Professional Manager November 2011

ARTS OF INSPIRATIONDiscover your literary leadership muse

cONFlIcT clAShIs it ever right to fight?

BRAIN DRAINWhy the best talent still slides south

Olympics building boss Dennis Hone on how he saved the public a fortune

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the chartered management institute magazine WInTER 2011/12

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Chartered Management Institute (CMI)Management House, Cottingham Road, Corby, Northamptonshire NN17 1TT t 01536 207307e [email protected] www.managers.org.uk

Acting Chief Executive Chris KinsellaDirector of Marketing and Communications Simon Dolph

Editor Ben WalkerSenior Sub-editor Gemma GreenEditorial Assistant Rebecca KearleyAccount Director Sam GallagherPublishing Director Ian McAuliffe

Advertise with us: For all enquiries, contact Michael Coulsey (t 020 8962 1261, e [email protected]) or Vicci Rule (t 020 8962 2942, e [email protected])

Professional Manager © 2011. Published on behalf of CMI by Think, The Pall Mall Deposit, 124-128 Barlby Road, London W10 6BL t 020 8962 3020 e [email protected] www.thinkpublishing.co.uk

Member of the Audit Bureau of Circulations 80,948 1 July 2010 to 30 June 2011

Daisy McAndrewITN’s special correspondent talks to Olympics chief Dennis Hone p24

Iain HollingsheadNovelist and Daily Telegraph journalist takes a satirical look at leaders from the arts p28

Peter RodgerMotoring expert Peter Rodger rolls into the Professional Manager team p42

Professional Manager Winter 2011/12

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Contributors

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CMI is incorporated by Royal Charter and registered as a charity (No. 1091035). CMI does not necessarily agree with, nor guarantee the accuracy of, statements made by contributors or advertisers or accept responsibility for any statements which they may express in this publication. ISSN 0969-6695©C

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features

news & views

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07 Briefing Even Steve Jobs knew that great managers are made not born, says Simon Dolph

08 FeedbackYour letters and why being punctual won the Secret Staffer praise

12 AgendaMichael Skapinker’s essentials plus CMI conference and news

19 View from WestminsterBaroness Prosser on looking after your workforce in a slump

20 DebateIs it ever right to fight?

50 AOBSimon Caulkin on the golden rules of innovation

24 McAndrew meets… Dennis HoneITN’s special correspondent discovers how the man charged with building the Olympics saved the public nearly a billion pounds

28 Leadership, by the bookMeet the motivators: Shakespeare, Machiavelli and Sun Tzu. Iain Hollingshead examines the management style of literary greats

32 Mind spaces New office designs are changing the workplace, says Leon Walker

34 Brains sink south The new Enterprise Zones aren’t powerful enough to stem the endless slide of talent to London, writes Dave Fawbert

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39 PM profileChartered Manager of the Year Colonel Neale Moss OBE

40 MasterclassCaitlin Mackesy Davies leads you on a voyage of discovery

42 Fleeting thoughtsNew motoring columnist Peter Rodger on beating the snow trap

43 The personnel touchAlison Blackhurst on how to stop the Christmas party turning sour

44 Reviews and eventsBooks rated – and our events diary to keep you in the know


On THe WeBWith free checklists, e-learning modules, podcasts and an “ask the researcher” service at www.managers.org.uk/managementresources, the latest thinking is just a click away.

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as a cmi member, you have access to a comprehensive range of products and services, all designed to help you on your path to management success

GeT MORe FROM CMi

Simon Dolph, director of marketing and communications, CMI

As readers of editor Ben Walker’s Steve Jobs obituary on the new Professional Manager website will discover, there were many facets of Jobs’ personality one would not wish to replicate. Yet the great innovator certainly had something going for him. What he did well was to inspire: his natural charisma and remarkable imagination almost made up for his failings in his interaction with subordinates. However, reports after his tragic death revealed that far from seeing himself as a one-off, Jobs had charged Apple’s internal university with developing the next generation of inspirational innovators, to ensure the IT giant would continue to sparkle in his wake. Perhaps this unpolished maverick knew something about management after all?

By 2017, the UK will need a net 2.2 million new managers. However, there is more to this mind-boggling equation than the daunting question of how we find enough brains to fill those berths. The sum is a psychological puzzle as much as a mathematical one. We need those brains to want to manage; to want to lead.

Inspirational managers are made, not born. The very best may be genetically predisposed to greatness, but you still have to polish a diamond. Take Red Bull Formula 1 team boss Christian Horner, a reportedly brilliant brain who took the outfit in just seven seasons from perennial also-rans to back-to-back title winners, eclipsing the great names of Ferrari and McLaren in the process. Yet even Red Bull itself admits that its great leader’s skills aren’t the product of God-given genius. Rather, they are born of hard work, experience and training. Horner’s motor sport career began with

Can Apple replace Steve Jobs?

It seems Jobs himself thought so

a vital grounding at the less-glamorous Formula Renault, which he followed with stints in Formulas 3 and 2. “The seeds of his current success were sown during that early career,” says Red Bull Racing.

Training is the key to everything, especially to magic intangibles such as inspirational leadership. That’s why CMI provides courses, resources and ideas for creating the next generation of stellar managers. What will not work is leaving company futures to chance by promoting juniors without the relevant training into management roles, and expecting them to be natural leaders of people when they get there. They may be able to muddle through, they may be effective at day-to-day processes. But inspired – and inspiring – they will not be. Those who cannot lead people, cannot change processes. Without change at the right times, UK businesses will wither.

Apple’s shares fell on the news of Steve Jobs’ death, as traders feared the brand would be compromised without its mercurial leader. Those traders may well be wrong. Jobs knew how to inspire, and told Apple to train its future leaders to do the same. Thanks to Jobs’ forethought, it seems Apple has great leaders in reserve. Do you?

Find out more about great leadership from our ManagementDirect service at bit.ly/mdleadership

Read our Steve Jobs obituary at bit.ly/pmstevejobs

08 _ professional manager _ Winter 2011/12

Your chance to comment on management matters

Fair’s fair Tom Peck’s feature on fairness and Daisy McAndrew’s interview with Trades Union Congress general secretary Brendan Barber (September/October issue) both raise important issues. Yet neither journalist mentions the work of Elliott Jaques and the Glacier Project – which may be history but should not be forgotten.

Those working in an industrial hierarchy were found to have a very strong sense of what was a proper reward for their contribution. Jaques called it felt-fair pay and was able to use it as a tool in organisation analysis. He found that when pay differentials fell outside the felt-fair pay bands there was discontent in the workforce. Employees who feel that they have done a good honest job and contributed to the success of the enterprise expect to see that rewarded. They do not appreciate directors and top executives getting all the kudos and cash. When this happens it leads to strained industrial relations and often trade union action.

l why blogging can benefit you as a manager“No single thing in the past 15 years professionally has been more important to my life than blogging,” says US business management author Tom Peters. Indeed, far from being a pastime, blogging can improve our skills as bosses.www.managers.org.uk/blogging

l Profits before ethics? Britain’s bosses are prioritising profits over

principles, according to a Financial Times report that fuels the controversy sparked by Labour leader Ed Miliband’s division of the business world into “producers” and “predators”.www.managers.org.uk/ethics

l British workers less stressed than europeans A Cambridge academic has claimed that British workers are less stressed than those in continental

Europe – due to the early adoption of computers in the UK.www.managers.org.uk/stressed

PRize LeTTeR

latest discussions on www.managers.org.uK

Managers should remember that the UK workforce is as good, or even better, than any in the world. Those bosses who believe otherwise should question their own management style and maybe go back and take lessons in motivation that used to be the vogue in the 1960s and 1970s. This country is already overpopulated and underemployed. We do not need to import more workers, but

rather learn how to use the ones who are already here. Barrie Skelcher MCMI, BSc, MSC, MRSC, C Chem, MSRP, C Rad P no woman, no cryKayleigh Ziolo’s debate piece (September/October issue) asks whether it is okay to cry at work. In my view, to answer her question, we need to examine two things.

First, we need to look at the sector. As Dan Hill says in the piece, it is acceptable for sports people to cry. This is because they are using their emotions, aggression and passion as part of their job... crying when they succeed or fail in their goal is a more natural outcome, and so areas that need emotion in the job are going to consider crying as more acceptable. Where emotions are less needed in a job – for example in administration or accountancy – crying would, I imagine, be less acceptable.

Second, we need to look at gender. It is socially acceptable for females to cry in the office: some do it a lot.

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Barrie wins a spa break for two at Alexander House Hotel in West Sussex, courtesy of Virgin experience Days. Perfect for Christmas gifts, www.virgin experiencedays.co.uk is full of ideas for all budgets. Readers can enjoy 20% discount until 31 December 2011. enter code PROF20 at the online checkout. Call 0844 504 0844 for more information.

LeTTeRPRize

Gazza’s passion for football often ended in tears

GeT in TOuCH Send your views to [email protected]. Letters may be edited for length and clarity

Early computers linked to lower stress levels

This issue I’m discussing review time. Stressful for the monkeys, bureaucratic and time-devouring for the organ grinders. My store rates staff in 11 categories and each one has three possible ranks: e for “excelling”, V for “valued employee” and C for “could improve”. Of course, these terms are just management speech for good; okay; and “step it up, pal”.

I did pretty well on my last review. Nine Vs and two es. Only two es? I hear you cry. Well, under HR rules, no employee is allowed to be awarded more than two “excelling” ratings and is mandated to receive at least three suggestions for improvement. I’ll leave you to decide exactly how little sense that makes, while I discuss

one category in which I am officially a top performer: time management and attendance.

So what did I do to receive this A-grade rating on my timekeeping? Did I regularly volunteer to stay late or pick up extra hours when the shift hit the fan? No. Did I never swap shifts around with co-workers? No. Did I throw an unjustified sickie? No. In my book, my performance was merely adequate, the basic level one should attain, not a model for others and definitely not that of someone “excelling”. My record sounds pretty average, right? erm, wrong.

I discussed this a few days after my review with a colleague – let’s call her Sophie – who started at the same time as me, but rose through the ranks to become department head – surely a real exceller! I discovered that she agreed with me. Sophie explained that, in her book, my attendance level was the minimum, not the goal, but that the attendance level of staff in her department was so poor that, in comparison with my peers, I was, indeed, excelling. Consider the story she recounted of one of her staff, a 37-year-old lady whom we’ll call Angela. Angela didn’t turn up for two days and didn’t call to say she wouldn’t be there. When Sophie asked her why she didn’t at least call to say she wasn’t coming in she said: “Yeah sorry, I got in a fight.” Two days later she turned up drunk and was subsequently fired.

everything is indeed relative. And realising that eternal truth definitely affected my performance – and not in a good way. This is a job I tolerate rather than love and I was overachieving in my timekeeping and attendance. Realising I had far more leeway than I previously thought, I’ve relaxed a bit on the clock-watching front and, as such, have occasionally arrived late – although I haven’t yet sunk to the depths of spending 48 hours AWOL due to brawling. There are a few months until my next review, but I’ve still got a job so I’m obviously doing enough to cling onto it, which is really my overall goal. And my “excelling” department head colleague? She just got sacked. For poor attendance.


Letters

Average workers are becoming exceptional in a culture where staff attendance levels and timekeeping are not being taken seriously

THinkinG OF PuLLinG A “siCkie”?

The Secret Staffer

Although I think it is socially acceptable for a man to cry for personal reasons, it is not, however, socially acceptable for him to cry as a result of something work-related. Indeed, if a man cries at work I think this is likely to be a one-way street to a P45.Judy Craske MIC, CMC, CMgr, FCMI

Tears for fearsWhen examining whether it’s ever acceptable to cry at work, I think you need to factor in the effect of stress, which can often be work-related. Sometimes, when things have been building up, even a minor thing can be the proverbial straw that breaks the camel’s back. In such circumstances, tears act as a release of stress – without this outlet, the effect on the individual is potentially quite damaging.Jim Vasey CMgr, MCMI

The drugs do workAs the supplier of the smart drugs you tested (July/August issue) I

found the results interesting. In particular, I was rather

surprised that Picamilon scored the highest of

the lot.I wanted to make

a few comments on the other products, just so your readers don’t write nootropics off completely.

Sulbutiamine has its non-responders but, in any event, someone weighing 20st at a height of 6ft 6in would likely need to take more than the recommended dose. The product is probably our largest hit-or-miss supplement. Some love it, some feel nothing, so the result isn’t entirely surprising.

Nonetheless, thanks for testing the products and your subsequent write-up. It is good to get feedback.Raf, Mind Nutrition

Find out moreThe Secret Staffer’s experience shows how standards can slip if managers fail to keep poor attendance and timekeeping under control. For more tips on managing absence, visit www.managers.org.uk/absence

seCReT sTAFFeR


Insights from across the world of management

1 CBI to support primary education after riots

The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) said it might shift its focus from work experience to primary education following August’s riots in England. John Cridland, the CBI’s director-general, said raising education standards was crucial both to the development of the UK economy and to preventing further unrest. “The level of under-performers who make no progress between the ages of 11 and 16 tells you that you can’t solve the problem in secondary schools… perhaps we need a shift in investment,” he told the Financial Times. He praised a food company in Glasgow that sent factory workers to a primary school to help with children’s reading.

2 Relevant work experience more valuable

than degreesHR directors had comforting words for students whose A-level results did not win them a university place. In the last year before sharp increases in university fees, competition for places was intense and many missed out. A poll by YouGov found that 85% of HR professionals believed work experience was more valuable to job seekers than a non-vocational degree.

management minutesFinancial Times associate editor and management specialist michael skapinker lists his regular round-up of the top 10 news items for managers

4 Relief at increase in A-level maths and science

The CBI was, however, still concerned with secondary school results, although it welcomed the increasing number of pupils studying maths and science A-levels. Dr Neil Bentley, CBI deputy director-general, said: “We’re encouraged that people have heeded the call to study A-level maths and science, but numbers are still low and must increase to meet employer demand. There is already a skills gap, with more than 40% of companies having difficulty recruiting people with science, technology, engineering and maths skills.”

6 Boardroom diversity consultationThe Financial Reporting

Council (FRC) has begun consulting on whether companies should provide an annual report on their policy on gender diversity on their boards of directors. This was one of the recommendations in Lord Davies’ review on women on boards. Baroness Hogg, who chairs the FRC, said diverse

boards broadened perspectives.

7 But some disagree…The Institute of

Directors responded to the FRC’s

consultation

For the latest management news and views, visit www.managers.org.uk

5 TUC hits back at health and safety “myths”

The Trades Union Congress (TUC) said that the Health and Safety Executive’s (HSE) campaign to show that many of its rules were myths should not be used to undermine workplace safety. HSE denied, for example, that it was trying to prevent people celebrating the royal wedding. Brendan Barber, TUC general secretary, said the absence of workplace issues from HSE’s list of myths showed the idea that the UK had an over-zealous health and safety culture was itself a myth.

3many workers still not taking lunch breaksnearly a third of

workers – 30% – said they didn’t take a regular lunch break, according to a survey by Aviva Health. This was, however, an improvement on 2009, when 37% said they didn’t take regular lunch breaks. Pressure from employers to skip lunch was a less significant factor than the availability of food. Some 43% said their managers encouraged them to take lunch breaks but that eating options at the office were too limited.


news

by saying that, while it shared the concern about the low number of female directors, tightening reporting requirements on this issue alone would not be a good idea. Gender was just one aspect of diversity. It said companies should be encouraged to report on broader diversity characteristics, including professional background, nationality, age, education, sector experience and personality.

8 Family business workers happier Employees of family-

owned businesses are happier, more loyal and work harder than employees in other companies or in public sector organisations. A study for the Unquoted Companies Group found that employees in these companies put in such long hours that they effectively work an extra day every week. More than 20% of UK workers are employed by family.

9 Headhunters pledge to nominate female candidates

A group of 19 executive search firms responded to the Lord Davies review by pledging that at least 30% of their longlists for director’s position on FTSE 350 companies would be made up of women. The headhunters said that they would consider “relevant skills and intrinsic personal qualities”.

10 Highest paid do better than everA report by

the independent High Pay Commission showed that, in 2002, FTSE 100 lead executives could expect bonuses worth 48% of their salaries. By 2010, the figure had risen to 90% of their salaries. Directors’ base salaries also increased by 63.9% over 10 years. The average grant of shares that a lead executive could receive rose from 100% of salary in 2002 to 200% in 2010.

0900 i start the coal fire in the kitchen, then sift through emails and listen to messages. I like to be ahead of the game.1000 the next stage is cleaning, and we divide tasks among the four or five people who work at the house. I don’t like to call the people I work with “staff”. We work together to create the experience. 1130 Before we open, I walk around to see if anything isn’t right. Presentation is everything in this house. It is set up to overwhelm you, to make you putty in our hands. A guest won’t notice if there is one candle missing or unlit, but I will. I see everything in detail in one glance. 1200 on monday afternoons more than 100 people come in over two hours. I’m very good at organising the flow of people in the house. Then I’ve usually got a few hours to relax and get the house ready for the evening session.1300 i may have a meeting with a journalist or a fashion editor. Movie stars visit the house to get into their roles, and we get visits from creative people, such as designers, who appreciate its sensory nature. Filming sometimes takes place and I love the way film crews work together. It’s like clockwork and similar to how we work together here. There is a closeness. 1430 in the winter, it’s dark in the house by now, and we need to run around to stay warm and to make use

of the light. We are open every day of the week, so it is a continuous story. 1700 once we open the doors we sink into a very calming experience. So many people leave the house with tears in their eyes, and that shows they have played our game and it works. That’s my only job: to give people a fantastic experience.2100 when our guests have left we put the “curfew on the fires”, snuff candles, and cover up some items to protect them from dust. Then we are done. I cannot wait to go home. I live a 15-minute bike ride away, which clears my mind and lets me leave the house behind.www.dennissevershouse.co.uk

THe MuseuM MAesTRO House manager at Dennis Severs’ House, Mick Pedroli, and his team cast spells that engage visitors to the attraction in Spitalfields, London, and usher them briefly into another time

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THe BOTTOM Line SHORT, SHARP AnD SMART SECRETS TO SUCCESS

“investing in your team is the secret to success. you are only as good as those you have the privilege to work with.” Tim Campbell, first UK winner of The Apprentice and founder of the Bright Ideas Trust


COnFeRenCe CHALLenGes MAnAGeMenT THinkinG Unimaginative thinking came under attack at CMI’s Management and Leadership Conference in London. Instead, fresh ideas and innovative approaches were on show

Men resist external coachingWomen are far more likely than men to use an external coach to develop their management and leadership skills, according to recent research.

Interim findings from CMI and Penna’s Impact of Management and Leadership Development study revealed that 40% of female respondents used an external management learning and development coach – compared to just 20% of men.

And, worryingly, the findings also revealed that 61% of women and 46% of men thought that the mentoring support they did have came too late in their careers.

The interim research was exclusively revealed at CMI’s Management and Leadership Conference in London.

london rail project starved of skillsA lack of skills means an infrastructure scheme cannot find enough workers, despite a recession and rising unemployment.

The Crossrail project, due to open in 2018, requires tunnelling under the city. But CMI president Terry Morgan – who is also Crossrail chairman – has warned of a lack of tunnelling experts.

“We will be employing 15,000 people, but the skills challenge is huge,” he said at CMI’s Management and Leadership Conference in London. “There are 500 tunnellers in the UK – an average age of 55 – but I need 1,000 tunnellers.”

Referring to staff as human resources can lead to managers failing to treat workers as individuals, a senior government adviser on employee engagement has warned.

David MacLeod, who has been commissioned by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, fired the warning at CMI’s Management and Leadership Conference in London. The language used by modern business risked staff

being seen as part of a mechanism rather than independent minds.

“[The popular terms are] human resources and human capital,” MacLeod said. “But actually they are individuals.”

He also discussed how leaders can get the best out of their workers. “[There needs to be] no gap between what the leaders say and what the employees see around them,” he warned.

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l A competition in which delegates were asked to match figures at the conference with their former jobs has been won by a management academic. Manchester Metropolitan University principal lecturer, senior learning and teaching fellow Chrissy Ogilvie matched all seven individuals to their former jobs. Congratulations Chrissy – we are sending you a bottle of 2002 vintage Dom Perignon champagne for your efforts.


Agenda

the director general of the national trust has won CMI’s highest honour for her outstanding leadership of the cherished charity.

Dame Fiona Reynolds DBe, who has overseen a boost in National Trust membership grow to four million for the first time, was handed the CMI Gold Medal in recognition of her brilliant work.

Under her tenure, the Trust, which protects more than 600,000 acres of land, has become one of the largest membership and volunteer charities in the world.

“Dame Fiona’s commitment, ability to manage resources and lead teams are skills that others should imitate,” said CMI president Terry Morgan.

Accepting the award, Dame Fiona said: “The National Trust is a place where our people – volunteers and employees – are committed to what they do. They all share in this award and in accepting it I thank them all very much.” CMi MAnAGeMenT

AnD LeADeRsHiP AWARD WinneRsPeople Management – Broadway Homelessness and Support

Outstanding Training Provider – enterprise Northern Ireland

Change Management – Birmingham City Council

Consultant of the Year – Phoebe Dunn, Director, Square Peg International

Practice of the Year – Square Peg International

Training and Development Management – Tube Lines

Young Achiever – Kate Speers, marketing manager, ShredBank (pictured)

Achiever in the Face of Adversity – Dr Jill Jameson, director of research and enterprise, School of education, University of Greenwich

Outstanding Leader – Dr Richard Wilson, chief executive, Tiga

Outstanding Management Team – Birmingham City Council

Outstanding Organisation – Tiga

Kate Speers (middle) won the award for Young Achiever of the Year

The chief executive of the trade association representing the video games industry, Tiga, has been named Cmi’s outstanding leader of the year. Dr richard Wilson (pictured) scooped

the accolade at the Cmi management and leadership awards in london.

at a time when Tiga was being threatened by its main competitor, Dr Wilson managed to turn the organisation’s fortunes around, increasing its membership by 47% in a year, its turnover by 62% and its profitability by 8%.

speaking at the ceremony, Dr Wilson said: “i’m exceptionally proud of my team and what we’ve achieved at Tiga.” it was a great night for the trade body, which also scooped the coveted outstanding organisation award. “it’s a huge honour to have my role recognised but especially for Tiga to be named outstanding organisation,” Dr Wilson added. l Colonel Neale Moss won National Chartered Manager of the Year (see page 39).

gAMINg boSS RoMPS To vICToRY

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Dragon breathes fire on business mantrathe customer is no longer king.That is the message from Dragons’ Den star Deborah Meaden. Instead of kings, the multimillionaire said clients should be “respected friends”. “The customer is king?” Meaden asked delegates at CMI’s Management and Leadership Conference in London. “I think that sits in the olden days… I don’t think

the customer is king. I don’t think the customer wants to be king. They want to be a respected friend.”

Meaden warned that the days of customers dictating to suppliers were over. Suppliers should strive to work out what customers want. “When you ask customers, ‘what else would you like to see?’ they don’t offer anything inspirational.”

Meaden added that business must become more like friendship.


Blamestorming 1. v The act of deciding who or what is to blame for a failure. 2. n A meeting held to investigate the cause of a

problem or project failure. Sure, you might be told it’s a “postmortem” when you get the emailed invite, but why not study the last

series of The Apprentice for boardroom survival tips just in case? This will make sure it’s not you that ends up on the slab.

MAnAGeMenT sPeAk

Satisfaction scoresThe latest management research in numbers

37% of graduates are “very satisfied” with their career three years after leaving higher education.

Source: Higher Education Statistics Agency. The data reflects opinions of 2006/07 leavers

49% of business travellers are “very likely” to replace their number one choice hotel brand in favour of a brand at a similar location and cost point that offered free WiFi.

Source: BDRC Continental, British Hotel Guest Survey

80% of UK workers say they get to use their strengths at work, while more than 83% say they are satisfied with the work they do.

Source: Gallup Healthways’ 2011 Well-Being Index

Words of wisdomCMI’s drive to create an online knowledge-transfer marketplace for management research is booming. CMI’s Top Management Articles enable academics in UK business schools and universities to share their most accessible and relevant research – and have them rated by an audience of 90,000 practitioners. All articles and reviews can be freely viewed and downloaded by anyone via CMI’s website, although only CMI members may post reviews and ratings. At the last count the initiative has attracted more than 50 articles from an impressive range of universities. Tap into the wisdom of the UK’s best management brains now at www.managers.org.uk/toparticles

Colin Miller has won CMI’s inaugural Ambassador blogging competition. All entries to the CMi Share competition were put out to syndication – Colin’s entry achieved the highest audience.

Blogging gives managers a higher profile. “I now blog fairly regularly,” said Miller. “This awesome new world is, without doubt, the people you ‘meet’ – a former special agent with the FBI… people from just up the road to the other side of the world.” For more information on the Ambassador Programme contact Daniel Symonds on [email protected]

Blog top dog

Link upUniversity partnership Linking London and CMI joined forces to create new opportunities for learners to develop the skills demanded by UK organisations. Under the memorandum of understanding, CMI and Linking London will be able to work with academic institutions to introduce leadership skills development as part of the schools curriculum. For more information please visit www.linkinglondon.ac.uk

Professional Manager goes onlineWish you could find that brilliant Professional Manager article at the touch of a button? Want to invite your colleagues to join the debate over the key management questions? Fancy testing your own management skills on interactive features? now you can.

The new Professional Manager website will provide the perfect electronic foil to Professional Manager magazine. It will incorporate web-exclusive journalism from the sharpest writers, interactive features and the bright visuals that readers expect from the relaunched Professional Manager brand. seARCH – your favourite articles from the magazine at your fingertips. DisCOVeR – fresh web-only content, including brilliant new sections. DeBATe – get interactive! Let us – and the world – know your views on managers’ styles, key management issues and current trends

Log on today at professionalmanager.co.uk

Agenda


AgendaPOLiCy WATCH

market reforms should boost student lives

With university applications slumping, government moves to place students at the heart of further education reforms have never been timelier, says CMI policy and research director Petra wilton

You might say that Bis has been busy. A flurry of consultations has emanated from

the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills as the reality of exposing our further and higher education systems to greater competition starts to hit home.

The concept of placing students’ interests at the heart of reforms is likely to have a significant impact on the university system, especially those that, historically, were driven by research excellence rather than student experience. Arguably, this new approach has never been more pertinent – applications for UK university places are down 9% from this time last year. The University and Colleges Admissions Service (Ucas) has revealed that just under 70,000 people have applied for places in 2012. At this time last year, the number was almost 77,000.

The number of older students applying for university has dropped even faster. From those aged over 25, applications have dropped by 20%, and from those aged over 40, applications are down by 28%.

It’s clear that the consequences of the new funding landscape, with

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cuts to teaching grants, reduced capital investment and increased student fees, will be unknown for a while. But the decisions to allocate some places on price are likely to see the re-emergence of a two-tier system. In the elite camp, there will be a few universities bidding for highly qualified students, with more staff and higher levels of resources. But we are likely to find a larger proportion of students will be taught at universities in the lower tier, through a combination of distance learning, colleges and private sector providers.

But it is not yet clear how students will respond. If Ucas figures are anything to go by, students are likely to hold back. Given that higher education is still oversubscribed, it is unlikely that this drop in applications will affect too many institutions.

Students will increasingly be looking for value for money, and there will be a much greater emphasis on the student experience and satisfaction levels. Students will consider their future employability and universities may begin relationships with

employers to help provide routes into employment.

In terms of supporting students, professional bodies such as CMI are well placed to offer management modules to undergraduates. Through our Campus CMI initiative, we will be exploring how we can offer universities and colleges more access to employment experiences.

However, a university degree is not the only desirable route to employment. We welcome the government’s focus on raising the profile of vocational routes.

Yet, at a time when economic growth is more important than ever, the value of university-led research is also fundamental and should not be ignored. As we await the outcomes of the government’s Growth Review at the end of November, we will seek further recognition of the economic benefits of our education system.

There are already some successful partnerships between universities, colleges, professional bodies and employers. It is through these relationships that we will build the skills, capacity and research needed to grow UK plc.

nOTiCes

two chartered managers have been elected to the Board of trustees. Judy Craske CMC, MIC, CMgr, FCMI and Ian Maceachern OBe, CMgr, FCMI will serve for three years. Judy and Ian will fill the two seats that fall vacant each year. There are six seats for elected members in total. Voting in the 2011 elections began in September and closed in October in advance of the CMI Annual General Meeting (AGM). Announcing the results at the AGM on 20 October, CMI president Terry Morgan congratulated the successful candidates and expressed thanks to all nominees.

In other news, the CMI annual report and financial statements were unanimously

adopted at this year’s AGM. BDO LLP was reappointed as Auditor of the Institute.

A Special Resolution on the AGM agenda proposed amendments to the bye-laws in relation to the membership grades, the intention being to embed Chartered Manager within the grade structure. This Resolution was passed unanimously. The bye-law changes remain subject to Privy Council approval. If approved, the Institute will revise and relaunch Chartered Manager, the aim being for it to grow in numbers and recognition, while retaining the rigour of the award. There will be further member communication and consultation as this project progresses.

New student diet: university is becoming less about traditional student experiences and more about getting the most out of an education to secure a job


leading role in the world’s economic development.

Second, we need to invest in education and training, to support pupils making choices, to create opportunities for work experience and to enable employers to build relationships with schools. We need investment in vocational training, including opportunities for people to retrain or to take up apprenticeships. Equally important are second chances for women after children. Increasing women’s participation in the workplace could be worth £15-23 billion each year.

Third, we need to invest in research. High-volume manufacturing is unlikely to return to this country, which is all the more reason to invest in innovation.

Finally, we need to acknowledge how far society has changed. Groups left behind will not tolerate being at the

bottom of the heap forever. Positive action programmes are needed to help employers understand that we cannot afford to leave great swathes of the population on the unemployment shelf.

Failure to act will not only see the UK become a has-been. It will also exacerbate the already unacceptable wealth gap and lead to an unhappy and divided society. lBaroness Prosser is a member of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Management and a CMI Companion.

one are the days when, educated or otherwise, qualified or not, a person could walk into a job and,

if they didn’t like it, simply move on to another one. The world of employment has changed drastically in recent decades, with implications for the economy, education, welfare and public services. Securing the UK’s future prosperity means recognising how change continues to affect us and acting accordingly.

During the 1980s, globalisation made itself felt and manufacturing took flight, commencing its quest for the cheapest dollar. Mines closed in their hundreds and new technologies took hold, introducing easier and faster methods of production. Much as I didn’t like the government’s policies at the time, the truth was that most of the job losses in the power industry were due to advancing technologies.

We have seen profound changes in the labour market since then. After a sharp fall in the 1980s, employment increased steadily, with an extra 4.8 million people in employment between 1992 and 2008. Yet, as a recent report by centre-left think tank the Institute for Public Policy Research showed, manufacturing employment fell by 31% during that time. The increases came in sectors such as real estate, up by 103%, and information and communication, up by 59%, as well as in health and social work, and education.

There have been numerous legislative responses, such as the right to request flexible working introduced by Labour. Despite the musings of some policy advisers – most of whom have never set foot in a workplace outside of Westminster – I believe these steps are recognised by most employers as both helpful and essential. There has also been an emphasis on education for all. I agree with the intention, but I question the bias towards academia at the expense of vocational training. The country needs people with practical skills, but we have seen too many young people convinced that a university education is the only or best option.

Of course, the financial situation is very difficult and it would be crass to pretend otherwise. But the Institute for Fiscal Studies has found that education spending is being slashed by more than 13%, the largest cut since the 1950s. By taking away Education Maintenance Allowances, collapsing the Future Jobs Fund, cancelling the right-to-work experience and increasing fees to attend university, the coalition government is taking this debate in completely the wrong direction.

So what do we need to do? First, we need a long-term strategy that recognises we are a global player – none of us will be thanked if we do not work to take a

View from Westminster

name Margaret Theresa Prosser, Baroness Prosser, OBEParty LabourPeerage Life peer of Battersea, London Borough of WandsworthBecame peer 2004Key roles Deputy chair, Equality and Human Rights Commission (since 2006),Labour Party treasurer (1996-2001),Trades Union Congress president (1996)Political compass Centre-left

VOTinG ReCORD greater autonomy for schools Strongly againsteu integration Strongly for stricter asylum system Strongly for

Developing the workforce with tailored-education measures and boosting the labour market with family-friendly policies are even more crucial in a slump, says Baroness Prosser

HeLPinG HAnDs neeDeD in HARD TiMes

“The uK needs people with practical skills, but too many people think university is the only option”

g

Too often conflict is talked about as being dysfunctional. it is actually far more worrying to be without it. We need sparks to harness creativity and innovation, and conflict avoidance causes the most damage within an organisation. When it comes to arguments, it is easy to look to the aggressors as the problem, but more often it is those who try to please everyone or run from issues altogether that are causing debate. it is very rare that i see people skilfully using arguments to a collective advantage – they tend to fear it and thus avoid it. Conflict is reality and a part of life, and it is time we embraced this in a positive way.

When facing disagreements with a colleague, be sure to confront them early. That doesn’t mean pick a fight, it just means you should get things out in the open before it simmers and escalates into a problem that is near impossible to resolve. The longer we have an issue on our minds, the more it spirals out of control. We lose sight of the person we are in conflict with as a human being and they simply become a problem.

i think there is increased conflict in today’s offices. This is due to several factors: diversity has increased rapidly, and often rules and attitudes have not moved quite as quickly. people are looking to assert themselves and their rights, which is a positive thing, but it is not always plain sailing. There is also a vast age range in the workplace, with as many as four generations, all with different expectations and needs.

The way we communicate has changed. email is good for facts, but when it comes to explanations it is better to have a face-to-face conversation. facial expressions and tone of voice are very important when confronting an issue.

it is vital to recognise when a good fight goes bad. You need to learn how to engage in a good fight and when to walk away from a bad one. and it is a skill that can be learned. many people think they do not have the capacity for conflict. The truth is we all just have different styles. But it’s not only about understanding the way in which you approach conflict yourself – you also need to understand other people’s ways of dealing with it. You should be as clear as possible about your needs. express your motives for taking that position. once we start talking, we can achieve productive and creative resolutions.

lYnne eisaguirreSpeaker, consultant and author of The Power of a Good Fight

yes

20_ professional manager _ Winter 2011/12

Do arguments in the workplace boost creativity? What happens when disagreement becomes conflict? Kayleigh Ziolo discovers the side effects of confrontation in the office

Is it ever right to fight?

It is right to debate, but not right to bulldoze your opinions through the office. i think shows such as The Apprentice contribute to this negative idea of business being a self-aggrandising, shouting environment, where everyone is ruthless and those in authority yell at subordinates. i speak to many young people who are put off the idea of business because of negative images, which is very sad. reality television presents people out

for their own personal gain. i don’t believe this is the intention of The Apprentice – it’s down to the final editing – but, as a result, this damaging view is broadcast to millions of people.

When debate becomes less about championing your views and more about self-importance, that is when argument becomes unacceptable. To raise your voice just to assert authority is destructive and, in fact, gets you nowhere.

Whatever your cause or belief, your physical state is as important as your mental state. You cannot have a positive mental attitude unless you manage your physicality. in stressful situations, whether feeling passionate about something or in conflict, you can find that you tense up, with your energy rising to the top of your chest. This will make you look and feel less confident. Before presenting your arguments, make sure you lower your centre of gravity – either by relaxing physically or by breathing deeply. This increases the oxygen to your brain and enables you to think more quickly so that your words will be more cogent. The oxygen will also enhance your peripheral vision. This is vital: in a heightened-stress state you can develop tunnel vision – they don’t call it narrow-mindedness for nothing – and you cannot see how everyone around you is reacting to what you say.

people who remain at a high centre of gravity are in fight mode – they become interested only in winning. a healthy balanced debate is indeed vital for business, to generate ideas and allow creativity. However, if people are only in it to make a point, those around them will realise this, and things will descend into conflict. a shouting match is never acceptable, and once you engage in one with a colleague, so much tension is created it is often difficult to restore relations.

You should be looking to achieve something. if you are not true to yourself, and only want to win the debate, you should step out of the arena.

Jo oustonDirector of Jo Ouston & Co Career Coaching and Personal Presence and former CMI Head of Advisory Services

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Debate

ake two different scenarios: You are working abroad in a client’s office when your laptop goes missing. Stolen or

lost, it doesn’t matter, the impact on your business is the same, and the cost and inconvenience can be significant.

The second, as your run of bad luck continues, sees a fire take hold at a nearby business premises, rendering your office unusable. Your team is unable to access the premises and it is threatening to cost you a great deal in terms of lost income and damage to your business reputation.

For CMI members, both examples represent two very different potential risks that can be damaging without the appropriate insurance in place.

Home insurance might not cover youMany home-based management consultants are under the misapprehension that their home contents insurance will cover any loss or damage to business equipment like laptops or a smart phone. Often this is not the case, and even if their home policy does pay out, it certainly won’t cover extras like loss of company data.

Considering a wider based office cover, to complement your existing professional indemnity insurance, should be high on every independent consultant’s list whether you work from home as a sole trader or operate from business premises as a limited company. Specialist small business insurer Hiscox offers an office insurance policy. This can be bought at a reduced rate by CMI members if you already have your professional indemnity insurance through the Institute.

As well as covering office contents which includes your business equipment for accidental damage or loss, the Hiscox policy covers other non-standard items


For more information and a quote, please contact Tim Evans on 020 7929 3400 or time@bannerman rendell.com

Advertorial

having good office insurance is good management

t

what if a fire or flood means you can’t work from your business premises? Hiscox also

offers business interruption cover as an option with its office insurance.

such as office artwork and visitors’ personal effects, which are covered as standard. Portable equipment can be added, giving you up to £25,000 in cover for items like laptops, Blackberries and other smartphones. In addition, if you have separate premises, buildings cover is also available with cover of up to £500,000.

An unwelcome interruptionIt’s not just your office contents that are at risk however. Going back to the earlier claims example, what if a fire or flood means you can’t work from your business premises? Hiscox also offers business interruption cover as an option with its office insurance. Business interruption will provide protection from unforeseen circumstances which result in your business being unable to operate from its normal premises. The policy includes a payment to make up the difference between your actual income and expected income following a fire or a theft, while it will also pay out up to 30% of the sum insured to cover the additional costs you incur in order to continue running your business, such as setting up a temporary office or recruiting additional staff.

Are you covered?Whether you are a home-based sole trader or a small business operating from your own premises, it is essential that you consider how you are covered

in the event that your office is damaged or essential business equipment is lost. As for those claims we mentioned at the start of the article? The client’s laptop was replaced within two days. And the business that was unable to operate from its office was able to claim under its business interruption cover – so any financial loss was minimal.


McAnDReW MeeTs…

Dennis Hone is the first to admit he’s never tackled anything on such a, well, Olympic scale. But then again, who has? As the chief executive of the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA), Hone must deliver one of the biggest construction projects in Europe on a highly contaminated site with a deadline that, for obvious reasons, allows for no slippage.

“This is the pinnacle,” he says, with some slightly nervous lip-licking. “As soon as we won the bid it was the project I wanted to work on. But when I came to the project I thought: ‘This is a high-risk project – if we’re not on budget in two years we’ll all be fired.’ And that was a fair assumption – it happened in both Australia and Athens.” So who could blame Hone for being a tad dry of mouth? As we sit chatting in a café, we glance across the canal every now and then at the “as near as dammit finished” Olympic Park. The sheer scale of it would scare most people: this giant construction site spreads some 600 acres across a forgotten corner of east London. The dimensions are stunning. The press centre is the size of six football pitches, and required the use of the UK’s biggest fork lift during the erection of its steel frame. The velodrome’s cable-net roof is made from 56,500 feet of cables – almost twice the height of Mount Everest. But Hone says the trick is all in the preparation – and that started with getting on the right side of the locals. That said, he bridles when I suggest a PR push must have been needed. “PR often gets confused with spin,” he insists, “and spin doesn’t win people’s hearts.”

The trick, says Hone, is community engagement. “People fear change and the disruption that comes with it,” he says. “They fear that the new people

The man charged with delivering the Olympic Park tells ITN’s special correspondent Daisy McAndrew why earning £400,000 a year is justifiable – when you’ve saved the nation nearly a billion pounds

Dennis Hone

Interview


Milestones Dennis Hone’s key dates 1987 Financial controller, London Docklands Development Corporation1992 Deputy chief executive and director of finance, Commission for the New Towns 1999 Chief operating officer, english Partnerships 2006 Director of finance, Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA)2010 Chief executive, ODA

coming into the area will change its character. So working with local communities was imperative,” he adds, emphasising that money – not just warm words – is needed. “The ODA put a huge amount into working with local people,” says Hone. “We set up the Olympic Park Engagement Network so we could work with local community groups. We also set up a construction hotline, so anyone could ring up and complain about what’s happening or ask about any aspect of the site and we’d take the time – and spend the money – answering those questions.”

But fundamentally, the ODA knew it had a finite amount of time to spend on squaring the locals: this is a project with a deadline written in stone.

“Yes, people talk about the huge pressure the immovable deadline brings – and they’re right, it did.” Hone adds that the lesson the ODA learnt from other projects was to get moving super-fast at the

start knowing that, if you delay, the finances are liable to suffer later.

“We had to move very quickly because we were determined not to have to do reworks at the end of the project,” says Hone. “We put a lot of effort in at the beginning to make sure we weren’t half-baked, so we didn’t have to change anything later on.”

Hone says he quickly realised that if he delivered the park and the venues a year ahead, he’d remove “all that mad panic at the end”, which is when, he says, “cost goes out the window and it’s just a scramble to get it finished”. And by achieving that he says he’s removed the threat of contractors holding Hone and his team to ransom at the end of the process.

“We could have been penny-wise and pound-foolish at the start, but we decided to stick to our schedule above all and save money in the long run,” says Hone. “And that’s how it turned out. Most of the money we saved wasn’t because we scrimped on the build. We are sticking to our guns and, most importantly, we don’t need to use a contingency plan, because all the awful things that could’ve happened haven’t. And that’s where the savings are.”

Which is why, of the total funds available to him – £8.1 billion, from taxpayers, the lottery and Greater London Authority funds – he’s bringing the project in at £7.2 billion. That saving of £900 million is pretty impressive.

And it’s that underspend that provides Hone’s central defence of the very lucrative packages he and his colleagues at the ODA were handed last year. His former boss, David Higgins, was on a package worth £544,000 a year. And Hone himself ? A mere £400,000. He laboriously lists all the politicians his salary was rubber-stamped by – “right up to the top”. It’s clearly a subject that irritates this naturally jovial character. “If we hadn’t achieved our targets, I’d have been sacked, I can assure you,” he says. “Yes, these are large salaries. But if you want to get the right guys, it’s no good telling them they have to earn less than the Prime Minister.” (I didn’t – but plenty of other journalists have.) Hone waxes on, struggling “not to say something trite”, but I feel he clearly wants to say something along the lines of “if you pay peanuts, you get monkeys”.

“Most of the people who come here have worked on major projects before,” he says. “They’re not virgins working on the park... they’ve worked on the Channel Tunnel Rail Link, they’ve worked on Terminal 5 at Heathrow, the Australian Olympics, you name it.”

It’s true that if they do deliver this project ahead of time, under budget, to critical acclaim and with a clean health and safety bill, they’re clearly no monkeys.

But Hone admits that one of the reasons they’re coming in under budget is the global recession – also one of their largest headaches.

“One of the biggest problems we faced was getting the village off the ground financially,” he says. “We wanted to bring it forward as a predominantly private sector development. And then we hit the global financial crisis in 2008 and suddenly had an issue of how to fund it at all.” PH

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are bumper paychecks justified?Join the debate at professional manager.co.uk/salaries

Interview

Over the course of this project they’ve undertaken £6 billion of procurement, with a construction market that has gone from boom to bust. When the Olympic project began, building costs were spiralling. As the sector overheated, only one consortium put in a “robust and sensible bid”, says Hone, for the main 80,000-seater stadium infrastructure in Stratford (the bidder was Sir Robert McAlpine, with designs from Populous, which had just finished Arsenal ’s Emirates Stadium).

But then, as the market cooled, more companies decided to take the plunge, partly driven through economic realities, but also, Hone says, because the sector started to realise the Olympics project was going to be a success, and was therefore something with which they would want to be associated.

“And we got an influx from there on in,” he says. “And we got more efficiencies down the supply chain, as people wanted to come in – and work was scarce.” While he, not surprisingly, doesn’t want to “give all the credit to the financial crisis because it presented problems too”, he does acknowledge it helped. Quite a lot.

But not everything has gone to plan. The stadium was meant to be sold – almost certainly to West Ham United. But that deal has now collapsed, running the

risk of turning the Olympics’ crowning glory into a white elephant.

“It’s a bit of a setback,” admits Hone. “But if you had a dash to get people in, it wouldn’t be helpful. The stadium will be in use for 60 to 100 years, so a couple of months delay doesn’t make a great deal of difference.

“We put a lot of effort into making sure the stadium was versatile and they could get tenants in. I recognise that trying to negotiate with a likely tenant five years before the Games is hard. What private company would sign up to something they couldn’t take occupation of for six years?”

But Hone insists he’d still like to see West Ham take up residency – even if only on a rental agreement. And that’s despite being a season-ticket holder at Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, who challenged West Ham’s bid to move into the Olympic Stadium. But this Spurs fan has his eyes on another stadium entirely. “I would love to see Tottenham rebuild

their ground at White Hart Lane,” he adds. Perhaps that’ll be his next project, when he finds himself out of a job next year?

“If you want to get the right guys, it’s no good telling them they have to earn less than the Prime Minister”

About the authorDaisy McAndrew (pictured below left) joins Professional Manager’s expert writing team for the second month. It’s her latest step in an illustrious career. Born Daisy Sampson in London in 1972, Daisy edited politics journal The House Magazine from 1995 to 1997 before becoming press secretary to the Liberal Democrat leader at the time, Charles Kennedy, in 1999, following a two-year spell as a freelance journalist. She moved to Channel 4 in 2001 before co-presenting The Daily Politics and Yesterday in Parliament on the BBC. In 2005, she was poached by ITN as chief political correspondent before becoming its economics editor in 2008. This summer, she took on a new role as special correspondent for ITV News at Ten – and joined Professional Manager as our headline interviewer.


Sting. Like The Police singer’s plea to Roxanne, Johnson’s message to transport departments in borough councils was: “You don’t have to put on the red light.”

Mentors – whether in politics, business or personal life – come in all shapes and sizes. For many, it’s someone personal, a parent or a former boss. But for others, it’s a fictional or historical figure, however outlandish. David Brent, in the television show The Office, memorably compared himself to Jesus. Brent was anxious to move on from Slough to Reading, Bracknell – even Didcot – in the same way that Jesus preached beyond Nazareth. Management books, many apparently written by authors in search of an honorary title, have appeared to harness the leadership qualities of everyone from Moses to Elizabeth I,

Aristotle to Alexander the Great. In May 2009, it was even reported that sales of Mein Kampf in Delhi alone had topped 10,000 in the previous six months as business students looked to the Nazi leader as a “kind of success story where one man can have a vision, work out a plan on how to implement it and then successfully complete it”.

Here, though, are some marginally more salubrious inspirations for the modern workplace.

william shakespearel Born 1564

in Stratford- upon-Avon

l Widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language, producing some 38 plays and 154 sonnets, coining thousands of new words and continuing to inspire everything from Shakespeare in Love to 10 Things I Hate About You

In the past decade, there has been a spate of reports of business schools, including Columbia, the Saïd Business School in Oxford and the Cranfield University School of Management, teaming up with thespians to unravel the leadership lessons in Shakespeare’s plays. Programme titles have included seminars on “Stepping into Leadership with Henry V” and “Emotional and Political Intelligence in Leadership with Julius Caesar”.

More broadly, Othello’s overlooking of Iago in favour of

Inspiring leaders do not have to be contemporary or real. Novelist Iain Hollingshead

went in search of the greatest management muses from

history and literature

Leadership, by the book

People of influence are always able, perhaps because they are so often asked, to cite who, in turn, influenced them. For Tony Blair it was variously Roy Jenkins, the former Labour home secretary, Eric Anderson, his housemaster at Fettes College and, least convincingly, members of the Newcastle United football team he would have been far too young to remember. For David Cameron it was his father and Margaret Thatcher. While for Boris

Johnson, who ran successfully for Mayor of London in 2008, his no-nonsense, anti-red-tape hero was Larry Vaughn, the mayor in the film Jaws, who decides to keep the beaches open despite, as Johnson put it, “a gigantic fish eating all your constituents”.

During the summer, the Mayor of London revealed a new hero:

“Boris Johnson’s hero, Larry Vaughn from the film Jaws, keeps the beaches open, despite the sharks”


Thought leadership

“Hamlet was slow to take decisive action. Managers should instead follow Henry V’s lead”

the younger Cassio – and Iago’s subsequent quest for revenge – shows the danger of forgetting ambitious subordinates. Richard II teaches us that a title alone does not equate to authority. King Lear learnt the hard way that firing your oldest ally is a bad idea. And Hamlet was too slow to take any decisive action. Perhaps he – and all business leaders – should follow the advice of Henry V when it comes to decision-making: “Then imitate the action of the tiger; Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood, disguise fair nature with hard-favour’d rage; Then lend the eye a terrible aspect.”

And for all those in danger of forgetting that the fiefdom of their corner office is ephemeral, perhaps this quotation from

the soon to be slain Julius Caesar, hung above their computer monitor, will serve as a salutary reminder of the dangers of hubris: “But I am constant as the northern star; Of whose true-fixed and resting quality; There is no fellow in the firmament.”


FinD OuT MORe…CMI has a wide range of management literature for you to borrow and discuss. For more information, please visit www.managers.org.uk/cmibookclub

sir harry Pearcel Born 1953 l The fictional head of Section D,

MI5’s counter-terrorism unit, in the BBC’s Bafta-winning television drama Spooks

Remote historical figures are all very well, but for some managers only a vivid fictional character will really fire their imagination and stir their leadership ambitions. It has often been said that President Jed Bartlet, the pivotal character in television show The West Wing, was liberal America’s dream, a personable, humane leader of genuine intellect who combined the integrity of Jimmy Carter, the warmth of Bill Clinton and the decisiveness of Richard Nixon.

The past 10 years of British television, however, have provided an even more inspiring role model in the form of Sir Harry Pearce. Highly educated, calm under the most intense life-and-death pressure and capable of distinguishing between ends and means while navigating the most complex moral dilemmas, he inspires fierce loyalty in a team that’s even willing to commit treason to protect him.

Other characters come and go, but Pearce remains, a mentor to new members of the team, a fierce opponent of external interference who fearlessly fights his department’s corner and refuses to be “promoted”

into a job he has neither the desire nor inclination to do.

And if that’s not enough, he can’t stand politics, he doesn’t trust the Americans, he comes back from the dead at least three times, his office door is always open to his subordinates and he even provides an inspiring example of how to navigate office relationships in his on/off tryst with Ruth Evershed.

Frankly, he’s the boss we all wish we had or all wish we were – especially as, if this were the case, we’d get the chance to wear Armani suits every day, enter the office via a cool pair of sliding doors and pick up a special telephone on our desks to say: “Red flash the team.”


Thought leadershipA

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sun tzul A Chinese warrior

born around 500 BC in the province of qi

l Became head of the army in the province of Wu after catching the king’s eye by beheading his two favourite concubines during a training exercise – an attempt to demonstrate the effectiveness of following commands

l Wrote The Art of War, a book on military strategy

The Art of War has devotees as diverse as Bill Gates, Richard Nixon, a generation of Japanese businessmen in the 1950s and John Buchanan, the Australian cricket coach, who in 2001 handwrote “Thoughts from ‘the Tzu’ (pronounced zoo)” on two sides of A4, photocopied them and distributed them to the entire team before the third test at Trent Bridge in Nottingham (Australia won by seven wickets and retained The Ashes).

The essence of the book is 13 short, sharp chapters on how to use your troops to defeat the enemy with the least damage to yourself. The implications, however, are much wider than simple military exigencies. Never delude yourself, advises Sun Tzu; you must know your own strengths and weaknesses, as well as those of your enemies. Reward good behaviour, punish disobedience – and do both consistently, so that your troops know where they stand: “When they [leaders] give out numerous rewards it means they are at an impasse; when they give out numerous punishments, it means that they are worn out.”

And if you’re really lucky, your staff might even learn to love you: “Regard your soldiers as your children, and they will follow you into the deepest valleys; look on them as your beloved sons, and they will stand by you even unto death.”

It does all sound a bit David Brent though, doesn’t it?

“Machiavelli is less interested in what was right and wrong, than in what might be effective”

niccolò machiavellil Born 1469 l Became the powerful

secretary to Second Chancery of the Republic of Florence, aged 29

l Dismissed after 14 years when the Medici family took over

l Worked as a farmer by day and wrote by night, in particular The Prince (1513), an advice pamphlet for rulers

Despite lending his name to the rather unfair adjective Machiavellian, implying ruthless, amoral cunning – Bertrand Russell wrote that The Prince is “a handbook for gangsters” – a revisionist view of Machiavelli has claimed him as one of the more visionary guides to man management, a writer less interested in what was right and wrong, than in what might be effective. Sir Antony Jay, the co-author of Yes Minister, wrote Management and Machiavelli in 1967, and pretty much everyone else, it seems, has jumped on the bandwagon since.

Machiavelli wrote on the cynical basis that, if left to their own seedy devices, people would invariably get up to no good: “Whoever

desires to found a state and give it laws, must start with assuming that all men are bad.” For state, read company, and you soon have a creative approach to human resources, based on cruelty, to keep “subjects” united and loyal.

For Machiavelli, however, force (for the workplace, let’s read this as “forceful yet legal action”) is less important than the illusion of force, or at least a readiness to use it. A “prince” should project himself as a superman, “to bear himself so that greatness, courage, wisdom and strength may appear in all his actions”. In so doing, he would be unlikely to make any new friends – or retain old ones – but he could at least surround himself with loyal advisers, unafraid of speaking the truth. Above all, he should resist the temptations of flattery, expect the best, but plan for the worst, be ready to strike ruthlessly at any given moment and trust no one.

Sinister? Perhaps. Or merely realistic?

who is your literary management muse?Find out at professional manager.co.uk/muse

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Whizz-kids coding in ski gondolas while analysts move from “huddle-room” meeting to table-football brainstorm on scooters, accompanied by their

Bernese mountain dogs. Is this a bad dream? Guess again. Welcome to Google. Welcome to the modern workplace.

The internet giant’s idiosyncratic interior design may well be a world away from the aesthetics of your office, but its lava lamps and massage chairs represent the vanguard of an increasingly free-form and relaxed approach to office aesthetics. Yet, as modern as it may seem, the approach has its roots at the very beginning of the 20th century.

Arguably, the first nod towards the accommodation of workers’ needs in office design came from US

Simple open-plan offices and chats over the water

cooler may soon seem passé. Unorthodox spaces designed

to inspire staff are big news for Americans – and are catching

on here, says Leon Walker

architect Frank Lloyd Wright’s Larkin Administration Building in Buffalo, New York. Built in 1906, the building was revolutionary in the way it was designed to be attractive to female workers through an on-site YWCA and lunch hour pipe organ concerts – presumably the ski gondolas and scooters of their day. The building was also a pioneer of open-plan design.

But, despite early experiments in open-plan space, it was not until the advent of the 1950s German school of Bürolandschaft – which took its cues from the socialist views of 1950s Europe, – that worker/management integration

32_ professional manager _ Winter 2011/12


In practice

and success by nurturing an energetic, creative atmosphere through cohabitation.

“Tenants can be pretty small companies,” says Mike Arzt, co-owner of The Public Works. “But they can reap the benefits of the energy of having more people around them. People come to work with a different mindset. There were always going to be some issues sharing space with different companies. But, on the whole, these problems are outweighed by everyone’s happiness.”

That is a key word: happiness. Although US firms are leading the way in inspirational workplace design, there are moves afoot in the traditionally more conservative UK too. Award-winning interior consultancy Peldon Rose has embraced the happiness drive with gusto, by acting on research by University College London that reveals proximity to green space improves employee well-being and designing a roof terrace for Capsticks Solicitors LLP. “Designing green areas outside the office where staff can go for a change of scenery can be a great morale booster,” says Jitesh Patel, Peldon Rose chief executive. Anyone fancy stretching their legs? My Bernese is keen.

Be A SPAce Ace

“New office designs allow workers to choose where and how they work”

became a fixture in the workplace. Major office furniture company Herman Miller later jumped on this concept to provide a rapidly expanding middle-management tier with mobile, miniature workspaces. Herman Miller gave its product the rather grand name Action; you probably know it as the cubicle.

All open-plan workspaces based around the cubicle can be traced back to Herman Miller’s Action office. Yet the democratisation of information, ideas and the quest for a work/life balance have led to the proliferation of even more fluid workspaces, like those at Google. In the most progressive of workplaces, the design is now aimed at offering flexibility to the worker, allowing them to make the choices as to where and how they want to work. Businesses hope that the increased freedom will lead to clearer minds and better output.

“It’s a big deal,” says Cornell University’s Professor Franklin Becker, who has written extensively on the subject of workplace design. “The flexibility of working practices that used to be the reserve of upper management has, in a way, been pushed down to rank-and-file workers.” And it’s not just hi-tech, youth-focused companies such as Google that are adopting these practices.

Scan Health Plan specialises in pensioner health insurance. It has recently incorporated café-style enclaves, private “phone-booths” and brightly coloured contemporary furniture to its office. Scan’s statement of intent was to provide an office updated with “panache and entertainment”.

“Ten years ago they would have had completely traditional offices,” says Professor Becker.

But office design is not just about aesthetics, it is also about encouraging a certain work culture. Battery 621 in Denver, Colorado, is one of a new breed of shared workspaces popping up in major cities across the world. Owned and operated by design company The Public Works and media firm Wink Inc, two of the dozen or so companies that call it home, the 30,000 sq ft facility aims to build productiveness

❉ Do think about what you are trying to achieve. If you are looking for a relaxed free-form approach to the work culture in your office do “a Google”. But, if you need to cut costs, a ski gondola is probably not the most efficient use of space

❉ Do consider furnishings. Studies have shown that many people naturally concentrate better when reclined – think about how people put their feet up on

desks or lie on a sofa while reading. With this in mind, is the straight-backed chair the best choice for your office?

❉ Don’t encourage clutter. It doesn’t mean you’re working harder; it just makes the place less inviting

❉ Don’t alienate your workers. Respect their needs and their time at work will be more comfortable

Top: ski gondolas at Google, Zurich.

Middle/bottom: The Public Works office


The coalition government’s enterprise Zones are too weak to stem the endless drain of talent from poorer areas to successful ones, writes dave fawbert

Since the 1970s heralded the deindustrialisation of the UK, arguably exacerbated by the neoliberal policies of Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s, there has been a common consensus that an economic and cultural divide has emerged between the North and the South. The reliance of the Midlands, North West, North East and Scotland on industries that once made them rich, turned into a curse. Those industries collapsed in the face of international competition and political desire to expose them to it.

Today, there is an assumption that persistent economic disparity influences the location of skilled workers. Areas of economic success, chiefly in the South, will attract the most talented people who, in looking for the best-paid jobs, cause an unceasing “brain drain” from the North. But how far is this true? Are there factors other than pure economics at play? And, if so, will the government’s new Enterprize Zones address them?

It is certainly true that there is an economic divide between the North and the South: both the overall level of deprivation and the gap between the most and the least deprived neighbourhoods are at their highest in major cities in the North and West. Both income and house prices are higher in the South than the North. “One-third of all jobs created since the end of 2009 have been in London and three-quarters of all jobs created have been in London, the South East,

South West and East Anglia,” Capital Economics’ Ed Stansfield told the BBC. “So the North-South divide is real in the labour market.”

Yet the geographical distribution of talent need not necessarily mirror this. Urban development expert Professor Peter Roberts, now retired from the University of Leeds, refutes the idea that any regions are innately more or less talented than others, stating that “there is no evidence that there is a lack of talented young people in any region”, and, moreover, one of the engine rooms of

developing talented workers, universities, are spread all across the country. Professor Roberts cites the “fantastic stream of talent”, both economic and cultural, that Liverpool produces, despite containing some of the poorest neighbourhoods in the UK. He believes that there is a third spatial factor that links the geography of talent and economic success: the “geography of opportunity”. Put simply, for talented people to succeed in an area, they must have access to the tools of opportunity. Professor Roberts notes that, for instance, the North East has been traditionally dominated by a few

Brains sink south

big firms, which have crowded out the opportunity for new businesses to emerge and thus removed the opportunity for any new entrepreneurship to take place. Talented people will, thus, naturally look elsewhere.

Universities can engender an element of talent redistribution, but not if they do not retain their graduates. Professor Michael Parkinson, author of seminal texts on the subject, observes that “it is very clear that some big cities produce their graduates, but lose them”. An extensive study in 2009 showed that the

major attractors of talent are not just economic success, but access to culture, better housing and high entrepreneurial activity. In university cities where this is lacking, graduates will not be retained.

In essence, economically and culturally successful cities attract talent, talent creates an entrepreneurial atmosphere, which, in turn, attracts more talent; a self-reinforcing sequence, which, left to market forces, will increase the broad inequality of talented workers available in the North and the South. Governments can intervene: this is traditionally the approach of Labour governments, but R

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“There is no evidence that there is a lack of talented young people in any region. But without opportunity, they look elsewhere”

In practice


it is quite clear that New Labour did not do this, at least not successfully, as inequality worsened and London was allowed to dominate (see map). Since the 2010 election, the coalition government’s programme of extensive cuts appears to have hit the poorest areas hardest. But its reincarnation of Enterprise Zones, which Thatcher established in the poorest areas throughout the country, has been hailed as a potential solution to redistribute talent by introducing favourable conditions, such as cheaper business rates, broadband and lower levels of planning control, to attract businesses. Yet Professor Parkinson is sceptical. He notes that the

There is a sharp north-South divide in England, as shown by the cold colours dominating the north, and the warm reds and oranges radiating out from the white heat of west London and the Home Counties. But there is a nuance too. England is, more accurately, an archipelago of economic regions. Within the north, there exists areas of wealth; for instance Manchester’s Cheshire suburbs around Wilmslow; and the desirable residences of north Yorkshire. These regions act as local talent hubs, drawing in people who migrate shorter distances.

Conversely, the most southerly county in England, Cornwall, is also one of its poorest, due to the closure of tin mines and setbacks to its fishing and farming trades. And even the relatively wealthy London

has its own huge inequalities – it hosts some of the UK’s poorest neighbourhoods in Hackney and Haringey.

Outside London, Cambridge and Oxford produce a huge amount of talented workers and, crucially, retain them. More than 47% of their residents are graduates. The national average is 28%.

This is in contrast to the leading northern talent incubators – such as newcastle, Leeds, Manchester and Sheffield. All host an elite Russell Group university. Yet their areas remain cool blues – the talent they nurture typically heads south.

Reviving a model championed by Margaret Thatcher, the Conservative-led coalition government has launched a new programme of 22 enterprise Zones across england. Shown as flags on our map, the Zones often coincide with the most economically marginalised locations – shown in black and dark blue – such as the cities of Nottingham, Hull and Birmingham and the Black Country.

The Enterprise Zones will feature:* Simplified planning rules* Super-fast broadband access* £150 million of tax breaks over four years

The Zones are in england only. But the government at Westminster is keen to support the introduction of the Zones in other UK countries, if their devolved administrations will help to establish them.

Thatcher precedents had “limited impact and were very expensive… they are a small initiative”. There is also the criticism that the Zones displace nearby jobs rather than creating durable economic shifts.

Professor Roberts is more positive, but feels the Zones are too limited to be effective. He advocates the inclusion of more microeconomic elements such as mentoring, modern apprenticeships and easy-to-access startup systems for small businesses – “economic incubators” – particularly in the post-financial crisis environment of expensive access to credit from the banking system. Despite initial opposition, the relocation of elements of

the BBC to Greater Manchester should be seen as a positive step, to provide jobs for local talent, and help break the cycle of media centralisation in London and the South East.

Professor Roberts is passionate about providing opportunity for all, and sees it as imperative to the success of the country, stating: “The trick of a successful economy is to harness the talents of good young people.” Doing this at a local level may reduce the need for people to migrate to seek opportunity and address the uneven distribution of talented labour in the UK. But Enterprise Zones alone may not be enough.

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hot spots and cold cornersThere are exceptions, but all roads still lead to London

The twilight zonesSpecial measures to save slumping towns

economic climate

enterprise Zones: Wave 1

enterprise Zones: Wave 2

Gross household income per head compared to UK average (%)

In practice

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want to be a Chartered Manager? To find out whether the Chartered Manager award is right for you, head to www.managers.org.uk/cmgr, email [email protected] or call 01536 207380. You can read more about the benefits on the CMI site and take our new self-assessment questionnaire to receive a personalised report and identify the most suitable award route for you. For more inspiration, see our recent successes at www.managers.org.uk/success. This also highlights members who have renewed or gained Chartered Manager status.

In the JHC, there is a complex mixture of ground crew, technicians and aircrew, who have to work together as a team. It was my mission to improve communication. In the JHC, my command team worked specifically on strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (Swot) analysis in summer 2010, which has stood the test of time and helped create better understanding.

Aspiring leaders and managers must learn to communicate and adapt as necessary. Giving speeches and leading seminars are an important part of the learning process, as you have to understand your audience and meet their needs. In the end, all team challenges boil down to people.

neale Moss Colonel Neale Moss OBe of the Joint Helicopter Command (JHC) details the achievements that led his being crowned national Chartered Manager of the Year 2011 for an outstanding leadership and environmental contribution

I am thrilled to receive this accolade – now I’m looking to the next stage. I’d like to serve on the CMI Management and Leadership Committee to give something back and, in general, I hope to be able to help outside my organisation as an adviser.

I moved to command the UK’s Attack Helicopter Force in April 2010, after completing the CMgr portfolio. As a leader, I try to give clear direction and purpose, from the ground crew and technicians to the aircrew. Because of the strategic significance of the Apache helicopter, the briefing will sometimes go as far as Number 10 via the Ministry of Defence.

I have been fortunate to command at every level. From platoon/flight, where I led approximately 30 people, through squadron, to regimental level, where I was responsible for 500 people and 43 aircraft, to force level. The key to success is good close-quarter leadership; this means choosing lieutenants and mentoring them carefully.

I am currently in charge of 3,000 people at Wattisham Flying Station, about half of whom are in uniform. I wanted to make an impact. I looked at new initiatives to enhance the performance of the force. We aimed to reduce the “silo-thinking” culture that had become endemic in the military, and I am delighted to see a real difference in co-ordination.

contents Masterclass 40 Book reviews 44 Latest events 46

Find out moreColonel Neale Moss OBE is fundraising director and a trustee of the Afghan Appeal Fund. The charity is run by family and friends of British soldiers working to raise awareness of the plight of the people of Afghanistan and build schools for Afghan children. To find out more about their current projects, visit afghanappealfund.org.uk

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Record your development on CMI’s

online CPD system, www.onlinecpd.managers.org.uk

Managing and leading in the military is both challenging and rewarding. Managers/leaders should be able to confirm their professional status, especially when working alongside other chartered professionals, such as accountants and engineers. It affords us a parity that has long been missing.

Chartered Manager is a career-defining scheme. Becoming a Chartered Manager helped me to recognise that I have hugely transferable skills that can be used elsewhere. This is important to me personally, as I will be leaving the army next year.

During my tenure I have helped to raise £300,000 to fund schools in Afghanistan as the fundraising director of the Afghan Appeal Fund. We have built six schools for 8,000 boys and girls who wouldn’t have the chance of an education. This summer, my son and I cycled from Land’s End to John O’Groats. We completed the journey in 13 days and raised £5,000.


Practical hints and tips to help you on your management journey

Jeff Bezos: he’s the brains behind Amazon.com, he’s brilliant – and wouldn’t you like to be just a bit more like him? The first step is to dust off your discovery skills.

Experimentation, observation and interrogation of the world are the skills at the core of the innovator’s arsenal, and the first is where Bezos really excels, says Professor Hal Gregersen, professor of leadership at the Insead business school and co-author of The Innovator’s DNA: “Bezos is absolutely out to experiment with the world around him and within Amazon. For him, the question is: how can I reduce the cost of experimentation so that I get thousands of experiments happening and not hundreds? Because the more we have, the more great ideas we’ve got that will make a difference.”

But injecting a bit of Bezos into your own business may not be easy. Our skills of discovery and our curiosity about the world – so sharp in childhood – get dulled, if not defeated altogether, by formal education, work cultures and bosses that tell us: “Don’t ask tough questions, don’t take the time to look around, and don’t screw up by trying something new, we can’t afford it,” says Professor Gregersen.

But, he asserts: “Every working adult needs to get a new idea. They have got to figure out how to do their job and how to do it better. And these are the skills that allow them to do that.”

how to dare Question time Take five minutes each day and write down questions about a problem that you have, Professor Gregersen recommends. They could be related to advancing your career – “how can I get on the senior team?” – or about process improvement in your company, or a new service delivery approach. The

more questions you ask yourself, the more ideas you will have about how to solve that challenge.

Seek surprises “Innovators are fully engaged with their world; they are present,” says Professor Gregersen. So turn off that iPod, put down your freesheet newspaper and give yourself a chance to connect with different information. “If I go through a day without surprises, I’m not going to get any new ideas,” Professor Gregersen warns.

Watch and learn Observing is a crucial part of discovery. Make time to look at how things happen, and watch the practice of those who do things differently. Network with people from a different nationality, industry or technical background, who might offer a novel perspective on your problem.

The most effective managers find new ways to learn. Break out of your box by daring to ask the tricky questions, says Caitlin Mackesy Davies

taKe a voYage of discoverY

MasterclassknOWLeDGe TRAnsFeR

Like a Virgin Role-play alone or with others in your team and imagine how an innovative company like Virgin, or an entrepreneur like Richard Branson, would view your problem or business. What questions would he ask and how might he approach the answers?

Use the force Exercising associational thinking – your ability to connect the previously

unconnected – is essential. If surprising connections don’t

come naturally, force them,

“Talk with people from a different nationality or industry, who might offer a novel view on your problem”


Masterclass

i knew where i wanted to go, but no idea how to get there. The Foundation for Social Improvement (FSI) has given me the tools and skills that I need to run our charity better. Last year we raised £25,000, this year £50,000, and next year I’m going to go for six figures. I really believe that we can do this.

sometimes i rabbit on. My training helped me focus on what areas are most important to people that don’t know anything about the charity, and what I should be saying to get them interested. And when to stop talking!

a lot of people say my most hated statement is: “Charity begins at home”, but most people do like to give, whether it is a tiny amount or a huge amount.

life stage assessment is brilliant. For instance, it’s helped us make improvements to the trustee board and gain new skills. I’ve now got three new people involved, and they have completely changed the way our charity is run.

Be confident. Before my scholarship training, there’s no way I would have felt comfortable to speak to major donors and be confident that they will buy into what we are doing. Now I’m 100% sure they will.

You have to take a leap. There are lots of people who see something they want to change, but the jump from having that feeling to making a difference is quite big. You need help. For me, help came from the FSI and Action for employment.

You get out of life what you put into it. If you set your goals, and have desire and belief in achieving them, the universe helps you along the way.

Be positive. It’s something I admire most about people in Nepal. They struggle on a daily basis with everything from water to food. But they are so happy and welcoming and appreciative of what they do have.

everything should make a difference. I guess that is where it all started. When I made a trip to everest Base Camp in 2005, I raised £10,000 for a charity and I’ve no idea who it helped or how it helped them. Now I can see the difference I make.

The FSI Scholar gains a CMI-accredited management qualification, with modules related to the third sector. David undertook his training with the help of Action for Employment (A4E). Find out more at www.thefsi.org and www.mya4e.com

David WoodsDavid Woods, co-founder of charity Classrooms in the Clouds, was chosen to be an FSI Scholar in 2010

Recommended readThe Innovator’s DNA was nominated for CMI Management Book of the Year, the winner of which will be announced on 6 February 2012. Find out more at yearbook.managers.org.uk

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Professor Gregersen counsels. It could be by picking a word randomly from a dictionary or magazine, and saying “what does that word have to do with our problem?”.

Smart bet Worried that identifying “problems” will be perceived as showing weaknesses? Professor Gregersen believes companies that encourage discovery are ahead of the game, creating people who make smarter assumptions about where their markets are going or what clients will need.

Show the way “The difference between a company that has one great idea, versus one that has a constant stream, is leaders who know innovation matters, know how to do it and create an environment where others can do the same,” concludes Professor Gregersen.


FLeeTinG THOuGHTs

he pundits say it’s going to be a harsh winter again. Unless your organisation sells those things for

which freezing conditions increase demand – such as energy, skiing equipment or thermal clothing – that is bad news. The evidence is clear that many British motorists are simply not ready for wintry conditions. Remember the past few chillers? Workers stuck in the snow, YouTube footage of a car sliding down an ice-coated road with its passengers getting out as it did so, and a clip that showed a startling skill and preparedness divide – a brilliant bus driver driving smoothly up an icy Saltburn Bank in Teesside around two hairpin bends, passing a series of hapless car drivers struggling on the slope. Look it up.

Managers need to ensure that it isn’t their employees who are the ones sliding down the slope this winter. Have you decided whether to invest in winter tyres for your own vehicle? Have you considered how your team can work efficiently from home? Great if you have started to think about these things – you need to make sure you and your immediate team keep going through the weather. Yet the most

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“Deep cold, heavy rain, enduring darkness, stiff winds and thick fog can all present challenges. Apply the same methods you would use in risk planning in other areas”

the ice-plan cometh

If you look out of the window to see snow engulfing your drive, it’s too late. You need a snow plan for your organisation or the weather will beat you, says motoring expert Peter rodger

successful managers think about their entire organisation – not just themselves and their own team. Have you thought about how your business is going to keep going through bad weather? Have you thought about whether the company fleet of cars has winter tyres to help the staff get around when it’s cold or the country is gripped by snow and ice again? Have you considered what vehicles you are using with the possibility of colder winters ahead? Do you have the same pattern of visits and timings in the winter as you do in the other seasons?

Many readers will be looking at this and thinking “I’m in the Pennines/North East/Scotland – we have bad weather every year, not like those wimps down in the soft South”. That’s true – but do you think about how best to handle it or do you just tackle it when it arises? Do you actually plan and work through what’s best? Be honest – perhaps you don’t. Short-term tactics have their place, but a good weather strategy can reduce the need for ice-fighting.

Driving and weather are like any other piece of the management puzzle. You need to look at what the business needs to achieve, and ask what tools, what skills and what plans it needs in place – then do something about it. Work out what vehicles your business needs,

PeTeR’s TOP GeAR

what equipment is needed to go with it (see below) and perhaps what advice or training the people who drive in the business need. And, while you may focus on the business fleet, please don’t forget employees who drive their own car, just because they are using their own equipment.

And remember that winter is about more than headline-making snowfall. Deep cold, heavy rain, enduring darkness, stiff winds and thick fog can all present business challenges. The thought processes are the same – apply the methods you would use in risk planning in other areas. It’s amazing how different driving becomes when you think about it as part of business-process, rather than as something you do privately. It’s also amazing how much of so many businesses are dependent on people being able to get around. So plan around events that threaten to stop you. It snows in the UK every winter, slowing things down. But to survive, most businesses need to keep moving.Peter Rodger is chief examiner of the Institute of Advanced Motorists

✱winter tyresGreat for the winter, oddly! They make a difference when the temperature gets below 7°C. Made of different materials to regular tyres, they behave better in the cold

(not just ice and snow). They don’t do as well in the summer, when it’s warmer – but then there’s no such thing as a perfect compromise.✱snow chains Great for getting you through deep snow, giving you grip when rubber simply isn’t tough enough to cut into the white stuff. You have to take them off when you reach clear road though. They are a pain to put on

and off – and your hands are always less effective when they are cold.✱snow socks The little brother of the snow chain… another way of getting a grip on the white stuff, be it soft or hard. Driving on them on a clear road won’t do them a ton of good, but is less dramatic than chains clunking along.

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“Free-flowing booze is a mistake. It is ludicrous to offer staff endless complimentary alcohol then discipline them for getting drunk”


Getting festive at work can be a messy business

THe PeRsOnneL TOuCH

have a (not too) merry christmas

The office party is a risky business for managers. Learn the rules or you could find yourself with more than a few seasonal headaches, says alison Blackhurst

ocome, all ye faithful staff to the Christmas party: free wine, uninhibited

conversations and stolen kisses under the mistletoe. Actually, it’s probably better that you don’t have mistletoe. And the uninhibited conversations – well, remember the pitfalls. Meanwhile, can we rethink the free wine?

Staff entertaining is a minefield, and at this time of year it’s imperative that managers get to grips with the risks.

Free-flowing booze is, I’m afraid, probably a mistake – it is ludicrous to offer staff endless complimentary alcohol then discipline them for getting drunk on it. A better approach is to offer a limited amount of free liquor, keep the water and soft drinks flowing and ask staff to go easy on the strong stuff. Many businesses suffer disciplinary problems caused by alcohol – or other substances – at social events, and if the event is organised by the business, you may be liable for any misconduct issues.

This brings me back to mistletoe. Such is the tradition associated with this innocent-looking plant that there are many examples of employees – of both sexes – using its white berries as carte blanche to fondle or even proposition fancied colleagues. Yet Viscum album is potentially poisonous legally, as well as physically. Certainly, its presence won’t rescue your business from a sexual harassment claim. And what about inappropriate racial or religious jokes? We would always advise that you remind staff of your policies on equal opportunities and harassment – a Christmas party is still regarded as a work event, even if it is off the premises and outside working hours.

Human resources

FinD OuT MORe…As a CMI member, you can access templates for policies, forms, letters and contracts from Business HR, plus a great monthly newsletter

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Although strictness over booze and floral decorations are wise, there are areas where open-mindedness and flexibility helps. Particularly in bigger companies, the Christmas party throws together colleagues who may have rarely spoken – or even met – each other before. Given this, readers will be forgiven for having a wry smile at some of the comments reported to have been made at festive events. “You dance like my dad” – said to the managing director – and “Oh, you are much better looking than you sound on the phone” are a couple of clangers that should be treated in the manner they were intended – harmless banter. Managers should avoid being precious about such things, while being on their best behaviour themselves.

But all Christmas parties should be voluntary. And remember to invite everybody – even if their circumstances make it unlikely that they will attend. It’s also worth noting any religious observances and trying to accommodate these.

Consider the morning after. How lenient will you be about lateness, absence and underperformance? The key here is to have a company-wide policy: otherwise you may end up with inconsistent disciplinary warnings. If staff have been drinking until the early hours, they could still be under the influence. It may even be wise to agree to a later start the morning after.

In spite of the potential problems, parties are still great for team building, and you want your staff to enjoy them. Happy Christmas.

While we are on the subject of behaviour, a revision of the “no partners” rule might be an idea. Generally, the presence of spouses or partners can have a moderating effect. Provided your company is happy with the extra financial outlay, and that you extend the invitation to same-sex couples, it is worth inviting partners.

When planning events, remember that timing is key. Don’t arrange a big night before a business event. If you must arrange it on the same day as a deadline, ensure that there is enough slack so people working on that task are not in danger of missing the party. Plan your event so that your business is not compromised by absence or other after-effects the next day.

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a look inside the work of top management thinkers

Reviews


How did you come to write the book?When my co-author, Ian Sanders, and I saw the economy slide off the face of the world in 2008, I realised that none of us saw it coming. One day I got a flyer through my door advertising a course titled “How to Plan Your Business”. I idly took out a biro and wrote “un” in front of “Plan”. Then Ian called and we ranted about how, in light of what was happening in our world, business plans were futile, and suddenly we were on a plane to America to speak about our concept at the South by South West festival. We knew there was a book in it.

answer to shareholders. The banks can’t – they have been left exposed, they only have money on paper and they can’t take risks. The only people who can turn this around are you and me.Why “Zoom”?Because empowering people to achieve fast results is the key. If you take 10 years to plan and map out your idea, the likelihood is you won’t see completion. If you want to start a cake business, buy some flour and bake some cakes. People get too bogged down by forecasts and the future, as this is what we are always told we must focus on. The present is what matters.So start small?Exactly. If you start by thinking “right, I’ve got to make a plan, save £100,000, buy a shop and get quotes on marketing materials” it will never get off the ground – you’ve already set up obstacles for yourself. In therapy sessions, I move people away from looking at the problems, and, as a result, the solutions come towards them. In business, the same principle applies.Isn’t capital a real issue for start-ups?Not necessarily. The barrier to business has never been lower. I hope the book inspires people and shatters some of these misconceptions and fears. You can launch an idea in 60 days with £500. This isn’t just a lofty premise – I truly believe in my heart that anyone can use what we’ve written. Remember, start small. For example, there are businesses that offer free web domains, so you can begin your e-commerce business or whatever else you had in mind for practically nothing.What response have you had?Someone called today and told us he had read the book in three hours, and was already looking to implement five action points in his business as a result. This is about the best feedback any author can get and was probably one of the best phone calls I’ve ever had in my life.

reader offer Zoom! The Faster Way to Make Your Business Idea Happen is published by Pearson education. To get a 30% discount on the RRP (£12.99), go to www.pearson-books.com/zoom

You’re telling us to throw out the proposal?Yes, absolutely. Take Facebook – Mark Zuckerberg didn’t sit down with a banker or venture capitalist and tell them he projected that in five years millions of people would be poking and liking each others’ photos. He went away and did it and it snowballed. It’s about making your ideas happen, and creating your own story. Why focus on business ideas?It has been revealed to us that the global economy we all depend on is a mess. Governments can’t help us – they have maxed out their credit cards. The corporations can’t – they

David Sloly, psychotherapist and creative director at Mason Zimbler, tells Kayleigh Ziolo why Zoom! has thrown out the rule book and pressed the accelerator

ROCkeT MAnWRiTeR RePLies

To rate the latest books, and borrow titles from the CMI

library, head to www.managers. org.uk/library

Want a successful business?

It needn’t be a long, long time


Reviews

the Progress Principle: using small wins to ignite Joy, engagement, and creativity at work teresa amabile and steven KramerHarvard Business School £18.99 Pm rating •••••Focus on apparently mundane everyday events and it’s possible to make an enormous difference to employee commitment – and thus performance. That’s the message of this book. The key to achieving this commendable objective is to harness two forces that facilitate the process. The first is catalysts, which involve identifying events that provide practical help in project work, such as combining clear goals with autonomy. The second is nourishers, which are those interpersonal actions that encourage positive behaviours, such as developing respect and trust.

Overall, this is a useful, readable and insightful book, but there was scope for even greater emphasis on the need for a fundamental redefinition of the nature of leadership and the role of middle management, particularly in the context of the critical importance of trust and values. Professor Bruce Lloyd, London South Bank University

THe APPeTiseR coffee cellariPhone, iPad£2.99

Perhaps it is a symptom of today’s breathless world, but many managers cannot function without a daily hit of the world’s favourite drug: caffeine. Thankfully, companies such as Lavazza, Costa and Caffè Nero package this invaluable

why are we Bad at Picking good leaders?Jeffrey cohn and Jay moranJossey-Bass£18.99Pm rating •••••The anecdotal, chatty and somewhat tedious style of this book detracts from the important message it seeks to send – that there are certain attributes or qualities that make a good leader.

Cohn and Moran believe there are seven of these attributes, and recount some case histories to demonstrate the validity of their choice, some of which, the Enron scandal for example, are in the public domain. The attributes they list are integrity, empathy, emotional intelligence, vision, judgement, courage and passion. They believe the key one, underpinning them all, to be integrity. Each attribute is allocated a chapter dedicated to exploring the rationale for its inclusion as a trait.

Although it is disappointing that it is necessary to write about the need for integrity in leadership, evidence in the press suggests that the authors are right to do so. While the overly descriptive style, written in the first person, is irritating in that it lacks clarity and crispness, the message is sound – if obvious. Without the qualities the authors suggest, leadership will not reach its potential, and damage will be done to people and businesses alike. Julie Hyde MIMgt

the mountain withinherta von stiegelMcGraw-Hill Professional£16.99Pm rating •••••This unusual book takes its leadership lessons from a climb for charity, which the author, a business executive, led up Mount Kilimanjaro. Sixty per cent of the group of 28 climbers – including seven disabled people – made it to the top, against the average of 35%.

But while the book is unusual, it is also delightfully easy to read. Each chapter takes a leadership topic and reinforces it with a conversation with one of a fascinating range of leaders. The accounts are filled with sound advice and excellent quotations. By basing it on the challenges of climbing an actual mountain, it becomes easier to see that the real challenge is the mountain within of the title. That is where the real obstacles lie.

The author grew up in poverty in communist Romania before escaping to the US, where she became a lawyer prior to becoming a banker. She now runs a firm specialising in projects in Africa.

This book is inspirational, even without an index. It can help you refocus and refresh your plans, as well as remind you how to recharge your batteries. The conversations are the icing on the cake or, given that they complete each chapter, more like the icing on cupcakes. This book is a treat.Ann M Kelly FCMI

stimulant up in a form that makes it delicious to imbibe. In fact, The Appetiser is almost as hooked on the taste as he is on the drug itself. Fellow coffee connoisseurs will love this app, which allows you to add new blends from the shops or high-street coffee outlets and rate them. Keying this in might seem like a lot of graft for the bleary-eyed, but coffee-philes in the embrace of the good stuff will tap away tirelessly. Pm rating •••••

reader offer Readers can buy The Mountain Within (RRP £16.99) for the special price of £13 (including p&p). To order, please visit www.mcgraw-hill.co.uk and apply the promotional code MWPM11 or call 01628 502720 and quote the same reference. Offer ends 31 December 2011.

reader offer Buy The Progress Principle by Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer (RRP £16.99) for the special price of £13 (including p&p). To order, please visit www.mcgraw-hill.co.uk and apply the code PPPM11 or call 01628 502720 and quote the code. Offer ends 31 December 2011.

reader offer Readers can buy Why Are We Bad at Picking Good Leaders? for the special price of £15.19 (plus p&p). To order, please visit www.wiley.com and apply the code VB614 or call 01243 843294 and quote the same reference. Offer ends 17 October 2012.

sOuTH eAsT3 decemberhogs Back Brewery tripHogs Back Brewery, Manor Farm, Tongham, Surrey3.30pm£10The Hogs Back Brewery is an independent brewery based in Tongham, Surrey. Their flagship real ale, “TeA” (Traditional english Ale), has proved to be a favourite of cask-conditioned ale drinkers throughout the UK. Book early to ensure you get a place at this event. Please book online. Organised by Guildford branch.contact: Mercy Bolus (t 01420 472886, e mercybolus@ btinternet.com)

12 decemberPresentation by emma wimhurst – entrepreneur and owner of “Boom” Sunburst House, elliott Road, Bournemouth, Dorset BH11 8JP 6pm£5 member/ £10 non-memberBooking is essential for planning and catering. We need to have an email address and contact telephone number for confirmation and in case of last-minute changes. speaker: emma Wimhurst contact: Sian Goodbourn(t 07948 494018, e [email protected])

21 decemberlife with field marshal montgomery of alamein Sunburst House, elliott Road, Bournemouth, Dorset BH11 8JP 12pm£5Booking is essential for planning and catering. We need to have an email

46 _ professional manager

stay connected with our regional networking events

events

Mark Law, founder of Advanced Management Skills, explains why his courses are bringing consultancy to the forefront of management training

VALue ADDeDsPeAkeR’s CORneR

Why are consulting skills vital for business?Consultancy is an oft-overlooked craft. Managers typically spend a third of their time engaging in what are primarily consulting activities – identifying and delivering value for their organisation. Yet very little time in traditional management training is dedicated to consulting skills and how they can help professionals in all walks of business life improve their delivery.What are the aims of your sessions?We want to show people that consultancy is a creative and exciting professional activity that can be immediately applied in the workplace. We also demonstrate that there is real career value in consulting qualifications.How does it help managers?Management and consultancy skills are often learnt separately, which is a paradox. Businesses that approach things from a consultancy perspective are often the most successful in terms of growth and shareholder value creation. The likes of Apple, Google and General Electric approach management from a value-driven consulting perspective. They think carefully about how to create customer value, and design their businesses to deliver this.How did you get into consultancy?My background is in the oil industry, and I am a qualified engineer, but I took a masters degree at the London Business School and worked as a strategy consultant. Then, in 1988, I founded Advanced Management Skills, which grew quickly as a teaching and training organisation. I also lead lectures and seminars at various leading business schools and professional bodies.What is Advanced Management Skills all about?Our tagline is “passionate about value”. We focus on the value that managers and their teams can create for their businesses, customers and other stakeholders. Our

approach heavily features innovation, which creates value through top-line sales growth, as well as improving business efficiency.How else do you help people learn these skills?Our online learning platform and conferencing system allows us to work with people in a very flexible and personalised way, which suits their availability and preferred learning style. This means we can conduct one-to-one tutoring sessions, as well as harnessing the power of interactive group sessions where we may have 10-12 people working together from all over the world. What are the qualifications you offer?The Certificate in Management Consulting Essentials (CMCE) is the entry-level qualification and can be secured in four to six weeks (part-time). The Diploma in Management Consultancy (DMC) is more advanced and is typically secured in three to six months. Finally there is the international Certified Management Consultant (CMC), which is recognised in 67 countries and requires the candidate to have been in full-time consultancy for a minimum of three years.What do the qualifications mean for those who achieve them?Managers are finding that the CMC is a great way to differentiate themselves in a competitive

job market. Clients are increasingly seeking consultants with recognised qualifications.

The CMC is the “gold standard” of consulting qualifications, and clients can be assured that they are working with a professional with a clear set of standards.

l The Professional Consultant course takes place at the Institute of Directors

on 5 December 2011 and provides the essential tools and knowledge to

tackle the CMCE & DMC qualifications. Book

online at www.amskills.com. Mark Law is a registered mentor for the CMC and can be reached at [email protected]


Events

address and contact telephone number for confirmation and in case of last-minute changes. speaker: Lt Col Brian Gould (retired)contact: Sian Goodbourn(t 07948 494018, e [email protected])

18 January 2012from university to the olympics – Behind the scenes at surrey sports ParkUniversity of Surrey, Richard Meyjes Road, Guildford7pm£10 member/ £12 non-memberPaul Blanchard’s background is in sports management and marketing. He has worked in various leadership roles over the past two decades, most recently as chief executive of Harlequins Rugby League. Organised by Guildford branch.speaker: Paul Blanchardcontact: Dr Brian Good (t 01483 682018, e [email protected])

LOnDOn15 decemberfestive speed networking – how to quickly meet everyone at a partyThe Naval Club, 38 Hill Street W1J 5NS6.30pm£15 member/£25 non-member/£10 studentProvides the “F factor” – festivity, friendliness and a bit of fun.

For the latest event updates and to book

your place, visit www.managers.org.uk/

events

Organised by Central and Westminster branch.speakers: John Vickers and Vicky Kellycontact: David Blackett (t 020 7602 2755, e [email protected])

sOuTH WesT7 decemberBristol cmi/wim/ic christmas dinnerCity of Bristol College, Anchor Road6.30pm£45Three-course dinner at City Restaurant. Organised by Bristol branch.contact: Keith Probert (t 07799 111908, e [email protected])

7 decemberwim gloucestershire christmas eventBowden Hall, Upton St Leonards, Gloucester7pm

contact: Marjorie Clare (e [email protected])

19 January 2012christmas Joint function with the ietBath Spa Hotel7pm£35Dress code is lounge suits. There are seats in the Avon Room for members who wish to hear the talk but not have the dinner. Organised by Bath branch. contact: Walter Sweetenham (t 01225 427110, e [email protected])

WALes1 decemberconsulting today – a personal perspectiveSwansea Business School, Mount Pleasant, Swansea6pmfree member/ £10 non-member

Organised by Swansea branch.speaker: Dr elizabeth Haywoodcontact: Karen Dancey (t 02920 218621, e karen@karendancey associates.co.uk)

7 decembergoal setting – essential skills for personal motivationScholars Restaurant, The College, Ystrad Mynach6pmfree member/ £10 non-memberOrganised by the Institute of Consulting Wales Region/South east Wales Network.speaker: eric Sutherlandcontact: Karen Dancey (t 02920 218621, e karen@karendancey associates.co.uk)

yORksHiRe

& HuMBeRsiDe23 January 2012our second double header

3 december | Hogs Back Brewery trip

insTiTuTe OF COnsuLTinG (iC)Enrolment to any IC course at the non-member rate includes a FREE year’s membership to the IC. Belonging to the IC not only gives you elevated professional status – and post-nominal letters – but access to exclusive benefits that help you win and conduct business. www.iconsulting.org.uk


2 decembertalent management – Planning for the futureInstitute of Consulting, Savoy Court, Strand, London9.30am£295 + vat member/ £395 + vat non-member speaker: Gwen Coylecontact: Alan Wright (t 01536 207373, e [email protected])

5 decembermoving into consultancyInstitute of Consulting, Savoy Court, Strand, London9.30am£295 + vat member/ £395 + vat non-member speaker: Tony Lavendercontact: Alan Wright (t 01536 207373, e [email protected])

5 decemberthe Professional consultant: cmce & dmcInstitute of Directors, 116 Pall Mall, London9amfor cost please contact provider on 020 8883 1423speaker: Mark Law BSc (Hons) MBA CMC FIBC (ex London Business School)contact: Laura Robertson (t 020 8883 1423, e [email protected])

5 decemberconsultancy skills course leading to cmce & dmcTechniques for Change, London Gatwick Airport9.30am (five-day course) £2,295 + vat (certificate and diploma additional fee)

contact: Carolyn Instone (t 01293 568817, e [email protected])

5 december (also 19 december and 9 and 23 January 2012)cmce & dmc course Online Global Participation9amcmce: £1,250 + vat/ dmc: £2,500 + vatspeaker: Mark Law BSc (Hons) MBA CMC FIBC (ex London Business School)contact: Laura Robertson (t 020 8883 1423, e [email protected])

7 decemberconsultancy skills masterclassOnline6pmfreeVisit consulting-skills-master-class.eventsbrite.com for more information.contact: Laura Robertson (t 020 8883 1423, e [email protected])

8-9 decemberessential coaching skills for consultantsInstitute of Consulting, Savoy Court, Strand, London9.30am£590 + vat member/ £690 + vat non-memberspeaker: Chris Gullivercontact: Alan Wright (t 01536 207373, e [email protected])

12 december (also 16 January 2012)certificate management consulting essentials (distance learning + instant enrolment)

Hub Doncaster College6pmfreeOrganised by Doncaster and Barnsley branch.contact: Paul Kincell (t 07952 822326, e [email protected])

13 februaryhow to Be a thought leader!Hub Doncaster College6pmfreeOrganised by Doncaster and Barnsley branch.speakers: Mindy Gibbins-Klein, Authorcontact: Paul Kincell (t 07952 822326, e [email protected])

nORTH eAsT

23 march 2012annual Black tie dinner and awardsJudges Hotel, Yarn7pm£40CMI members will receive a £5 drinks voucher to spend

at the bar. entertainment will be provided by Jeff Dingle and the Moodswing Trio. Dress is formal. A five-course meal will be served. Organised by Tees Valley branch.speaker: Baroness (Tanni) Grey-Thompson DBecontact: Kay Matthews (t 07796 267571, e [email protected])

nORTH WesT29 february 2012small hydro Power PlantsForum 28, Barrow-in-Furness7.30pmOrganised by Cumbria branch and the Institution of Mechanical engineers.speaker: Chris Brett, Inter Hydro Technologycontact: Ian Palmer (t 01229 832847, e [email protected])

29 february 2012 | Small Hydro Power Plants

My CMi BRYAn DAVIES

How did your role develop?I began at Williams Lea five years ago as managing director of its legal and professional services operating division. Then in early 2008, I was given the opportunity to lead our European HR function.

What challenges have you faced?At the time I took the HR role we were faced with challenging external market conditions. This provided the stimulus to look at how we operated, find areas for improvement and ensure we had an organisational design that was fit for purpose in that environment.

How do you meet these challenges?I found these challenges to be highly stimulating. It gave me the opportunity to apply experience from previous roles, as well as to learn from others to make sure we had a clear plan, effectively communicated and executed.

What are you most proud of ?Personally, I am very proud to have been named as Chartered Manager of the Year for London. I also believe that I have improved the performance of the organisation and individual employees. There is nothing

more satisfying that enjoying the success of winning a new client, being part of a growing business and seeing employees realise their talent and potential.

How has CMgr accreditation helped you?The CMgr provides an external stimulus and a framework within which you can take a step back and reflect objectively on performance. Alongside the day-to-day trials of management, the CMgr gives you a chance to evaluate what you have learnt.

How has CMgr benefited those you work with?The CMgr goes beyond a simple accreditation – it has become embedded in the culture of my team. I encourage others to approach their role in the same way that the CMgr has helped me to do, and it gives everyone a greater understanding of their contribution to the business.

You were recognised for showing considerable resilience – what does this mean to you?It is recognition for taking the pressures and challenges that come with your role and responding in a positive way, ensuring that the outcomes were positive for both individuals and the organisation as a whole.

Honoured this year as a Chartered Manager of the Year for London, Bryan Davies has helped Williams Lea weather the storm of recession, and helped to make sure employees get the best from and give the best

to the organisation. He explains how the CMgr accreditation helps him take stock of his achievements

Events

20 January 2012 | Strategic Scenario Planning


£1,200 + vat (instalment option available)contact: Kim Taylor (t 01256 830003, e [email protected])

12 decemberdiploma management consulting (distance learning + instant enrolment)Distance Learning£2,520 + vat (instalment option available)contact: Kim Taylor (t 01256 830003, e [email protected])

9 January 2012Procurement insightsInstitute of Consulting, Savoy Court, Strand, London1pm£195 + vat member/ £295 + vat non-memberspeaker: Paul Vincentcontact: Alan Wright (t 01536 207373, e [email protected])

13 Januarywinning Business on the webInstitute of Consulting, Savoy Court, Strand, London9.30am

£295 + vat member/ £395 + vat non-memberspeaker: Martin King-Turnercontact: Alan Wright (t 01536 207373, e [email protected])

20 Januarystrategic scenario PlanningInstitute of Consulting, Savoy Court, Strand, London9.30am£295 + vat member/ £395 + vat non-memberspeaker: Fiona Urquhartcontact: Alan Wright (t 01536 207373, e [email protected])

23-24 Januarysuccessful negotiation skillsInstitute of Consulting, Savoy Court, Strand, London9.30am£590 + vat member/ £690 + vat non-memberspeaker: Bob Manuel and Anne Rothwellcontact: Alan Wright (t 01536 207373, e [email protected])


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– yet still be key to brand demarcation. Tweaks to customer service or retail partnerships are cases in point. Sometimes small, well-directed product innovations can lead to major changes

ou might think that everything worth saying (as well as much that isn’t) has

already been said about innovation. A lively discussion forum at sparky consultancy The Foundation in October proved otherwise.

While everyone agreed that innovation is important, a matter of life and death even, not all innovation is equal; or, more accurately, the value of an innovation varies drastically according to context. So the invention of a remarkable new fragrance may be a big deal for an independent boutique but, for a large corporate firm with a global focus, it may actually be a negative, due to its being a net cost to the corporate in lost time and focus. Far more important to a global producer are small brand extensions or improvements that protect its monopolies.

Nestling behind this is the truth that most companies find it hard to be ambidextrous –management jargon for being a) innovative and b) efficient at the routine production job, simultaneously. So the first innovation priority has to be to understand your purpose and strengths, to choose the right kind of innovation.

Most companies are better at routine than innovation. For them, innovating is mysterious, difficult, possibly even dangerous. But novelty doesn’t have to mean invention: in many cases, it may be better to simply adapt someone else’s good idea. Our corporate firm, for instance, might let Darwinian selection take its course in the independent perfume marketplace before nipping in to nab the survivor and do with it what it does best – build the fragrance into a major brand.

Innovation also needs to be directed at the right kind of problems. It may be crushingly dull to the point of being completely invisible to the outside world

serendipity is the mother of innovation

As the late, great Steve Jobs discovered, innovations have to be in the right place, at the right time – or they will waste your money. simon caulkin learns the rules of the innovation game

Y

“Most companies are better at routine than innovation. For them, innovating is

mysterious, difficult, possibly even

dangerous”

in a business model – as in newspapers’ initially cautious and then increasingly confident forays online.

Cleverly directed innovation provides huge leverage. “Just

about everything Google does allows Google to do just about everything it does better,” summed up a recent admirer

with admirable succinctness. For example, a US phone directory

service that made Google no money (it was later dropped), but did radically improve voice-recognition technology,

was subsequently built into its Android operating system, which now offers a very effective search-by-voice system. I’d argue, what has allowed Apple to revolutionise the computer and telephone industries is not its cool hardware but iTunes and the App Store.

When Apple launched the Newton proto-tablet in 1993, it didn’t know what it was for and it was a flop. When it launched the iPad tablet 17 years later, the firm still didn’t know what it was for, but it didn’t matter: the crowd told it. The iPad was a hit without its satisfying an immediately obvious demand.

The final contextual dilemma for innovating firms is: who? For the large firm moving incrementally, it makes sense to use people imbued with product history and tradition. Companies breaking new ground, on the other hand, may need to reverse philosopher George Santayana’s celebrated aphorism, and note: “Those who do know their past are condemned to repeat it.” As the late Steve Jobs noted, the reason the Macintosh turned out so well was that the “people working on it were musicians, artists, poets and historians” – who also knew a bit about computer science. Sometimes the best innovators are those with imaginations unconstrained by the rigours of past ventures.