Increasing numbers of companies are introducing formal mentoring programmes. Examines how five firms ‐ Hallmark Cards, Texaco Trading and Transportation, Imperial Oil Ltd, Shell Oil Company and an anonymous Fortune 500 computer company ‐ resolved some of the issues which arise.

Executives have for years used management consultants to help with day‐to‐day business decisions, but frequently lack people to turn to who could help with the daily challenges of just being an executive. Now that is changing. More and more top US managers are hiring coaches, who act as...

Office “hotelling”, which involves itinerant members of staff sharing workstations, can help companies to save on office space. But extensive planning and finely tuned booking procedures are needed if disastrous effects on efficiency are to be averted.

Customer service representatives are no longer perceived as secretaries or telephone operators, nor considered as mere support staff for personnel working in the field. Rather, they are increasingly viewed as carriers and guardians of the company’s image, and key players in the...

When your core competences can be quickly replicated by copycat corporations, what competitive advantage have you got left? Explains that it is probably the knowledge of key managers, their ability to access and assess information, and their ability to innovate and think creatively.

At one time or another, every successful executive has observed or been part of a group that was dedicated to solving an impossible problem or defeating an unbeatable foe. Such groups are usually vital, absorbing, full of debate and laughter ‐ and very hard work. They are almost never...

US business will spend more than $30 billion on training this year. But will organizations get value for money? Argues that the criteria against which training effectiveness is measured should be changed to reflect the changing demands made on the training function.

Many companies are restructuring key business processes to break down barriers between departments. Underlying these efforts is the belief that value is created through horizontal work flows ‐ flows which cut across traditional vertically organized functions and end at some point of contact...

Concurrent engineering is all the rage in new‐product development. It is helping such US high‐technology firms as Boeing and Lockheed Martin Corp. to improve their designs and get new products on to the market faster. But it throws up a number of important human‐resource problems....

Once upon a time, companies were like ocean liners. Anyone fortunate enough to secure a berth cruised through a career and disembarked at retirement age. Those days have gone, probably for ever. Argues that it is no good believing things can be the same, only a bit different. A fundamental...