Apple and Innovation - Iconic Product Launches by Steve Jobs
As Steve Jobs exits the stage as CEO of Apple, here are some videos of the iconic product launches that have helped shape Apple into the firm and brand it is today. A fascinating trip down memory lane…
read more...»Leadership - Farewell to Steve Jobs
The resignation of Steve Jobs as CEO of Apple makes headline news today. There are some very useful profiles of Jobs and the success he has led at Apple in various online articles - some links are provided below.
read more...»Leadership - More Insights from Sir Terry Leahy
The 160 colleagues who attended the Business Teacher National Conference 2011 will never forget the hour we spent in the company of Sir Terry Leahy - one of Britain’s greatest businessmen. Here is a short video in which Sir Terry explains aspects of the Tesco growth story - BTNC2011 delegates will be familiar with a couple of the slides!
read more...»Sir Ken Robinson on Creative Leadership
My instinct is that leadership is going to be a key teaching topic for business departments in the near future and this short video featuring the wonderful Sir Ken Robinson is certainly worth showing to students…
read more...»Rupert Murdoch and Leadership - Should a CEO Know What’s Going On?
At the start of the lesson, explain to students that you are going to show them a series of questions and answers with a CEO of a major global corporation employing 53,000 people. What leadership characteristics might students expect that CEO to exhibit? Energy & enthusiasm about his/her business? Quick and sharp replies to questions? Polished answers to probing questions? Then show them a clip of Rupert Murdoch appearing before the Commons Culture, Media & Sport Select Committee….
read more...»Women’s effect on corporate decision making
There’s a big debate to be had over society’s ambitions to see more women in the boardroom. The Guardian adds to this discussion by quoting from a report that has tried to analyse the effect of Norway’s quota system, in which the state says at least 40% of the board members of listed companies should be women. Female membership on British corporate boards now “edges up” to 13.3%.
read more...»Shareholder revolt over executive pay at Burberry
One of the most important discussions in business is over the question of who matters most in decision making - shareholders, or a broader group of ‘stakeholders’.
Examples help illustrate the debate. Here’s one where the shareholders – the people who own the firm – clash with the managers of the business. The issue is the hot topic of the rewards claimed by top executives.
read more...»Leaders’ Weaknesses
Here’s a light-hearted one from the BBC in which Lucy Kellaway of the Financial Times identifies the worst features of typical Chief Executive Officers (CEOs). Have a guess before you look at the list below.
Almost all the bosses who were interviewed gave the usual responses that reveal a lack of self-knowledge and a quite extraordinary willingness to give themselves the benefit of the doubt. Typically they will admit to weaknesses that are really strengths – “I work too hard”, “I’m a perfectionist” etc.
read more...»Lessons from the Tesco Growth Story courtesy of Sir Terry Leahy
It was a delight to welcome Sir Terry Leahy, CEO of Tesco plc for the last 14 years, to the Business Teacher National Conference 2011. Sir Terry generously gave over an hour of his time to present his perspectives on Tesco’s growth strategy and to field a range of terrific questions from a packed audience at the Sir Henry Wellcome Auditorium.
read more...»Leadership, Culture and Trust - A Letter from Sir Richard Branson
Many thanks to Louise Lucas who has alerted me to this fabulous resource which can be used to help teach a variety of topics, including leadership, employee relations, corporate culture etc.
read more...»Nokia and Strategic Change - the Essential A2 Business Case
I can’t think of a better case study than Nokia for students to research as an essential part of their advanced business studies. Nokia is a global brand, a market leader and a firm rich in heritage. But it faces a strategic crisis which is caused by a range of external and internal factors that are core to A2 and similar business strategy specifications. In this note, we’ve outlined some of the main strategic issues facing Nokia and linked to recent supporting resources which students should examine. A well-prepared student getting ready to wow the examiner with relevant evidence-based research in an essay should be ready to include Nokia in an answer!
read more...»ResearchBuster: New Leaders and Strategic Change
The appointment of a new CEO often arises when a business wants and/or needs to achieve a significant change in performance and strategic direction. Students writing about key topics such as leadership, internal causes of change, culture and strategic decision-making need to have some real-life examples in mind when they write their exam answers. This research buster will provide a series of examples of firms which had opted to seek new leadership as part of a strategic change programme. We’ll add additional examples and update relevant resource links as often as we can.
read more...»CSR & Strategy - Why the Cooperative Group changed to survive
A brilliant article here from the excellent UK team at Ernst & Young which features an interview with Peter Marks, the CEO of The Co-operative Group. Perfect for last minute revision for AQA BUSS4 students…
read more...»Leadership - a crisis of confidence?
Students researching leadership for upcoming A2 exams will find some useful evidence here to include in their analysis….
read more...»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...»CSR reporting - Global Leaders awards
Two of my students found this report on Thursday - well done Natasha and Robyn! - while researching news reports about Nestle. The Lundquist Global Leaders ranking assesses how the world’s most sustainable companies are communicating corporate social responsibility (CSR) online. It hits the button for AQA research bullet point 5 - the value and limitations to businesses and stakeholders of social reporting - and while the list of companies who they consider best at social reporting is interesting (Nestle came second), I think the most valuable part of the report are the comments made in the press release about how businesses deal with such reporting and the importance they place (or don’t place) on it.
read more...»Stop Press - Business Nightmares on TV
I have just seen details of a new series starting on BBC tonight, in which “Evan Davis uncovers the scarcely believable stories of how some of the world’s most successful businesses have made monumental mistakes.”
In the first episode, titled Doomed Designs, they are looking at “changing the formula of one of the world’s favourite soft drinks (Coke), launching a detergent so powerful that tests showed it shredded consumers’ clothes (Persil), and pricing a certain car model too low (Mini)” - some more background on these three stories here. Contributors to the programme include Sir James Dyson and Sir Richard Branson - if you miss it tonight (BBC2 at 8pm) it will be on again overnight on Thursday - times shown in the link here. The second episode next week is to be called Marketing Mess-ups.
Sounds like essential progamming for A2 students in particular - perhaps as a good break from revision? And of course that other business nightmare, The Apprentice, starts again on Tuesday at 9 on BBC1.
If you can spare the time between past papers, there was another good programme last night, Lord Sugar Tackles Football. The BBC blurb about it says “Lord Sugar, one of the country’s leading entrepreneurs and a football fan, investigates the business side of the beautiful game. Despite generating billions in TV and other income, the professional English game is struggling to make ends meet. Most Premier League clubs are in the red, and debt stands at 3.3 billion pounds. Lord Sugar interviews bosses, owners, agents and players and asks what has gone wrong, who is to blame and what can be done. In typically forthright fashion, he delivers his verdict and his own business blueprint designed to help the game he has followed since childhood.” I heard him being interviewed about it yesterday morning and it did sound worth setting the recorder for - repeated on BBC2 at 23.30 on Tuesday 10th.
CSR and Business Legislation - The Bribery Act comes to town
From the first of July, businesses will have another piece of legislation to deal with when the Bribery Act comes into law. This was proposed and passed in 2010 just before the election last May, and in the last year the government have been determining the precise way in which it should be put into practice. There are good reasons for it, to establish the country’s position as a global leader in the fight against business corruption – the UK currently holds a strong position in the World Bank’s rankings of economies for their ease of doing business. A high ranking on the ease of doing business index means the regulatory environment is more conducive to the starting and operation of a local firm, and in June 2010 the UK was fourth on this register (behind Singapore, Hong Kong and New Zealand). London was ranked top amongst the Top 50 Cities for Doing Business, and the regulatory environment is a key aspect of this.
read more...»Leadership and the Golden Circle
Anyone covering leadership with A Level Business students really must share this fantastic video with them from the fantastic site www.ted.com
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”
Leadership - a triumph of youth over experience?
Leaders, like policemen, seem to be getting younger. Don’t take my word for it. There is some useful evidence and examples here which make the point, in this Independent article on the age profile of the UK’s leading CEOs.
read more...»AQA unit 4 - some really good evidence here
Wake up to Money, which is broadcast every morning at 5.30 on Radio 5, is often a good source of stories and anecdotes. It was particularly good today - and the excellent news is that you don’t have to set the alarm for that unearthly hour to hear it as you can download the Podcast. It will be well worthwhile for all AQA unit 4 students spending 20 minutes taking notes from today’s programme - they will start with a useful preview of the release of the updated GDP figure for quarter 4 of 2010, giving some good background data.
The interview that follows, with the CEO of Pret a Manger is gold dust - he talks about the figures that Pret have just released which show a big rise in sales and profits, despite rising commodity prices and a tough climate on the high street. His description of the relations with suppliers and marketing mix strategies that Pret have followed to allow them to achieve this through the recession should be noted and quoted as evidence in BUSS4 essays.
Finally, figures out this morning from the Internet Advertising Bureau show online advertising grew nearly 13% last year and now accounts for 25% of all advertising spending in the UK, and some more background is given for that data. Here is another little nugget that could be useful to prove to the examiner that candidates really know what they are talking about when it comes to strategic management - so please do use the links below!
Wake up to Money 29th March on i-player - available for 6 days from now
Wake up to Money podcast
Brief TV interview with Clive Schlee of Pret a Manger (...but the radio interview covers more ground)
Report about the study by the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB)
Howard Schultz - A Changed Starbucks. A Changed C.E.O
Perfect timing for all A2 Business students (and an essential addition to any self-respecting scheme of work) - this New York Times article takes an in-depth look at the roll CEO Howard Schultz has played in the business strategy at Starbucks.
read more...»CSR - An Interview with Paul Polman (Unilever)
A fantastic interview here in the latest (March 2011) edition of Management Today with Paul Polman - the CEO of Unilever. We featured Polman during our AQA BUSS4 CPD days recently and I was a little surprised that no-one in the audience recognised him! Perhaps the reason is that he keeps a relatively low media profile. But the impact he is having on the business strategy at Unilever is significant - and the firm should be a required research source for all BUSS4 students.
read more...»Nokia: a business culture problem?
As Jim points out in his blog, there’s plenty of material in Nokia’s recent announcements to keep business students busy. I’ve picked up on a link that looks at their problems and presents them as a case study in a failing business culture.
read more...»Corporate Social Responsibility priority? Increase profits…
This of course was the view most famously expressed by one of the 20th century’s most important economists, Milton Friedman. A battle has since raged between those like Friedman who think that “the social responsibility of business is to increase its profits” and other groups taking a wider view, including many top firms (and the UK parliament in 2006 who passed the Companies Act).
read more...»Leadership - can Apple really be a one-man band?
Steve Jobs has come to define Apple. He leads and fronts the big product launches. He is rumoured to be intimately involved in the new product development process. So what happens when, again, Jobs has to take time away from the business to concentrate on his well-reported health challenges. This BBC Magazine article asks whether a business like Apple can really be a one-man band? How important is the leadership of an iconic CEO? Great for BUSS4 leadership studies.
Lessons in leadership
Are leaders born or made? Is there a list of ingredients for the perfect leader? And can you train people to improve their leadership skills? This is the topic in a great 2-part radio investigation on Radio 4, called Follow the Leader.
Lots of contributions from business,politics and sport as well as examples from all aspects of history, and there is an accompanying article to introduce the programmes as well. This could be worth bookmarking and using to introduce the topic to A2 students after they have dealt with the January exams.
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...»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...»
