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At national level, productivity improvement aims to get more goods and services out of the existing labour, indigenous and imported materials, and capital resources available
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It enables a nation to enjoy greater prosperity via higher wages, a stronger currency and a better standard of living for all
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It’s the best means available to fight price inflation, reduce unemployment, reduce unit costs, create wealth and look after the poor and needy
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Hence, the most important economic issue facing any government is ‘how best to improve national productivity?’
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Surprisingly, most government ministers don’t recognise this importance, much like most managers – they exhort the nation to ‘raise productivity levels’ and ‘close productivity gaps’, but where’s the beef behind their words
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Some countries do take productivity seriously, however – they actively support ‘Productivity Commissions’ (Australia, New Zealand) or ‘Productivity Centres’ (Japan – JPC, USA – APQC), employ senior business and Trade Union representatives and study major productivity issues
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National productivity is not even measured well – the focus is on labour productivity alone, errors are rife, accuracy is debatable, sector breakdowns are ignored
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We’re not after perspiration but imagination – not more but smarter working
