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Strategy and the crash
Robert Heller explains why the Second Great Crash is different from the First but all too similar to lesser crashes in between – and why it was completely avoidable. Contemporary management is obsolete
Management is out of date. Managers are failing to take advantage of a unique moment in history where the gathering pace of change opens the door to revolution and new types of organisation. Management styles: why things go wrong
Robert Heller discusses how, faced with rising complexity, managers make the situation worse with overly complicated reactions Business management and purpose
The context in which people work is of vital importance. That means articulating a concise and relevant purpose which defines the shared tasks of all staff. Business strategy in the age of opportunity
Opportunity always knocks. And adversity is the mother of opportunity. When the economic picture looks grim, there exist an increasing number of chances for generating bright new success. The lessons of total quality management
How could a project as high-profile and important as the opening of Heathrow airport's new Terminal Five have gone so disastrously awry at such a sensitive moment? Robert Heller dissects the fiasco. The plutocrat's new clothes
The Millennial economy represents the era of the Naked Plutocrat. While their super-fortunes are alleged to be rewards for super-success, they are beginning to resemble a much earlier group of self-servers: the Robber Barons. The folly of following figures
How many managers ever pause to consider whether the numbers are guiding them and their businesses in the right direction? Perhaps their priorities need to balanced more in favour of innovation. The strategy expert who made it happen
Sir John Harvey-Jones, who died in January, represented a rare breed. What made him stand out wasn't just his management know-how – it was also the human dimension. Learning by example
Most managers accept that a subject is teachable and that the lessons, once taught, will bring benefit to them and their companies. But that doesn't stop too mnay of them wasting their time and money by listening to advice they are never going to take. Incentive strategy and managing mistakes
To what extend should incentives be used as a business strategy? Does motivation naturally follow incentives? Why are gross errors made and how can you protect against them? And how exactly can you use error as a foundation for excellence? Leadership and management
Management has always been difficult to classify. Managers and management gurus often disagree as to whether the activity is art or science or craft or discipline, or whether it is inspirational or mathematical. Echoes of the conglomerates
The rise and fall of the giant conglomerates of the 1970s was inevitable. But why? And how exactly do the causes relate to the boom of private equity we see today? Chief Growth Officers
It is often said of the over-managed company that there are 'too many chiefs and not enough Indians'. Whatever the veracity of that statement, management certainly has more Chiefs than it used to - not all of them useful. Companies – what are they for?
The most important question a company has to answer is: what is it for? How and why has it gained success? What isn't working at the moment? Could it be time to make a new start with new ideas? Company management the Nucor way
Want to know how to run a successful business? Dan DiMicco, CEO of US steel giant, Nucor, has a simple answer. "Hire the right people, give them the resources and tools, and get the hell out of the way." Leadership strategy
There's a natural lifespan for human beings which seems to be accompanied by a natural leadership span. That's why top managers are seldom as effective in their older years. Paradoxes and fusion management
There are many paradoxes in a manager's world, which is why I advocate Fusion Management, a technique that recognises there are very few absolutes but a world of endless trade-offs. Leading management
Managers need leadership and leaders need management in an indivisible, mutual partnership. And one thing that is fundamental to effective leadership is the ability to relate to others. Shining Apple
One great decision can negate many slip-ups in strategy on the road to success - something that the chequered relationship between Steve Jobs and Apple highlights particularly clearly. From affluence to opulence
The rules of capitalist competition are changing in basic and perhaps dangerous ways. From the the Age of Affluence, we are now in the Age of Opulence. But history suggests that somehow, somewhere, the Age of Opulence is sowing the seeds of its own decay. Right and left-brain management styles
Different management styles can originate from the left or the right side of the brain. The left side has a devotion to numbers, analysis and logic, the right with more romantic ideas and imagination. The important thing is getting the right balance between the two. Managers and power
Every now and then journalists get obsessed with identifying the most powerful women in business. But what does 'power' actually mean - and what about it's limitations? Forty years later
More managers than ever before know what they should be doing and more actually do it. But there are still too many who know what to do and then do the exact opposite. Pinpointing such easy failure and eliminating it is the hard task managers should not avoid. The sales-marketing balance
The battle between sales and marketing reflects a grave failure to manage effectively. Because if the two don't pull together for successful business development, the bottom line will be destroyed by the errors at the top. The pirates of pay
Schemes for enriching top managers are scandals which - despite all the attacks on them - are actually getting worse. What's more, they don't deliver the goods - except to the greedy pirates. Dropping the pilot
There is an importance and interest to the remarkable events taking shape at Microsoft that go far beyond the company's customers, employees, investors, competitors and suppliers. Corporate culture
Corporate culture is far more than the general philosophy which animates the company. Yet properly defined and developed, it is the basis for achieving outstanding success. Danger of the double cults
U.S. corporations have become victims of a double disaster: the Cult of the Chief Executive and the Cult of Shareholder Value. They don't work now and they never did - because both are based on false premises. Complex management
High-tech management tools don't just have to be used in situations that are new and technical. Indeed, innovative creativity is where fresh approaches to management are most needed. Management measures
Scandalous management rewards work against top managers' performance because the more the misuse of corporate funds for the personal enrichment of executives becomes the norm, the more the long-term health of the business is endangered. Founders' fortunes
How far can the the founder of a business take their success? Surprisingly, the percentage of founder-CEOs who go the distance is extremely low. But why? Management psyche
Businesses and managers who rely on the supposed wisdom of pundits and forecasters are playing a dangerous game. Far better to do your own thinking and not rely on the emotional crutch of an 'expert'. Drucker's way
Austrian-born lecturer, consultant and writer Peter Drucker died recently at the age of 95 but his ideas will continue to influence all managers, whether they are aware of it or not.
The entrepreneurial age
Entrepreneurs might not necessarily be more skilled than those less successful, but they have the knack of spotting opportunities and seizing their chances. Act two of the dot.com boom
The latest instalment of the internet frenzy has highlighted that being at the cutting edge of technology does not guard against the rot setting in. Space for ideas
Ideas are the raw material of management, and also much of its product. You can't accomplish any task, large or small, without using old ideas and forming new ones. Marvellous mavericks
Organisations need to grasp the value of mavericks because the best maverick managers make the world go round. Without them, many great companies and industries could not exist. The truth about teamwork
Why is good teamwork so difficult to achieve? One explanation is that sometime demon - human nature - rearing its ugly head. Soft versus hard
Management has always been thought of as a 'hard' discipline. The higher a manager rises, the greater his or her powers of command and the larger number of people who must obey the orders. Not any more . . . |
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