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

Saturday 12th December has been dubbed “Out of Stock Saturday” by logistics analysts Clear Returns, as it will be the day when the largest number of UK retailers’ stock will be tied up in the returns loop and unavailable to buy.  They know this as it happens every year.  So does Christmas!  Yet peak, seasonal

The title of this post is one of those things our parents taught us when we were kids. It was suggested that we should prioritise our support towards those who were already attempting their own recovery from a problem. Well, if you still subscribe to that philosophy, I urge you to contribute to the current

Do you read the wise words of the business gurus, the management thought leaders? No, me neither. Of course these guys (for they usually are guys) must have done something right to get to where they are - to achieve their fame/notoriety. But that doesn't mean they can necessarily create simple, pithy messages of use

The third Albion Growth Report, designed to shed light on the factors that both create and impede growth among over 1,000 UK SMEs, highlights significant regional differences in tackling the productivity gap: 54 per cent of business owners in the South West said they will increase productivity over the next two years followed by 52 per cent of those in Yorkshire,

The World Productivity Congress is proving to be very interesting. Just before the event I read an article by Robert Gordon about the state of US productivity, the gist of which was that the major innovations of the period 1870-1970 fuelled productivity growth but now we have 'used them up' and productivity is stagnating, compounded