilience - we need to be able to cope with supply chain, labour or other problems. We have also talked previously about the need to balance a concentration on throughput with the need to maintain, or improve, quality. No
Over the last couple of decades (before the pandemic) lots of middle income countries and middle-performing companies were integrated into global supply chains. Advanced nations and advanced companies had no choice as they needed new sources of materials, parts and skills. These new supply chain partners soon learned what was expected of them and with
One of the ironies of modern business life is that whenever anyone uses the term ‘industrial relations’ they are almost certainly referring to poor relationships. Similarly, the ‘industrial relations industry’ is about handling (and dealing with the consequences of) poor industrial relations. So, how do we avoid the pitfalls associated with these poor relationships. Well,