Editorial

This editorial is written during the football World Cup 2006 where as “sad”process and performance people we have been watching with interest both performance of the teams and the German structure and infrastructure to deal with the running of the event. Without commenting on the first (as this is an international journal!) in terms of the second the running of the event from ticketing, to the matches, availability of areas to watch the game, food (and drink!) and accommodation appear to have been considered and managed by a total“systems” approach allowing a great experience (and performance) from all those involved – but would we expect anything else from the Germans!

Of course often organisations try to raise their bar, offer new functionality, improve their performance … but … . One example is the frustration of having to download a form off the web and then submit it by snail mail. It always seems that someone is trying to keep up with the times and exploit new technology, that same someone has not thought through the entire process … but perhaps the organisation is just at an intermediate stage in developing its web space and presence. Of course if it doesn’t develop fast enough, there will be no future space to inhabit.

Now to this issue. It contains five papers – four academic and one applied. The first academic paper by Tzelepis and Skuras aims to develop new thinking and research regarding the relationship between capital subsidies and long-term corporate strategy. In their analysis they use three new indicators including market leadership and market growth to present empirical evidence of the impact of capital subsidies on corporate growth. They argue in the paper that indeed capital subsidies can be used as instruments of corporate strategy. The second paper by Lewis et al., focuses on Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) considering the criteria and factors that determine the success of Total Quality Management (TQM) and the achievement of ISO9001: 2000. In analysis of the criteria they suggest that there are both “soft”and “hard” factors but interesting whereas TQM advocated the development of softer factors ISO9001: 2000 focuses much more on the hard factors.

The third paper written by Cassab and MacLachlan investigates customer performance measures in the airline industry where customers encounter service at multi points. The paper aims to consider the effect of these multi points or channels has on customer attitudes and loyalty by proposing that “relational variables” are better predicators of loyalty than traditional marketing variables. The final paper by Smith et al., discusses the relationship between executive and board gender and firm performance. In particular it uses models to estimate the relationship between the proportion of woman in top management and firm performance. Of course their findings show that greater the woman in top management jobs the more positive the effect on firm performance!

Talking of performance … as we get older, many of us dread the fall in“performance” that might result from any of the forms of dementia. With advances in memory technologies, why can’t we have a memory card implanted that will store our longer-term memories, and a smaller, faster access card for short-term memory? Now, where are my glasses …

The applied paper reminds us that though we may have high and worthy aspirations (to help save the environment perhaps, unless those who have to achieve are motivated and informed, little is likely to happen). This vis the point of all measurement systems and scorecards – to let us know our current performance and compare it to our own goals, to some standard or to the performance of others.

Performance is aided by innovation. Those who innovate often have a “headstart”on their competitors. Innovation is sometimes the result of a “brainwave”but more often the result of good planning, hared work and significant investment. As Artin Curley, of Intel, suggested recently … “R&D converts money into knowledge; innovation converts knowledge into money”. Seems as though the efficiency of those processes is what drives profitability!

Zoe Radnor, John Heap