Managing Britannia

For more than thirty years the solution to all Britain’s problems has been better management. As a result management schools dominate higher education and managers are at work everywhere developing ‘strategies’ and ‘systems’ and quantifying ‘outcomes’. There are now more managers on the rail network than train drivers, yet the benefits of modern management of railways, schools, hospitals and universities are elusive. This is because ‘management’ does not exist—the academic study of ‘management science’ and the assumption that there are universal management skills are bogus. This book shows how modern management practices have all but destroyed politics, education, culture and religion—modern management is the cause of our national malaise.

For more than thirty years the solution to all Britain’s problems has been better management. As a result management schools dominate higher education and managers are at work everywhere developing ‘strategies’ and ‘systems’ and quantifying ‘outcomes’. There are now more managers on the rail network than train drivers, yet the benefits of modern management of railways, schools, hospitals and universities are elusive. This is because ‘management’ does not exist—the academic study of ‘management science’ and the assumption that there are universal management skills are bogus. This book shows how modern management practices have all but destroyed politics, education, culture and religion—modern management is the cause of our national malaise.

A history of the British airline company, featuring details on the aircrafts, routes, and operations, as well as stories from the crews and staff. Founded in 1961 as Euravia by British businessman Ted Langton and aviation consultant J.E.D. Walker, at a time of considerable turmoil for the independent sector of the British air operators’ industry, Britannia Airways went on to become the world’s largest holiday airline. Just as Court Line evolved from Autair, so Britannia Airways evolved from Euravia. Both UK airlines had strong links with the travel industry; Court Line with Clarksons Holidays, and Britannia with the Thomson Group, in particular the ‘Sky Tours’ brand. Both were innovative in their own ways, and both grabbed the UK travel industry by the scruff of the neck and shook it into the jet age – Court line traveling down the brasher cheap-and-cheerful road, while Britannia took the more staid, upmarket route. By 1972, Britannia had developed to such a degree that it was the biggest of the British independent charter airlines. It was also a groundbreaking operation—during the late 1960s, it became the first charter airline to offer assigned seating, as well as hot in-flight meals. Prior to the mid-1970s, Britannia, much like other British charter airlines of the era, had concentrated upon low-cost flights to Spain and the use of provincial airports to provide its services. The company’s management, however, harbored ambitions to grow beyond this. As a result, for example, Britannia's 767s began regular charter flights between Britain and Australia in 1988, a route to New Zealand being added the following year. Between 1968 and 1984, Britannia carried nearly forty-two million passengers, while the company’s fleet grew to include twenty-nine Boeing 737s and a pair of 767s. Drawing on the author’s in-depth research and knowledge, as well as firsthand interviews with individuals such as Ted Langton, the original tour operator who wanted his own airline, and Jed Williams, who created Britannia, this the full story of one of the most important airlines in the history of civil aviation.

People Risk Management provides unique depth to a topic that has garnered intense interest in recent years. Based on the latest thinking in corporate governance, behavioural economics, human resources and operational risk, people risk can be defined as the risk that people do not follow the organization's procedures, practices and/or rules, thus deviating from expected behaviour in a way that could damage the business's performance and reputation. From fraud to bad business decisions, illegal activity to lax corporate governance, people risk - often called conduct risk - presents a growing challenge in today's complex, dispersed business organizations. Framed by corporate events and challenges and including case studies from the LIBOR rate scandal, the BP oil spill, Lehman Brothers, Royal Bank of Scotland and Enron, People Risk Management provides best-practice guidance to managing risks associated with the behaviour of both employees and those outside a company. It offers practical tools, real-world examples, solutions and insights into how to implement an effective people risk management framework within an organization.

Principles and Practices of Management introduces students to the fundamentals of management through a balanced blend of theory and practice. Highlighting the management practices of successful Indian and foreign companies, the opening vignettes and cases in the chapters depict real-world situations and problems managers face in their professional life. In addition to the concepts, the book also delves into the various academic perspectives that have evolved over time to provide the readers an integrated view of different approaches to management. Each chapter consists of various pedagogical features like Managerial Insights, Management Insights—A Revisit, Exhibits, Case Studies and relevant content on management theory.KEY FEATURES• Managerial Insight: Every chapter starts with the feature Managerial Insight focusing on a real-life situations and managerial issues involved in various Indian companies.• Managerial Insight: A Revisit: Management Insight: A Revisit marks the closing of the same case discussed in the Managerial Insight and is presented at the end of main text. There are a set of questions related to the key aspects of the case.• Exhibits: There are over a 50 exhibits illustrating cases of various Indian enterprises with a focus on the areas including entrepreneurial/managerial challenges, global business Implications, ethical and social considerations.• Exercises and Questions: Each chapter has various questions, which provide a fairly comprehensive coverage of the major points and topics contained in the text.• Case Studies: Each chapter closes with an exercise in the form of a Case Study with relevant questions

There is an old saying: The only two things you can count on in life are death and taxes. That may have been true in the past, but there are opportunities that can substantially reduce your tax burden, and, in some cases, relieve you of it entirely. Several countries and jurisdictions throughout the world offer impressive incentives and plans through which you can greatly minimize your tax burden. Some have passed legislation that supports a business friendly environment providing a host of tax advantages, a minimization of red tape, and a variety of grants and special plans that are designed to increase a company?s edge in an increasingly competitive economic climate. Other places offer various tax incentives to individuals. Indeed, there are places where you can live virtually tax-free. In the following pages, the most advantageous of these countries and jurisdictions will be examined. These are by no means backwater enclaves or small municipalities; they are highly desirable places to live, work, and invest. Some prefer to remain reticent about the financial benefits they offer, while others openly promote their tax and investment plans and incentives. If you genuinely desire to reduce your tax burden, all deserve careful consideration. You might be wondering why a place would offer tax benefits to both its citizens and foreigners. By offering major tax incentives to investors, tax haven countries and jurisdictions increase the amount of money that flows into the tax haven. This money can then be used to stimulate the tax haven?s economy. The underlying principal here is that low taxes result in economic growth. To take full advantage of some of these opportunities, you may need to satisfy residency requirements. Some countries require that you remain in the country for a particular length of time to benefit from tax incentives; others have few or negligible conditions that you must meet. In some, to fully take advantage of their tax laws, you must become a citizen. This is often not as daunting as it sounds, because in most cases, you will be able to carry dual citizenship. Thus, if you are a citizen of the United States, you may also become a citizen of another nation. Of course, this can become tricky under some circumstances, and you should always research your situation carefully, assessing your plans and goals in the light of each country?s laws. For some people, it is quite beneficial to change their citizenship if it results in major tax savings.

Managers are powerful. The organizations of our time are in essence managerial organizations, even our societies are managerial societies. This book looks behind the portrait of management as value-free ‘technicality’ and challenges the image of managers as the selfless pursuer of an organization’s survival and development. It explains that individual interests and careers of managers are only part of a wider epochal and historic picture – the picture of managers as the new ruling class using and misusing organizations for their own personal and group interests while portraying their own roles and actions as ‘increasing the efficiency of organizations’ and ‘serving the public interest’. But why exactly are managers so powerful? Why and how do managers dominate our organizations? It will be argued that the prevailing understanding of management and managers is only at the surface about functional aspects. In its very core management has been, and is, all about the power and control, interests and ideology of managers--in short, the dominance of managers over other groups of people. In order to investigate and explain this dominance, a multi-dimensional ‘theory of social dominance of managers’, will be developed which reveals the personal and group interests behind such claims and is based in its core on three explanatory factors; power, interests, and ideology. These factors themselves will be analyzed as comprehensive, multi-dimensional and interdisciplinary concepts in order to address the complex nature of managers’ dominance appropriately.