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May 08 The Curse of Conglomerates   Robert Heller questions the rationale behind the growing trend towards mergers and acquisitions.
May 08 Action and Possibilities   Edward de Bono argues that our obsession with certainty detracts from our ability to consider other possibilities.
May 08 Work-Life Balance: Is your leadership style causing stress?   Nick considers whether that is an approach to leadership that can minimise the stress in others.
May 08 Soundbite: Get on with it!   Gill provides some top tips on how to stop yourself from procrastinating.
May 08 Why you shouldn’t cut training   Alistair Schofield argues that a company’s investment in training and development should not vary with the economic climate, but be part of a log-term strategic plan.
Apr 08 Incentives and Mistakes   Robert Heller questions the role of incentives in driving beneficial business strategies and outcomes.
Apr 08 The Inadequacy of Argument   Edward de Bono highlights the floors in using argument as a mechanism for deciding outcomes.
Apr 08 Work-Life Balance: Be decisive   We all know that it is good for managers to be decisive, but what exactly does this entail?
Apr 08 The Harmonious Business   Alistair Schofield considers how, after years of seeking niches and discontinuities in markets, businesses can now succeed based on strategies that seek to work in harmony with suppliers, customers and competitors.
Apr 08 Soundbite: Lacking in confidence?   Gill McKay suggests a way of improving your self-confidence.
Mar 08 Short-termism is killing us!   As the pace of change increases, so too does the need to plan ahead. Yet the reality is that many of us assign far too much importance to short-term tasks rather than long-term priorities.
Mar 08 Work-Life Balance: Unplanned Delegation   Nicks looks at the impact on a person's work-life balance of having additional work dumped on them at short notice.
Mar 08 Ideas and Creative Skills   Edward de Bono argues that insufficient emphasis is placed on the importance of possibility and too much emphasis is placed on the search for certainty.
Mar 08 Soundbite: Driving Higher Performance.   Rosie explains how you can improve your performance by being your own boss.
Mar 08 Management and Leadership   Robert Heller considers ways of defining and measuring management and leadership.
Feb 08 Crunch Time for Creditors   Robert Heller translates the mysteries surrounding the current “credit crunch” into plain English.
Feb 08 Ideas Don’t Always Have to Die   Edward de Bono considers why ideas often die – even the good ones!
Feb 08 Work-Life Balance: Making Change Count   Nicks sets out a plan for ensuring that you successfully follow through on your good intentions.
Feb 08 Soundbite: Keeping your New Year’s resolutions   Gill explains why the 21st January is officially the most depressing day of the year.
Feb 08 Making Training Count   Alistair Schofield considers whether it is possible to measure the return on investment in training.
Dec 07 The Blaming of the Shrew   Given that we are continuously encouraging leaders to empower their staff and delegate authority, Alistair Schofield asks whether it is fair that they should take the blame when things go wrong.
Dec 07 Making Creativity a Habit   Edward de Bono provides readers with a crash course on how to be creative.
Dec 07 Time for the CGO   Robert Heller questions whether the term ‘Chief Executive Officer’ is a help or a hindrance in defining what the most senior person in a company should be doing?
Dec 07 Soundbite: How to survive Christmas   Gill provides some tips on how to avoid letting Christmas be a time for stress and hard work, and how to instead ensure that it is a time for fun, family and fellowship.
Dec 07 Work-Life Balance: Stay in tune with your natural cycle   Nick points out that every day we are different and therefore best suited to different things. Knowing this can aid your productivity as well as improving your work-life balance.
Nov07 Are They Blind or Just Stupid?   Alistair Schofield asks why is it that so many of the World’s greatest product innovations have been missed by the companies that should have owned or invented them?
Nov07 Ideas and Creativity   Edward de Bono draws a distinction between ideas creativity and artistic creativity and points out that the former can be learned in the same way as any other subject.
Nov07 Soundbite: It’s Official – There are More Questions than Answers   Rosie points out that to ask good questions, you first need to understand the outcomes you are looking for.
Nov07 Work-Life Balance: The Oldest of Lessons   A crisis can often highlight the things that are important in life – but should it take a crisis to realise this?
Nov07 The Nucor Way   Robert Heller looks at the outstanding success one company has had by taking, what some might see as, an unconventional approach to management.
Oct 07 Focusing on Customers & Achieving Alignment   Alistair Schofield describes how an imbalance in brain dominance between the senior management team and the shop-floor can cause tensions to exist in an organisation and can adversely affect customer service.
Oct 07 Train Your Mind for Creativity   Edward de Bono describes how the mind can be trained to think creatively.
Oct 07 Work Life Balance: Work Life & Brain Balance   Nick points out that an understanding of the subject of brain dominance can sometimes help people identify the type of activities they should be engaging in to provide themselves with a good work-life balance.
Oct 07 Soundbite: Listen to your intuitive mind   Gill describes how gut-feel and instinct are just as valuable as logic and reasoning when making decisions.
Sep 07 Unlocking the value of the overhead   Brian Plowman, Managing Director of Develin & Partners, describes an approach to cost cutting that can improve customer service, productivity and effectiveness as well as reducing costs.
Sep 07 Quality Management or Quality Company   Despite the popularity of Six Sigma, Robert Heller questions whether it is all it is cracked up to be.
Sep 07 Creative Skills and Thinking   Edward de Bono describes how creative thinking is a much broader concept than simply brainstorming.
Sep 07 Work-Life Balance: Saving Energy   Being “green” is all the rage, but do you use your own energy wisely?
Sep 07 Soundbite: How to Have More Good Days at Work   Rosie asks what the difference is between a good day and work and a bad one and offers advice on how to make more days “good” ones.
Aug 07 Learning to Lead   Alistair Schofield believes that leadership skills are natural and that all of us possess them to a greater or lesser extent. The development of leadership skills is therefore not about learning anything new, but about bringing existing skills to the fore.
Aug 07 Leadership and Strategy   Robert Heller describes how success and longevity can often breed complacency and offers a short check-list to test yourself against.
Aug 07 Creativity & How to Achieve It   Edward de Bono describes how dissatisfaction lies at the heart of the motivation for creativity and innovation.
Aug 07 Work-Life Balance: Do a little of what you love to do   Nick considers why some people, who ostensibly have a poor work-life balance, seem to have boundless energy and great enthusiasm for their work.
Aug 07 Soundbite: Whose standards are they anyway?   Gill suggests that a lot of the stress people experience comes from the pressures we impose upon ourselves.
Jul 07 Ask a silly question...   Alistair Schofield believes that the skill of asking perceptive and searching questions is one of the most important skills of management, but that answers are not always what they appear to be.
Jul 07 Paradoxes & the Fusion   Manager Robert Heller is vehemently against management doctrines as the world of management has very few absolutes. Instead managers must learn to deal with endless trade-offs.
Jul 07 Focusing on Small Ideas   Edward de Bono describes how thinking of small ideas can often lead to bigger things.
Jul 07 Work-Life Balance: Bring some “Life” into you work   Nick points out that the issues of work-life balance are not always about the quantity of work, time constraints and too much pressure, sometimes it can be caused by boredom.
Jul 07 Soundbite: High Performance Moves – Lessons from sport   Although not a big fan of rugby, Rosie still found something of interest when she attended a presentation by members of the Wasps ruby team.
Jun 07 Who Should Decide?   Alistair Schofield challenges the view that one of the most important jobs of a manager is to make decisions.
Jun 07 Management and Leadership   Robert Heller offers a simple set of questions that he believes leaders should ask themselves on a regular basis.
Jun 07 A Need for New Thinking   Edward de Bono describes a new organization he has established to challenge conventional thinking and promote new ideas.
Jun 07 Work-Life Balance: Start at the Beginning   Nick points out that “the beginning” is not always where we expect to find it.
Jun 07 Soundbite: Choose Your Attitude   Gill points out that between stimulus and response we all have choices.
May 07 Achieving Excellence in Customer Management   During its brief history, the science and technology surrounding Customer Management has acquired something of a mixed reputation, but recent research from Henley Management College may shed light on why some projects have failed while other succeeded.
May 07 Apple Shines   Robert Heller believes that the avoidance of mistakes can sometimes be more important than the pursuit of good decisions.
May 07 Ideas for All   Edward de Bono argues that the search for new ideas should be constant – even when things are going well.
May 07 Work-Life Balance: There are few real “deadlines”   Nick passes on some advice on how to avoid living your life by other people’s deadlines.
May 07 Soundbite: Delegation   Rosie considers the cost of not delegating.
Apr 07 Interview – Robert Heller   Alistair Schofield speaks to Robert Heller, journalist, commentator and the author of more than 50 books on management and business strategy.
Apr 07 Opulence is the New Affluence   Robert Heller looks at how the Age of Affluence has given way to an Era of Opulence.
Apr 07 Soundbite: Enjoy Being in the Present   Gill considers how we live our lives thinking about the past and planning for the future, but that we often forget to enjoy life in the preset.
Apr 07 Interesting Creativity   Edward de Bono on why value, and not difference, creates real interest.
Apr 07 Work-Life Balance: The Art of Saying No   Nick looks at how we can improve our work-life balance and our reputation for being reliable and delivering on time, simply by learning to say “no”.
Mar 07 Leaders in London 2006   Towards the end of 2006 I was lucky enough to attend the Leaders in London summit. This article therefore consists of a series of “soundbites” that attempt to summarise some of the key points made by each of the speakers, followed by a synopsis of the themes that emerged from the event overall.
Mar 07 Right and Left-Brain Managers   Robert Heller looks at the different approach managers take to running their businesses and concludes that they need to be whole-brained.
Mar 07 Lateral Thinking & Creativity   Edward de Bono considers what it takes for managers to take lateral thinking and creative ideas seriously?
Mar 07 Work-Life Balance: Using your subconscious to good effect   Nick looks at how to harness the power of your subconscious mind to make yourself more efficient.
Mar 07 Soundbite: Working Smarter   Everyone says “work smarter”, but how?
Feb 07 Interview - Daniel Pink   Alistair Schofield speaks to Daniel Pink, journalist, commentator and best-selling author of “A Whole New Mind”.
Feb 07 Power and the Manager   Within a company the CEO is generally regarded as being all powerful, yet the fact remains that the average tenure of a CEO is now less than 2 years. Against this background, Robert Heller considerers the nature of the power a CEO possesses.
Feb 07 Creative Thinking   Edward de Bono asks whether we should make creativity part of our usual thinking behaviour, or should we keep it separate and only ‘switch’ when required?
Feb 07 Work-Life Balance: Becoming Dispensable   Nick describes how successful delegation is not just about allocating tasks to others, it involves letting go in your mind.
Feb 07 Soundbite: Quick fix vs. the long-term solution   Anna’s friend goes on a diet – but will it last?
Dec 06 Interview – Ian Geden   Alistair Schofield speaks to Ian Geden, Chief Executive of UK-based financial services company NFU Mutual, about customer service excellence.
Dec 06 Forty Years Later   Robert Heller looks back over forty years to consider what has changed.
Dec 06 More than Lip Service   Edward de Bono says too many companies talk about innovation, but do nothing about it.
Dec 06 Work-Life Balance: Understanding Pressure   As the pressures mount in the run up to Christmas, Nick looks at three different sources of pressures and offers some helpful suggestions.
Dec 06 Soundbite: T’is the season to be jolly!   Anna’s suggestions will help us make the most of the festive season.
Nov 06 Leadership, Management and the Brain   With business leaders increasingly looking for greater creativity and “right-brained” thinking, Alistair Schofield considers whether our organisations are complex logical “left-brained” structures because that’s the way they need to be, or is it simply that that’s the way we made them?
Nov 06 Sales & Marketing: Get it Together   Robert Heller believes that the perennial battling between sales and marketing reflects a grave failure to manage effectively.
Nov 06 Creativity and Risk   Edward de Bono considers the question of how long you should give a new idea to succeed before giving up?
Nov 06 Work-Life Balance: What can you do for others?   Nick considers the impact that your behaviours have on others.
Nov 06 Soundbite: Get out of your comfort zone!   Anna kicks us out of complacency.
Oct 06 The Fine Line Between Good and Bad   Now that the dust has settled, Alistair Schofield looks back at the collapse of Enron to consider what lessons we have learned for employment policy.
Oct 06 The Pirates of Pay   Robert Heller believes that, despite growing criticism, schemes for enriching top managers are worsening.
Oct 06 Creative Focus   Creative thinking may still be needed, even if the solutions to a problem are obvious, says Edward de Bono.
Oct 06 Work-Life Balance: What matters is what you do – not what you say   Nick considers the impact that your behaviours have on others.
Oct 06 Soundbite: Focus on what really matters   Anna draws a distinction between tasks and objectives.
Sep 06 Do Women Make Better Managers?   Daniel Pink’s thought-provoking book ‘A Whole New Mind’ encourages businesses to be more right-brained in their thinking. As women are generally regarded to be more right-brained than men, it should follow that as we move from, what Pink described, as the ‘Information Age’ into the ‘Conceptual Age’, women’s performance in business should improve relative to men. Johanna Krotz considers the question of whether women make better managers?
Sep 06 Stepping Down   With news of changes at the top at Microsoft, Robert Heller asks, when is the right time to drop the pilot?
Sep 06 Designing a New Religion   With reference to his new book, ‘H+ A New Religion’, Edward de Bono describes how he would go about creating a new religion – one based on practical design, rather than mysticism.
Sep 06 Work-Life Balance: Back to work   Nick provides a simple questionnaire to get you thinking after your well-earned break.
Sep 06 Soundbite: What happens when you win?   What should you do when you get what you want? Anna offers a suggestion.
Aug 06 Breakthrough Thinking   At the limits of performance, the difference between winning and losing is not just about physical or mental strength, but about changing the rules and adopting a different strategy. Alistair Schofield considers the challenge of breakthrough thinking.
Aug 06 Management and Psyche   Robert Heller explains why experts aren’t always all they’re cracked up to be.
Aug 06 Boxing Clever   Edward de Bono explains why sometimes thinking inside the box can be a good thing.
Aug 06 Work-Life Balance: Balancing Our Motivations   Nick Woodeson considers the challenge of enjoying the ‘journey’ as well as the ‘destination’.
Aug 06 Soundbite: Giving Feedback   Anna looks at the key leadership skill of giving feedback.
Jul 06 Three Leadership Fundamentals   When Rob Goffee and Gareth Jones asked people in organisations which skills they would most like to develop, all provided the same answer: Help us to become more effective leaders.
Jul 06 The Culture Of Business   Robert Heller suggests that business culture, properly defined and developed, is the basis for achieving outstanding success.
Jul 06 Constant Creativity   Edward de Bono believes that, with the use of lateral thinking, creativity can and should be learned and developed as a formal skill in the human race.
Jul 06 Work-Life Balance: Leaving Work Behind   Nick Woodeson offers some suggestions to help us “switch off”.
Jul 06 Soundbite: What's Your Profile?   Anna discovers the value of personality profiling tools.
Jun 06 Britain For Sale – Is nothing sacred?   With so many businesses having been sold to overseas buyers, Alistair Schofield considers the question as to whether this is a good thing or not.
Jun 06 Achieving Work Life Balance   Work Life balance is an issue that has gained increasing attention in recent years with numerous employee care surveys for major corporations revealing that increasing numbers of people are dissatisfied with their work-life balance.
Jun 06 Double Cult Folly   Robert Heller, at his most acerbic, debunks the Cult of the Chief Executive and the Cult of Shareholder Value.