The Partners of Athene are delighted to confirm their new website www.athenellp has gone live.
The site was designed and developed by the creative team at Socrates Communications, lead by their Creative Director Andrew Derrick. http://www.socratesint.com/
Sunday, 19 April 2009
Sunday, 12 April 2009
The case for change - businesses do not improve by constantly tweaking at the edges.
It appears only natural for bankers, economists and government officials to view the present financial crisis simply as a technical problem of economics, as if it were the breakdown of a machine, with the solution being a matter of spending more public money, imposing greater regulation and tweaking organisation structures.
Anatole Kaletsky has noted that “consumers and businesses have already started to see recession as a moral retribution for past excesses”.
When considered in the context of the professional services in the construction industry, the root causes need tackling not just the effect. The changes needed have to be more radical and not just reductions in headcount.
It is clear that fundamental change is necessary and the responsibility for this change lies with business management. They must recreate a culture of integrity, prudence and attention to detail within their organisations. Boardrooms must rein in out-of-control egos. This change of ethos cannot be delegated to others; the board executives and their non executives have to take their personal responsibilities seriously to deliver change.
Businesses need to be able to flex and change to cope with the new economic world order, which means getting back to the core values of providing quality services, and their proper implementation, which truly reflect the Client needs. This will necessitate curbing the “sales teams” excesses in designing and creating ever more complex new “products”.
The services industries, particularly the bank and professional advisors, have now to recognise they are there to provide sound reliable advice and services which their Clients can rely on and not to just sell more “products” to them.
The fundamental change needed is in business culture.
Anatole Kaletsky has noted that “consumers and businesses have already started to see recession as a moral retribution for past excesses”.
When considered in the context of the professional services in the construction industry, the root causes need tackling not just the effect. The changes needed have to be more radical and not just reductions in headcount.
It is clear that fundamental change is necessary and the responsibility for this change lies with business management. They must recreate a culture of integrity, prudence and attention to detail within their organisations. Boardrooms must rein in out-of-control egos. This change of ethos cannot be delegated to others; the board executives and their non executives have to take their personal responsibilities seriously to deliver change.
Businesses need to be able to flex and change to cope with the new economic world order, which means getting back to the core values of providing quality services, and their proper implementation, which truly reflect the Client needs. This will necessitate curbing the “sales teams” excesses in designing and creating ever more complex new “products”.
The services industries, particularly the bank and professional advisors, have now to recognise they are there to provide sound reliable advice and services which their Clients can rely on and not to just sell more “products” to them.
The fundamental change needed is in business culture.
Wednesday, 8 April 2009
Royal Bank of Scotland Excesses
Excesses appear to a the hallmark of the failed bank, a prime example of the RBS’s excesses came to be symbolised by the comically expensive# £335m new campus on the outskirts of Edinburgh, the construction of which Sir Fred Goodwin is understood to have supervised personally in 2005.
The final excess is the gifting a pension of £703,000 to Sir Fred Goodwin. This pension is likely to go down in history to be the worst example of reward for abject failure, which is considered by many of the public to have been nodded and winked through by the RBS Board and Gordon Browns appointee Lord Myners.
# FT.com/ Alphaville Paul Murphy Apr 18 09:07
The final excess is the gifting a pension of £703,000 to Sir Fred Goodwin. This pension is likely to go down in history to be the worst example of reward for abject failure, which is considered by many of the public to have been nodded and winked through by the RBS Board and Gordon Browns appointee Lord Myners.
# FT.com/ Alphaville Paul Murphy Apr 18 09:07
The RBS Tragedy
It is a tragedy that another 9,000 job losses are to take place in Royal Bank of Scotland in its back office operations within a division known as “Group Manufacturing”. The “Group Manufacturing” services comprise document processing, information technology, procurement and bank property.
There appears to be no announcement yet for reductions in the departments responsible the £7.3bn loss as part of 2008’s overall loss of £24.1bn. The overall loss required a huge injection of government capital in October 2008 to prevent the bank from outright collapse.
Since the bulk of the loss has been identified as a directly a result of the ABN Amro takeover the collapse of the bank can be fairly defined as the responsibility of the board and particularly the former CEO Sir Fred Goodwin.
The question which has to be asked is what positive action needs to be taken to prevent a business from being driven to destruction by a few. Light touch regulation by retired bankers is clearly not the answer.
There appears to be no announcement yet for reductions in the departments responsible the £7.3bn loss as part of 2008’s overall loss of £24.1bn. The overall loss required a huge injection of government capital in October 2008 to prevent the bank from outright collapse.
Since the bulk of the loss has been identified as a directly a result of the ABN Amro takeover the collapse of the bank can be fairly defined as the responsibility of the board and particularly the former CEO Sir Fred Goodwin.
The question which has to be asked is what positive action needs to be taken to prevent a business from being driven to destruction by a few. Light touch regulation by retired bankers is clearly not the answer.
Monday, 6 April 2009
Athene takes off
News release www.socratesint.com
A new specialist real estate project management group, Athene, led by senior industry figures, is being launched by Socrates with a name and branding exercise, literature collateral and an online presence currently under construction. A temporary site went live this week at www.athenellp.com.
A new specialist real estate project management group, Athene, led by senior industry figures, is being launched by Socrates with a name and branding exercise, literature collateral and an online presence currently under construction. A temporary site went live this week at www.athenellp.com.
Sales verses Performance
In a recent interview the ex Head of Risk at HSBC said “If you have a Company which is headed by those focused on “sales”, you have a problem” - Paul Moore ex HSBC being interviewed on the BBC on 3rd April 2009
It is refreshing that there are very good Clients that are willing to, no in fact positively want to, pay for a different kind of service - were the quality of the service and the people are put genuinely first and are not taken in by the "sales pitch" or the "process".
This different kind of service can only improve delivery which will benefit all, Clients and service providers.
It is refreshing that there are very good Clients that are willing to, no in fact positively want to, pay for a different kind of service - were the quality of the service and the people are put genuinely first and are not taken in by the "sales pitch" or the "process".
This different kind of service can only improve delivery which will benefit all, Clients and service providers.
The Key to Success
Success is founded on authority, responsibility and accountability – one must have the authority, be responsible in everything you do and be held accountable for the results – no more and no less!
Saturday, 28 March 2009
The fog of clichés and management speak
So as not to get lost in the fog of clichés and management speak, we should reflect upon those who have been dreaming up most of the spoken and written garbage remembering that process and procedure does not replace experience and insightful management.
The BBC’s John Humphreys’ summed up the tragedy of Baby P. when he was exasperated by an apologist for Haringey Council, who smugly claimed that it had only followed procedures. He roared: “and the end of this perfect paper trail is a dead baby.” The moral of the story if you just follow the procedures or process there is no guarantee of performance.
From the 1970s a new breed of “professional managers” arrived, trained to manage anything – be it a bank, a finance company or professional practice - but they appeared to lack specific industry knowledge. A perfect example of this today are managers who knew all about management but nothing else so they left the incomprehensible science of sub-prime mortgages calculations to the back office mathematians and their computer programmes
Interestingly, when working with Gemini, David Craig helped draft the concept of organisational transformation. and now goes on to say “We published a book called Transforming the Organization....but it was a con, something we dreamt up to try to sell bigger money-making projects to companies.” In 2008 this worsened and has been morphed by some into, for example “transformational outsourcing” by those wishing to further sell “value based” services to the unwitting / naïve.
David Craig has gone onto debate the use of key performance indicators (KPI’s) “KPI’s are absolutely fabulous if used by effective management. But if you have incompetent, ineffective management and policies that only want to give the illusion of progress, they are a disaster and demotivate everyone in the organisation.” The key point is effective management - many ineffective managers mask their inadequate performance by creating ever complex KPI’s, presenting these as improvements in commercial, service quality, delivery and overall performance terms.
Some revolutionary words: “to apply their professional judgment and discretion to do the right thing.” Mark Rowley, the acting chief constable of Surrey Police. Now I know the management consultants will not like that, but it will make the difference to the Client’s business performance and secure a positive result.
So out with Management by numbers, acronyms and clichés and get back to “doing the right things at the right time” and in particular “doing ordinary things exceptionally well”
The BBC’s John Humphreys’ summed up the tragedy of Baby P. when he was exasperated by an apologist for Haringey Council, who smugly claimed that it had only followed procedures. He roared: “and the end of this perfect paper trail is a dead baby.” The moral of the story if you just follow the procedures or process there is no guarantee of performance.
From the 1970s a new breed of “professional managers” arrived, trained to manage anything – be it a bank, a finance company or professional practice - but they appeared to lack specific industry knowledge. A perfect example of this today are managers who knew all about management but nothing else so they left the incomprehensible science of sub-prime mortgages calculations to the back office mathematians and their computer programmes
Interestingly, when working with Gemini, David Craig helped draft the concept of organisational transformation. and now goes on to say “We published a book called Transforming the Organization....but it was a con, something we dreamt up to try to sell bigger money-making projects to companies.” In 2008 this worsened and has been morphed by some into, for example “transformational outsourcing” by those wishing to further sell “value based” services to the unwitting / naïve.
David Craig has gone onto debate the use of key performance indicators (KPI’s) “KPI’s are absolutely fabulous if used by effective management. But if you have incompetent, ineffective management and policies that only want to give the illusion of progress, they are a disaster and demotivate everyone in the organisation.” The key point is effective management - many ineffective managers mask their inadequate performance by creating ever complex KPI’s, presenting these as improvements in commercial, service quality, delivery and overall performance terms.
Some revolutionary words: “to apply their professional judgment and discretion to do the right thing.” Mark Rowley, the acting chief constable of Surrey Police. Now I know the management consultants will not like that, but it will make the difference to the Client’s business performance and secure a positive result.
So out with Management by numbers, acronyms and clichés and get back to “doing the right things at the right time” and in particular “doing ordinary things exceptionally well”
Monday, 26 January 2009
Banking Largesse
If the announcement of the losses in the investment banks was not bad enough read this shocking review: "hero to zero in just four short months"
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/comment/jeremy-warner/jeremy-warner-merrills-thain-from-hero-to-zero-in-just-four-short-months-1513512.html
and the follow up with: "Executive Excesses: In another world"
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/analysis-and-features/executive-excesses--in-another-world-1514654.html
the question is - when will the issues from RBS and others filter through?
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/comment/jeremy-warner/jeremy-warner-merrills-thain-from-hero-to-zero-in-just-four-short-months-1513512.html
and the follow up with: "Executive Excesses: In another world"
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/analysis-and-features/executive-excesses--in-another-world-1514654.html
the question is - when will the issues from RBS and others filter through?
Saturday, 17 January 2009
Age & Progression
Almost no City law firms keep Partners on beyond 55. In some firms Partners turning 50 have to make the business case to their colleagues as to why they should be allowed to stay.
There is a classic catch 22. If they have been doing their job properly, their colleagues expect them to be burned out and ready to retire at 50. Younger "high" performers believe if they are not burned out, that they have not been doing their job properly, so challenge why to keep them on.
In truth, performance is king not age.
There is a classic catch 22. If they have been doing their job properly, their colleagues expect them to be burned out and ready to retire at 50. Younger "high" performers believe if they are not burned out, that they have not been doing their job properly, so challenge why to keep them on.
In truth, performance is king not age.
Thursday, 15 January 2009
"Ticking the box" verses Performance
With the decline in available capital business performance needs to be at its optimum be it in areas of sales, delivery or it overall management.
An area of risk to performance is the tick box culture that has developed in the boom times and this needs to be reflected upon, since a business is destined to under perform where a tick box mentality culture prevails.
Ticking the box must not over ride skill; experience; gut instinct; the courage to speak out; common sense and professionalism. People "hiding" behind a job description and using “it is not my responsibility or accountability” rather than following the principles of “unity of interest” / “common goal”, risk losing sight of the true basis of business performance.
An area of risk to performance is the tick box culture that has developed in the boom times and this needs to be reflected upon, since a business is destined to under perform where a tick box mentality culture prevails.
Ticking the box must not over ride skill; experience; gut instinct; the courage to speak out; common sense and professionalism. People "hiding" behind a job description and using “it is not my responsibility or accountability” rather than following the principles of “unity of interest” / “common goal”, risk losing sight of the true basis of business performance.
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