Productive HealthCare?

The General Practitioner (GP - or Regular Neighborhood Doctor) is the cornerstone of UK health care - the primary route into the health care system for non-emergencies. GPs recently were awarded a new, controversial contract which appears to pay them quite a lot more money for possibly less work.

In productivity terms this seems a little crazy .. but it is difficult to get beyond the rhetoric of the press and get true, unbiased information or opinion.

However a recent report for the National Audit Office gives a useful figure - in terms of measuring value. Evidently the GP system (including the associated nursing and admin staff) costs each UK resident about £120 per year. Productivity may be unknown but value looks pretty good to me ... i pay less than my TV licence!

Prospects for Africa?

Africa is not always what you expect .. it throws up many surprises. Take Swaziland ... while unit labour costs are relatively high compared to other middle income countries, productivity is also as high as in some high performing middle income economies such as China and Thailand.

The country's latest investment climate assessment report prepared by the World Bank states that even though local firms are less competitive than firms in the best performing middle income countries, these still outperform firms in most other countries in sub-Saharan Africa.

If you want to find out more about the relationships between African productivity and the global productivity scene, you should attend the World Productivity Congress in South Africa in September 2008.

Lessons from the Caribbean

Within the next three years, all primary schools across Jamaica should possess a productive school garden as part of the Ministry of Agriculture's thrust to boost productivity.

This sounds like an excellent idea - raising awareness, teaching fundamentals and preparing for the future.

There are all sorts of ways in which this lesson could be extended in other countries in other areas of activity - working towards a national strategic goal.

Release the funds

According to UK accountancy firm, Grant Thornton, if UK industry could match US productivity levels, enough growth would be generated to provide an additional £13,000 to every household.

Productivity is becoming recognised as the true measure of future potential ... again Grant Thornton estimate that many more UK companies - including many SMEs - will have some form of productivity/performance measure in place by the end of this year ... many of them for the first time. They are, however, cautious about the number who will use such measures to drive real improvement.

Who cares about fuel consumption?

Ford are selling the productivity of their new trucks ... the technology that allows fleet owners to more effectively track and maintain their vehicles and allows drivers to be more productive.

The technology -from Ford Work Solutions - includes an in-vehicle dashboard system that provides Internet access, an RFID asset-tracking system, a fleet telematics and diagnostic system and a security system.

It used to be power, performance and cost that drove vehicle sales .. now its productivity and a different kind of 'performance'.