Andy Haldane, chief economist if the Bank of England, believes that even modest management improvements amongst complacent companies could lead to an overall productivity leap.
The FT recently reported the success story of a four-decade-old glassworks at Cumbria Crystal near the Lake District, where molten glass is still blown by mouth and where two years ago “we didn’t even have an electronic till”, according to Chris Blade, the managing director who joined the company in 2015. After taking part in a new initiative called Be the Business and led by Charlie Mayfield, the chairman of the retailer John Lewis, who is trying to pass knowledge from high productivity businesses to low ones, Cumbria Crystal has radically overhauled its business and pledged to improve its productivity by 1 per cent each month.
A helping hand from the big guys – the FT report makes interesting reading
