BizResearch

What do CEOs Do?

Source: Centre for Economic Performance

CEP Discussion Paper No 1145

Abstract: We develop a methodology to collect and analyze data on CEOs’ time use. The idea - sketched out in a simple theoretical set-up - is that CEO time is a scarce resource and its allocation can help us identify the firm’s priorities as well as the presence of governance issues. We follow 94 CEOs of top-600 Italian firms over a pre-specified week and record the time devoted each day to different work activities. We focus on the distinction between time spent with insiders (employees of the firm) and outsiders (people not employed by the firm). Individual CEOs differ systematically in how much time they spend at work and in how much time they devote to insiders vs. outsiders. We analyze the correlation between time use, managerial effort, quality of governance and firm performance, and interpret the empirical findings within two versions of our model, one with effective and one with imperfect corporate governance. The patterns we observe are consistent with the hypothesis that time spent with outsiders is on average less beneficial to the firm and more beneficial to the CEO and that the CEO spends more time with outsiders when governance is poor.

Click here for the full report

Sex & Power 2011

Source: Equality and Human Rights Commission

Extract from Press Release

A new report published by the Commission, shows a continuing trend of women being passed over for top jobs in Britain. More than 5,400 women are missing from Britain’s 26,000 most powerful posts. The report, Sex & Power 2011, measures the number of women in positions of power and influence across 27 occupational categories in the public and private sectors.

Worryingly, the results of this year’s report differ very little from those in the previous report of 2008. Figures from this year’s report reveal that, while women are graduating from university in increasing numbers and achieve better degree results than men, and despite level pegging with men in their twenties, they are not entering management ranks at the same rate, and many remain trapped in the layer below senior management. Among this year’s findings were:

In business women represent:

• 12.5% of directors of FTSE 100 companies (up from 11% in 2008)
• 7.8% of directors in FTSE 250 companies (up from 7.2% in 2008)

In media and culture, women represent:

• 9.5% of national newspaper editors (down from 13.6% in 2008)
• 6.7% of chief executives of media companies in the FTSE 350 and the director general of the BBC (down from 10.5% in 2008)
• 26.1% of directors of major museums and art galleries (up from 17.4% in 2008)

Studies have shown that outdated working patterns where long hours are the norm, inflexible organizations and the unequal division of domestic responsibilities are major barriers to women’s participation in positions of authority.

The British economy is paying the price for this exclusion.  It has been suggested that greater diversity on corporate boards would improve business performance and increase levels of corporate social responsibility

Photo from Creative Commons: Flickr: Leo Reynolds

The Top 10 Risks for Business

This report from Ernst & Young explores the global top 10 risks facing businesses in 2010.  The research findings suggest that the most important business risks identified are concentrated in the areas of regulation and compliance. Many of these threats are related to the aftermath of the global financial crisis. Asset management, banking, and to a lesser extent, insurance, are facing a political backlash and regulatory overhaul following the global financial crisis. Oil and gas, real estate and mining and metals are contending with efforts by cash-strapped governments to gain revenues. And public sector organizations must cope with knee-jerk decisions made by political leaders under pressure.

For the study a panel of more than 70 industry executives and analysts representing 14 industry sectors, were asked to identify and rank the top business risks for 2010, as well as risks “below the radar” that could rise into the top 10 in years ahead.

The top 10 risks for business 

• Regulation and compliance (2)
• Access to credit (1)
• Slow recovery or double-dip recession (No change)
• Managing talent (7)
• Emerging markets (12)
• Cost cutting (No change)
• Non-traditional entrants (5)
• Radical greening (4)
• Social acceptance risk and corporate social responsibility (New)
• Executing alliances and transactions (8)

(Ranking from 2009 is shown in parentheses)

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Managing Tomorrow’s People

The credit crisis and subsequent global recession has forced many companies to cut their workforce and reduce their expenditure on people.  It has also raised fundamental questions about the institutions and practices of modern business life. Belief in a self-regulating financial system has been shaken, confidence in the foundations of business has been eroded and a new generation of workers are reassessing the relationship between employer and employee.

This latest report from PwC, looks at the impact of the downturn on people management, exploring how the actions of businesses as a result of the crisis determines their readiness for the upturn and their ability to compete in the second decade.  PwC present three possible business models which they believe will co-exist in the future:

Green World  - demands for greater transparency and social responsibility in business have been magnified by the crisis and combine with the call for environmental responsibility already present in the green agenda. This will impact many areas of people management, particularly in relation to how people are rewarded.

Blue World - Increased focus on hard people metrics to measure performance and productivity as companies look at a long-term reality of having to do more with less. The Blue World scenario imagines the performance and efficiency culture necessary for global companies (some larger than many individual countries) to succeed within a new order of economic superpowers.

Orange World - the opportunity for radical new ways of working will emerge. PwC take the concept of outsourcing and globalisation of the workforce to an extreme portfolio working model where people organise their working lives like individual businesses in a highly networked world.

The global economic downturn has forced many companies to make important and difficult choices about how they manage and motivate people, with both immediate and long-term consequences.

The full report can be downloaded from the PricewaterhouseCoopers website

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The Conference Board Task Force on Executive Compensation

The current economic crisis has led to a loss of public trust in corporations and other institutions. Executive compensation, in particular has come under increasing scrutiny.  One of the missions of The Conference Board and its Governance Center is to encourage leaders to participate in a substantive dialogue on the most pressing governance matters. As part of this mission, the Governance Center established the Task Force on Executive Compensation to provide an independent review of the issues related to executive compensation. In addressing these issues, the task force and its advisory group brought together directors, shareholders, experts in compensation, governance and law, and members of academia.
 
The task force’s report and recommendations set forth five guiding principles, which it believes, if appropriately implemented, can restore corporate credibility with shareholders and other stakeholders and trust in executive compensation pay processes and oversight. The report provides guidance to boards, compensation committees, and management in implementing these guiding principles, and its appendixes contain additional information on executive pay practices and standards.
 
The Guiding Principles state that public companies should:

• Principle One: compensation programs should be designed to drive a company’s business strategy and objectives and create shareholder value, consistent with an acceptable risk profile and through legal and ethical means. To that end, a significant portion of pay should be incentive compensation, with payouts demonstrably tied to performance and paid only when performance can be reasonably assessed.
  
• Principle Two: total compensation should be attractive to executives, affordable for the company, proportional to the executive’s contribution, and fair to shareholders and employees, while providing payouts clearly aligned with actual performance.
   
• Principle Three: companies should avoid controversial pay practices, unless special justification is present.
  
• Principle Four - credible board oversight of executive compensation committees should demonstrate credible oversight of executive compensation. To effectively fulfil this role, compensation committees should be independent, experienced, and knowledgeable about the company’s business.
  
• Principle Five - compensation should be transparent, understandable, and effectively communicated to shareholders. When questions arise, boards and shareholders should have meaningful dialogue about executive compensation.

The full report is available to current London Business School students, faculty, staff and alumni from the Conference Board Research database which can be found on the A-Z list of library databases via Portal.

Photo from Creative Commons: Flickr: Alex Muse

Annual 401(k) Benchmarking Survey: 2009

Sponsored jointly by Deloitte, the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans, and the International Society of Certified Employee Benefit Specialists, the Annual 401(k) Benchmarking Survey measures the essential aspects of 401(k) plans for major US companies. The annual survey offers a detailed snapshot of the 401(k) policies, features, objectives and expectations of hundreds of diverse employers. This year a total of 606 companies responded to the survey, representing a wide distribution of employers in terms of geography, size, and industry and ownership structure (publicly or privately held).

The continuing economic downturn is a source of anxiety for employers and employees alike. Combined with the uncertainty of what recovery will eventually mean to participants, it is understandable that both employers and employees are adopting a “wait and see”  This year’s survey shows that employers are concerned about their employees’ financial preparations for retirement, sufficiently supporting their plans, and considering them important tools in overall benefit program design.

Among the notable findings:

17% of plan providers surveyed indicated an increase in deferral rate changes, hardship withdrawals, loans, and other similar activities. 

A third (38%) reported their employees decreased their deferral rates for 2009, with the majority (60%) holding steady at their current level of contribution.

12% of employers surveyed indicated an upswing in opt-outs from auto-enrolment programs.

Almost one-fifth (19%, up 2 percentage points from last year) of plan sponsors believe “very few” of their employees will be financially prepared for retirement.

More than three-quarters (79%) of employers surveyed are still fairly confident that their plan is effective for recruiting talent, and 68% say it helps with retention.

In addition to the full report, industry data is also available for:

• Consumer & Industrial Products/Services
• Energy & Resources
• Financial Services/Insurance
• Health Care & Life Sciences
• Public Sector/Not for Profit
• Technology, Media & Telecommunications

The full report and industry data can be downloaded from the Deloitte website

Photo from Creative Commons: Flickr: Steve Weavers

PricewaterhouseCoopers 12th Annual Global CEO Survey

The 12th Annual Global CEO Survey shows how the financial crisis has shattered short-term confidence. The percentage of CEOs who were ‘very confident’ about their one-year revenue growth prospects dropped to 21%, the lowest level in six years.  For this years survey 1,124 interviews were conducted with CEOs in 50 countries during the last quarter of 2008. By regions, 500 interviews were conducted in Europe, 276 in Asia Pacific, 168 in Latin America, 138 in North America and 42 in the Middle East and Africa. The majority of interviews were conducted by telephone. Main findings from the report:

Nearly 70% of CEOs believe their companies will be affected by the credit crisis. Of those, nearly 80% say that they face higher financing costs, and nearly 70% say that they will delay planned investments as a result. Companies in the banking, utilities, construction, entertainment and automotive sectors are most likely to be affected. Only 15% of CEOs in North America and 15% in Western Europe express confidence about their growth prospects for the next 12 months. This compares with 21% in the emerging economies of Central and Eastern Europe, 31% in Asia Pacific, and 21% in Latin America. Most CEOs around the world are planning for a slow recovery.

In terms of energy and environmental issues, more than 80% of CEOs are taking steps to reduce energy costs by finding efficiencies in their operations, and more than half are seeking alternative sources of energy. Sixty-one percent of CEOs say that the dependence on carbon-based energy will have an impact on the long-term success of their businesses. Fifty-six percent say the same about climate change, 55% about overpopulation, and 50% about a scarcity of fresh water.  

The full report and supplements to the survey can be downloaded from the PricewaterhouseCoopers website.

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CEO challenge 2008: top 10 challenges – financial crisis edition

Every year the Conference Board CEO challenge survey asks hundreds of senior executives from around the world to identify and rank their most pressing concerns. This report presents the top 10 challenges from the survey.  Comments from those interviewed, along with complementary survey results, will be published early next year in the CEO challenge perspectives and analysis

This year the Top 10 report was in its final stages when the financial crisis hit. So, the original responses were returned to those who had completed the survey back in July and August, nearly 200 updated surveys were received back. The differences between their original and resubmitted responses offers a unique “pre” and “post” insight into how the financial crisis of 2008 is affecting what’s on the minds of CEOs around the world.

A turbulent global economy has led CEOs to focus on “bread and butter” survival issues, rather than longer-term challenges, such as talent management. The number who rate speed, flexibility, adaptability to change as being one of their greatest concerns almost doubles, moving up to 3rd place from 7th.  Both profit growth and top line growth give way to the challenges of global economic performance, which rose to 4th place from 16th, and financial risk, including liquidity, volatility, and credit risk, which rose to 5th place from 11th.

The top ten challenges identified are:

Excellence in execution
Consistent execution of strategy by top management
Speed, flexibility, adaptability to change
Global economic performance
Financial risk, including liquidity, volatility, and credit risk
Sustained and steady top-line growth
Customer loyalty/retention
Improving productivity
Business confidence
Profit growth

The full report is available to current London Business School students, faculty, staff and alumni from the Conference Board Research database on the A-Z list of library databases via Portal

Women and leadership

The latest issue of the Mckinsey Quarterly is a special issue on women and leadership. There is no doubt that the intellectual, social and economic contributions of women are vital to organisations and economic progress. So why aren’t more women making it to the C-suite?

The first article ‘A business case for women’ argue that there are tangible business benefits for companies that can hire and retain more women. Research from the authors found that across the European Union only 11% of the membership of governing bodies such as boards of directors included women.  Whilst in the United States less than one third of the leading 1500 companies had any women top executives. Yet research shows that companies with several senior-level women tend to perform better financially. At a time when countries are facing talent shortages at all levels, the authors argues that hiring and retaining more women helps companies by enlarging their talent pools.

The second featured article ‘Centred leadership: how talented women thrive’ proposes a new leadership model that can help women along with their careers. In interviews with 85 female leaders from around the world the authors suggest five common themes that all executives can master to improve their leadership skills. The special issue also includes interviews with Sandra Dawson a pioneering academic from Cambridge University and Beth Axelrod from eBay.

The latest issue of Mckinsey Quarterly (2008:4) is available from the library desk

Strategic business risk: 2008 — the top 10 risks for global business

Risks are part of everyday business decision making so successful risk management needs to be an integral part of an organization’s strategy and operations. Ernst & Young in collaboration with Oxford Analytica have just released a report identifying the top 10 strategic risks facing global organisations. The sector studies included: asset management, automotive, banking & capital markets; biotechnology, consumer products, insurance, media & entertainment, oil & gas; pharmaceuticals; real estate; telecommunications and utilities. Interviews were conducted with more than 70 analysts from around the world and from over 20 disciplines that shape the business environment. The aim of these interviews was to identify the emerging trends and uncertainties that will impact on businesses over the next five years.

The top ten risks identified in “Strategic business risk” are:

• Regulatory and compliance risk
• Global financial shocks
• Aging consumers and workforce
• The inability to capitalize on emerging markets
• Industry consolidation/transition
• Energy shocks
• Execution of strategic transactions
• Cost inflation
• Radical greening
• Consumer demand shifts

The report can be downloaded for free from the Ernst & Young website (PDF 3.1mb)

Picture from Creative Commons: Flickr: NCBrian

Directors’ compensation and board practices 2007

In 2006 the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) released new rules on the disclosure of executive and director compensation. This change was intended to give companies more direction on how they provide executive and director compensation information. As a result, the annual Conference Board report, ‘Directors’ compensation and board practices’ has changed its methodology in line with the new SEC rules. Previously the survey used information obtained by a mailed survey of corporate secretaries representing the membership of The Society of Corporate Secretaries and Governance Professionals. This year’s data was provided by Salary.com. 2288 companies were surveyed using data based on proxy and financial statements filed with the SEC as of June 2007. The survey also explores issues such as size distribution of boards of directors, age, number of members on selected board committees, percentage of companies using lead directors, and companies with a non-CEO chair. In terms of compensation, the report looks at cash retainers for board members, total compensation, compensation mix (e.g. cash, stock, and stock options), and compensation for serving on or chairing a major board committee (e.g. audit, compensation, or nominating).

Current London Business School students, faculty, staff and alumni can access the full report from the Conference Board Research database, which can be found on the A-Z list of library databases via Portal.

The leaking pipeline: where are our female leaders? 79 women share their stories

This latest publication from PwC, “The leaking pipeline: where are our female leaders?” investigates some of the obstacles faced by women as they progress through the ranks of professional services organisations. The analogy of a leaking pipeline is meant to reflect the way in which organisations are loosing their female talent. Research commissioned by PwC UK indicates that, in most ‘first world’ countries, men and women enter the professional services sector at an equal rate.  However, women are lost from the pipeline through voluntary termination at a rate two or three times faster than men once they have attained the experienced, mid-career, manager/senior manager level of their careers. Research conducted by PwC’s Genesis Park leadership development programme found no evidence of deliberate, conscious gender bias. However, there research does suggest the following: a lack of pro-active consideration of females for major assignments; a lack of gender consideration in succession planning; and a reticence amongst senior men to mentor women at the leadership level. Together these factors all contribute to the current condition found throughout the professional services industry. The subsequent lack of female role models at the senior levels exacerbates the perception amongst women that advancement opportunities are limited. Evidence suggests that this increases the shrinking pool from which to find these leaders and role models. The report goes on to provide a series of recommendations for companies wishing to build gender diversity in order to increase the bottom line, while still promoting the advancement of women in the workplace.

To report is available for download from the PricewaterhouseCoopers website

Multi-level approaches to leadership

The latest issue of the Leadership quarterly (Vol.19:2) is a special issue on multilevel approached to leadership. Building on the last such special issue published more than a decade ago and a recent review article by Yammarino et al, the articles featured in this issue incorporate various views of leaders, followers and their linkages, as well as offering multilevel conceptual and methodological approaches to leadership. Contributions include: an examination of the development of a multidimensional measure and a multi-level assessment of servant leadership; a study of multi-level influences on the emergence and performance of charismatic, ideological and pragmatic leadership; and analysis of multi-level implications of framing leadership perceptions as a dynamic process.

The latest issue of the Leadership quarterly can be found in the journals collection located in the library basement.

Alternatively, current staff, students & faculty of London Business School Library can access this journal from Elsevier Science Direct, which can be found on the A-Z list of library databases.

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Consumer-focused processes in e-commerce

This special issue of the International Journal of electronic commerce focuses on consumer-focused processes in e-commerce. The quality of these processes can have lasting effects on the relationships between businesses and their customers. Inadequate service levels will lower customer satisfaction and retention and, ultimately, hamper business success. Increasingly customers using these services are dealing directly with information and communication technology (ICT) systems and applications, or ICT-mediated channels rather than face-to-face. This has created new challenges for businesses. Many are now implementing a range of customer-centric, electronic-customer relationship management (e-CRM) systems. However, these systems need to be followed up by the delivery of quality on-line services in order to satisfy and retain customers. The subject of the special issue is derived from the best papers in the three mini-tracks of the 40th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS-40).

The latest issue of the International journal of electronic commerce (Vol. 12:3) can be found in the journals collection located in the library basement.

Alternatively, current staff, students and faculty can use Article Finder (available via Portal) to find out which of our databases provides full-text access to this journal.

CEO challenge: perspectives and analysis — 2007

Every year, the Conference Board conducts the CEO Challenge, a survey which asks hundreds of executives from around the world to identify their most critical concerns. This is then followed up with several in-depth interviews designed to explore the themes identified from the survey in greater detail. These interviews are conducted with CEOs from companies ranging in size from $5.6 billion to $88 billion in annual revenues, headquartered in diverse regions, and representing a cross-section of industries. The findings of these interviews are then published in the annual Perspectives and analysis report. This year's report includes: exploiting new opportunities in China and India; the increasingly symbiotic nature of customer/supplier relationships; finding qualified managerial talent; optimism about improvements in legal/governmental protections for IT and other intellectual property; and corporate reputation.

This report can be found on the Conference Board Research database, available to staff, students and alumni of London Business School Library

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Call centre management

Over the last two decades, call centres have become the preferred method for most large businesses to communicate with their customers. The February issue of Management science is a special issue focusing on the management of call centres.  The twelve articles presented in this issue cover workforce management, including forecasting and staff scheduling, as well as forms of training and outsourcing. Milner & Olsen present an interesting paper on the use of service-level agreements in call centres, arguing that sometimes these targets can be counterintuitive, as firms maximize performance by providing poor customer service to particular types of calls.  Soyer & Tarimcilar look at the problem of quantifying, over time, the effects of marketing campaigns on call centres. Campaigns can dramatically alter demand patterns for sales-orientated call centres, yet there appears to be little or no literature on this impact. Jouini, Dallery & Nait-Abdallah provide an analysis of a French telecom provider who are using small independent teams, each with their own customers, rather than one large pool. Although this decrease in scale does result in a loss of efficiency, this has been far outweighed by staff motivation and retention benefits.

The February issue of Management Science can be found in the journals collection located in the library basement.

Alternatively, current staff, students and faculty can use Article Finder (available via Portal) to find out which of our databases provides full-text access to this journal.

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Harvard business review special HBS centennial issue

 The January issue of HBR is dedicated to the subjects of leadership and strategy. Contributions include a case study from Howard H. Stevenson about the best career choices for those that want to make a difference. There are  two interviews, one with Linda A. Hill on who our future leaders are likely to be and the other with Bruce Wasserstein offering good advice to CEOs. Articles include:

• Cynthia A. Montgomery on putting leadership back into strategy;
• an updated and revised version of Michael E. Porter’s classic article "five forces", published 29 years ago;
• discussion on how management systems can impede innovation from Clayton M. Christensen, Stephen P. Kaufman, and Willy C. Shih;
• advice on mastering the management system from Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton;
• Rosabeth Moss Kanter examines multinationals that are currently transforming themselves and putting their values at the forefront of strategy;

• Thomas J. DeLong, John J. Gabarro, and Robert J. Lees describe the changing role and importance of mentoring

The latest issue of HBR can be found at the library desk. Alternatively, current students, faculty, staff and alumni can access this journal from Business source complete (on the A-Z list of library databases via Portal).

McKinsey - top articles of 2007

McKinsey - top articles of 2007

Our most widely read articles over the past year tended to focus on business strategy including ruminations on how planning gets done, who gets to decide, and what can mess things up. There was also great interest in articles on technology (including software as a service and Web 2.0) and on the crafting of simple marketing messages.

Read these articles now in case you missed them in 2007.

1. STRATEGY | How to improve strategic planning
It can be a frustrating exercise, but there are ways to increase its value. (Premium)

2. ORGANIZATION | Building the civilized workplace
Nasty people don't just make others feel miserable; they create economic problems for their companies.

3. MARKETING | How businesses are using Web 2.0: A McKinsey Global Survey
By and large, executives are satisfied with their previous investments in Internet technology, and most are investing in trends that promote automation and networking online.

4. GOVERNANCE | The CEO's role in leading transformation
The CEO helps a transformation succeed by communicating its significance, modeling the desired changes, building a strong top team, and getting personally involved. (Premium)

5. STRATEGY | The halo effect, and other managerial delusions
Companies cannot achieve superior and lasting business performance simply by following a specific set of steps.

6. CORPORATE FINANCE | The new metrics of corporate performance: Profit per employee
Most measurements of performance are geared to the needs of 20th-century manufacturing companies. Times have changed. Metrics must change as well. (Premium)

7. STRATEGY | Investing in sustainability: An interview with Al Gore and David Blood
The former vice president and his partner in an investment-management firm argue that sustainability investing is essential to creating long-term shareholder value.

8. HIGH TECH | Delivering software as a service
A new delivery method is shaking the software industry's foundations. Traditional vendors should take heed.

9. GOVERNANCE | Crafting a message that sticks: An interview with Chip Heath
The key to effective communication: make it simple, make it concrete, and make it surprising.

10. MARKETING | How companies are marketing online: A McKinsey Global Survey
A survey of marketers from around the world shows where online tools are most important, how they're being used, and on which ones companies plan to spend more.

London Business staff students and Faculty - Mckinsey Quarterly is available full text in:

Business Source Complete -  available on and off campus via Portal

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Costas Markides & Markus Reitzig in the latest MIT Sloan Management Review

MIT Sloan Management Review, Fall 2007, Volume 49 Issue 1

How Executives Can Enhance IP Strategy and Performance.
Reitzig, Markus.
How are companies approaching intellectual property strategy, and what are successful strategies for managing IP? To explore such questions, the author and his research team conducted a detailed survey of senior IP executives at 34 companies. The survey findings indicate that IP has become an area of focus for the executive committee and the board at many companies.

Strategic Innovation at the Base of the Pyramid.
Anderson, Jamie; Markides, Costas.
Strategic innovation in developing markets is fundamentally different from what occurs in developed economies, the authors argue. It is not about locating (assuming the products and services are affordable, there are plenty of under- and nonconsuming customers to tap). More often, it involves adapting existing products to customers with fewer resources or different cultural backgrounds and creating basic market ingredients such as distribution channels and customer demand from the ground up.

To locate the full text of Journal Articles -  use Article Finder in the Library pages of Portal.

Giant steps in management

In their new book, published today, Professor of Strategic and International Management Julian Birkinshaw and visiting researcher Michael Mol take on long-standing assumptions about how the work of management is best accomplished and show how key performance measures, such as employee engagement, customer interaction, and technological innovations, can be improved.

Human DNA and dinosaur DNA are 97 per cent identical. What matters is the three per cent of DNA that separates the two species. And it’s the same with management practices.  Giant steps in management will show you how to understand the practices that make a real difference to company performance and give you the new management tools and techniques that will help you and your business evolve and successfully compete in today’s business environment.

Michael Mol and Julian Birkinshaw, Giant steps in management: innovations that change the way you work, FT Prentice Hall, 2007, £22.99.

Copies are on order for library stock.

Winner of FT/Goldman Sachs business book of the year

The last tycoons, a vivid and compelling account of the rise of Lazard Freres, has won the FT/Goldman Sachs business book of the year 2007 award, narrowly beating Alan Greenspan's The age of turbulence.  William Cohan's history of “the world’s most elite and enigmatic investment bank” was awarded the £30,000 prize at a gala dinner on Thursday night in London.

Past winners of the FT/Goldman Sachs award were Thomas Friedman for The World is Flat in 2005 and James Kynge, whose China Shakes the World won in 2006.

At the same time, the FT on Thursday unveiled the results of its online poll of readers, to find the best business book of all time. Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations, published in 1776, was the runaway winner, well ahead of Barbarians at the Gate, the 1990 account by Bryan Burrough and John Helyar of the leveraged buy-out of RJR Nabisco.

Copies of all the mentioned books are available in library stock.

FT/Goldman Sachs business book of the year

There were more than 150 entries for the 2007 award, which aims to select the book which provides "the most compelling and enjoyable insight" into modern business issues, including management, finance and economics.  The finalists, selected by a panel of expert judges, are:

The age of turbulence, by Alan Greenspan.  The former Fed chief gives a behind-the-scenes account of how the US economy was managed in the aftermath of 9/11.

The black swan, by Nassim Nicholas Taleb.  Why we underestimate the risk of highly improbable events at our peril.

Immigrants, by Philippe Legrain.  Argues for freer migration, one of the most emotive topics in the political and business world.

The last tycoons, by William D Cohan.  A no-holds-barred account of the rise of the investment bank Lazard Freres.

Wikinomics, by Don Tapscott.  Explaims how internet-based collaboration can be harnessed to produce even more innovative content, products and services.

Zoom, by Iain Carson and Vijay V Vaitheeswaran.  Relates how Big Oil and the world's carmakers are striving to meet the challenge of developing new fuels and technologies.

The winner will be announced on 25th October.

Copies of all shortlist titles are available from / on order for library stock.

Firms with more women on boards perform better than those that don't!

A 4-year study of Fortune 500 companies has provided evidence that "Firms with More Women on Boards Perform Better Than Those That Don't". "We have established a correlation between diverse boards and strong corporate performance," says Kara Helander, vice president, Western Region at New York-based Catalyst.

The study, which is the second of Catalyst’s Bottom Line reports, looked at three critical financial measures: return on equity, return on sales, and return on invested capital, and compared the performance of companies with the highest representation of women on their boards to those with the lowest representation.

“Clearly, financial measures excel where women serve on corporate boards,” said Ilene H. Lang, President of Catalyst. “This Catalyst study again demonstrates the very strong correlation between corporate financial performance and gender diversity. We know that diversity, well managed, produces better results. And smart companies appreciate that diversifying their boards with women can lead to more independence, innovation, and good governance and maximize their company’s performance.”

Click here to access report.

"The future of management" by Gary Hamel

"21st century challenges are testing the design limits of organisations around the world, and are exposing the limitations of a management model that has failed to keep pace with the times" - Gary Hamel.

In his new book, published on Tuesday 9 October, management guru and best-selling author, Professor Gary Hamel, Visiting Professor of Strategic Management at the School, will explain why it's time for a reinvention of management.

Gary Hamel, The future of management, Harvard Business School Press, 2007, £15.99.

Click here for a review by Professor Julian Birkinshaw in Management Today

Copies are on order for Library stock.

Guide to interim management

This month’s issue of People Management contains a special supplement on interim management. The guide contains a selection of articles providing readers with an overview of the latest industry trends. For example, using data from the Ipsos MORI IMA Market Audit, 2006 the current UK interim management market is currently valued at £1 billion a year. In terms of job functions, HR is the most requested followed by finance and marketing functions. Over 70% of assignments involved change management, project management and business improvement. Want to find out more?  This guide is available from the People management website.

Alternatively People management can be found in the journals collection located in the library basement or electronically on Business Scource complete (A-Z list of library databases via Portal)