Managers need to be able to make sense of data and to use it selectively to answer key questions: Why has quality fallen in the last week? Should we subcontract or employ more people? What will consumer demand be in the future? They need to be able to assess the value of data and to detect what is and what isn't spin. The focus is on analysing numbers. On their own, figures tell us very little. To become meaningful they need to be processed and analysed and it is the patterns that emerge from this that provide the information that is needed for decision-making. The book is arranged in four...

This book explores the concept of spotting good ideas, linking them to the business context and making them work. In doing so you will be reaching, achieving and even exceeding your goals.

Key objectives are: to use objectives and goals to help you set direction and monitor outcomes for you and your team; review the organisational context for innovation and how to make things happen; understand the characteristics of successful innovators and your role in championing opportunities for innovation

Fuses ideas with applied activities to help managers examine and improve how they work in practice. This series contains books which are provide the basis for self-paced learning at level 4/5.

This book is about the skills of personal effectiveness and professional development. Learners are introduced to a wide range of tools and approaches that will enable them to realise their personal and work performance goals by improving the way in which they manage themselves. It highlights how managing yourself means taking responsibility for various aspects of yourself: how you learn and understand, how aware you are of your actions, feelings and preferences, how you build self discipline through managing your time and stress and how you balance your home and work lives.

More and more managers are looking for customer focus to help fight the pressures of rising costs, global competition and falling sales. But it's not simply a case of trying to get closer to your customers. There are more strategic decisions that if made can make your marketing more lean, more focused and more successful.

Managing Customers and Markets explores what market orientation means and the key things you need to be able to do as a manager to make a difference.

This book explores the managerial roles and responsibilities with regard to safety. Applying key legal requirements to the workplace, it looks at how workplace facilities are managed and how materials and equipment are used, stored and maintained for optimum effectiveness. It not only aids organisations to achieve success, but to maintain it.

Individuals and organisations rely on their ability to select and process information, both to make sense of their local environment and to try to understand the bigger picture. This book approaches information management from two key perspectives:

• The skills of the individuals manager to source, manage and communicate information
• The organisational processes and systems for managing information and knowledge.

Business Environment looks at the major factors that influence an organisation's strategy. It equips learners with a portfolio of tools including PESTLE, portfolio analysis, capability audits, SWOT and stakeholder analysis to analyse the internal and external environment within which their organisation operates and challenges them to develop their understanding of their organisation's strategic direction.

Management Extra brings all the best management thinking together in one package. The series fuses key ideas with applied activities to help managers examine and improve how they work in practice. Management Extra is an exciting, new approach to management development. The books provide the basis for self-paced learning at level 4/5. The flexible learning structure allows busy participants to study at their own convenience, minimising time away from the job. The programme allows trainers to quickly plan and deliver high quality, business-led courses. Trainers can select materials to meet the...

John Kotter of the Harvard Business School is one of a number of experts who believe that organisations are over managed and under led, at least partially because people do not appreciate the differences between management and leadership. We start this book by challenging mental models of leadership and management. Agility has become a prerequisite for organisations in a business environment that is characterised by change. Two trends in particular have been evident. First hierarchical systems of management are yielding to a new leadership movement which has at its core shared vision and...