ICIS Blogs

Micro-management gone too far?

"Nobody can see until the end of the month - never mind into the third quarter," commented an olefins trader recently. "The reason is that very senior managers are too busy micro-managing everything, from getting involved in trying to track...

Published 8 May 2009 7:26 by Asian Chemical Connections

Filed under: US, Economics, China, Indonesia, Europe, India, Japan, Middle East, Business, Markets, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, Singapore, APIC, Managing people, Knowledge management, Company Strategy, South Korea, financial meltdown, CEOs, Taiwan, micro-management, commodity chemicals, credit control, human resources

It really is a Mad World

As the potential swine flu pandemi threatens more lives - and even more damage to the global economy - it's time to watch American Idol re-runs. It would be great if we could all collectively retire to some paradise island where Manchester Utd and...

Published 30 Apr 2009 2:47 by Asian Chemical Connections

Filed under: US, Economics, Managing people, Company Strategy, Chelsea, Manchester Utd, swine flu, American Idol, iTunes, Affluenza, Adam Lambert, Oliver James

It's tough at the top.......

It's easy to take pot shots at the boss, and everyone of course feels they have been underpromoted and could do the job better themselves. Andrew Liveris is just the latest in a long line of CEOs to experience both envy - and at the moment perhaps...

Published 5 Feb 2009 13:40 by Asian Chemical Connections

Filed under: US, Environment, Andrew Liveris, Dow Chemical, Middle East, Olefins, Polyolefins, Business, Kuwait, Wall Street Journal, Rohm & Haas, global warming, Managing people, Company Strategy, Manchester Utd, bitter Leeds fan

How hopeless is your company?

I was working with a chemicals consultant last month in India who gave me this priceless description of the true nature of a company: "A company is a collection self-interested individuals who just occasionally -- and purely randomly - carry out...

Published 18 Dec 2008 0:36 by Asian Chemical Connections

Filed under: India, Business, Markets, Managing people, Company Strategy, financial meltdown, Leeds Utd, The blame game, Lucy Kellaway, Eric Cantona, the end of life as we know it

In search of corporate paradise

As business slows down everywhere and we have more time to brood, frustrations will build at imagined or real inefficiencies - and at the sometimes remote people at the top who hold our lives in their hands. The grass will increasingly seem greener in...

Published 12 Dec 2008 4:51 by Asian Chemical Connections

Filed under: Economics, Business, Australia, Managing people, Company Strategy, financial meltdown, the Australian Financial Review, the perfect boss, Virgin Blue, Brett Godfrey, airline industry, slow email replies

Inspired leaders needed - apply here

We need great leaders in the current crisis. Below is the kind of speech I'd like to hear from my CEO - delivered in person - if I worked for a chemicals company. Everything that now follows is fiction and any resemblance to an industry leader, either...

Published 21 Nov 2008 10:56 by Asian Chemical Connections

Filed under: US, Business, Markets, Managing people, Company Strategy, financial meltdown, Great leaders, global recession, free alcohol, managing inventories

Is your company truly globalised?

Globalisation is an attitude of mind as what might now be a slightly descredited economic doctrine. Many companies are international but few - from talking to friends and contacts - are truly global in the sense that they recruit senior managers from...

Published 10 Oct 2008 9:41 by Asian Chemical Connections

Filed under: Economics, China, Business, The Economist, Managing people, Knowledge management, Company Strategy, globalisation, financial meltdown, thinking and acting global, Lenovo, end of the world is nigh

The big challenges

As delegates gather for this year's European Petrochemical Association meeting in the unreal world of Monaco (unrealf or 99.9 per cent recurring of us), I thought it was worth summarising some of the issues discussed on this blog over the last few...

Published 27 Sep 2008 8:55 by Asian Chemical Connections

Filed under: US, Economics, China, biomass, Environment, technology, Europe, BASF, Polyolefins, Business, Oil & Gas, Naphtha & other feedstocks, EPCA, sustainability, natural gas, Managing people, Company Strategy, Peak Oil, David Strahan, oil price, National University of Singapore

Can I have those coconuts, please?

This article, by David Strahan, author of The Last Oil Shock, says that it would take three million coconuts to power one flight from London to Amsterdam on 100% biofuels. Some of the comments posted at the end of this excellent article, first published...

Published 27 Aug 2008 9:12 by Asian Chemical Connections

Filed under: US, Economics, China, Environment, Andrew Liveris, Dow Chemical, Business, Oil & Gas, Naphtha & other feedstocks, sustainability, Google, YouTube, Managing people, New Scientist, David Strahan, The Last Oil Shock, Joseph Kennedy

Want a place on the Board?

For us lesser mortals further down the slippery career pole, it is easy to stare up with envy and contempt at the CEOs of our own companies and other companies. Many us at times feel (myself included) that we could do a great deal better than our bosses...

Published 13 Aug 2008 10:35 by Asian Chemical Connections

Filed under: technology, Business, Pfizer, Managing people, Knowledge management, Company Strategy, Victor Newman, CEO board game, Innnovation, Knowledge Activist, The loneliness of the long distance CEO, the slippery career pole

Slaves to market frenzy

A consultant once told me a wonderful story - so wonderful I don't even care whether it's true or not - about how the monthly European benzene price in the 1950s was calculated based on the US price once the latest issue of Chemical Market Reporter...

Published 12 Aug 2008 13:01 by Asian Chemical Connections

Filed under: Economics, oil prices, Business, Markets, Google, Managing people, Knowledge management, Company Strategy, James Burke, Connections, attention span, financial speculation, Atlantic.com

Japan' corporate hero

Back in the 1980s, before Japan's "Lost Decade" of stagnant growth, management gurus lined up to praise the country's collective spirit as the basis of a sustainable economic miracle. Since then, of course, the West has been consistently...

Published 12 Aug 2008 0:12 by Asian Chemical Connections

Filed under: Economics, Japan, Middle East, Olefins, Polyolefins, Projects, Business, Managing people, Knowledge management, Company Strategy, losing face, manga, Lost Decade, Japanese conformism

Missing the point

Great that my entry yesterday Work can be the death of you produced a response. But I think the commentator missed the point. Working long hours is not an issue for staff who are properly managed and motivated. The "presenteeism" of some work...

Published 30 Jul 2008 15:34 by Asian Chemical Connections

Filed under: Economics, Business, Managing people, Company Strategy, hirearchies, work/life balance

Work can be the death of you

My dear old mother used to often say "what's the world coming to?" as if life was constantly getting worse. But for South Korean workers - and for workers everywhere in Asia - expectations of employers have long been unreasonable. Tied into...

Published 29 Jul 2008 10:15 by Asian Chemical Connections

Filed under: Managing people, Company Strategy, South Korea, work/life balance, Asian working culture

Does your boss listen to you?

Perfect subject if you've got the post-weekend blues.... A very irate and tired and emotional chemicals trader was moaning last week about the imposition of a new knowledge-management system by his company. "Our bosses never listen to us and...

Published 28 Jul 2008 8:48 by Asian Chemical Connections

Filed under: Business, Managing people, Knowledge management, does your boss listen to you?, Them and US, Company Strategy, hirearchies

Browse by Tags

Syndication

Recent Posts

Tags

Archives