The Hugh Ford Management Lecture: Is Management a Profession?
Since the time of Aristotle, and perhaps before, business has been widely regarded as an activity of inferior moral status. The criti...
Economic Education: February 1998
John describes five groups of reasons why economic education is an indispensable part of any general education.
The Role of Business in Society
The view of business as necessarily selfish, narrow and instrumental, is, as it always has been, nonsense. Business which is selfish in motivation, narrow in outlook, and instrumental in behaviour is rarely successful business.
Outside football league table tells us all we need to know
League tables are in vogue, and despite the difficulties they seem worthwhile. If only it were easy to produce a “value added” table.
A lesson in transactions from the wallet test
How much will you offer to pay me for the contents of my wallet? Think carefully - if you must back a horse, don’t bet with the trainer.
When consensus does not really mean agreement
Just as universities need to tell people to stop quibbling and work towards a common objective, companies need to realise that clustering around a corporate conventional wisdom that has not been subject to analysis and debate is also not a recipe for success.
Would I rather be Henry VIII?
Am I better off than Henry VIII? Dressing the question up in inflation statistics doesn’t make it any more sensible.
A lost manuscript and the fantasy world of Amer and Eur
Being the fantastical story of the islands of Amer and Eur…
A Stakeholding Society – What Does it Mean for Business?
There is a clear distinction between businesses whose characteristic is to develop a professional service in order to serve all its stakeholders and businesses whose focus is mainly to maximise shareholder return. Which is likely to be more successful?
Plenty to read but not much to learn at the business bookstall
Buy a typical business book at the airport and you’ll find nothing with which to disagree. Which is the problem.