The UK government’s ‘Industrial Strategy’ for making the UK more competitive and the economy better-balanced essentially involves increasing R&D investment and workers’ skills It considers five areas for productivity improvement – Ideas, People, Infrastructure, Places and Business environment – and recognises four grand challenges: Artificial intelligence and machine learning Clean growth Future mobility Ageing society …
Tag: Targets
Nov 27
Most plans go unseen or unused
The following is an extract from ‘Productivity Knowhow’ A good corporate plan is a punchy summary of where an organisation aims to be in five years’ time and, broadly, how it is to get there Essentially, the plan should define the organisation’s ‘business model’ – how it will be better than its rivals and …
Sep 12
Target setting
Targets are needed to bring meaning to any performance measure They enable one to quantify scope for improvement, performance gaps to be closed and urgency for change Told your ‘bad’ cholesterol level is 8.6 and most would ask ‘so what?’ – told that good health requires the level to be below 5 and a course …
Jun 28
Labour has a terrible productivity idea
According to an article for Bloomberg View by Ferdinando Giugliano, one-time member of the Financial Times editorial committee, the UK’s Labour Party has come up with a ‘terrible idea’ for sorting out the country’s current productivity problem John McDonnell, Shadow Chancellor, proposes giving the Bank of England (BoE) a yearly 3% productivity growth target to sit …
Aug 19
Human targets are best
In his book ‘Happiness’, Richard Layard points out that: ” People care most about their income relative to that of other people” i.e. more than the total itself He says most people would even be willing to accept a significant fall in their living standards as long as they could move up compared to other …
Basic steps to big improvements
There are various acronyms on offer for how to go about improvement projects viz: PDCA from TQM – Plan, Do, Check, Amend DMAIC from Six Sigma – Define, Measure, Analyse, Improve, Control SREDIM from Work Study – Setup, Record, Examine, Develop, Implement, Maintain All boil down to much the same process Managers, whatever their level and …
Why do national productivity gaps persist?
Philip Hammond, UK Chancellor of the Exchequer, is forever saying: “It takes a German worker four days to produce what a UK worker makes in five” Others say much the same about French workers But such claims are not new, they’ve been made over the last 30 years at least We already know the ONS …
Low Australia productivity affects all, not just a few
New Reserve Bank governor, Philip Lowe, says boosting productivity is essential if Australia is to maintain the living standards it has enjoyed in recent years He warns: “Australia’s remarkable boom times are over and the best way to maintain our standard of living is to have a laser-like focus on productivity”. In his first appearance before …
It’s the rest, not the best, that’s the problem
The Brooking Institute’s Martin Neil Baily and Nicholas Montalbano considered the causes of the current global productivity puzzle recently “The most promising sign for future growth is that the most productive firms are growing faster than the rest – the frontier is still moving out – but the diffusion of best practices is not pulling the …
Broad action needed post Brexit
In the Guardian, Katie Allen recommended ways Prime Minister Theresa May could ‘lift the UK economy’s post-Brexit’ blues – via: Tax cuts – especially VAT More infrastructure spending – traffic jams and delivery delays waste a huge amount of time, adding to unit costs and reducing national productivity Encouraging huge increases in housebuilding across the nation, …
Wage levels versus Productivity
President John F. Kennedy believed that “a rising tide lifts all boats” but many question if that remains true today in the business world They point to data showing that productivity has risen sharply since the end of WW2 whilst wages have stagnated and conclude that productivity-driven economic growth does not necessarily benefit USA workers …
Myths about productivity?
An interesting set of views and counter claims about productivity were found on Google: It leads to higher wages: It doesn’t It needs collective bargaining, but unions have mostly lost their influence It doesn’t result in fewer jobs: In an ideal world, it would lead to increased output, increased market share and even increased number of …
UK public sector wastes £120bn – every year!
A new report from the Taxpayers’ Alliance claims that the UK public sector wastes £120 billion each and every year And this is despite claims of tightening belts and being forced to close libraries or fire lollipop ladies. It’s equivalent to a cost of some £4,500 for every British family. They say: “A relentless war on …