Careful what you plan

The government in Thailand recently raised the minimum wage - considerably. This was obviously popular with the voting public ... but is it 'sensible'?

Those who invest capital in new and existing ventures to create new work and new jobs are now much more reluctant to do so ... their competitiveness in international markets has been (artificially) lessened.

This means fewer jobs will be created, fewer taxes will be paid and almost everybody loses in the longer-term.

Unfortunately governments (of all persuasions) too rarely think through the issues concerned with what at first seem like fairly simple policy decisions ... or if they do, they let 'political' judgement cloud economic sense.

Wage rises not brought about or supported by productivity gains are always inflationary and damaging.

Gratification

Some of the jobs we do don't show results for a long time - especially things like strategic planning. But we all like a bit of gratification, something that tells us we've done well.

So try to build rewards into your own work processes , 'ticking off' small (but important) jobs in the gaps in your working day to give you that sense of instant achievement.

And remember, your staff feel the same. Make sure you reward them regularly with a (metaphorical) pat on the back or a smile.

Looking is more than observing

I've just returned from a trip to Pakistan looking at their fan manufacturing sector.  In many of the factories, conditions were poor and productivity was low. However, the owners of these factories were keen to listen and keen to try out low cost suggestions for improvement.

Whilst going round 'looking' at what was going one, I was reminded of the need to talk to the operators (difficult when they only speak Urdu) and to see 'beyond the obvious'.  However, it is what we put together from our vision and hearing that allows us to 'see' what is really going on.

It was also important to remember that things might not work across a cultural divide ... and that local conditions might mitigate against some improvements ... the unstable power supply in Pakistan means that buffer stocks might be necessary to allow for manual work to take place when machines cannot be powered.

So look, listen and thin ... then you can see solutions!

Not another survey

Not a week goes by without some survey or another showing a link between X and Y ... between healthy workplaces and productivity, for example.

However, in almost all cases, there are just surveys ... usually of people with a vested interest (workplace health practitioners in the above example) and undertaken by a company with another vested interest (providers of workplace health-related products or services).

This doesn't mean that there is not a relationship between X and Y ... simply that a small survey of vested interests is not the way to establish such a relationship.

Be careful what you read!

Make it harder, please

The state of Alaska has a relatively new law that requires a quarter of public buildings to be 15 percent more efficient by 2020.

Good?  Well, no actually.  This is low hanging fruit, easily achievable and no real challenge.

It certainly isn't going to help the global problem.

So, come on, Alaska ... and others. We need more from you.

Energy Independence

The Western World is, rightly, worried about it dependence on others for energy - often others in seemingly unstable states. Thus, they are concentrating on energy independence.

Unfortunately this often just means finding new sources of fossil fuels or new ways of extracting more fuel from established sources. The moves towards alternative forms of energy have been sidelined - these moves take too long to reach acceptable levels of energy production.

We know, from the banking crisis, that short-term thinking is counter-productive in the longer-term. Now, we seem as though we will repeat the error in the field of energy.

Sometimes I worry about our leaders!

Collapse of the world

Take a look at the Youtube video of 'Collapse of the world' (just search for it). It explains the recent world financial collapse.

Its funny and scary in equal measure. How did we let it happen?

Will we do so again?