From cut-price gym fees to stop-smoking programmes: The dark side of staff health schemes Remember the look of successful businessmen of the past? With a self-satisfied grin and a greasy face, they’d sit down to enjoy a fine meal, with a swollen gut testing the strength of their belt. To no one’s dismay, these rounded figures have largely disappeared from the corporate scene. Still, we shouldn’t be overenthusiastic about [...]
Dave Lewis might be tempted to dodge crisis at Tesco, but he’d do better facing up to the truth Dave Lewis found himself face to face with some wicked problems last week. Tesco’s new chief executive had only been in the job for a matter of days when he was confronted with an accounting scandal, dire growth forecasts, unhappy investors and irate politicians. The kind of wicked problems Lewis faces are common in business. [...]
Is management speak always a waste of time? It’s annoying, but corporate jargon can often serve a useful purpose. When thinking of management gurus, the last person to come to mind is the comic singer-songwriter Weird Al Yankovic. But his recently released album Mandatory Fun provides some cutting observations about the kind of jargon that’s taken over business. One track, Mission [...]