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Peter McManners author of Green Outcomes in the Real World published by Gower.
Watch this conversation between Gower Commissioning Editor Jonathan Norman and author of Green Outcomes in the Real World - Peter McManners. In this first three minute extract they discuss the aspects of Challenges of Economic Globalization and Sustainability, the limits to resources and the effect on the environment, along with engaging your people to buy-in to sustainability and localism.Carry on and watch part two (4 mins) where Peter discusses the diminishing power of traditional Nation States and the growth of huge multinationals - is that a threat to sustainability? He also discusses cradle to cradle production systems and how it is being driven by sustainability. In part three (3 mins) Peter looks at other forms of payment apart from money – swapping work – is this a black economy or does it energise communities?
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Recently, Gower Commissioning Editor Jonathan Norman, sat down with Nigel Povah, co-editor of Assessment Centres and Global Talent Management and asked him how assessement centres address the issues of diversity. We filmed as they continued to discuss how Assessment Centres can find talented individuals, and then broke the discussion down into three section so you can watch in chunks.
Do let us know if you find our short chats interesting and useful.
Part one of three: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uj_8_1Le1-Q (5mins)
You can view part 2 of the interview here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmzzlPrIgI8 (5 mins) and part 3 here: http://youtu.be/-y5aFNLgRnI (4 mins)
On World Intellectual Property Day, who can predict what will happen with the value of intellectual property in the future. Will it still be the same in 2025, will it be seen as an irrelevance or will everything be crowd-sourced, socially-owned and open sourced? As a publisher Gower has a vested interest in what will happen and, with the caveat that my views are coloured by my position, let me offer three observations …
Paid for content versus everything for free
Free stuff is always welcome but without question, you do get what you pay for, and innovation, creativity and new content all have a cost. Personally, I think that, while new models will continue to emerge (who could have imagined the mobile apps model 10 years ago!), the need for curation of content and information will mean that customers will still be willing to pay. In a world where digital content is exploding, the value of rigorous, consistent and well signposted content is surely very significant;
New shared models
Crowdsourcing is attracting a lot of attention, but there are other more mainstream opportunities for businesses to create and innovate that don’t involve the mass market. Collaborative business is on the rise and with it comes a need and an aspiration for organizations to share risk and, consequently, share reward. That must point towards some new models that enable practical shared ownership of IP rights between different organizations, companies, governments and NGOs.
A collaborative approach to publishing
I am very proud of the fact that Gower has always worked with our authors and editors on the basis of licensed rights. We have never insisted that authors assign their copyright as part of a publishing agreement nor have we sought to bind them to us with restrictive arrangements for their future books. We are already developing new collaborative models for publishing in the future – models that enable us to contribute and profit from those aspects of a work’s intellectual property where we can add value through editing, distribution and marketing, whilst at the same time, enabling authors to exploit their own IP in directions and media that are outside our (realistic) reach.
A handful of Gower and Ashgate titles on intellectual property:
Jane Sparrow with be presenting a webinar on Monday 18th March, 2013 at 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM GMT discussing how HR can unlock the value of the middle manager.
Jane believes it is essential that managers have the confidence and capability to be great engagers and this is the only way to truly build and sustain a high performance culture. Within the webinar, she will provide proven and practical strategies for HR Professionals which they can use in order to support their managers and use throughout their organisation.
You can register for the webinar here.
Jane is author of The Culture Builders.
Antonio Nieto-Rodriguez’ article in PM World Journal is a fascinating insight into why senior managers tend to ignore project management. I won’t steal his thunder – read the article, it is an interesting perspective; whilst it may feel somewhat depressing I think there is plenty of evidence that things are changing. Antonio is author of The Focused Organization: How Concentrating on a Few Key Initiatives Can Dramatically Improve Strategy Execution.
I really enjoyed Douglas Board’s interview with Bob Garlick on the recent Business Book Talk. It’s extraordinarily demoralising, when we are all struggling to create a new future in an uncertain business world, to see those selected and paid to lead us so often seem to have feet of clay. Douglas’ insights into executive selection offer some pragmatic ways of changing by understanding and embracing the uncertainty and complexity it involves. If we adopt the kind of approaches he is advocating in the place of the old, self-perpetuating ones, I wonder to what extent this would change both the quality of our leaders and the culture of leadership which they enable? Douglas Board is author of Choosing Leaders and Choosing to Lead: Science, Politics and Intuition in Executive Selection.
There still seems to be a lot of scepticism surrounding the benefits that flexible working can have on businesses. With new leave regulations and new measures for flexible working being implemented by the government during 2013, this is a step in the right direction, however, it may reinforce sceptical attitudes towards flexible working.
You can read more about this subject by author Andy Lake, who has written a recent blog for HRZone. Simply register your details online for free.
Andy Lake’s book Smart Flexibility is available here, you can also read chapter 1, at your own convenience.
In conjunction with the Association of MBAs, Douglas Board, author of Choosing Leaders and Choosing to Lead will be hosting a free webinar on the topic of ‘Landing your first CEO role’. This webinar is designed for anyone competing now, or over the next 2-4 years, for their first CEO role, or a top tier position in a large organisation. It is relevant to the private, public and voluntary sectors.
This webinar will take place on Tuesday 19th February at 13:00.
The main webpage is here: http://www.mbaworld.com/networkingeventsbydate
You can register here: https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/836317598
Jane Sparrow’s interview with Bob Garlick in the recent Business Book Talk is a wonderful example of leading by example. If you just listen to how Jane talks about her approach to leading employees, you get an immediate sense of the quality and common sense she distills in her book The Culture Builders. Her focus on the importance of middle managers in making things happen may not be radically new but the pragmatism that she brings to the process of mobilizing them is immediately convincing. That doesn’t mean that it’s easy – particularly with the five distinctive roles that she outlines for middle managers (prophet, storyteller, strategist, coach, pilot) – but then, just maybe there are middle managers out there who are looking for the opportunity to step up to a challenge; to make a difference to their organization and not spend their whole time simply as the bulldogs of business-as-usual.
In a recent article for the Health Service Journal, Douglas Board, author of Choosing Leaders and Choosing to Lead discusses the NHS and how it needs leaders who are curious and ready to take risks - not motivated by fear of failure. Using his expertise within the areas of executive selection and his knowledge of the industry - Douglas offers a thought-provoking insight into the current trends within the NHS today.
You can read Douglas’ article in full, here http://www.hsj.co.uk/5052908.article.
