CRA Inc

Management Return On Capital

Of note for leaders: The most recent McKinsey Quarterly Chart Focus Newsletter highlights a recent McKinsey study linking management performance to return on capital. See it here (free registration required).

Leadership at Fast Company

Fast Company Editor-in-Chief John Byrnes discusses his approach to leading the magazine through turnaround in this Knowledge @ Wharton interview. On his first leadership challenge:

My very first experience was to be brought up to Boston, to stand in front of everyone and be introduced as the new leader, and to give bad news immediately. It was that we would be moving the editorial operations from Boston to New York. I said, “Look, I’m really excited to have this job, and to help try to engineer a turnaround of the magazine. But at the same time, I’m also genuinely sad because many of the people [here] are [not] going to be on that journey with me.”

I think they appreciated the honesty immediately.

Best Informed Military In The World

A recent press release from the Department of Defense states that they have…

…a commitment to keeping America’s 2.6 million active duty, National Guard and Reserve servicemembers the best informed military in the world.

So what are some of the ways in which they’ll make good on this commitment?

The Department of Defense announced today that it is expanding its internal communications efforts with two initiatives during National Military Appreciation Month in May 2004. An electronic version of the “Stars and Stripes” newspaper will be available for downloading at no cost beginning on May 1, while the Pentagon Channel, the department’s news and information television service, willk become available to all U.S. military installations on May 14.

While it’s great to see the Department of Defense taking steps to improve their internal communication, let’s hope there’s more to it than this…Read the rest of the release…

Most Irritating Phrases

We’ve posted about the scourge of consultant-esque business buzzwords before, and now via PR Studies we see the Plain English Society has published their list of the “most irritating phrases in the language.” Read the full list here. Number 1? At the end of the day, although one of our most loathed, thinking outside the box, also makes the list.

Time And Culture

When advising clients in how to deal with cross-cultural communication issues, one item we consistently return to is the matter of time. Cross-cultural communication research demonstrates that cultures vary in how they interpret and think about time, and that these differences influence message interpretation. Specifically, some cultures are “monochronic” and others are “polychronic.” Monochronic cultures are “one thing at a time” cultures. People in monochronic cultures tend to:

* Think of time as something tangible, like a road down which we journey, or something which we “spend”
* Segment time
* Dislike interruptions
* Believe the task—and its completion–comes first
* Focus on fewer relationships
* Not change set plans—even if it might improve the quality of the process

The United States, Northern Europe / Scandinavia, and Germany are examples of monochronic cultures. Polychronic cultures, on the other hand, are “many things at once” cultures. People in polychronic cultures tend to:

* Think of time is a single point, and not as something tangible (like a road) or quantifiable (like an asset we can spend)
* Involve many people when completing a task
* Focus on completing transactions over holding to schedules
* Believe relationships come first
* Change plans easily—especially if they believe it will improve the quality of the process

The Mediterranean nations, Latin America, and parts of Africa are examples of polychronic cultures.
Read the rest of this entry »