WHY ARE BRITISH FIRMS SO BADLY MANAGED? Nick Bloom, Stanford January 2010

EXAMPLE FINAL PRESENTATION FOR ECON 103 WHY ARE BRITISH FIRMS SO BADLY MANAGED? Nick Bloom,Stanford January 2010

COULD MANAGEMENT MAY EXPLAIN LOW UK PRODUCTIVITY, AND IF SO WHY? • British productivity is about 60% of US levels and about 80% of • German levels • It is often claimed this is due to bad British management • Is this true - is UK management bad? • If it is true - why is UK management bad?

OUR STEPS TO TRY TO MEASURE MANAGEMENT • 1) Developing management practice scoring • Scorecard for 18 monitoring, targets and incentives practices • 45 minute phone interview of (manufacturing plant) managers • 2) Obtaining unbiased responses • “Double-blind” • Managers are not informed (in advance) they are scored • Interviewers do not know company performance • 3) Getting firms to participate in the interview • Introduced as “Lean-manufacturing” interview, no financials • Endorsement of Bundesbank ,UK Treasury, Banque de France • Run by 10 MBAs (outgoing, assertive & business experience)

THERE IS A WIDE FIRM LEVEL SPREAD IN EVERY COUNTRY, WITH THE UK WORST ON AVERAGE Franceaverage=3.14 n=137 Germanyaverage=3.31 n=157 UKaverage=3.07 n=154 USaverage=3.35 n=290

INHERTED FAMILY MANAGEMENT AND LOW SKILLS EXPLAIN MUCH OF THE UK MANAGEMENT GAP *** Significant at 1%, ** Significant at 5%, * Significant at 10%

CONCLUSIONS & RECOMMENDATIONS • Management does vary strongly across firms & countries • British management is worse than that in the US and Germany • Two factors play a big role: • Traditional family firms • Low skills • Suggests policies on estate tax and education are key to • improving British management

END OF EXAMPLE

PRESENTATIONS – A FEW SUGGESTIONS (1) • Use 24 point font • Easy to read • If you need smaller font, there’s too much on the slide • Have one message and make the presentation about delivering • this – in 10 minutes there is no time for a complex story. If complex • questions come then you can provide more details then • Time yourself in advance by practising the whole presentation. A • general tip is to spend 2/3 of time preparing presentations, and 1/3 • practising giving it. • Avoid using different fonts, colors, sizes unless absolutely • necessary. This is distracting. Avoid complex slide backgrounds.

PRESENTATIONS – A FEW SUGGESTIONS (2) • Include some kind of graph if possible – these are easier to • understand and offer a good overview of any results • When presenting: • Look at the audience (not the screen/PC) • Speak loudly • Smile and appear relaxed (even if you’re not) • Always be polite and positive to the audience, even in response to rude questions • Keep going even if things go badly – it is hard to assess how things are going during a presentation. • Use action leads – standard in consulting, banking etc. - so the • titles that summarize the content of the slide

THERE IS A WIDE FIRM LEVEL SPREAD IN EVERY COUNTRY, WITH THE UK WORST ON AVERAGE Franceaverage=3.14 n=137 Germanyaverage=3.31 n=157 THIS IS AN ACTION LEAD UKaverage=3.07 n=154 USaverage=3.35 n=290

FIRM-LEVEL MANAGEMENT SCORES PLOTTED ACROSS ALL FOUR COUNTRIES Franceaverage=3.14 n=137 Germanyaverage=3.31 n=157 THIS IS A NOT AN ACTION LEAD UKaverage=3.07 n=154 USaverage=3.35 n=290

PRESENTATIONS – A FEW SUGGESTIONS (3) Prepare a set of back-up slides if these can help to deal with questions – you may not have time to show them, but can use them in response to questions Before you present think of all the questions you can imagine people will ask and prepare answers. Often you can guess about 50% of the questions audiences will ask Take notes of major questions and suggestions

PRESENTATIONS – A FEW SUGGESTIONS (4) • When others are presenting try to give feedback: • Good practice for real life • Makes you think hard – good forcing discipline • You are assessed on class involvement • Also use the time to think how each presenter: • Could improve – what you would do differently • Provides a good example – what they did well you can learn from

WHY ARE BRITISH FIRMS SO BADLY MANAGED? Nick Bloom, Stanford January 2010