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Archive for the ‘Management’ Category

The Forbidden City

China, many years ago, lost contact with the real world by isolating their rulers in the Forbidden City, thereby guaranteeing that decisions made by their rulers were based on whim combined with information relayed to them by politically ambitious members of the court via a long chain of censorship and self-interest and in many cases self-preservation.

I wonder if political leaders these days are constructing a virtual forbidden city around themselves, especially in countries where no substantial political opposition exists.

Can you think of a country where this may be true?

Web Based Data Capture

Paper based systems of data capture place an unnecessary burden on administrative staff in the form of follow up to ensure all documents have been received and then electronic capture of these documents with the associated difficulties created by bad handwriting and poor fax or scan quality.

By moving the task of electronic data capture to a web based system and making it the responsibility of the person who initiated the transaction, greater accuracy and completeness is improved and access to the data is possible at any time to authorized individuals around the world with an internet connection.

The better the online system selected, the more comprehensive and versatile are the management reports available from the system.

The three systems recommended for investigation and trial are FormDesk, dabbleDB and webex weboffice.

FormDESK—A very basic system for the capture and storage of data via familiar spreadsheet tools.

dabbleDB—A cost effective and easy to use system of recording, storing and reporting data.

webex weboffice—A comprehensive and expandable tool that contains many useful features and tools for the future.

Because the system chosen is likely to become an integral part of your data capture and management decision making, it is advisable to test these systems before making a choice.

BizzHub.net ready to roll

I have finally completed the web site for BizzHub.net. It may still be a little rough around the edges, but we’ll fix that over time.

BizzHub.net is a membership based network of entrepreneurs, managers and mentors providing an infrastructure of mentored meetings, discussion forums, training courses and centralised access to service providers and suppliers.

Please feel free to explore the site and pass any criticism back to me.

Essential Communication Tool

Whether you use it for marketing or simply to quickly communicate with your customers and staff about your products and your systems, pictures and videos are an effective tool that historically were a problem to produce and publish on the internet.

The new version of Picasa (from Google) has solved a lot of these issues with their normal elegance and ease of use.

Have a look at Picasa 3 and then let your imagination and sense of adventure have some fun.

You can create movies (and seamlessly send them to YouTube and/or share them on your web site), collages for those family events or family presents, slideshows for remote presentations and web photo albums wich save a fortune on your email time and cap.

It is getting to the stage where employing a multimedia expert is now becoming part of employer considerations.

Personhood by Leo F. Buscaglia

Like the spider, there are those of us who refuse to stop spinning, even when it would appear to be far more sophisticated to be without hope. Our rope, though perhaps frail, can still be spun with optimism, curiosity, wonder, love and the sincere desire to share a trip to the stars. Our goal is worth the struggle, for in this case the star to which we aspire is full humanity for all.

I feel strongly that in the continual striving for actualization of every living thing lies our only hope. This is the unique challenge of Personhood and the sole purpose of this book.

Fish by Stephen C. Lundin, Harry Paul and John Christensen

A powerful parable that will help you love the work you do – even if you can’t always do work that you love.
Imagine a workplace where everyone chooses to bring energy, passion and a positive attitude to the job every day. Imagine an environment in which people are truly connected to their work, colleagues and customers. In this engrossing parable, a fictional manager must transform a chronically unenthusiastic and unhelpful department into an effective team. Down the street from her office, Seattle’s very real Pike Place Fish is wildly successful thanks to its fun, bustling atmosphere and great customer service. By applying ingeniously simple lessons learned from the actual Pike Place fishmongers, our manager discovers how to energise those who report to her and effect an astonishing transformation in her workplace.

Principle Centered Leadership by Stephen R. Covey

Principle Centered Leadership will help solve these dilemmas –
and many others:

  • how do we achieve a wise and renewing balance between work and family in the midst of constant pressures and crises?
  • how do we unleash the creativity, talent and energy of the vast majority of the work force, whose jobs neither require nor reward such resources?
  • how can we have a culture characterised by change, flexibility, and continuous improvement and still maintain a sense of stability and security?
  • how do we realise that the choice between hardball ‘tough’ management and softball ‘kind’ management is transcended by a third alternative that is both tougher and kinder?
  • how do we create team spirit and harmony among people and departments that have been criticising and attacking each other for years?
  • how do we get people and culture aligned with strategy, so that everyone in an organisation is as comitted to the strategy as those who formulated it?

The Seven-Day Weekend by Ricardo Semler

In The Seven-Day Weekend, Semler explains how he transformed a small family business into a highly profitable manufacturing, services and high-tech powerhouse – 40 times its original size – while watching his favourite movies or relaxing with his son in the middle of the business day.
(Gavin’s comment – I know this is possible to implement, but really needs strong and confident leadership)

The Seven-Day Weekend by Ricardo Semler

A maverick CEO debunks the conventional wisdom about work by putting employee freedom and satisfaction ahead of corporate goals

Ricardo Semler thinks that companies ought to put employee freedom and satisfaction ahead of corporate goals.

Imagine a company where employees set their own hours; where there are no offices, no job titles, no business plans; where employees get to endorse or veto any new venture; where kids are encouraged to run the halls; and where the CEO lets other people make nearly all the decisions. This company—Semco—actually exists, and despite a seeming recipe for chaos, its revenues have grown from $35 million to $160 million in the last six years. It has virtually no staff turnover, and there are no signs that its growth will stop any time soon.

How did Semco become wildly successful despite breaking many of the commonly accepted laws of business? In The Seven-Day Weekend, Ricardo Semler shows that for those willing to take a chance, there is a better way to run a workplace.

He explains how the technology that was supposed to make life easier—laptops, cell phones, e-mail, pagers—has in fact stolen free time and destroyed the traditional nine-to-five workday. But this can be a good thing—if you have the freedom to get your job done on your own terms and to blend your work life and personal life with enthusiasm and creative energy. Smart bosses will eventually realize that you might be most productive if you work on Sunday afternoon, play golf on Monday morning, go to a movie on Tuesday afternoon, and watch your child play soccer on Thursday.

This is a radical book that will challenge the business world to make the seven-day weekend a reality.

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