Bulletpoint - Issue 153

The networked organisation is more than a New Age business fad - rather, it’s a new model based on micro project-teams built from below and managed from afar, vs bureaucracies imposed from above. Managing horizontal, project-based structures and remote teams is a work-in-progress but this much is certain: the old model of surveillance won’t help.

dossier - marketing

idea-driven cultures

As the economy falters the temptation to cut R&D budgets grows increasingly attractive, but the most innovative companies maintain their commitment to new ideas in good times and bad, by ingraining innovation into their cultural make-up and building organisations that are open, equal, frugal and intellectually stimulating and rewarding for idea creators.

understanding contracts

employment contracts

It isn’t just the one they’ve signed you need to worry about - it’s the one that might be inferred; the sticking point is the definition of ‘employee’, and no amount of ink (or absence of signatures) will save you if a tribunal thinks you’ve been employing people on the quiet.

.> Plus One-Pagers ON:

selling 'green' to employees

To move towards the ‘zero emissions’ target and shrink the carbon footprint, you need employees to understand the reasons for company environmental policy and see tangible benefits from enacting it. It’s essential to get staff involved in drawing up the policy and setting the targets - and to show managers that cleaning up the act can also make it more efficient.

handling the 'hype cycle'

Very occasionally, new business ideas are an instant hit. More usually there’s a false dawn, when the salespeople talk but the product doesn’t walk off the shelves, followed by several years’ refinement before it’s ready for the mass market. Knowing where an idea’s got to in its ‘hype cycle’ is vital to a correctly timed launch and adoption, even if cycle length is hard to gauge.

Doing business in ... japan

They’re less money-making machines than branches of social services, yet employees’ thirst for knowledge, willingness to adapt and commitment have made Japanese firms supremely successful - just don’t expect it to come free or easy.

travel expense management

New software, with outsourced and hosted solutions, enables smaller companies to manage their T&E budgets with digital systems once confined to the biggest; these cut costs by concentrating spend for bigger discounts, and analysing it to cut wastage - but some of the biggest savings come just from staff knowing their T&E will be more carefully watched.

making a graceful exit

Your instinct may be to hand in your notice and run for the door, but by managing your departure gracefully and summing up the achievements of your leadership term in your departure comments, you leave the door open for a possible return and create a network of supporters who may some day help you to further your career.

> EMAIL EXCLUSIVES

BUSINESS LAW

flexible work extended

The right to request flexible working is to be extended - again.

national staff blacklist

Due to make an understandably quiet entry into existence in early summer is the National Staff Dismissal Register - a database of ‘workplace offenders’.

pre-action disclosure

Thinking of suing an ex-employee who set up in competition?

lie detectors go legit?

The government has just declared its year-long trial of ‘lie detection’ technology a success - a move that pundits claim could now open the door to use of the technology to deter employees from ‘pulling sickies’.

strategic operations

smart supply

Supply chain links are increasingly crossing over, with suppliers handling inventory for buyers and having finance arranged by them; increased collaboration can raise reliability, speed and efficiency even of short, within-country supply chains - and is becoming essential to keep production ‘lean’, and sufficiently low-risk, when sourcing abroad.

Bulletpoint classic

handling rejection

Rejection is a commonplace feature of working life, so learn to use it as a growth opportunity and you can move on with confidence to the next big adventure.

ABOUT BULLETPOINT

Bulletpoint is for busy managers. It condenses the best of current management thinking into a short, incisive format, to give you:

	the best ideas: from journals, books, reports and online sources
	insight into other's experience: case studies and best practice
	time savings: easy-to-read publication gets to the point, fast
	money savings: the easy way to build your knowledge throughout the year for less than the cost of a one day seminar

Entire contents Copyright 2008 Bulletpoint. All rights reserved. Reproduction in any form is unlawful. Bulletpoint Communications Limited, Furness House,
53 Brighton Road, Redhill, Surrey, RH1 6RD, UK. Tel: +44 (0) 1737 231431 Fax: +44 (0) 1737 231432 email: subs@bulletpoint.com