First Metre

We present below selected News items and Comments that relate to the various aspects of the First Metre approach to management. If you have an item that you would like to contribute to this section of the First Metre website please contact us by e-mail.

'FIRST METRE' NEWS, NOTES & COMMENTS

Briefing Papers for 2009 FORUM Exchange (27 May 2009)

The following papers have been prepared by the speakers invited to lead an exchange of ideas at a private FORUM to be held in London on May 27...

First Metre contempt by sofa-bound mandarins (October 2007)

The NHS National Programme for IT is claimed to be the largest non-military ICT project in the world. In a recent BBC Radio 4 interview (Oct...

Partition clear example of First Metre failure (August 2007)

The partition of India and Pakistan sixty years ago this month was, despite appearance at the highest level, a tragic disaster for hundreds of th...

Yet another HMG IT-led First Metre failure (August 2007)

The Ministry of Justice has implemented a review of the National Offender Management Service IT project to track criminal offenders across the UK. ...

Economic-Quality, Computers & People (June 2007)

For a quarter of a century the above three aspects of business have enjoyed a muddled, costly and inefficient co-existence. The distinctive wealth cre...

First Metre failure in NHS Doctor Selection Process (16 May 2007)

A hearing opens today into the chaotic failure of the computer-based Medical Training Application System (MTAS) that was designed by the Department...

The Puritan Gift - A Review (11 May 2007)

The future reform of western management will in no small part be dependent upon how carefully business leaders and academics study this remarkable ...

More IT problems for HM Government (3 May 2007)

Register Offices across the UK have been totally failed by the latest instance of a government sponsored IT project designed to reduce costs and incre...

Toyota is now the car company in front (15 April 2007)

At the end of the first quarter of 2007 Toyota overtook General Motors to become the world's number one car maker by sales. During the period it...

Stern Review offers ultimate 'First Metre' challenge (30 Oct 2006)

After hundreds of years of seeing himself standing aloft from the consequences of the Laws of Nature industrial man is at last coming to realise that ...

IT Observers Discovering Importance of First Metre Working (19 Oct 2006)

IT industry observers are beginning to think the unthinkable – that the whole approach to ICT may just be out of kilter. CRM and ERP have had...

NHS would be better off without IT upgrade (20 August 2006)

The Observer newspaper today carries a report that it has seen a leaked document written and sent from the computer of David Kwo (who last year resign...

The PC @ 25 (12 August 2006)

A quarter of a century ago, on 12 August, 1981, IBM launched its ground-breaking personal computer, the IBM 5150, the first in what it called its PC r...

Audit Office report ducks vital issues related to NHS IT Programme (27 June 2006)

Tony Collins of Computer Weekly who has specialised in tracking the progress of major public sector IT projects reports that The National Audit Off...

Home Office bureaucracy condemned by its newest leader (24 May 2006)

Rarely is an organisation characterised in its publicly perceived ‘true’ light by its leading officer. Only public accountability can a...

Toyota's First Metre advantage as GM faces Last Mile to Chapter 11 (21 May 2006)

On May 10 Toyota announced record results for the past year just as GM was announcing further layoffs and plant closures. The Toyota/GM compar...

Home Office Chaos Highlights First Metre Failings of Bureaucracy (01 May 2006)

Events at the Home Office during April and May, relating to the failure of the authorities to deport over 1,000 foreign prisoners following the com...

Low End-User Take-Up of ERP Services (13 March 2006)

Users are only running 50% of the functionality implemented in their ERP system, and are paying for functions they never use, according to the ...

Foreign Office IT Consolidation Project Failing (08 March 2006)

A Foreign and Commonwealth Office project to roll out an enterprise resource planning system to 13,000 staff in the UK and more than 250 locations ...

Home Office Fails Audit due to First Metre failures (02 Feb 2006)

The National Audit Office has reported to Parliament that the Home Office had not maintained proper financial books and records for the financial y...

Windows Workflow Approach Rated by Ambrose Little (01 Feb 2006)

Over the past months Management-NewStyle has been evaluating approaches to workflow that lend themselves to its FlowMap software ...

'M&A Gravy Train still Rolling' (25 Jan 2006)

Purchasers get the ‘morning after’ feeling as competitive M&A market puts pressure on them to deliver benefits after the deal is done....

'Productivity is Dependent upon Recognition' (16 Jan 2006)

Alexandra Frean reports in The Times that British companies are losing millions of pounds a year in productivity because their staff do not feel value...

Is the Human Brain a Bayesian Machine? (07 Jan 2006)

'The Economist' (p. 73; 7 Jan) reports that two US researchers, Thomas Griffiths of Brown University (RI) and Joshua Tenenbaum of MIT, have been st...

MNS to Partner with Cavendish Software (01 Jan 2006)

Management-NewStyle is pleased to announce that following three months of exploratory development work it has selected Cavendish Software of ...

Another Expensive 'First Metre' Failure in UK Government IT (30 Dec 2005)

Following the Bichard Enquiry into the Soham murders of August 2002 a £167 million computer system was ordered under Project Impact as a matter ...

Computer Upgrades Fail 'First Metre' Test at Tokyo Stock Exchange (13 Dec 2005)

For 56 years the Tokyo Stock Exchange has traded without fail. In preparation for its planned market floatation its computer system was upgraded ea...

UK Public Service Inefficiencies Rise with Spending (Dec 2005)

Reform, a leading independent UK think-tank has recently reported that Public spending increases since 1999-00 have reduced productivity and ...

US Auto Giants Weaken Further (7 Dec 2005)

The Detroit News reports today that Ford is about to announce a restructuring plan that will lead to closure of some 10 plants and up to 30,...

Microsoft Follows 'First Metre' Approach for its SQL 2005 Server Development (28 Nov 2005)

Microsoft’s Windows SQL Server 2005 and the associated Visual Studio 2005 development tools were formally unveiled on 7 November 2005 in San Fra...

IT Giant EDS - Poacher Turned Gamekeeper? (25 Nov 2005)

EDS has agreed to pay HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) over £70m in compensation for its tax credits system’s failures from 2003. The syste...

Will GM Beat Ford to Chapter 11? (19 Nov 2005)

For more than a year there has been specultation about which of the two great engines of American prosperity, Ford or GM, will file first for pro...

Supermarket Reclaims its Central Nervous System! (15 Nov 2005)

Supermarket retailer J Sainsbury decided last month (October 2005) to end its £1.8bn IT outsourcing contract with Accenture raisi...

UK Government Announces New 5-yr IT Plan (15 Nov 2005)

The government has announced that its IT strategy for the next five years will aim to achieve closer integration between IT systems and its 'shar...

NHS Computer System Fiasco Developing? (15 Nov 2005)

The Sunday Times of 13 November 2005 reports that leaked Whitehall e-mails indicate the £20M NHS 'Choose and Book' computer project, that is cen...

If It Isn't On The Web It Doesn't Exist

In the late 1990s at CERN Tim Berners-Lee was encouraging ever greater adoption of his pioneering concept to what he was calling the 'world wide web'....

Peter Drucker Dies Aged 95 (11 Nov 2005)

Peter Drucker died, aged 95, on 11 November, 2005 following a highly successful life as one of the most widely respected observers of management throu...

FlowMap Announces a New Development Project (12 Oct 2005)

FlowMap software developers have successfully completed preliminary testing of a business logic prototyping application that is intended t...

Remuneration 'In Excelsis' or Executive Excess? (3 Oct 2005)

2004 was a banner year for CEOs and a dismal year for workers, according to a report released today jointly from the Institute for Policy Studies...

The Founding Fathers of 'The New Prometheans'

To view any individual photograph below in more detail from the SVG composite image select the subject, click your righ...