It is often said- probably because it is true - that small businesses are the bedrock of a healthy economy. Business leaders know this; even leaders of large businesses, for their businesses were small once. One assumes that political leaders also know this - for they are reminded of it regularly when discussing growth strategies. Yet politicians
I have worked extensively in other countries than my own (UK). I have learned many valuable lessons - but perhaps the most important is that local solutions (to productivity problems) MUST be informed by local factors, local priorities, local policies. Take agricultural productivity as an example. Generally agricultural productivity (in terms of yield per acre) is much lower than
I have the advantage and disadvantage of being old. I remember what I think were 'better times' (but all old people in most historic eras have felt the same. When I first worked in industry, unions were strong and fought well for what they saw as a fair share of the results of productivity gains
Times are tough for both commercial organisations and governments in terms of recruiting the labour needed for economic growth. Employment is high in most developed countries and there is a trend towards disengagement and ’quiet quitting’. This means that firms have to look further afield (than traditional labour markets) to find new staff. This ‘distance’ brings into
There is an old saying that poor leaders can be summed up with the phrase ‘Do As I Say, Not As I Do’ meaning that leaders who do not ‘walk the walk as well as ’talk the talk’ are not likely to be successful in the longer-term. Perhaps nowhere is this more true than in
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
The Australian Productivity Commission has made some recommendations for a National Disability Insurance Scheme. The government is (probably) going to partially meet the funding requirements. This process is fairly typical. A government funded body makes recommendations to government who accept the recommendations in principle but fail to implement or fund them completely. I understand that
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