News: Performance Management
Management training 'highlighted by Waterford collapse'
06 January 2009
Training could have improved the inadequate change management a commentator has identified as contributing to the collapse of Waterford Wedgwood.
David Wighton, business editor at the Times, claims poor management lead to the slow integration of the group's different businesses and says this was one of the problems which damaged the firm.
He identifies slowness in bringing the company's core brands up-to-date as another issue created by executives, further highlighting the need for management training.
While Mr Wighton states the group's chairman, Sir Anthony O'Reilly, took the wrong approach to organising change management in the firm as instead of investing in restructuring through one lump sum money was spent too gradually.
Other management errors the writer identifies include a failure to rapidly move production overseas or capitalise effectively on its association with contemporary designers.
Michael Shenkman recently wrote in Manage Smarter that management training must go beyond leadership skills and instil a desire to excel in every element of their organisational lives.
