Michael Skapinker



Profile:
Full name: Michael Skapinker

Area of interest: Business and Society

Journals: Financial Times

Email: [mailto:michael.skapinker@ft.com michael.skapinker@ft.com]

Website: FT.com / Michael Skapinker

Blog:

Agent:

Networks:



Biography:
Education: University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg: BA in Law; Queens’ College, Cambridge: Masters degree

Career: CBS Radio News and Independent Radio News: Athens correspondent; McGraw-Hill World News: London Bureau; International Management Magazine: senior editor; joined the Financial Times in 1986: management writer, aerospace correspondent, leisure industry correspondent and electronics writer, became editor of the FT’s weekend edition, 2005/2007

Current position/role: Associate Editor, Columnist, editor FT special reports


 * also writes/written for:

Other roles:

Other activities: Was a member of the UK department for culture, media and sport ministerial working party on business tourism to Britain

Disclosures:

Viewpoints/Insight:

TV/Radio: Consultant on the BBC series 'The Secrets of Leadership', broadcast 2003

Controversy/Criticism:

Awards/Honours:
 * Work Foundation’s Members’ Award for his contribution to the understanding of working life, 2003
 * Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, elected 2005

Scoops:

Other:



Books & Debate:


Latest work:

Speaking/Appearances:

Current debate: 

Financial Times:
Column remit: Business and Society

Section:

Role: Associate Editor and columnist

Pen-name:

Email: [mailto:michael.skapinker@ft.com michael.skapinker@ft.com]

Website: FT.com / Michael Skapinker

Commissioning editor:

Day published: Tuesday (in print)

Regularity: Weekly

Column format:

Average length:



Articles: 2011

 * airlines, snow excuses and gobbledygook'' - Overarching lessons from the BAA snow report - 29th March
 * bosses know when to take a beating'' - If Kraft’s CEO had apologised, said that she understood how angry the workers were and declared her commitment to the UK, that would probably have been the end of it - 22nd March
 * end to insurance’s obsession with sex'' - We are all members of groups, but we are also all individuals - 15th March
 * need to draw a line in the sand'' - All organisations doing business with bad people should ask: how will we explain ourselves if the regime falls - 8th March
 * passport to attracting more visitors'' - The UK should make its visa application process identical to the Schengen one - 1st March
 * poor students become top scientists'' - How to fix education for people of all backgrounds - 22nd February
 * Why Project Merlin was a banking triumph - The government claimed to have got an undertaking by the banks to lend significantly more, especially to small and medium-sized businesses - 15th February
 * What Harrods and Torres can do for Britain - The problem is that the UK makes it hard for many visitors from outside the EU to get a visa - 8th February
 * Companies play catch-up with campaigners - Should business just accept that NGOs are more trusted – or take them on? - 1st February
 * Why business still ignores business schools - Academia has failed to close the gap between researchers and practitioners - 25th January
 * Patient science is GM food’s best hope - Changing public attitudes requires persuasion rather than force-feeding - 11th January



Articles: 2010

 * will not stop talking unto nation in English'' - The world is not yet ready for a new lingua franca - 21st December
 * face the people’s fury over taxes'' - What annoys objectors is they can’t work in Pittsburgh and pay (or not pay) taxes in Bermuda - 14th December
 * do business titans need to ‘give back’?'' - Some say they don’t want to spoil their children. Cynics say it is all about avoiding tax, but the wealthy have other ways to do that - 30th November
 * plans may be lost in translation'' - What will investors make of Unilever’s sustainability programme? - 23rd November
 * lessons for bright young firms'' - Companies that survive for the long term must be doing something special - 16th November
 * markets were hurt in making this coffee'' - Fairtrade gives its beneficiaries more of a lift than free trade does on its own - 9th November
 * to board: we need to talk about BP'' - A Deepwater Horizon lurks in every organisation. You do not need to be in a safety-critical industry - 2nd November
 * is in print that our words will live on'' - We don’t know how much of what is stored digitally will simply disappear - 26th October
 * right deputy makes a lonely job bearable'' - Having the right number two is a vital ingredient of success - 19th October
 * they don’t teach on ‘The Apprentice’'' - Unlike Sir Richard Branson, Lord Sugar couldn’t preside over several lines of business - 12th October
 * will be judged by actions not words'' - A letter to the FT from prominent City figures will be seen by many as exhibitionism - 5th October
 * off web insults before they escalate'' - The internet has given customers power - 28th September
 * MBA students do the perp walk?'' - Business schools could come up with new ways of teaching ethics - 21st September
 * has not cracked the human mystery'' - The physicist’s new book provides promise that one day even we non-scientists might understand the way the universe works. Just one thing might remain beyond our understanding: us - 14th September
 * should speak up for immigration'' - The case should be made by those who benefit - 7th September
 * business lesson from Mafia mobsters'' - Areas where criminal communication and legitimate business diverge - 31st August
 * middle way for BlackBerrys on holiday'' - For the business leader, holidays provide an opportunity to evaluate how robust your company’s management structures really are - 24th August
 * assault on South Africa’s press'' - Where cronyism thrives unchecked investors do not find it easy to do business - 17th August
 * damage is an affront to the rule of law'' - If you oppose government policy try to change it. That is democracy. Anything else is mob rule - 20th July
 * a high salary is right in our age of austerity'' - Why shouldn't headteachers earn more than the prime minister - 17th July
 * companies’ first duty is survival'' - Enron was felled by fraud, Lehman by financial engineering and BP is fighting for its future - 13th July
 * spill protesters are missing their target'' - Boycotts can make a difference, but BP already knows it is disliked - 6th July
 * must think again on food labels'' - ‘Traffic lights’ on food products are better than anything else - 30th June
 * need to know when to let go'' - Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou appears to have a bad case of “founder’s disease”. He should either buy the rest of EasyJet and run it his way or sell out and leave its managers to get on with it - 21st June
 * can be the way to rehabilitation'' - Taking responsibility for a gamble gone wrong can be a noble gesture - 15th June
 * for stories outstrips World Cup'' - Staging a sporting event is no guarantee for the economy - 8th June
 * learns to see the wood for the trees'' - A Greenpeace campaign against Nestlé did not hit its shares - 1st June
 * could benefit from people’s trust'' - Teaching finance is not as simple as telling people that smoking kills - 25th May
 * sad end of Greece’s better tomorrow'' - Greece now faces its biggest test in a generation - 18th May
 * away the web's veil of anonymity'' - Reputable websites should start insisting people use their names - 4th May
 * is other people’s simultaneous holidays'' - Nearly everyone would better off if school breaks were staggered - 27th April
 * need bold action to slow obesity’s march'' - ‘Hedonic’ foods stimulate a chemical response in the brain - 20th April
 * the ‘dumbest idea in the world’'' - Business leaders are upending the nostrums of 30 years - 13th April
 * for a quiet war on the litter louts'' - Cleaning up after people is not an incendiary act - 6th April
 * art of repairing a cracked reputation'' - Circumstances change. When that happens, companies need to clean up the mess - 30th March
 * or wrong, the customer always matters'' - Good service is providing something your competitor can’t, or you’ll have no business - 23rd March
 * to fund creative and sporting talent'' - Investors should take equity in more artists, writers and athletes - 16th March
 * lessons from Australia’s house fires'' - Britain and America need to avoid repeating obvious mistakes - 9th March
 * purpose of business is to win respect'' - There are signs that banks understand they need to win it back - 23rd February
 * has not yet found its Copernicus'' - Have we just been through a paradigm-shift in economics? - 16th February
 * ownership can save a company’s soul'' -Don’t cash in and expect the same service - 9th February
 * need to recruit the older women'' - No one, male or female, gets to the top of anything without neglecting friends and family. It is as true of reaching the chief executive suite as it is of winning an Olympic gold medal - 2nd February
 * early to write off democracy in China'' - Perhaps the Chinese people will be content, one day, to be rich and unfree. But the hunger for liberty is strong, and it is not confined to any time or place - 26th January
 * thinking is still key to prosperity'' - Michael Skapinker posits that America’s unembarrassed enthusiasm been responsible for its business dominance - 19th January
 * sorry business of corporate apologies'' - For an apology to work, it needs to be unequivocal and the apologiser needs to show that he understands what he did wrong - 12th January



Articles: 2009

 * to take off the blinkers in business class'' - Bankers’ feel for the public mood makes the British Airways flight attendants look like a bunch of PR smoothies - 22nd December
 * diligencing its due in the lexicon of 2010'' It is odd that so few financial terms attracted the attention of lexicographers this year, given the banking convulsions we have experienced. But words are lagging indicators - 15th December
 * will not keep Cadbury independent'' - Confectionary is a tough business - 8th December
 * march of English yields surprising losers'' - Any country that wants its children to learn English needs to start teaching them in the first years of primary school - 1st December
 * perils of trying to get down with the kids'' - One of the mistakes that baby boomers frequently make is to assume their children are more like them than they are - 24th November
 * through with money and morals'' - The certainties of the two sides in the debate on morality and free markets are misplaced. Regulation provides the middle way - 17th November
 * chief executives struggle as politicians'' - The real difference between business and government is that government does not go out of business - 10th November
 * need to focus on jobs of the future'' - Young, dynamic and ambitious people are far less likely to be union members than their elders because they are not interested in time-consuming internal committees - 27th October
 * is the 21st-century power to watch'' - For all its problems with crime, the country has outstanding potential, a welcoming and richly diverse people and several world-class companies - 20th October
 * spouses make the best truth-tellers'' - Who better to moan to about cabinet colleagues and ungrateful voters – or about the board - 13th October
 * leaders do not swim with the shoal'' - Why fashions change is sometimes a mystery. At other times it is clearer: a trusted person opts for something different - 13th October
 * out for a cigarette has its benefits'' - The smokers standing outside the door are paragons of non-hierarchical, cross-departmental bonhomie - 29th September
 * takes character to call time on a cover-up'' - A US judge has found that the SEC settlement with Bank of America ‘does not comport with the most elementary notions of justice and morality - 22nd September
 * to turn the page on top pay'' - Executives may lose millions if the company fails, but their pay-offs and pensions mean they never need work again - 16th September
 * is ‘socially useful’ is subject to fashion'' - Debate about what work is good or bad never goes away. It takes different forms, depending on the anxieties of the time - 8th September
 * do not have to be life’s final test'' - The Kaplan story illustrates a truth about examinations: the moment a new one appears, students – and their parents – will try to find ways of doing better at it - 1st September
 * us stick to the facts on organic food'' - Attacking the research does not help the organic lobby boost its claim to provide healthier victuals - 11th August
 * are no easy answers to the call of home'' - Once emigrants put down roots in their new countries and especially once they have children, returning can seem as big an adjustment as leaving - 4th August
 * down this rotten edifice of internships'' - If companies are serious about interns, they should pay them. They would certainly give them proper work to do if they did - 28th July
 * rage is the only brake on top pay'' - I was supposed to spend last Friday afternoon attacking bankers’ pay – but my invitation to do so was withdrawn because I was deemed too wishy-washy - 7th July
 * is more to city life than convenience'' - Is there a way to combine urban dynamism with, if not pristine cycle paths and spotless metro stations, a quality of life - 30th June
 * students who swear by a business school'' - The oath is the brainchild of an idealistic group of Harvard MBA students but it raises some interesting questions about business ethics and managerial skills - 23rd June
 * say ‘you was’ and I say ‘you were’'' - Notions of grammatical correctness change. If they did not, the outraged e-mails would say: ‘Thou art wrong’ - 16th June
 * too must look to its reputation'' - The public anger comes both from a sense that rules of fairness have been violated and from the discovery of a world of perks and pay that people had not realised existed - 9th June
 * competition that delivers the goods'' - Online supermarkets are in a category of their own, because they involve someone turning up on your doorstep. You get to know the delivery drivers better than their employers do - 2nd June
 * fails to end boardroom groupthink'' - Helen Alexander received two rounds of spontaneous applause without even speaking at the CBI dinner last week, such is the excitement about the British employers’ group having its first female president - 26th May
 * are savvy about organic food'' - If I thought it was better for me or for the environment, I would eat it all the time. But the health advantages are dubious and the environmental benefits debatable - 19th May
 * years of progress were no illusion'' - Thirty years ago an avocado pear was an exotic wonder, it took months to get a phone installed and the country was plagued by strikes - 12th May
 * to be honest about open-plan offices'' - We do not need studies to tell us people get less done when they have to listen to conversations and telephone calls - 5th May
 * leaders need external controls'' - People change as they do top jobs. Some believe they know more than anyone else and make catastrophic mistakes - 28th April
 * corporate responsibility is a survivor'' - Consumers are prepared to buy ethical goods if companies make it easy, which generally means not making it expensive - 21st April
 * needs reform to become world class'' - Shanghai wants to become a leading business and tourist centre. If it is to achieve its ambitions, companies need to know contracts will be enforced and rights protected - 14th April
 * in a world of disillusionment'' - We are having to rethink the social contract without the narrative that sustained successful western societies for three decades: that the market knows more than the government - 31st March
 * need new rules for top executive pay'' - Companies should eliminate all compensation on dismissal other than a year’s pay - 24th March
 * must listen before disaster strikes'' - Companies should develop a more open style of leadership, one that renders whistleblowing redundant. It is as important as regulatory reform - 17th March
 * and a new ingredient in business'' - Cadbury has decided that its interest lies in long-term relationships with suppliers who earn a decent living - 10th March (see: Cadbury wraps up Fairtrade agreement)
 * maternity leave is a win-win formula'' - There are two ways of looking at it. One is that it imposes extra costs on struggling companies, as Lord Mandelson says. The other is that it is perfectly suited to today - 3rd March
 * should hold on to their lefties'' - US researchers have found that college-educated, left-handed men earn more than right-handers, and they may be better at ‘divergent thinking' - 24th Ferbuary
 * would-be whistleblowers should know'' - Even in the most benign company, pressures to conform are strong. Take on the organisation and retaliation can be sharp - 17th February
 * 2.0: downsides of the upgrade'' - What if we are happy with our biologically limited selves or do not want models of our brains more capable than we are - 10th February
 * is a joy. Shame about the motorways'' - It is not the traffic that is the problem – that is bad almost everywhere. It is the litter-strewn slipways and grass verges - 3rd February
 * to fill the philanthropy-shaped hole'' - Company leaders persist with social responsibility partly because they see business benefits. But there's another reason for their stubborn adherence: it makes them feel better - 27th January
 * business, 100-day plans are a mistake'' - Rather than make a Day One speech laying out your plans, say you will spend the early months listening and learning - 20th January
 * shows how medics have to build trust'' - The village where Jonny Steinberg decided to study Aids has no television or internet access. Indeed, it has no electricity.The people believe in divine healers and fear the consequences of treating their ancestors badly. Yet as I read Three-Letter Plague, I was struck by the universal nature of his story - 13th January



Articles: 2008

 * panics and unexpected disasters'' - A desire to predict the future is an ancient human trait but we are no good at it. The Oracle was vague for a reason - 23rd December 2008
 * Baby P tells us about organisations'' - While the outcome is shocking, the mistakes leading to Baby P’s killing were a depressingly ordinary example of casual incompetence - 9th December 2008
 * musings deserve their place in history'' - Anyone studying our time will want to know what was on the internet, the transforming technology of our day - 2nd December 2008
 * search for work-life balance goes offshore'' - Most of the Australian navy has a two-month break over Christmas because the navy is desperate to retain staff. Yet in many other sectors employers now have the upper hand - 25th November 2008
 * fool knows it’s a job for government'' - With the market having failed to restrain managers, it is no surprise that people have turned to the one institution they think can - 18th November 2008
 * have not seen the last of the older leader'' - Quickness of mind is not everything. Depth of thought matters and there is evidence the youth have less of it - 11th November 2008
 * dose of austerity for a pampered generation'' - In the past, employers have competed furiously for staff, and baby boomers’ children could name their price - 4th November 2008
 * An ethics lesson from an unlikely quarter - Wal-Mart’s notion of ‘sustainability’ has proved a sophisticated way to cut costs - 28th October 2008
 * sorry need for others to apologise'' - In every area of life, we try to justify our behaviour when it contradicts the way we see ourselves - 21st October 2008
 * the little ones at the bottom'' - obsession with ‘numbers’ has led to the stripping away of employee benefits and the disappearance of staff who cared about the customers - 14th October 2008
 * fallen titans are more hated in America'' - In the UK, everyone is a social democrat now. In the US, by contrast, the argument over the role of the state in the market is still going strong - 7th October 2008
 * not write off New York and London'' - One day, with new rules in place, companies will return to raising funds, banks to lending and financiers to making money - 30th September 2008
 * are in mutinous mood'' - A jury was wrong to acquit Greenpeace activists who vandalised a power station, but in this climate business should brace itself for similar verdicts - 23rd September 2008
 * is the answer for holes in the road'' - It often seems utilities dig holes just to reserve them for later: the public works equivalent of a towel on a sunlounger - 9th September 2008
 * British invasion conquers a heroic isle'' - Zakynthos deserves better than the visitors it gets. But the drunken British louts have willing local accomplices - 2nd September 2008
 * word in your ear: keep it slow and simple'' - How many words would a non-native speaker need to understand simplified English? The answer is: fewer than 1,000 - 26th August 2008
 * The luggage revolution that passed me by - Everyone except me had a proper wheeled suitcase this summer. Even the backpacks had wheels on them - 18th August 2008
 * Why global tourism campaigns do not travel - The more sophisticated holiday companies segment their market, appealing to different groups in different ways - 21st July 2008
 * Politicians should adopt a business-like approach - When customer tastes shift, so do companies. Politicians who change policies to suit the public mood look unprincipled - 14th July 2008
 * Why companies and campaigners collaborate - Companies hope personal relationships with campaigners will give them time to prepare a response before they are criticised - 7th July 2008
 * The plain and simple truth about jargon - The Local Government Association spokesman was buzzing over an interview he had just given to Canadian radio about his organisation’s 100 banned words or phrases... - 30th June 2008
 * The machine that spun the world around - Publishers see world-changers everywhere. There is a book called Tea: The Drink That Changed the World. There is Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World and that paean to Japanese motor manufacturing The Machine That Changed the World - 23rd June 2008
 * If the old refuse to die, let them work longer - Administrators of company pension funds worry about investment performance and intrusive regulators. But nothing bothers them as much as their members’ refusal to die - 16th June 2008
 * Why can employees not sell their iPhones? - Steve Jobs, the chief executive of Apple, unveiled a new version of Apple’s iPhone on Monday. Unfortunately, some of the phone’s most effective marketers are not around to sell it because they have been fired - 9th June 2008
 * Competition is the only way to pick a boss - This newspaper’s search for the best business book ever has thrown up Jim Collins’ Good to Great and Clayton Christensen’s The Innovator’s Dilemma, among others - 2nd June 2008
 * Buffett, other cultures and the trust question - Some view 77 as an age too old to be trying something new, but Warren Buffett, who says he will retire five years after his death, last week launched the hunt for his first European acquisition - 26th May 2008
 * Apartheid is too much for American justice - Three weeks ago I wrote that China, with its poor human rights record, had a habit of making western companies wriggle. Apartheid and its legacy have been doing the same for decades – and have now made the US legal system look silly - 19th May 2008
 * The world needs a workable air travel tax - Rooting about for Mediterranean holiday possibilities on the Expedia website recently, I came across a flight for £300. About half of that was the fare; the rest was labelled “taxes and fees” - 5th May 2008
 * How to do guilt-free business with Beijing - China has a habit of making western companies wriggle. There was Google – slogan: “Don’t be evil” – squirming over its decision to self-censor its Chinese website - 28th April 2008
 * Virtue’s reward? Companies make the business case for ethical initiatives - Comment & Analysis, 27th April 2008
 * e jury is out on family life and the law - Law clients everywhere will no doubt have been thrilled by this newspaper’s report on Friday of a judge lambasting the level of fees charged by the law firm that represented Research in Motion, the makers of BlackBerry, in a patent dispute - 21st April 2008
 * Perils of multi-client public relations agencies - If you want a public relations adviser who can sniff out trouble before it happens then it seems Mark Penn, who was fired last week as Hillary Clinton’s chief strategist, is not your man - 14th April 2008
 * We are seeing a generational literacy shift - On the BBC’s Dateline London programme recently, two foreign correspondents took issue with the idea that the British did not like children. The problem, said Franck Guillory of Le Journal du Dimanche, was that they liked them too much, treating them like grown-ups when what they needed was discipline - 7th April 2008]
 * The wrongs and rights of naming rights - No one upstaged Carla Bruni-Sarkozy during her visit to London last week, but Arsenal’s Emirates stadium did not do badly - 31st March 2008
 * The market no longer has all the answers - One of the most arresting comments of the past week came from Josef Ackermann, chief executive of Deutsche Bank. “I no longer believe in the market’s self-healing power,” he said in a speech in Frankfurt - 24th March 2008
 * The battle for global business is not yet won - EADS, the European defence company, has beaten Boeing to win a huge US Air Force order. And, as of May, Unilever will not have a British or Dutch member of its top executive team for the first time since the company was formed by an Anglo-Dutch merger in 1930 - 18th March 2008
 * Doctors, drugs and alternative therapies - When I was a child at summer camp, an epidemic of home-sickness broke out. Several campers presented themselves to the resident medic, who talked to them gently and asked who they were missing most. Those who were pining for their mothers got a pink-coated chocolate. Those missing their fathers (an apparently less virulent condition), received a blue one. From what I observed, the treatment was highly effective - 10th March 2008
 * Air miles that add up to a flight of fancy - The return of Prince Harry from Afghanistan took the glare off Michael Martin, Speaker of the House of Commons, but the UK’s weekend papers did not entirely let go of the controversy over his expenses - 3rd March 2008
 * Nature and nurture in the executive suite - Women are calmer than men. They are more collaborative and they disdain self-promotion. It is all in their genes - 25th February 2008
 * How to avoid being quoted out of context - Bart Becht, chief executive of Reckitt Benckiser, appeared in a newspaper last week describing some of his company’s innovations as “very stupid” - 18th February 2008
 * Corporate responsibility is not quite dead - Is corporate social responsibility dead? Yes, says Harvard Business Review’s “Conversation Starter” blog. CSR will increasingly be seen as a public relations sham, the bloggers say - 11th February 2008
 * We must stop throwing our gizmos away - Some time in the next few weeks I plan to take a personal computer, a laptop, a DVD player, a television set and three mobile phones to my local recycling centre. It is a task I have been avoiding for months, but we need the cupboard space - 4th February 2008
 * Chief execs should learn the art of oratory - There are so many lawyers crammed into London’s International Dispute Resolution Centre that there is almost no room for anyone else - 28th January 2008
 * How to make sure your gym does not close - The northern winter still has a way to run, but already there are signs of hope. The days are lengthening, the daffodils have poked their heads above the ground and you can once again have a lane to yourself in the swimming pool - 21st January 2008
 * Stolen property finds a ready online market - A few weeks ago I turned on my car radio, to be greeted by a voice that dissolved into static. I tried a music station: it buzzed noisily. I thought I knew why. I pulled over and got out of the car. My aerial was gone - 14th January 2008
 * Why business ignores the business schools - The three Democratic front-runners in the US presidential primary campaigns are lawyers. Even the spouses of Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and John Edwards are lawyers. Mike Huckabee and John McCain are not lawyers, but Rudy Giuliani and Fred Thompson are - 8th January 2008



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