The power of technology to change how we work

October 26, 2009 4:13 pm by Ravi Mattu

An extraordinary video has emerged of a London Underground worker who was filmed yelling at an elderly passenger (non-UK readers will not be able to see the video but it might be available elsewhere online). The employee has since resigned.

The incident happened on the day after Transport for London announced a price rise, which couldn’t have been great timing. That aside, it is interesting how quickly this story got out and how the instinctive reaction of a fellow passenger was to film the whole event, presumably on his mobile phone.

The quick dissemination of the message goes to the heart of all sorts of questions on the way we work: if you have a public-facing position, don’t expect that you can get away with anything because someone might be watching (though, London Underground are well covered with closed circuit television cameras – one assumes that if his bosses had seen him on their own footage, they would have been less than pleased but a colleague apparently “laughed and walked away” ); consumers/the public see themselves as more than mere clients – they are stakeholders, and the passenger who took the video claims that part of his motivation was the fact that it had happened on the day after the price increase.

Posted in Brand management, Community, Consumers, Innovation/tech, Technology | Permalink

Fabio Capello on the management of fear

October 23, 2009 5:59 pm by Ravi Mattu

England football manager Fabio Capello has had a remarkably successful career in Italy, Spain and now as manager of England (ok, he hasn’t won anything yet, but they have qualified for the World Cup). Sports analogies are used too often in the world of management speak (even for a sportsfan like me) but according to an article in the Guardian about his presentation at the Global Sports Summit in London, Capello reveals a couple of interesting truths.

First, he says that when he took over England the quality of the players was very high in training but not in matches.

“I understood everything when they played Switzerland in the first match, the same players who played well in training played with fear, with no confidence, and I said this is a big problem of the mind,” he said. “Step by step, game after game, we have improved a lot.”

Continue reading: “Fabio Capello on the management of fear”

Posted in Communication, Creativity, Innovation/tech, Leadership, Management, Managing others, Strategy/ops | Permalink

US Chamber of Commerce, again

October 23, 2009 10:57 am by Ravi Mattu

The US Chamber of Commerce is still in a bit of trouble – I wrote about the problems of the US Chamber of Commerce a few weeks ago. Now the New Yorker’s James Surowiecki questions some of the organisation’s claims on how many companies it represents. He says it could have misrepresented or “lied” about numbers of members

Posted in Community, Management | Permalink

Airline solves middle seat conundrum

October 21, 2009 4:43 pm by Ravi Mattu

Canada’s WestJet airline doesn’t have a business class or premium economy, but it’s come up with another idea to give its passengers a bit more space, save on fuel consumption and avoid having to buy new planes for longer flights – charge people a bit extra to keep the middle seat vacant. According to Richard Bartrem, WestJet’s vice-president of corporate culture and communications, one motivation is to deal with the “question of real estate” when it comes to the armrest between seats.

I will confess, I didn’t realise this was such a problem but stranger business ideas have worked in the past, so I’ll happily eat my hat if this becomes a huge success.

Posted in Consumers, Entrepreneurship, Innovation/tech, Marketing/sales | Permalink

The impressive leadership of Emilio Botín

October 21, 2009 11:18 am by Ravi Mattu

I highly recommend today’s analysis of Banco Santander and Emilio Botín, its executive chairman, a bank that has been able to thrive when its home market and so many of its rivals have suffered so brutally in the recession. Obviously, things can change quickly in the world of business, but their steady rise from a small bank founded in the northern Spanish city of Santander into one of the world’s largest.

From a management perspective, the really striking fact is how important leadership has been to the organisation – much of its success is down to Emilio Botín, its executive chairman – and the company’s cautious approach to risk management.

One story the piece didn’t go into detail was how the bank responded when its exposure to the Bernard Madoff ponzi scheme was revealed. Rather than trying to cover it up, they were open about it and quickly offered compensation to their clients. Not only was this a good example of handling customer relations (apparently 70 per cent of its “Madoff” customers took up the offer) it was also a brilliant communications effort. This could have been a major stakeholder relations disaster for the bank, but by dealing with it in a forthright manner, it seems they were able to minimise as best they could the damage.

Posted in Brand management, Communication, Consumers, Leadership, Management | Permalink

Even prison managers sometimes fiddle

October 20, 2009 7:34 pm by Ravi Mattu

Dame Anne Owers, the Chief Inspector of Prisons for England and Wales, said today that a number of prison managers had moved out “difficult” inmates because they were worried that their presence would negatively impact their inspection.

It seemed especially farcical because, apparently, it would have had no impact if the prisoners had stayed.

“The presence of those prisoners wouldn’t have affected our inspectors assessment at all,” said Dame Anne.

“Sadly for the many staff and managers who had worked hard to improve the two prisons, their efforts will inevitably be overshadowed by these events,” she said.

“This is deplorable, not only because of the effects on individuals, but because of the underlying mind-set that prisoners are merely pieces to be moved around the board to meet performance targets or burnish the reputation of the prison.”

What really struck me about Dame Anne’s comments was her concern that this would have a damaging impact on moral for the staff and lower level managers, and provide a negative example to them.

Continue reading: “Even prison managers sometimes fiddle”

Posted in Career/skills, Leadership, Management, Managing others, Strategy/ops | Permalink

How does a manager explain this?

October 19, 2009 5:26 pm by Ravi Mattu

The news that Raj Rajarathnam, head of hedge fund Galleon, has been arrested for insider trading opens up all sorts of interesting issues. The use of wire taps to track white collar crime is reminiscent of tracking down mobsters, the Sri Lankan government’s claims that he had ties to Tamil separatists and Mr Rajarathnam’s motivation – in the book New Investment Superstars, he said: “After awhile, money is not the motivation. I want to win every time. Taking calculated risks gets my adrenaline pumping.” – and his prominent position in the philanthropic organisations in New York, and so on.

What struck me, is that he planned to be in the office this morning to explain this all to staff. Managers face all sorts of communication challenges and this surely has to be among the toughest, a delicate balance of trying to maintain a level of credibility as the company leader but also, presumably, trying to make sure the people in the business keep the business going, all against the background of a handcuffed Mr Rajaratnam being escorted by FBI agents on the front page of most major newspapers.

UPDATE: Ok, so I guess you simply protest your innocence.

Posted in Career/skills, Communication, Finance, Leadership, Management | Permalink

The latest ranking of executive MBAs

October 19, 2009 5:00 am by Ravi Mattu

In today’s paper, check out our latest ranking of executive MBAS. As you will see, the trend for success seems to be those programmes that are taught in multiple locations. In the age of globalisation, that has to make sense.

Posted in B-schools, Career/skills | Permalink

The Royal Mail – the saga that never dies

October 16, 2009 11:15 am by Ravi Mattu

The Royal Mail and its unions are at loggerheads. Again.

I moved to the UK in 1997 and like a letter that never reaches its final destination, turmoil in the organisation is one of the business stories that has been a constant throughout the time I have lived in the country.

Every year, it seems to have lurched from crisis to crisis: successive bosses have said that the service needs to modernise or die; unions and workers battle them back in negotiations, claiming that ‘modernisation’ is a code word for gutting the organisation, cutting jobs and reducing salaries to disastrous levels; and the government, publicly at least, seems keen to stay out of it as much as they can (though I have to say, Lord Mandelson’s statement on the decision by the CWU to strike – “Candidly, I think it is suicidal” – did strike me as extraordinarily strident).

Continue reading: “The Royal Mail – the saga that never dies”

Posted in Community, Consumers, Hard times, Leadership, Management, Managing others | Permalink

management blog