Designing an effective work place
When I first glanced at the link below my initial reaction was that the recession must nearly be over. When firms start to advertise the benefits of the office you could be working in, it’s usually a sign that they are having trouble finding recruits for their organisation. But watch it anyway as the clip raises several interesting points about how work place design could influence workforce performance.
read more...»Shareholder power at Tesco
On the day after a survey revealed that the median pay of FTSE 100 chief executives rose by 32% £3.5m, it is interesting to find Tesco taking the opposite approach. In response to pressure from their shareholders over the pay and bonuses of their top people last year,Tesco claims that it ischallenging fat cat pay excess with scrapping of their controversial incentive scheme.
read more...»Recruitment challenges from the skills gap
Some interesting evidence here in the Telegraph that suggests firms in certain sectors are struggling to attract sufficient applicants with the necessary skills and experience for their vacancies, Students might question why this is the case when unemployment is so high (at around 2.5 million in the UK)?
read more...»CSR & McDonalds - Who Works at McDonalds?
It was interesting getting the perceptions of teachers and students around the UK about McDonalds - a very popular research target for the BUSS4 CSR task this summer. One issue that came up again and again was the “kind of people” who work at McDs. So it is interesting that McDonalds have just launched a new promotional campaign that seeks to challenge the public/consumer perceptions of who works in the global fast food chain. The short video is shown below. Would be interesting to show it to your students, perhaps after a brief piece of qualitative market research (i.e. the in-lesson focus group) about their perceptions.
read more...»Economic environment – Unemployment
There’s some indication that the UK unemployment picture is improving (Unemployment drops to 2.46m) but it’s still a pretty bleak picture out there. What does this mean for business?
read more...»Life in the chocolate factory - automation, productivity, motivation and culture
I spotted this article buried away in the Independent’s Food & Drink section and I think it works really well for business students - particularly those researching the change management and cultural implications of a major takeover…
read more...»Private v Public Sector - A Clash of Two Cultures?
Here is an article which neatly links two key topics for A2 business students - unemployment/employment and corporate culture.
The UK government is hoping for a private-sector led economic recovery that will generate sufficient new jobs to soak up the unemployment created as a result of government spending cuts. The private sector certainly has a good track record of job creation in the UK, but will firms be keen to employ people who have spent most or all of their careers to-date working in the public sector? A new survey suggests that there is likely to be reluctance by the private sector.
There are several reasons for this, but a key one appears to be “culture”. Will ex-public sector workers be able to fit in with the prevailing culture in the private sector? What might private sector firms mean by a lack of cultural fit? Does this refer to work ethic, motivation, decision-making ability? Is there any evidence to support private sector concerns or are recruitment managers simply accepting a tired, unproven assumption about the work culture of the public sector?
Perhaps the underlying issue is also one of skills. The private sector is focused on commercial behaviour, driven by the profit motive. An interesting quote in the article hints that this is a perceived barrier to employing public sector applicants:
“A number of companies are looking for staff who are used to a cut-throat business environment, with the ability to deal with big budgets and accounts, or sell products to customers”
Workers’ rights and CSR – 100 year anniversary of note
I’ve read a bit of history this week that was quite moving, and serves as a reminder how far we’ve come in recognising the struggle between profit, principle and the law. Through time, this has lead to the creation of the legal and regulatory environment firms operate in today.
A major milestone was a catastrophic factory fire in New York City in March 1911.
read more...»Are call centres the factories of the 21st century?
When you think about Business Production (or Operations Management) it’s always easy to imagine some type of factory setting. But I try to increasingly think about service sector environments, and when I saw that “More people have worked in call centres than ever worked in the mining industry, and I researched that in 1998,” (according to an author who wrote a novel based on his experiences in a call centre) I read on.
read more...»Partners in profit - the JLP way
We’ll be asking many of our students a simple question over the next few months. Is profit good? Is profit maximisation a strategy for greed? I wonder how the partners at John Lewis might respond to that question…
read more...»8 minutes of Daniel Pink on What Motivates Workers
A cracking (US-centric) video interview here with Daniel Pink, the author of Drive. Students will certainly get a different view on the topic of motivation at work from watching and discussing this….
read more...»Cadbury and Kraft One Year On - Culture and Change
This BBC video features an interview with Nick Bunker, the President of Kraft Foods UK & Ireland, who (perhaps unsurprisingly) is upbeat about the performance of Cadbury under the ownership of Kraft Foods…
read more...»CSR Video - Business Benefits of Corporate Social Responsibility
Here is a terrific UK-focused video that considers the business benefits of having a CSR programme. It features an architectural practice which has won awards for employee engagement in CSR. This video would make a superb stimulus lesson resource that would encourage discussion about the people management benefits of CSR…
read more...»On-the-job-training - The Come Fly With Me approach
Come Fly With Me looks like it will soon join the likes of Little Britain and The Office as a rich source of video clips for business teachers. Take this example of on-the-job training, featuring aspiring pilot Tommy Reid.
read more...»How technology is changing the recruitment process
Many thanks to Innes Robinson over on the superb GCSE Economics blog for flagging up this excellent BBC article on virtual job-hunting. More employees are making creative use of social networking to reach out to potential employers. Businesses too are increasingly using technology to bypass the middlemen (recruitment agencies) and appeal directly to potential recruits using sites like Twitter and Facebook. Some great examples in Rory Cellan-Jones’ piece to illustrate how technology is shaking up the established business models in recruitment. As Innes points out, this use of technology creates a win-win for both employer and job candidate.
I suppose tutor2u is another example of this kind of change. We’ve had four schools contact us directly today to let us know that some teaching vacancies will shortly be announced. Rather than spend several thousand pounds on adverts in the Guardian or TES hoping to reach potential recruits, they can spread news of each vacancy here on the tutor2u subject blogs for free - and reach probably 10-20 times as many potential candidates!
Training, social immobility and tuition fees - KPMG’s blueprint solution
KPMG has been quick to announce a new trainee scheme for school leavers which it says it will introduce in September 2011. They plan to recruit around 75 school leavers who will study accountancy at Durham, as part of a six year programme with the firm, leading to both a degree and a professional chartered accountancy qualification from ICAEW. KPMG envisages that in due course school leaver schemes of this type may account for the majority (in excess of 400) of its annual trainee chartered accountant intake.
read more...»HR implications of business expansion: the UK supermarket sector
The UK grocery giants have weathered the recession – and the weather – in reasonably good shape and are set to create at least 32,000 jobs this year amid one of the biggest store-opening sprees in the history of UK grocery retailing, according to The Guardian.
There are lots of potential constraints to business expansion, and the recruitment, induction, and training implications alone seem daunting.
read more...»Stakeholder or shareholder: who matters most?
This is a significant question most business students spend some time thinking about. Who are firms for? Is running a business about balancing the needs of a diverse group of stakeholders – or is it all really just about the bottom line? In other words, do the wants and needs of shareholders come before ‘stakeholders’? The Economist newspaper has an important article to add to the debate.
read more...»Tough lessons in running a business from the entrepreneurial coalface
Students rarely get the inside track on the hurdles and challenges faced by entrepreneurs day-to-day. They can be forgiven for thinking that setting up and managing a business is, in the textbook world, pretty straightforward. Get the marketing mix right, raise the finance, motivate the staff & the jobs a good’un. Yeh, right. Sure
So this excellent article in the Telegraph might help provide a reality check. It is certainly packed full of useful discussion points. Just look at some of the problems encountered by a nice mix of businesses and entrepreneurs:
- A stonemason for whom demand literally freezes when the weather turns wintery
- Declining net profit margins as competitors fight for market share in an industry with much spare capacity
- A major customer going into liquidation leaving a firm with a substantial bad debt
- Rapid growth in revenue highlighting deficiencies in stock management and customer service
- Tricky decisions about whether to delay investment in research & development as a result of weakening demand from the public sector
- A franchisor that is struggling to open new locations
Starbucks - Two Examples of Financial and Non-Financial Methods of Motivation
A couple of good examples here to use when illustrating the opportunities for some creative financial and non-financial methods of motivation. In this first article, we learn that Starbucks UK employees are to be given free shares in Starbucks Inc as part of a revised remuneration package. Will the so-called “bean stock” act as a motivational force for staff on a day-to-day bases?
In the second example, Starbucks staff and store managers are taken to work in a fairtrade coffee plantation to better understand the start of the supply chain that stretches from the coffee bean to the skinny latte in-store.
Lots of scope in these two articles for students to compare the methods being used.
Women in the boardroom
The CBI is reported as saying that all UK listed companies should have to set targets for the number of women in their boardrooms. It said firms that subsequently failed to meet their declared levels should have to explain why (but not face any penalties). Is this the way forwards in addressing the underrepresentation of women in senior positions? What factors are at work here – do women still face a ‘Glass Ceiling’ that stops them from getting to the top?
read more...»BUSS1 Revision Quiz - Employing People
New questions added - here is an updated revision quiz on the choices facing a start-up business when it decides whether it needs to employ people, designed to support AQA AS BUSS1.
Launch interactive quiz on employing people
Is ‘working from home’ a skive?
I’ve stolen the title for this blog straight from an article asking the same question as the current cold weather keeps commuters indoors. It’s a long running issue that speaks volumes about leadership, management, motivation, the nature of work and the whole viability of the ‘teleworking’ concept.
read more...»Outsourcing and offshoring explained
This four-minute radio interview on BBC R4 provides a terrific explanation of the difference between offshoring and outsourcing - two concepts that students (and some teachers!) sometimes seem confusing. Well worth a listen.
Dominos Pizza - Growth & Strategy (Part 2) - Innovation, Service and Smart Operations
For a hugely consumer-centric business Dominos must always be keenly aware of consumer needs and wants and stay tuned to when they change. My own experience is probably not atypical. I want hot pizza, competitively priced, produced to a consistently good standard, delivered on time and ordered and paid for over the internet with the minimum of fuss! That gives Dominos five operational and quality hurdles to overcome and doubtless there are many more for different groups of consumers – for example the hundreds of thousands of people who enjoy a pizza but who are glucose intolerant.
read more...»Euro Disney - an HRM & Finance Nightmare?
I forgot to blog about this article in the Independent last week, but revisiting it tonight makes me realise what a good one it is to show the students. As the introduction says, the management of Disney’s two theme parks in Paris have had to contend with quite a wide range of internal and external influences in the last year or so, including strikes, suicides and shareholder losses.
23 December 2009 saw the first ever strike at Euro Disney and things seem to have gone rapidly downhill since then. The article has lots of rich business studies material, including reference to the financial objectives been set by the shareholders, the effect of external shocks such as the recession, and lots of useful information on pricing strategy. The article also explains that, despite almost £1bn of capital spending, revenues at the parks remain flat, making the returns on investment particularly poor. Well worth a read and printing off for a lesson.
Effective staff training - a cracking example
Retail businesses have to keep up with new laws that affect sales of goods to customers, particularly when there are regulations about the minimum age of customers who are allowed to buy certain goods. Thus, as every teenager is well aware, ID is needed to buy many goods, from cigarettes and alcohol to knives and fireworks. Sales of both indoor and outdoor fireworks to under-16’s are now banned, following the Pyrotechnics Articles (Safety) Regulations introduced this year which reinforced laws banning the sale of explosive items to children. As a result, retailers will have had to ensure that their staff were fully aware of the regulations, and what to do in the event that a customer who appears too young, tries to buy those goods that are included in the ban.
read more...»
Should employers be able to sack people more easily?
This is a very tough question that the BBC are exploring on Radio 4’s Sack ‘Em programme.
Some believe that employment law is now so complicated and slanted towards employees that employers end up “paying off” people they should be sacking. Other people are much more worried about the huge power firms already have over workers’ lives and think that staff need even more protection. Both arguments have some merit.
read more...»Financial methods of motivation - board room pay soars
So much for the age of austerity! The Guardian reports here on a significant rise in the average remuneration of the directors of FTSE-100 firms.
According to the article, FTSE 100 directors “saw their total earnings soar in the 12 months to June 2010, thanks to sharp rises in bonuses and performance-related pay. The average FTSE 100 chief executive now earns £4.9m a year, or almost 200 times the average wage.”
The data will raise some interesting political debates in the coming weeks and it may provide some ammunition for trade unions representing employees in the UK’s largest firms. Somehow the phrase “we’re all in this together” rings a little hollow when the business leaders who have called publicly for significant public spending cuts are the same people enjoying such a large rise in pay. On the other hand, the FTSE-100 directors are now paying income tax at 50% not 40%, so the Exchequer benefits from higher income tax revenues.
Leadership in action - A Day in the Life of Willie Walsh
Fantastic stuff - a 10 minute video which tracks a day in the life of BA’s combative CEO Willie Walsh. Described as the most powerful man in global aviation - this is a perfect lesson intro for any teachers and students who wish to follow and research British Airways.
