Just last week there was a near collision between a passenger jet and a drone. Drones have, in fact, had quite a bad press.  Yet their potential is immense. There are all sorts of ways in which drones can be used †o improve productivity. Just think of farmers keeping an eye on stock or on

Frontier companies are those who operate at the technology frontier - early and effective adopters.  Unfortunately in the UK, there are few such companies and far too many laggards who adopt technology late and often reluctantly. We need to convince these laggards to evaluate technology as an opportunity, not perceive it as a threat.  At

Sometimes it seems  difficult to get the productivity message over to people - the young aren't interested and it seem to be way down the priority list of many business people and politicians. So, perhaps we have to try communicating in different ways - ways that 'chime' with intended audiences, using language thy relate to

One of my great 'life lessons' came about from reading a quotation which I think is attributed to the Dalai Lama. "If you are in control of a situation, there is no need to worry.  If you are not in control, there is no point worrying.  So, why worry?" Similarly in business, there are things

Do your employees turn up at 9am and leave at 5pm, having completed their day's work.  Was it satisfying for you to watch them beavering away?  Were they productive?  How much more productive might they have ben working from home or from their local coffee shop? Employees often find certain tasks difficult to complete in

When you hire new people how do you induct them into the organisation?  Too often this consists of introductions, 'policy sessions', issuing of email ids and passwords .... and little else.  Your new people are informed - but bored. Yet, in many organisations there is one activity in which you could engage new staff that

Automation brings rewards to companies that invest.  The auto industry has installed many thousands of robots over the last 10 years - numbers of employed people have fallen, quality has risen, productivity is up. Great for the companies -and their shareholders: not so good for those now unemployed workers whose jobs have gone to the

Japan is offering employment subsidies to organisations that improve their productivity.  So 'winning' companies get a double boost. Is this a sensible role for government - to reward the successful? One reason for their action is to prevent companies from using job cuts to fuel growth. What does matter is that the aims of any

The relentless rise of technology and the willingness of men to experiment means we are likely to see a merging of mankind and technology over the next couple of hundred years - producing real cyborgs.  These will be highly efficient and productive workers. Eventually, the human race as we know it will disappear - unless

More firms are allowing workers to come to the office in less formal attire.  Does this have an impact on productivity? There is little research on the issue.  The arguments seem to boil down to: allowing people to dress casually makes them more comfortable, more relaxed and more content - and this has a positive