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 demand for Western goods and services ... but this means that now is a good time to concentrate on building

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 the algorithms used to determine the action the car's systems should take in the event of a potential accident -

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 - the driver, a pedestrian about to be hit, the occupants of another vehicle? The algorithms built into the car's systems

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 might be worth considering a shared workspace that offers both support facilities and social interaction. Of course it will cost

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 it.  reading my blog posts might be of some little interest to you - but it is not going to

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. However it also means that people inn the UK and US are not motivated to learn other languages.  We simply

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 transform processes for the better, improving both quality and productivity.  Of course, this school of thought is largely promulgated by suppliers

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 higher national productivity. However, those same countries need to address productivity in, and of, the countryside. In a typical agriculture

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 course it partly depends on how safety is treated as an issue. Those who have used poka-yoke as an error-reducing

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 police. This seems to be the end of his austerity planning - though he says he still intends to cut