Editor’s letter
Did you hear the one about the bungling burglars in Germany who blew up an entire bank but failed to make off with the cash machines? A sad but true tale. Perhaps if these would-be burglars had been more cohesive as a team and shared their expertise (or lack of) better they would have had more success. Not that we’re advocating criminal pursuits this issue, but we do have an underlying theme of teamwork and sharing information to the betterment of the organisation as a whole.





thoughts on staff management
Corporate culturism and the suppression of free will — Has your company set about trying to ‘engage’ its employees? Let’s ask a controversial question: Is it legitimate to manipulate the way people feel in the workplace?
by Robert Terry



The spirit of the thing — Only by good management and keeping the spirit of fun alive in the workplace will teams be able make the most of the opportunities that arise from these perilous economic conditions
by Ben Velzeboer



The candlestick and the hanging man: Risk management through charting
Maxie Islam, in the first of a new series, introduces some imaginative charting techniques and demonstrates the kind of tools the front office uses to aid proprietary trades
by Maxie Islam



pro:con outsourcing
PRO: Outsourcing client reporting — For all those wondering if their client reporting function would be best outsourced, here are the compelling arguments for going with someone who can offer the ‘best of breed’
by Nicky Croker



CON: Outsourcing client reporting — Client reporting is personal, not just business. This sets the tone for the argument that says make sure your service is pure bred and nurtured in-house
by Jetinder Landa



thoughts on data management
The burden of data — How a new ‘factsheet’-style performance report proved its worth far beyond the original performance measurement function and lightened the load of managing data for all departments
by Joe Kavanagh



training
Cross-product attribution — We go through the models for the tricky arena of cross-product attribution. Let’s do the maths...
by Nick Rogers



from there to here: finance history
Imperial crisis — From the Said Business School and Oxford University’s ‘Research in a Nutshell’ series we get a whirlwind tour of the ancient Roman Empire and learn how over the course of 500 years they dealt with their own
financial crises
by Professor Alan Bowman



Delo’s world
Live to tell... First impressions can only be made once... unfortunately.Here we read tales of some truly butt-clenching business moments, climaxing in a humiliating incident with a notorious sex symbol
by Steve Delo