Return to Nations

National action needed

  • As with organisations, there are many options for change and improvement open to all nations, even when there’s a  financial crisis whirling around them

  • Some of those options are better/ more effective than others

  • And different nations are at different stages of development which means some options must be considered before others – this also determines what they can afford

  •  G7 developed economies have many areas to choose from, including:

    • Deregulation has often raised productivity in the past and can continue to do so

    • Changing the boundaries around the work–life balance

    • Encouraging people to stay in the workforce longer or

    • Increasing the numbers of hours worked each week

    • And improving education and so skills of its workforce

  • Each could add a few points of absolute growth

  • To continually improve, nations need vision and effort

  • However, history shows that all nations that rise also eventually fall – they end up defending the status quo rather than taking steps to advance further

 

Ongoing

Governments don’t determine national productivity levels – business managers do However, governments can and do do many things to help managers, including:   Managers are principally responsible to their employing organisation – they must try to get the most out of its limited resources – they must try to minimise the costly resources they use, …

Action needed – Overall

1. National Productivity Centres – NPCs: Clearly, all governments should take national productivity improvement very seriously – the potential benefits are £300 billion per annum for the UK alone! They should set up their own NPC to chase such enormous benefits – each NPC should be independently funded so it cannot be swayed for any …

Action needed – Private sector

Clusters: Clusters are ‘geographically proximate groups of interconnected companies, suppliers, service providers and associated institutions in a particular field’ – they need a sizeable local population, nearby universities and research establishments, some suppliers and customers already there, and cheap and fast transport Clusters enable cities to be more productive than towns, and mega-cities more than …

Action needed – Public sector

All governments must cut their cloth to what their public can afford – basic guidelines for their actions should be: Ration services to only those the public deem to be essential Target sector-wide improvements of 20% or more, not 1 to 2% Focus on less waste before less service Invest more to improve ‘core’ infrastructure, …

1 comment

  1. I really like what you guys are up too. Such clever work and coverage! Keep up the amazing works guys I’ve incorporated you guys to our blogroll.

Leave a Reply

Your e-mail address will not be published.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.