I am not a political animal - except insofar as I think I understand the role of government in creating the infrastructure required for productivity development (and have offered advice to quite a few governments

The UK languishes at the bottom of most productivity league tables.  We seem to be a low skill, low performing country.  Lots of 'good' jobs have been taken out of the economy and replaced with

India has the highest population of livestock in the world and produces a whopping 147 million metric tonnes of milk, a number also  unsurpassed by any other country. However,  when it comes to productivity, it

I saw a piece on the web the other day that suggested that sensible, progressive governments should offer incentives to organisations to improve their productivity. But organisations surely want to improve their productivity because it

The UK continues to languish behind the rest of the G7 in terms of its quoted productivity performance - yet my personal experience is that performance of the UK labour force has risen remarkably over

The world is getting into another economic mess as it reacts to slowing growth in China. However, countries in the West should look to their own performance. I know China's slowdown means there is less

I talked last week about the need to think about key issues well in advance of them coming to pass. (The example I used was driverless cars saying we, collectively, should be thinking now about

We are in the age of driverless cars. Experts predict that a commercial, driverless car is less than a decade away. But in the event of a potential accident, who does the car save -

Many of us work, at least for some of the time, from, home. Yet, many of us find it hard to be fully productive. For people whose work involves a lot of home working, it

This  is the first blog post of the new year.  It should perhaps therefore have a strong message of positivity for that new year.  But that new year, for you, will be what you make

We, in the UK and US, are lucky to have English as our mother tongue.  It has become the de facto language of trade and commerce. So, we have a 'head start' in trade negotiations.

Does technology help or hinder productivity & performance?   There are two basic schools of thought on this issues – though, as ever, these are not straightforward The first is that the introduction of technology can

All developing countries go through a stage of urbanisation - as people leave the countryside and flock to the cities in pursuit of a share of the wealth that cities create. This generally results in

There seems to be, in some people's eyes, a dichotomy between safety and productivity.  The former is regarded as a compliance issue - a chore, a headache, an imposition - a drain on productivity. Of

In the UK, the Chancellor of the Exchequer has signalled a kind of U-turn by scrapping his plans to cut tax credits and offering more money for the health service, for defence and for the

Saturday 12th December has been dubbed “Out of Stock Saturday” by logistics analysts Clear Returns, as it will be the day when the largest number of UK retailers’ stock will be tied up in the

The title of this post is one of those things our parents taught us when we were kids. It was suggested that we should prioritise our support towards those who were already attempting their own

Do you read the wise words of the business gurus, the management thought leaders? No, me neither. Of course these guys (for they usually are guys) must have done something right to get to where

The third Albion Growth Report, designed to shed light on the factors that both create and impede growth among over 1,000 UK SMEs, highlights significant regional differences in tackling the productivity gap: 54 per cent of business owners in

The World Productivity Congress is proving to be very interesting. Just before the event I read an article by Robert Gordon about the state of US productivity, the gist of which was that the major

I am in Halifax (Nova Scotia) for the World Productivity Congress (being held in partnership with the Big Data Conference). This gives me 2 (well, at least 2) opportunities. Firstly, I can meet up with

The World Confederation of Productivity Science promotes the concept of SEE - Social, Environmental & Economic Productivities - suggesting that long-term business sustainability and success  comes from  addressing all three.  Some have claimed that this

I was browsing some 'productivity blogs' earlier this week - I use the inverted commas because many of them use the word 'hack - or lifehacks - only using the word 'productivity in the strapline

Japan has a new government initiative to boost the adoption of intelligent machines and robots - as part of a drive to improve industrial productivity.  However, this has other benefits as well. Mechanised workplaces are