The following was related by the person concerned during lunch. Person concerned is the "new" quality manager, leaving on Friday after one year and two months in post - going to (rumour says) a much more highly paid job far closer to his home. Anyway, he had to sort out some tax matters, and didn't want to do it at his desk, as people could hear. So he went to a quiet conference room to phone

Contemplated the value of reading case studies while looking at Harvard Business Review over lunch. I love that journal, but have to ration it carefully, as I read faster than they publish. The format, of course, is a fictionalised situation followed by four possible solutions by different people or companies. The afternoon was less cheerful. One of the processes I work with is devouring most of

Thoughts on contemporary art, probably inspired by describing the Louise Hopkins works to a colleague at work, the one I call the butterfly man. He's 40ish, divorced, takes good care of his physical shape, though I feel he'd be more attractive if he let his hair grow, instead of just jelling it into vertical spikes. Anyway, he has the limited intelligence which is one of the less desirable

Welcome to cargo cult management. I've been particularly unlucky in the events I've been to recently, or else somehow the voice of the customer is becoming an extinct species. Went to a social evening at the gym. It was obvious that the management had looked at all the factors involved: disco, food, drink, space. But they hadn't considered that the typical customer may have a certain fondness

So another good man was in the wrong place at the wrong time and in the wrong job ...a BAE SYSTEMS commercial guy got shot in Riyadh. It's true he was a commercial chap, and they are so nit-picky they might just as well be quality people, but it's very important to realise that just because a company is not to everyone's taste, the people who work there do have lives, and mortgages and opinions

Have been having far too close a look at stress for my liking. Examples I've come across include naps at lunchtime, laying one's head on the desk until being interrupted by a fresh crisis, self mutilation ... and taking a half day's holiday. I've been working such long hours, it was difficult to unwind, I even felt guilty at wandering around when everyone else was so busy. On the other hand, I

I swear one day I'll write a book on bad management. Here's a hypothetical fable. There is a project: difficult specification, difficult customer who insists (why?) on adhering exactly to specification and adding in facts which were assumptions when the drawings were originally constructed, all sorts of patriotic politics, deadlines far too close for comfort.One strategy for management could be