Introduction
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Productivity improvement has become a complex subject embracing most management disciplines, made even more complex by its measurement becoming more difficult as economies develop and services come to dominate
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The upside of widespread productivity improvement is a vast increase in national economic growth rates and standards of living – mostly achieved by reducing unit costs of goods and services enabling many more people to afford them
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Demand then increases and company profits improve enabling increases in pay levels which generate even more demand plus more tax-take for governments to provide more and better public services
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The downside can be job losses for some but, to date, productivity improvement has led to a net increase in jobs plus whole new sectors created – and most people outplaced are able to find other jobs, often better paid and more fulfilling
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With such benefits, ‘how to improve productivity’ has become the most important issue facing any manager or government minister in peace-time – at least in ‘non-pandemic times’
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Hence, one would expect there to be thousands of books, seminars, conferences, specialist courses, website pages and apps focussed on productivity improvement – plus directors and consultants specialising in the subject
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Surprisingly, there are very few
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Indeed, productivity is ‘off the radar’ for most managers at all levels – everybody is said to be responsible for it, so nobody is – in effect, they’re ‘flying blind’ – unforeseen events top their priority lists, daily firefighting is their norm, productivity improvement is not even on their agendas
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Hence most organisations in most sectors, public and private, operate well below their potential – not 1 or 2% below but at least 20%
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The great majority could offer much more and better, many with fewer resources and so at much less cost
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Hence, the overall aim of this website and our trilogy of productivity books is:
‘To help managers improve lives’
