Happiness in the workplace still proving elusive
60 years ago we worked 30% longer and took half as many holidays. For most, pay was poor. Discrimination in the workplace was widespread, and permitted by law. Work was often hard, and for working class men it was often dangerous too. So it’s a sobering thought to think that several decades later, measures of anxiety in the workplace have risen, to the point that stress has replaced back pain as the most common cause of long-term sick leave, according to The Guardian. What’s going wrong?
read more...»Buying-in to the Facebook culture
Want to buy shares in Facebook? The desire to buy-in to a business which has had such a revolutionary effect on communications will surely be huge. It almost feels like the emotional decision that football fans make when they buy shares in their beloved club. But the canny investor will analyse what they are investing in: is this a business decision in which they can examine the ratios and then the founder’s or directors’ mission statement, in order to assess their chances of gaining a suitable return on their investment?
read more...»Integration, integration, integration
HP is an example of a firm which is struggling to integrate acquisitions, and the perils of diversification.
Leadership in a multinational business - what leadership style works best?
This is an interesting blog entry from Pekka Viljakainen, an entrepreneur from Finland who sold his IT consulting business to a multinational Tieto. Some useful insights here for students wanting to develop their understanding of how the challenge of leadership changes as a leader’s responsibilities become more complex and cross-border.
read more...»Leadership - Howard Schultz on the importance of leading an innovative culture
I’m a big fan of Starbucks as a case study for business students which provides some great examples of linkages between the different aspects of business strategy. In this clip from a recent business conference (London 2011), Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz discusses the importance of innovation in a competitive environment where businesses that stand still face defeat.
read more...»Leadership - what is the best leadership style? It depends on the “situation”!
A somewhat different and more formal feel to this video, but it makes an effective classroom resource nonetheless. It introduces an important concept relating to leadership - that of “situational leadership”.
read more...»Leadership - Tough decisions to turn Starbucks around
Here is a gem of an interview with Howard Schultz, CEO of Starbucks. In this short (3 minute) clip he discusses the difficult decisions he had to make about the business when he returned as CEO, including closing stores and making staff redundant. One of the success stories of the 1990s, Starbucks had grown too big and lacked clear focus. Excellent material to generate discussion on leadership, management, motivation, marketing, strategy, retrenchment and more.
read more...»Leadership - 40 examples of leadership at the movies in just 120 seconds
This would make a great lesson starter to get the students focused on the topic of leadership. In fact, you might also use it at the start of studying a new course, or to refocus “Team Business” as they prepare for the final push towards exams! As Lord Sutch might say…“two minutes of business gold dust”
read more...»Schultz on Leadership, Love and the Competitive Advantage of Culture
We know that the BUSS4 is a big fan of the Apple and Steve Jobs - and with good reason. As our BUSS4 Topic Tracker indicates, a previous essay question (Jan 2010) used the example of Steve Jobs to ask students to evaluate how easy it is for a Chief Executive to change a struggling business into a more successful one.
Steve Jobs shares much in common with another well-known entrepreneur and CEO - Howard Schultz (Starbucks). Both men founded, left and then returned to lead a turnaround of their respective businesses. Both have taken on the challenge of taking a business idea through rapid growth and then also manage a global brand in a much more uncertain external environment.
Might Howard Schultz feature in a future AQA BUSS4 essay choice? Its certainly possible and this article from Ernst & Young ought to be essential reading for any A2 business student who wants to build their understanding of Schultz and his leadership style and business strategy for Starbucks.
read more...»Leadership - it’s not a popularity contest
I like this five minute interview with Allan Leighton in which he chats about what makes an effective business leader.
read more...»Technological change - Kodak’s big strategic mistake
I highly recommend that A2 business students read Tom White’s excellent blog about the demise of Kodak. I came across a couple of useful video clips which help explain the strategic mistakes made by Kodak and also suggest that the corporate culture at Kodak was a significant part in the failure of the business to adapt and change.
read more...»Leadership and Strategy - All Change at the Top for Blackberry
A fantastic quote here from the departing co-CEOs of RIm (owner of BlackBerry) as they depart for pastures new…
read more...»Still more praise for the “John Lewis model”
You’re probably aware that the John Lewis department stores and Waitrose supermarket chain are doing very well at the moment, with sales figures rising strongly whilst retailers elsewhere are struggling. Several commentators have been keen to go beyond the marketing factors behind their success, instead paying closer attention to the firm’s unusual model of ownership and control.
read more...»Tesco’s Big Price Drop - on the Stock Market, or, Porter and Ansoff in action
Such is the importance of Tesco’s and their dominance of the retail market that the effect of a 2.3% drop in their like-for-like sales knocked almost 16% off their share price yesterday. Perhaps not so much a reflection of the figures themselves - although they compare poorly with Morrison’s and Sainsbury’s both of whom managed to increase their sales over the same period - as the admission by the new CEO Philip Clarke that Tesco’s got their strategy wrong, both in the short and the long term.
read more...»Business size and the innovation debate
Innovation is a business topic in its own right, and it also crops up a lot when there are discussions about the benefits and drawbacks of size – or economies and diseconomies of scale, in syllabus terms. This is a rich thread for evaluation, although it’s probably fair to say that poor rates of innovation and change are often quoted as a classic ‘diseconomy of scale’. In other words, big business is supposed to be bad at it.
But more and more big firms are setting out to challenge this view and prove themselves as innovators. The Economist have also recently added to this side of the argument.
read more...»Investment in People - Google and Human Capital
Here is a link to a recent article on Google’s approach to investment in people. Written from a Google perspective inevitably there are none of the criticisms that others have made of human resource management in the Googleplexes around the world.
However, the article is useful in explaining the huge emphasis that Google places on being transparent with their workforce and in giving employees freedom, autonomy and purposes in their jobs. I am sure A2 students will be able to draw some useful insights from reading through it.
read more...»It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it
“It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.” Warren Buffett
When delivery firms are busy and drivers have a tight schedule to meet, there is a danger that corners are cut. A FedEx driver’s unorthodox actions, may cost him his job and damaged the firm’s reputation for reliability, after a disgruntled customer uploaded footage of the delivery of a computer monitor.
Now FedEx is under pressure from the customer and the media who will be watching how it limits the damage to its reputation.
The clip although it may emphasize the importance of training, and corporate culture, the actions of individuals who work for a firm have a bearing on its reputation, sales, profits and market share. A firm is only as good as the people it employs, discuss.
Straight-talking answers to business questions - the examiners might hate some of this!
I just love the regular series in the Telegraph in which business questions are answered by John Timpson, the Chairman of retail group Timpson. Here is yet another superb selection of three problems solved!
read more...»Stakeholders argue over executive pay
It seems that this debate isn’t going to go away, which will surprise few of you. At a time when the economy is struggling, unemployment is rising and living standards are stagnant, why is one group in society getting so much wealthier? One pressure group, calling itself the ‘High Pay Commission’ (they are obviously trying to draw parallels with the government’s own Low Pay Commission) is in the news for publishing a report describing high executive pay as ‘corrosive’.
read more...»How we made our millions: Michelle Mone and Richard Reed under the spotlight
I enjoyed watching this programme last night in which Peter Jones investigated Michelle Mone, founder of Ultimo, and Richard Reed, co-founder of Innocent in order to find out ‘How we made our millions’. The programme looked at their very different characters as Peter discussed with them their childhoods, studied their business models, asked staff what they are like to work for, and considered what it was that drove them to be entrepreneurs.
read more...»Olympus Epic Fail
The scale of the failings in corporate governance at Olympus is breathtaking. The company has misled, shareholders, banks, auditors, stock markets, Japan’s government, and staff about the true state of its finances over a 20 year period. It is Corporate Social Irresponsibility on the grandest of scales.
read more...»Corporate Irresponsibility at Olympus
Recent problems at Japan’s Olympus Corporation highlight the importance of corporate culture, ethics, Corporate Social Responsibility and management responsibility to shareholders and other stakeholders.
Do the UK’s forgotten mid-sized firms lack ambition and a competitive edge
This is a good article for students looking at the growth of firms, particularly those firms that have been established for some time but which appear to have got stuck in a phase of mature revenue growth, or worse, declining revenues.
A level business exam case studies often feature family-owned and managed businesses. In the typical scenario, the founder has stayed with the business after an initial period of success and rapid growth, employing other members of the family along the way. Eventually the business finds itself stuck in a rut, lacking ambition, financial resources and clear competitive advantages.
A new survey, reported here in the Telegraph, might help students understand some of the reasons for this problem.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/festival-of-business/8844514/CBI-urges-forgotten-army-of-private-companies-to-become-more-ambitious.html
Meet the CEO of Dropbox - the man who said no to Steve Jobs!
Meet the entrepreneur behind a fast-growing online service that in 2009 rejected advances from Apple’s Steve Jobs. Drew Houston, a brilliant software programmer, founded Dropbox.com....
read more...»How PepsiCo are trying to control diseconomies of scale
Big firms often face huge organisational difficulties that can slow them down and cause costs and problems to spiral. So I was drawn to a BBC article the big businesses learning how to think small which appeared soon after Steve Jobs’ death. His insistence on “no committees” and talking to everyone at least once a week was, he said, enough to keep Apple focused, efficient and successful.
I don’t know if that’s true, but for big corporations, with their vast resources and bewildering bureaucracy, operating with the attitude of a technology start-up is a distant dream (but with exciting possibilities). Poor communication, low levels of motivation and a shortage of innovative ideas are classic diseconomies of scale that are typical of larger organisations.
read more...»Leadership video - A heartfelt apology from the boss
This video features a personal message from RIM (maker of Blackberry) Founder and Co-CEO Mike Lazaridis on the BlackBerry service outage which enraged millions of Blackberry users in the UK and around the world. Why did he feel the need to publish the video? Because RIM spectacularly failed to handle the crisis that arose when the Blackberry server network collapsed, cutting off tens of millions of BlackBerry users for three and a half days. Service outage has triggered a wave of defections to rival handset makers such as Apple and Samsung - perfect timing for both as they launch new versions of their smartphones.
read more...»Management By Committee? Not At Apple
Since Steve Jobs died last week much has been written and said about his autocratic leadership style and how he built (and rebuilt) the company he co-founded, Apple, into the global brand it is today. Richard Branson wrote an excellent piece on Jobs’ leadership style and enterpreneurial spirit in which he stated that his approach to leadership differed markedly from that of Jobs. The YouTube clip below is of an interview with Jobs in which he stated that there were no committees at all within Apple.
A stroke of genius, motivating and empowering senior staff? Or because Jobs needed to maintain control over the company and oversee everything in the weekly meeting where all aspects of the company’s operations were discussed?
Steve Jobs 1955-2011
Steve Jobs the co-founder of Apple Inc died today.
The short video sums up some of his leadership characteristics, charismatic, driven, dictatorial and visionary.
De-layering: do firms need middle managers?
Middle managers have had a tough couple of decades. Many large firms sought to cut costs by removing levels of hierarchy from their organisational structure. Often it was the middle management ranks that felt the squeeze the hardest. Academics praised ‘flatter’ organisations and people like David Brent (from comedy TV series The Office) became the butt of jokes.
read more...»Leadership styles for effective change management - Morgan Freeman style
Many thanks to Tom Candler from Blundell’s School for suggesting this excellent movie clip which he uses when covering leadership styles. A good example of autocratic management in action and, as Tom points out, it’s a lovely reminder for all teachers that life just isn’t so bad after all…
read more...»
