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Mergers and acquisitions are a favoured alternative to organic growth for many companies. A colossal £27.67 billion was spent on this expansion stratagem in the UK in 1990 alone.

While many professional organizations use post‐project reviews, internal audits and/or oral post‐mortems to learn from their own experiences, the problem with all these techniques is that the data and circumstances in which decisions are made are always collected and referred to retrospectively, which makes them susceptible to the characteristic partial and selective memory recall by managers who, after the event, are rarely neutral or objective. Explains how companies can overcome the uncertain nature of memory recall and the defensive reasoning process ‐ and help their managers to use the benefits of hindsight more effectively.

When a medium‐sized UK finance house started to feel the pinch of competition, it decided to spend some money on a computer. It wanted to cut its administration costs as well as respond more quickly to customer enquiries for hire purchase and other types of consumer loans.

Evaluates a cost‐effective solution to overcoming the problem of low productivity owing to the high level of job change in the UK. Concludes that employees, when hired, need to blend their skills with the company′s distinctive way of working. This can be done by way of the oral interview method examined, which can lead to the employee settling in more quickly.

Two things happen every time an employee retires, is made redundant or leaves to join another company. The experience acquired at the company’s considerable expense literally walks out of the door and the company has to replace the individual, often from outside. For organizations, job change, which has always been continuous, has been accelerating over the past decade as individuals switch their employer every six years. Even though most professionally managed companies run induction courses, most new managers will readily admit that the components that most inhibit their early passage to full productivity relate to understanding and accommodating their new employer’s individual corporate culture, management and communication styles, and the detail of recent events. Because of the difficulties of imparting such information, companies generally leave individuals to assimilate these intangibles as best they can, usually by osmosis. The evidence suggests that it can take 12 months ‐ and often much longer ‐ to become fully productive. Lack of continuity has an insidious effect on productivity and competitiveness. Outlines a cost‐effective solution to high job mobility.

Argues that while many professional companies use post‐project reviews, internal audits or oral post mortems to learn from their own experiences, the problem with all these techniques is that the data and circumstances in which decisions are made are always collected and referred to retrospectively, which makes them susceptible to the characteristic partial and selective memory recall by managers who, after the event, are rarely neutral or objective. Explains how companies can overcome the uncertain nature of accurate memory recall and the defensive reasoning process ‐ and help their managers to use the benefits of hindsight more effectively.

If business success were the elixir of life, there have been, and will always be, many who claim to have its formula. Each attempts to sell a new generation this complex, ever‐changing solution, and does so with concepts and ideas which are, perhaps, inordinately simplistic in relation to the problem, but which nevertheless can be comprehended. Considers the selling of solutions via abducted concepts and ideas as entrepreneurship. It is a skill to be valued, but it is not without its problems for the business practitioner, as its outcome in terms of downsizing is subsequently proving.

Reflects on the development of the concept of a learning organisation as a tool for business success. Argues that, unlike many management ideas, organisational learning is not a “fad” but is increasingly accepted as a vital strategy for organisational survival and development in a continually changing environment. The learning organisation is seen as an aspiration for a continuous process with the potential to energise people for very long periods of time, rather than providing a quick‐fix solution. Whilst creating sustainable knowledge which can be valued as an asset on the balance sheet it also makes organisations more productive, profitable and more humane places to work.