Drug dealers are perfect gurus in a recession

September 21, 2009 4:57 am by Lucy Kellaway

At the age of 12, he was a drug dealer; at 22, he had nine bullets shot into him at close range; at 23, he had a career change and became a rapper; by 30, he had diversified into clothes, vitamin mineral water and condoms and now, at 32, has pulled off something that Jack Welch didn’t manage until he was 30 years older: 50 Cent is now a management guru.

For the rapper, this latest career move has come early. But for the management guru industry, it is long overdue. Mountaineers, conductors and army generals have all stepped forward to offer their tips for success to managers. But as far as I know, 50, as his fans know him, is the first hustler to give a helping hand to executives on their way to the corner office.

Drug dealing has considerably more overlap with business than playing the violin or climbing a mountain. It’s a competitive, fast growing industry in which the successful have to be even sharper and more flexible than the most driven businessman.

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Posted in Hard times, Leadership, Management | Permalink

Letting the office go to the dogs

September 14, 2009 1:32 am by Lucy Kellaway

On Wednesday, for one day only, several thousand of the unemployed and unemployable will make their way into UK workplaces. Most will have exceptionally low IQs and will be capable of following only the simplest instructions. Many also will have halitosis and be inclined to behave with inappropriate friendliness or sudden hostility.

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Posted in Corporate culture, Managing others | Permalink

Wash away management’s verbal gems

September 7, 2009 10:26 am by Lucy Kellaway

Hygiene at work is in. In office toilets, grown-up employees are being told how to wash their hands in the hope of preventing everyone passing swine flu to everyone else. First you wet your hands, the notices say, then you apply soap, then rub them together for 15-40 seconds (different companies require employees to do this for different lengths of time) and finally, you dry them with a paper towel.

But now businesses are being urged to keep metaphorically clean, too. Arthur D Little has devoted much of its current journal to urging companies to be “hygienic” and attend more meticulously to their working capital levels and procurement methods. Good hygiene, it says, is what sorts out winners and losers at this point in the cycle.

The rest of Lucy Kellaway’s column can be read here. Comments can be left below.

Posted in Management | Permalink

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