Over the last 5 years - in fact since the great recession hit - many companies seem to have concentrated on short term gains - and have rewarded their CEOs with generous bonuses  for producing

Does your boss enhance, or detract from, your productivity? If you ask this question of employees, you might expect them to answer 'enhance' - but they rarely do. Too many people see their boss as

I 've written quite a few times in the last year about low productivity figures - across all developed nations.  I've even offered advice on occasions about what might be done to improve the figures

Two recent sets of figures from the USA raise a question of 'connectivity'/  Labour productivity refuses to rise - and investment in plant and equipment has declined over the last 10 years.  These can probably

Most developed countries have experienced lower rates of productivity development since the great recession - and nobody seems to know why. However, it does seem as though these low growth rates might be with us

Most of us want to help our organisations be productive - but we also want to be kind to the environment .  Can these aims be reconciled? Well, yes! - but sometimes it depends on

Work-life balance is important.  If 'work' takes over, you end up stressed and ineffective.  If 'life' rakes over, you fail to achieve, So, how do we achieve 'balance'? Well, here's a simple tip. When you

In the UK, as in quite a few other countries, there is a minimum wage set by government.  In  the UK, this has recently risen fuelled by the introduction of what is called the National

AI (Artificial Intelligence) is making good progress and we have seen computers doing very well at strategy games like Chess and Go. AI is ideal for situations where a large quantity of data has to

The UK Engineering Employers Federation (EEF) suggests the productivity picture might finally be starting to change. The EEF recently unveiled some mixed findings. On the positive front, its report – Productivity: the state of the

How will the Internet of Things (IoT) impact on productivity - of different sectors We know that lots of (mainly technology) companies are betting big on IoT  - but is this investment wise? For consumers,

The USA recently held National Agriculture Day. A key concern expressed by many of those participating this year was the need for greater investments in the very foundation of American agriculture: the research, development and

What are the secrets to productivity development at the national level? Well, after many years experience in a range of countries, I would have to say "Don't ask me". There is no panacea, no golden

A number of agencies, and even countries, have attempted to create measures of 'happiness' - as an alternative to using GDP to value the work undertaken by people. This needs further work - but shows

The UK Office for National Statistics has just issued time series data for labour productivity across a number of years and for a number of sectors.  Quite interesting (for productivity nerds like me) but ultimately

Some of you will now that I have been in Bahrain for the last week helping prepare for the World Productivity Congress which will be held here in November. (see worldproductivitycongress.net for details.) Conversations obviously

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 -