The Church of England is making radical changes to its leadership structure. Talented clergy are to be taken aside and trained to rise straight to the top. While changes are not necessarily a bad thing…
One of the oldest assumptions about organising comes directly from the angels. In the 5th century, the mysterious theologian Pseudo-Dionysius wrote the definitive book on angelic hierarchies, Ecclesiastical…
Series ten of The Apprentice and another batch of boardroom hopefuls have proffered themselves up to Lord Sugar as wannabe entrepreneurs. The majority fail, publicly and to great embarrassment. We’ve watched…
When companies start to struggle, some people hope that the idea of corporate social responsibility (CSR) can help CEOs understand themselves and learn to adapt, but too often that is engulfed by traditional…
Tolstoy’s opening line in Anna Karenina was: “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” The same can be said of most businesses – the recipe for success is simple…
Usually when great national institutions are perceived as being under threat people start to get anxious. And as we know, anxious people can sometimes do strange things. Sometimes they announce grand but…
Tamara Friedrich, Warwick Business School, University of Warwick
Victoria Beckham has been named Entrepreneur of the Year by Management Today. She topped their list of 100 successful entrepreneurs thanks to her fashion company’s turnover, which has grown from £1m to…
While teaching unions continue their campaign for higher pay for teachers, there is less clamour for headteachers to earn better salaries. With reports that 40 headteachers are paid more than the prime…
It is a cold but sunny morning at a white brick office building in the shadow of London’s Shard skyscraper. For the people attending a training event here it is the first step on the road to financial…
As winter arrives and the modest charms and innuendo of The Great British Bake Off end, it’s time for Alan Sugar’s parade of narcissism as the tenth series of The Apprentice begins. The show is a big earner…
While General Electric (GE) has been the worst-performing stock on the Dow Jones this year, amid calls from analysts for the conglomerate to break up, its European rival Siemens has been busy repositioning…
Six years on from the financial crisis and still many of us feel deeply unsure about institutions and individuals we had previously revered as beacons of reliability and certainty. The need to repair that…
As Tesco hits the headlines over accounting and fast-falling profits, 11 kempt faces look out from its website. They are the Tesco board members: three of them women and eight of them men. That ratio puts…
“Never let a good crisis go to waste.” The well-known words of Winston Churchill are probably on the mind of Dave Lewis, the new CEO of Tesco. The company faced what many deemed to be the worst crisis…
After a financial crisis which highlighted and unearthed corrupt management, bad business practices and selfish acts of greed, maybe it’s time to evaluate the impact of a more spiritual form of leadership…
Malaysia Airlines was hit with two extraordinary crises this year that have rocked the confidence of customers and left the company struggling to manage the damage. Lone passengers are posting pictures…
Imagine taking over the reins of a firm which only a few years ago was regarded as one of the best run companies in the UK, but now routinely posted declining market share, moribund profits, and mounting…
As the group stage of the World Cup draws to a close, while it’s the joy of qualification for some, it’s the crushing disappointment of an early exit for others. And, in the post-mortem which inevitably…
Patience at Manchester United has run out. David Moyes has been sacked possibly sooner than was expected, but entirely predictably given the huge financial pressures that were looming if the team continued…