Leadership

How would a productivity director of a global enterprise exhibit leadership?

My first thoughts are that, like all effective leaders, they would define and articulate a clear mission, vision and set of values with commitment to : excellence, fairness, recognition, and reward.

They would demonstrate an understanding of the environmental and social impact of business activity.

They would support their mission and vision with the provision of appropriate resources.

Finally, they would ‘walk the walk’ - all the above would be reflected in the way they behave as much as in what they said

Is it Fair?

For several decades after World War II, the graphs for productivity and wages mirrored eac other - productivity increases allowed workers to earn more money. Over the last decade this has changed. Whoever is reaping the benefits of increased productivity, it certainly isn't the workers.

Part of the explanation is that technological change distorts the relationship- technology when applied successfully lowers costs and increases productivity. You might think it is s fair that workers should not benefit if labour productivity has not brought about the change ...but if we can't design a society that shares the benefits, we build up unrest for the future.

Technology, anyone?

When times are tough (as they are now), we tend to turn in all directions looking for some help.

So, will technology help us out of the current mess we are in?

It is possible for some types of organisation - but I wouldn't bet on it.

In concert with something else - procedural review, process re-engineering - you stand more chance -but relying on technology on its own sounds like desperation.

China has a difficult task

The productivity record of CHINA over recent years has been excellent - yet most of the improvement has come from capital investment.

As such it has been relatively low-hanging fruit. If growth is to be maintained, the job gets harder- needing real changes to systems, processes and procedures ... real changes to labour productivity.

It will be interesting to observe progress.