There has been a trend over recent years to strip out management layers - searching for the great productivity boom said to result from flattened organisations. Delayering is said to improve communications, increase transparency and lead to faster and better decision-making. The streamlined organisation has higher productivity. Like many productivity approaches, there is an inherent logic to
Some lucky employees have healthcare benefits as part of their remuneration package. The rest of us have to juggle healthcare with our other priorities and are subject to the vagaries of the healthcare system and any associated costs. As knowledge grows of health-related issues, including contextual and environmental factors, we are constantly urged to change
Most business owners and managers are taking a keen interest in AI They have heard the hype and are now excited to learn the reality - to hear of the successful case studies of AI introduction and also the occasional failures (though failures can be under-reported as few want to advertise their failures). But of course,
Is there one? One quality which is more valuable (and therefore more necessary) than others. Well, that is not a simple question. All businesses need a variety and a numb er of qualities to go successful through their start-up phase and then perhaps a different (though overlapping) set of qualities for their 'stablisation' phase, their growth
That’s what many of us think we have to do to make ourselves more productive, more effective. But it’s not true! I’ve repeated many times in this blog that you are not productive if you are not doing the right things. The simplest way to illustrate this is if you have a product in your
The UK has a new Primę Minister - allegedly a charismatic, left-leaning one. He is looking to change things - lots of things. He claims to be supportive of business but we will have to wait and see. What I want are policy and actions that will support businesses in increasing their productivity - support for
Automation has long been championed as a driver of higher productivity in the manufacturing sector. It has been very successful in some areas - most often in high volume manufacturing operations such as automotive and computing. We are all used to seeing robots carrying out activities such as welding car parts. However in lower
Are you enjoying the period of hot weather we are in the middle of (in the UK)? Some people don't but most seem to like it. Of course it may depend on your work situation. If you can work from home in your tee shirt and shorts, you might think the hot weather
There is a host of factors that determine the productivity of an organisation - operating at a number of different levels. For example, the productivity of an organisation that is making products that are not attractive to the intended customer base cannot be high, irrespective of whether the company is efficient. Then, a company
Most western democracies are going through turbulent economic times. Of course, recently we have had the various troubles relating, at least in part , to Donald Trump - tariffs that seem to change on a whim - and wars and unrest that seem to pop up with increasing speed. But Western woes predate the current