Michael Skapinker



Profile:
Full name: Michael Skapinker

Area of interest: Business and Society

Journals/Organisation: Financial Times

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

Personal website:

Website: http://www.ft.com/management/michael-skapinker

Blog:

Representation:

Networks: https://twitter.com/#!/skapinker | http://uk.linkedin.com/pub/michael-skapinker/31/551/12a



Biography:
About:

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: Assistant Editor, Columnist, editor FT special reports


 * also writes/written for:

Other roles/Main role:

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:

Broadcast media:

Video: 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:

Debate: 

Financial Times:
Column name:

Remit/Info: Business and Society

Section:

Role: Assistant 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: 2014

 * How to tame litter louts and bankers - The only way to deal with errant bankers, like litterers, is to catch and punish them - 5th June
 * School mentors see beyond the EU poll - Volunteers in inner-city schools find immigrant children’s lives are like anyone else’s - 29th May
 * Brussels-speak is a gift to the EU’s foes - The further the union’s use of language drifts from native speakers, the more alien it seems - 22nd May
 * Nota Bene - Business innovation occasionally arises out of sheer inspiration but all creatives need the time and resources to explore ideas - 19th May
 * The word on the street - Slang shows us how language is always changing – and how some would rather it did not - 22nd May
 * Starbucks backlash was not  just froth - It is not just about consumer habits. Opinion has shifted against business - 15th May
 * Pharma’s reputation on the line - The drugs industry needs to clean itself up, and the tax-driven bid for AstraZeneca is not helping - 8th May
 * The new Heathrow is almost world-class - Who cares about the fountains when most passengers just want to get to a connecting flight - 30th April
 * Poor service from hideaway companies - There are too many organisations that want our business but don’t want to hear from us - 24th April
 * Time to let our phones roam free - Devices abroad have to act like furtive ‘illegals’, terrified of doing any useful work - 17th April
 * Eurish develops a grammar of its own - European business people usually turn to English to communicate but often with lexical quirks - 10th April
 * Business needs to take on the far right - Those clamouring to dismantle the EU ignore the democratic strengths the group embodies - 27th March
 * Top careers for the next 25 years - Many professions will become obsolete over the next quarter-century – but some will flourish - 20th March
 * How China can extend its soft power - The country should train thousands of teachers to turn Mandarin into a world language - 13th March
 * What to do if you have been ‘dreedled’ - Many an executive is given to passing unpleasant or daft orders down the line - 6th March
 * Auditors escape attempts to tame them - The Big Four have maintained a wholesome image while doing exactly what they want - 20th February
 * London must hang on to its real taxis - The capital city’s genius, indeed the British genius, is to build on what went before - 13th February
 * Citizens take lead in war on corruption - In some countries it is ordinary people who are finding ways to tackle graft - 6th February
 * French PR campaign is missing its target - Investors look further than politicians’ insults or press reports - 30th January
 * A better interview will reduce bias - The longer we talk to people, the less likely we are to judge them by race or sex - 23rd January
 * Would you want Kevin Pietersen in your team? - How to deal with talented but awkward people who don’t abide by the rules - 15th January
 * Language disputes benefit US and UK - Americans see those who adopt Britishisms as pretentious and snobbish - 9th January
 * Pity the managers in religious disputes - When exceptional incidents hit the headlines, it is usually because someone wants them to - 1st January



Articles: 2013

 * Non-business books for managers - Works on astronomy, politics and plain English that surpass faddish specialist titles - 19th December
 * Learn Mandarin but master English - Future Chinese executives will hear foreigners struggle with Mandarin and switch to English - 12th December
 * Open EU borders are reciprocal and fair - People who demand the right to work abroad should accept that the deal works both ways - 12th December
 * Vinyl-lovers should love newspapers - Never write off any technology, even when it seems to have been buried - 28th November
 * Why are US visa questions so weird? - The country has no statutory definition of moral turpitude so judges are cast ‘in the role of God’ - 21st November
 * Business is creating new forms of English - The academic view is that native speakers have no authority over what is right or wrong - 14th November
 * Ryanair, Airbus and nightmare flights - Despite airline pledges to improve service, flying is likely to remain an awful experience - 7th November
 * Microsoft, Burberry and lingering leaders - An orderly transition should take place over three months, not eight, 12 or 18 - 24th October
 * Who owns English in a global market? - Are the rules set by people who grew up speaking the language or those who learnt it later? - 17th October
 * A mother’s lessons for the PR industry - The sector can learn from the campaign to prevent Gary McKinnon from being extradited to the US - 3rd October
 * Corporate America’s odd silence on guns - Bosses have taken a stand on some divisive issues. Why not on one of life and death? - 26th September
 * Employers can help in the grammar war - Those who do not understand a language’s structure do not know the rules they break - 19th September
 * Mystery of acquiring another language - Neurology helps to learn a language, but hard work is what matters -12th September
 * How older staff can deal with Catch-55 - Older staff can protect themselves from the threat posed by young employees, anxious to get ahead - 5th September
 * Those lazy, hazy, crazy signs of summer - Unintentionally humorous notices in poor English are one of the joys of travel - 8th August
 * Mandela’s lessons in how to negotiate - You don’t need to be friends with the other side but you do need to keep talking - 1st August
 * Age and youth battle it out in workplace - Companies need to look afresh at what older employees offer - 30th July
 * The food companies that make people fat - ‘Traffic light’ labelling to identify healthier products is the best way to fight obesity - 25th July
 * Cricket, tax and doing the right thing - Why should anyone go beyond simply obeying the law or the rules of the game? - 18th July
 * The train is the best workplace - People have been working while travelling since business travel began - 11th july
 * Tiny error that risked lives and reputation - Disasters show that the battle for quality has to be fought every day - 3rd July
 * Government undermines incentives to behave - Companies are driven by a widely held human wish to be respected and liked - 3rd July
 * Does it matter if students can’t write? - It is odd that the problem persists when parents try to give their children every advantage - 26th June
 * Time for a business push on migrants - Those of us who care need to bring it closer to home - 20th June
 * Collecting the ideas - Attempting to forecast business, technological and social change is difficult but we are on the lookout for future trends which will define our world - 13th June
 * What is an idea? - We go for inventions, innovations, social movements and legal and financial instruments – anything that helped make business what it is - 13th June
 * Tomorrow’s city: London or São Paulo? - If the views of the young and ambitious offer an accurate guide, the British capital has the edge - 13th June
 * Workplace English as she (or he) is spoke - Many now opt for the plural pronoun at work, so they can avoid any reference to gender - 6th June
 * What is the second most useful language? - Mandarin is the obvious answer but there is a strong case for learning any tongue - 30th May
 * Bangladesh and the clothes on our backs - In the month since the collapse, resolve to prevent a repetition has faded - 23rd May
 * A moderate pedant’s grammar manifesto - Children need to learn grammar to teach them the language for work - 16th May
 * Companies need to cut through data hype - Managers can learn far more from contacting and talking to lost customers - 9th May
 * Grammar is a vital tool for any executive - Knowledge of how the language is put together helps with getting your point across - 2nd May
 * Why hasty pundits got it wrong on Boston - The bombing illustrates that everything people say on day one of a crisis is usually wrong - 25th April
 * Authorities must get tough on bad science - The real damage comes when a homeopath dissuades people from seeking medical treatment - 18th April
 * Expat life succeeds if the kids are all right - Failure of spouse or family to adjust is the top cause of unsuccessful relocations - 11th April
 * It is not a crime to greenlight a new verb - English has been creating verbs for centuries. What we should ask is: are they useful? - 4th April
 * Should you correct colleagues’ grammar? - Semi-literate correspondence to customers can damage a business - 21st March
 * Open web courses are massively overhyped - The latest innovation misses an important social point and is in many ways too good to be true - 14th March
 * You need to take risks to learn a language - The notion that the teacher can do all the work is nonsense – learning another tongue requires effort - 7th March
 * Yahoo sets the trend with home work ban - Where might the technology group’s counter-intuitive move to make staff work in an office lead? - 27th February
 * Consumers forget crises, regulators don’t - Businesses are learning that if they don’t put their house in order others will - 21st February
 * Why do employees become nasty? - When staff show disdain for customers – or patients – you can be sure their managers do too - 14th February
 * Companies must gauge social shifts - Businesses can reap rewards if they recognise the pace of change - 7th February
 * CEOs can learn from Obama’s oratory - The US president offers lessons for business speakers who fail to get the message across - 24th January
 * Sound of silence is yet another sales tool - Refuges of tranquillity are under siege as peace and quiet becomes an increasingly rare commodity - 17th January
 * Thank America for saving our language - For all the grumbling, the similarities in the way we speak have had their benefits - 10th January



Articles: 2012

 * A great power requires the rule of law - It is difficult to see how corruption can be eliminated unless people are free to expose it - 20th December
 * The keys to chairing a conference - When you sum up at the end of the day, try to draw the narrative together - 13th December
 * How green is an online Black Friday? - A mouse is not always greener than a car - 29th November
 * Politicians can only do so much - It is hard to crack down on corporate tax without other countries doing the same - 22nd November
 * A tutorial from the business school of life - An entrepreneur who arrived as a child refugee experienced joy and sadness in equal measure - 15th November
 * Banks’ customers have left them behind - A rewarding relationship has been squandered - 8th November
 * If you want a job, learn your it’s and its - If you don’t know the difference by now, what else don’t you know? - 1st November
 * Wanted by the US? Prepare to be extradited - Far from heralding a new era of British assertiveness, Gary McKinnon’s case is exceptional - 25th October
 * Quality jobs require long-term thinking - Shareholder demands can fly in the face of strategic planning - 18th October
 * Companies face a new type of opponent - The focus of dissent is moving closer to home - 11th October
 * Online reviews tell us less than we think - For all the talk of consumers taking control, we know little about their effect - 4th October
 * For EADS partners, culture still matters - Beyond the strategic logic, national differences could also explain the thinking behind the deal - 27th September
 * Question of trust in the organic food wars - Campaigners should be subject to the same scrutiny as manufacturers - 27th September
 * The pros and cons of employing prisoners - Work benefits convicts and society that puts them behind bars - 13th September
 * Raise the reward for learning a language - If companies want multilingual workers, they should pay a premium for them - 6th September
 * Murdochs’ schism has lessons for companies - Businesses whose aims extend no further than profit can end up destroying themselves - 30th August
 * The world doesn’t sing in perfect harmony - Much music is still local, made for its own market and unknown elsewhere - 23rd August
 * British fans show bosses what they got wrong - Over the Olympic fortnight, people reclaimed their country and their flag - 16th August
 * Timing is crucial in Olympics and strikes - The pre-games action threat is an old sport - 1st August
 * The odd ways we calibrate our outrage - Why do people get angrier about some corporate scandals than others? - 26th July
 * Harsh US jails fuel the fear of extradition - Severity towards those who contest American charges underlies British opposition - 28th June
 * London’s parks show Occupiers the exit - Occupy London shuts off public space. The City opens it to the public and improves it - 21st June
 * Sharp action from the top can halt racism - Euro 2012 football tournament highlights a widespread problem - 14th June
 * In search of the elusive ethical consumer - Concerned shoppers are still a tiny minority - 7th June
 * Righteous activists are a threat to us all - Those who act in the name of their own higher truth are the enemies of justice - 31st May
 * Choose the English that helps you win - As the language spreads, people will speak and write it in different ways - 24th May
 * Tobacco companies versus the plain truth - The state has the right to regulate smoking - 17th May
 * Fleet-footed groups can outrun the critics - Nike provides a timeline of how companies attempt to build a decent reputation - 10th May
 * Employers of the aged find law a grey area - Supreme Court rulings have darkened the picture - 3rd May
 * Car culture is taking a back seat - If the fall in driving endures, the implications will be far-reaching - 26th April
 * Let’s end the ‘we will stop giving’ chit-chat - Verses on the great Givers-Back (with apologies to the late Dr Seuss) - 19th April
 * Damien Hirst’s four faces of commerce - Not many traders have so exquisitely called the top of the market - 12th April
 * Only the brave tell the world their woes - Public probes bring pressure to remedy failings - 5th April
 * Penny has yet to drop for English speakers - Colloquial terms should be avoided in conversation - 29th March
 * Watches that defy the ravages of time - Lessons from the world of luxury timepieces - 15th March
 * Commerce and the arts need a truer love - The case for business sponsorship should not be hard to make - 8th March
 * Executives speak a language of their own - The secret to aiming higher than Globish - 1st March
 * Lessons from the hard streets of Athens - Economic crisis provides the starkest evidence of where power lies - 23rd February
 * Groups right to say ‘we do’ to gay wedlock - Companies should take pride in being bolder than presidential candidates - 16th February
 * The cost of beating Britain to death - National self-denigration is one of the most startling discoveries incomers make about the UK - 9th February
 * Don’t jump aboard the anti-Dow bandwagon - Though guilty of naivety in its decision to sponsor the Olympics, the chemicals group is not the principal villain of the Bhopal affair - 2nd February
 * People are right to be angry over pensions - If companies’ pledges threaten their futures, they should do as they always do when their decisions get them into trouble: negotiate with creditors - 26th January
 * Employers need help with the mentally ill - Alastair Campbell is on a mission is to persuade employers not to take fright when dealing with the issue of mental ilness among staff - 19th January
 * What they don’t teach you at Lady Gaga U. - Harvard Business School’s choice of subject in a recent business study belies the fact that predicting taste is hazardous - 12th January
 * The value of mentors who have been there - An NGO fighting the transmission of Aids shows some people are readier to listen to peers than to authority figures - 5th January



Articles: 2011

 * Gaddafi’s PhD is a lesson to all leaders - Leading figures at a great university took a bet that a vicious dictatorship would reform itself. The bet failed - 13th December
 * CEOs need to join the 20 times club now - If the chief executive disappeared tomorrow, could the company carry on functioning? And if all the other employees did - 1st December
 * Ways to deal with the tough customers - It is not just violence that they could head off with better management, but irritation or customer disenchantment - 24th November
 * Those gaps of memory are all in the mind - Rick Perry’s recall failure made people wince, but studies reveal that people who take a dim view of old age tend to forget sooner - 17th November
 * The Occupy crowd is no match for banks - What we are seeing outside London’s St Paul’s is not a movement. It is a festival of ideas without a focus - 10th November
 * A positive press can’t brighten the gloom - There is sometimes a gap between what happens in people’s own lives and what they believe from reading the newspapers - 4th November
 * Business needs a world view of its own - Companies would do well to remember they are more than a just commercial presence in the countries in which they invest - 28th October
 * Six decades of London airport cowardice - There are three options: an extra Heathrow runway, a new airport, or ceding London’s leadership – and the government has opted for the third - 20th October
 * Cats, coffee and tales that never go away - Memorable cases endure as they tell stories people want to believe and some illustrate how litigious Americans are - 18th October
 * Time will smooth the digital age’s excesses - New devices often provoke moral panics but eventually people discover more civilised ways of living with them - 11th October
 * London musicians misread the score - Companies that encourage people to bring their whole selves to work must make clear the boundary between self-expression and the organisation’s needs - 29th September
 * Sensible shoes that survive the upheavals - Sustaining a religious-inspired company ethos is possible only if you stay away from the stock market - 14th September
 * Time for Apple to open its factories - It is hard for companies to keep track of the kinds of damage their sub-contactors might do - 13th September
 * Managers can’t match doctors or lawyers - Management should build on a ‘specialised body of knowledge that practitioners are obliged to apply in their daily work’ - 5th September
 * has been trivialised too long'' - Many UK youths do not perceive stealing from shops as a serious offence but in fact we all end up paying a price - 25th August
 * corporate citizenship reports matter?'' - The central problem with corporate responsibility reports is that what the public expects may not be what shareholders want - 13th August
 * father’s act is often the hardest to follow'' - What makes scions of polarising figures, such as James Murdoch and George Papandreou, join the family business? - 26th July
 * is the fate of most big companies'' - Any examination of how much-loved groups can forfeit affections needs to start with realising how few of them there are - 12th July
 * ticketing deserves a medal'' - Readers should look beyond personal disappointment to what the organisers’ goals were and whether they achieved them - 30th June
 * classes are the new goldrush'' - Speakers earn 25 per cent more than colleagues who don’t speak the language, on average. In Rwanda, in some jobs the difference can be 181 per cent - 16th June
 * scare need not turn into a panic'' - There are lessons for scientists, government and companies in the change in public attitudes to health alerts. Scientists should also miss no opportunity to explain their work - 14th June
 * the perils of sex and the C-suite'' - There are advantages to being a celebrity boss but there may be a price too – if you stray, the tweeters will come down on you hard - 7th June
 * companies need more than words'' - Corporate responsibility reporting forces managers to think more clearly about the right thing to do. It doesn’t guarantee they will do it - 26th May
 * in charge decide which words matter'' - Companies that care about writing can pick job-seekers who care too - 17th May
 * electric car’s cool, state aid acid test'' - Many governments, including China’s, are offering hefty subsidies to their buyers - 10th May
 * checks fail the common sense test'' - Airport security is too large and too full of distracted staff following procedures - 26th April
 * will outlast the City grumblers'' - There are few countries that have London’s advantages or its range of legal and accounting services - 12th April
 * successors are a vanishing brood'' - The Murdoch clan’s producing three credible candidates is an increasingly rare achievement - 5th April
 * 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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Links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Skapinker