Most businesses are built around a degree of human labour - some excessively so. Labour-intensive businesses have tried many things over the last few decades to improve the productivity of the workforce - some experiments have worked, some have not. One problem is that organisations that take a 'strategic shift' in s particular direction
For almost all time, humanity’s well-being has been determined by how well it does certain things - catch animals for food, grow crops, build ships, forge weapons, etc. The Industrial Revolution changed the way in which things were done, but it didn’t change that basic formula - the people and the nations that produced more
Many people want to improve their productivity. They are trying to get noticed, promoted and supercharge their careers - or they are trying to get through the mountains of work that seem to perpetually contained in their inbox. That's good - but nowhere near good enough if we want to transform the productivity of the
Those interested in productivity improvement (such as me for writing this blog, and you for reading it) often look separately at different sectors off the economy. This is not because the principles of productivity improvement differ across industrial sectors but the context does, as often do the priorities of organisations. This means that treating SMEs
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
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
In most organisations, outputs come not from the work of individuals but from the work of teams. In our new AI-powered and supported world, how do we build teams that include chatbots or robots. To be honest, I don't know - and I suspect that very few others do. Like people involved in ream-building I
Lots of people, and organisations, are looking to AI to give them a productivity boost. Of course it might do so by improving the speed, accuracy or value of specific processes or transactions. However, those of you who read this blog regularly will know that I often warn about using any technology to speed up