Today’s business organizations, especially large ones, are complex places; difficult to manage and to control. Much of this complexity is self-induced and too much of the management of these organizations is done on an ad hoc basis. Different reporting, control and management systems are used in different parts of the company and often these are incompatible, making it difficult, sometimes impossible for top management to know what is going on. Consequently it is an arduous task for manage...

The traditional annual budgeting process--characterized by fixed targets and performance incentives--is time consuming, overcentralized, and outdated. Worse, it often causes dysfunctional and unethical managerial behavior. Based on an intensive, international study into pioneering companies, Beyond Budgeting offers an alternative, coherent management model that overcomes the limitations of traditional budgeting. Focused around achieving sustained improvement relative to competitors, it pro...

Budgeting is at the heart of the performance management process for most companies. However, some argue that many companies today are dissatisfied with budgeting. It is seen to be costly and time-consuming; it inhibits action and causes organisational problems. The influence of the "Beyond Budgeting" model has caused many major companies, including Toyota, to abandon traditional budgeting altogether. Should other companies follow suit?This report explores the changes in budgeting t...

What is management consultancy? How has it developed? How does it affect businesses? This book answers these questions and introduces the field for those looking to develop a career as a management consultant.Providing a thorough introduction to management consultancy, Morgen Witzel covers the topic from a range of perspectives including the field's historical development, the client's perspective, business analysis, return on investment, consulting failures, ethics and accountabil...

Corporate responsibility is considered an oxymoron by much of society. Corporations are among the least trusted of our institutions; and the 2008 financial crisis, BP's oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, and the collapse of the house of cards that was Enron have only added to public skepticism.So, at a time when trust in corporations has reached an all-time low, why is interest in corporate responsibility at an all-time high? A plausible explanation is that increasing numbers of stak...

In today's highly networked and competitive global economy, mounting social and environmental problems are forcing corporations to focus on more than just their stockholders' interest in meeting bottom line profitability. More and more companies are recognizing the value of identifying and building relationships with all of their organization's stakeholders-employees, customers, suppliers, and even communities. In fact, recent research has shown that companies that treat their employees we...

Develop Your PR Skills is a simple, straightforward guide to maximising your company's potential through effective PR. It will help the reader to gain a quick understanding of the concepts and principles and learn how to use them in actual business scenarios.It covers strategic public relations, public relations and the internet, working with the media, how to deal with different stakeholders and customers, dealing with a crisis, using internal communications, using research to get...

Enterprise, Entrepreneurship and Innovation: Concepts, Contexts and Commercialisation provides readers with an accessible and readable introduction to the various dimensions of entrepreneurship and market innovation. It has a clear structure that is easy for the reader to follow and it focuses on enterprising behaviour. The text contains:* case studies and ‘pause and reflect’ situations for the entrepreneur to deliberate on the information they have available before...

This book is about small business start-ups and management. The book provides those fundamental principles needed for identifying and developing business ideas before and during the process of business start-ups and management respectively. These are principles needed to translate business ideas into profitable and sustainable small business enterprise.

'The Diversity Scorecard' is designed to provide step-by-step instructions, worksheets and examples to help diversity executives and managers analyze and track the impact of their diversity initiatives to mobilize the organization for strategic culture change. Diversity is not a program; it is a systemic process of organizational change that requires measurement for organizational improvement and success. Measuring the progress and results of diversity initiatives is a key strategic requir...

Planning your career just got easierVery few of us put much effort into planning for the kind of career we want. Thinking about where we are going at work is something we all need to do throughout our working lives. The nature of work and employment is always changing. When economic times are difficult, you need to show potentialemployers that you have something special to offer. You may also need to be more flexible in your plans. New kinds of jobs emerge al...

Over the last decade, there has been a substantial rise in the number of knowledge-intensive firms - constituted primarily of professionals. The core assets of these businesses are the people themselves. Handle them badly, and they may defect or stall. Successful managers of knowledge-intensive firms must create meaning among and inspire their employees, to ensure high performance. To achieve this, leaders must understand how to target each employee’s ambitions and challenges to facilitate...