The BNZ chief economist Tony Alexander was quoted recently (May 2013), suggesting that many managers are wary of role relationships of inferiority and superiority and as such, they mismanage their labour force. As I understand his statements, he’s saying many managers feel uncomfortable being in a superior role to others so they take a middle-of-the-road approach – they under-condemn people who don’t do a good job and under-praise people who do a good job. It sounds like a recipe for mediocrity: the poor performers keep their safe status quo,

 » Read more about: Under condem and under praise? True or False?  »

In The Press (Christchurch, May 7, A13), the CE of Recover Canterbury outlined three critical lessons for all businesses to take note of, in light of the aftermath of Christchurch’s earthquakes. In the time the Recover Canterbury coordinators were working with businesses, they found few businesses had disaster recovery plans and few were familiar with the local economic development agencies and other resources; many businesses used their accountants for compliance purposes, and not for business advisory purposes;

 » Read more about: Lessons for business, from Christchurch’s earthquake aftermath  »

This thought came to me after reading about the Ford Motor company and a new CEO a numbers of years ago, that took the helm and brought in change. To improve things within the company his mantra was ‘improve focus, simplify operations’. Likewise for an incoming CEO of a technology company who sorted a lot of stuff out and the company followed his mantra of ‘no drama, just execute’. Mantras are a simple tool to provide a lazer like focus on what really matters;

 » Read more about: How many organisations have a guiding mantra?  »

A report in the Christchurch (NZ) Press today noted that on average, it takes 201 days to detect internal organisational fraud and 206 days to detect external fraud. Typically, the main system in most organisations for fraud prevention is internal controls. The report also notes that fraud committed by management takes on average 514 days to detect and for senior executives, 545 days. The amount of time taken is considerable and it is possible that in some organsations,

 » Read more about: Workplace fraud takes a while to discover  »

Plain old human error, mistakes and intentional fraud create revenue loss in organisations big and small; and regardless of the sector they’re in.

To help prevent revenue loss, here’s six tips of things to watch for: 1 – people in positions where they can easily intercept or alter financial data; 2 – people who are always very busy but resist all offers of help; 3 – people who often work late or go into work on the weekend,

 » Read more about: 6 tips to help prevent intentional and unintentional revenue loss  »

A recent report – the 2012 KPMG Fraud, Bribery and Corruption Survey – states about 24 percent of respondents who experienced serious fraud were reported to police; and most survey respondents – about 60 percent – thought that half or less of the fraud occuring in their organisations was being detected.

The reality in most workplaces is that staff often know theft or fraud is occurring in their workplace and they may or may not report their suspicions because: they don’t feel safe in their job;

 » Read more about: Theft and fraud go unreported in many organisations, management trainer discovers  »

The events in Rome this week have been fascinating: a hundred plus potential candidates for a top job, a secret ballot selection process, no interview; an immediate start, major, multiple, complex issues to sort PDQ, a billion plus stakeholders around the globe; and salary? Probably a modest stipend, although full board and lodging is provided. And on working day one, signalling by action and words, that change was afoot. It would be interesting to know how he manages the change process and the team he surrounds himself with;

 » Read more about: Huge management and leadership test for new Pope – what can we learn from it?  »