21st October 2009
With the number of people being laid off at the moment, there's a good chance that you may have a new boss. At the very least you're likely to know someone who has a new boss, or perhaps you have just taken on a new management role yourself.
What influ...
17th September 2009
Competition for resources - internal and external - means power and politics become even greater issues for managers in higher education today.
Add to that the closer scrutiny of performance, both academic and administrative, and managers in higher edu...
03rd September 2009
Who is your customer? To any savvy business manager, that may seem a simple or even silly question. "Of course I know who my customers are, I wouldn't be in business otherwise" might be the natural response. However, one organisation who recently got t...
18th August 2009
Actually, it probably started a little earlier than that. In 1974 the US Securities and Exchange Commission introduced deregulation of brokerage commission costs. Prior to this, it would cost a broker or trader approximately $1 commission per traded share...
10th August 2009
With all the talk lately about the exorbitant salaries of CEOs, there was a good news story that hit the airwaves recently. CEO of Japan Air Lines, Haruka Nishimatsu was reported to receive $90,000 annual salary. Yes, that's right, not $9 million, not e...
17th April 2009
I spoke to a friend the other day who said she was worried about her job security. Her company's performance over the last twelve months had not been too good and now, with the economic downturn, she was worried that there might be lay-offs.
What can ...
09th January 2009
It's been said that your first time customer, even your first time visitor (say to your website) is always the highest cost to you. But it's the repeat customers and visitors that really provide the best returns.
I had an email from a colleague recent...
29th December 2008
When the going gets tough, we can either say "Well, that's life, I can't do much about it". Or, we can say "Things are tough, but I can win through".
It all depends on how we view the world.
Studies have shown that we are either positive or negativ...
15th December 2008
With the downturn in the market, good staff are still surprisingly hard to find, particularly at the operator level.
A colleague in the hospitality industry, spoke about his challenges:
"Good staff have become rare. Everyone's competing for the sam...
03rd December 2008
Almost 100 years ago, Mary Parker Follett described a manager as "One who gets things done through people". This description is still used by management educators and scholars today. However, this could be enhanced to read: "One who gets the things the...
30th November 2008
There's a story doing the rounds at the moment about the worker who was dead at his desk for five days before anyone discovered him. The story goes ...
"Bosses of a publishing firm are trying to work out why no one noticed that one of their employees ...
18th November 2008
Many reading this would have watched Barack Obama address the Chicago crowd on the night he won the US Presidency. I do not live in the US, but listening to this speech certainly moved me. Others I have spoken to had a similar experience. His story of ...
01st September 2008
I recently travelled on a regional train in Australia. When booking my ticket I asked "What's the difference between first and second class?" The booking clerk's response was "Oh, there's a bit more leg room in first class."
This experience reminded...
28th August 2008
Is the world flat or round? That may seem a silly question. However, up until the 15th century people thought that it was flat - that's a lot of time to exist with a major misconception. Why did people think that way for so long? Did it matter to them...
22nd August 2008
At the top of organisations, which are more important - management skills or business skills?
Take the case of hedge fund managers who have been in the news lately. Hedge funds managers are investment experts. They generally represent a small group o...
