Are You a Good Gardener?
Last Friday I gave a talk at London Business School to help launch their report on Employee Centred Management with HCL (a hugely inspirational Indian IT company).
Henry is founder and Chief Happiness Officer of Happy Ltd, originally set up as Happy Computers in 1987. Inspired by Ricardo Semler’s book Maverick, he has built a company which has won multiple awards for some of the best customer service in the country and being one of the UK’s best places to work.
Henry was listed in the Guru Radar of the Thinkers 50 list of the most influential management thinkers in the world. "He is one of the thinkers who we believe will shape the future of business," explained list compiler Stuart Crainer.
His first book, Relax, was published in 2009. His second book, the Happy Manifesto, was published in 2013 and was short-listed for Business Book of the Year.
You can find Henry on LinkedIn and follow @happyhenry on Twitter.
Last Friday I gave a talk at London Business School to help launch their report on Employee Centred Management with HCL (a hugely inspirational Indian IT company).
I am a huge fan of Pret A Manger, the UK-based sandwich chain. It’s a combination of the enthusiasm and friendliness of their people with the quality of the product and systems focused on delivering a great service.
The suggestion that the 50% tax rate discourages entrepreneurs is nonsense. Very few entrepreneurs are on the 50% tax rate, or even aspire to be.
Develop your people's responsibility: Promote all your people to be in charge of something, and something reasonably important.
At Happy we have always believed that being positive is crucial for creating a happy workplace.
In November 2010 our CEO, Henry Stewart, made the brave step of performing a stand-up comedy act at London’s famous venue, The Comedy Store.
Two weeks ago I posted a blog on the research into the performance of companies in the US Great Workplaces list from 1998-2000. This showed that the stock market value of the companies these lists increased at a considerably greater rate than the average stock market company. That research was done by the widely respected business magazine Fortune. But, I have been asked, is there an academic peer-reviewed study that shows the same. And the answer is Yes.
While a profit driven workplace might not be a happy workplace, a happy workplace can most definitely be a profitable one.
I’ve been reading the excellent What would Google Do by Jeff Jarvis. Among many great ideas on how to be more responsive is the story of how Mark Zuckerberg passed his art history exam at Harvard.
It is never enough to explain what the customer needs - get your staff to walk in your customer's shoes and experience their life.