The latest Wholesale Investor National survey, published in August 09, reveals that private investors in Australia are more optimistic, have more money and have invested over the last three months. The quarterly survey, conducted by Wholesale Investor magazine on its database of 4,286 high net worth, wholesale, professional and international investors, revealed the following points: Investors remain optimistic A staggering 81% surveyed said that now is a very good, or exceptional time to invest. The more the market recovers from the financial downturn, the more this statistic will drop. Smart investors invest when values are right down, and become less enthusiastic as the market moves towards its peak.

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Efforts to improve the skills and capabilities of the workforce often fail because companies don’t really know where the gaps are. McKinsey’s client work shows that one tool to reveal them is a comprehensive survey that allows employees themselves to identify the areas most in need of improvement. A targeted, less costly program—something that’s particularly valuable in the present downturn—can then be rolled out to the organization.

“Identifying employee skill gaps” (May 2009) presents the case of a manufacturing company implementing a major performance transformation program that included significant capability-building efforts. To identify specific areas for improvement, the company surveyed site leaders, middle managers, and frontline supervisors in two regions. As the exhibit shows, their needs were quite different.

Performance transformation programs may also make it necessary to challenge the way people work. “The psychology of change management” shows how companies can successfully modify their employees’ mind-sets (June 2003).

Source: McKinsey

Jeroen van der Veer, former CEO of Royal Dutch Shell, retired on June 30 of this year, bringing to a close his 38 years with the company. In this video, the latest in our interview series McKinsey conversations with global leaders, van der Veer shares his thoughts on the future of oil and alternative energies, the industry’s challenges in addressing climate change, and management lessons learned over a long career.

A video and transcript are available for the interview, which was conducted in The Hague in June 2009.

View the various thoughts from van der Veer here

Surely in our lives we have a responsibility to improve through change and build futures that people want to be part of? If we do not, sooner or later, we will be engulfed by the advances and be carried with the tide into an uncertain future. Much of business literature, and management education, training and development, is focused on a model that effectively leaves future to fate. Detailed analysis of the past, control and stewardship of the status quo feature prominently. Actions are filtered by past experiences. Even the more recent focus on disciplines such as ‘strategic thinking’, ‘learning’ and ‘leadership’ have not yet delivered against their promise, as they are not embedded in the day-to-day running of many businesses.

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Harvard have taken a lng look at the MBA and have made significant recommendations on how universities need to change to catch up to the 21st Century requirementsof leadership and management education...

Overview:

On the whole, MBA programs are in decline. Their value is being questioned, and they are seen as overly emphasizing analytics rather than skill development and experiences. Deans, executives, and recruiters identified four main areas where current MBA programs are falling short: leadership; globalization; communication/presentation skills; and problem identification in ambiguous environments.

In response, MBA programs are innovating and experimenting to change the MBA experience, and to help business education regain its relevance and value. They are changing their curricula and are attempting to make the learning experience more interactive, engaging, global, and experiential.

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More companies are battling employee stress with meditation... Increasingly, the overstretched and overburdened have a new answer to work lives of gunning harder for what seems like less and less: Don't just do something -- sit there. Companies increasingly are falling for the allure of meditation, too, offering free, on-site classes. They're being won over, in part, by findings at the National Institutes of Health, the University of Massachusetts, and the Mind/Body Medical Institute at Harvard University that meditation enhances the qualities companies need most from their knowledge workers: increased brain-wave activity, enhanced intuition, better concentration, and the alleviation of the kinds of aches and pains that plague employees most.

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