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When Albemarle Corporation was created as a $2.2 billion spin off of Ethyl Corporation's specialty chemical businesses in 1994, president and COO Gary Cook found himself at the helm of a company that lacked viable strategies for growth. Its production processes were driven by tradition, not the marketplace. Manufacturing and R&D barely communicated, and no one spoke to marketing. Worst of all, no one paid attention to the customer. Clearly radical change was in order, and the order of the day in 1994 was reengineering. Learning as he went, Cook discovered what he called the “seven really obvious” truths about the much maligned, often mismanaged, and sometimes successful practice of reengineering.

Examines why many local authorities have become involved in industrial property initiatives since the mid‐1970s and the range of initiatives offered, and how these are finance – DoE urban programme, various grants and EC assistance. Concludes that property‐based initiatives are likely to endure since they retain industrial production in inner cities, although the increasingly market‐oriented approach of local authorities makes the impact of such initiatives hard to control.

This article describes the evaluation of the ACE club, a service for younger people with dementia in North Wales. The evaluation was conducted by the ACE club members and conducted through a relationship‐centred approach expressed through the Senses Framework (achievement, belonging, continuity, purpose, security, significance) (Nolan et al, 2006). Members of the ACE club found the sense of significance to be the most important and meaningful ‘sense’ in helping to structure their evaluation and use of the ACE club. The clinical interventions outline is shared within the text to help provide a grounded and inductively generated practice structure. The funding of ‘normalising’ activities for younger people with dementia is an area of dementia care that needs urgent attention.

This paper focuses on the British company voluntary arrangement (CVA) which is a relatively new debtor rehabilitation process particularly intended to help financially troubled small firms resolve their difficulties. Based on a survey that is the largest and most comprehensive on the subject of British CVAs, this paper has three principal objectives: (i) to outline the characteristics of CVAs; (ii) to examine the relationships between CVA success and context; and (iii) to provide managerial and policy recommendations based on these findings. Among other things, the study finds that the overwhelming majority of CVAs are employed by small firms and that they can be particularly successful as a means of recovery when the economic fundamentals of the business are sound, regardless of the line of activity of the firm. Higher levels of success might be achieved, however, if the fixed costs of CVAs were subsidised in the case of very small firms and if more time were allowed during the process.

Outlines UK law and practice relating to the responsibilities of directors of insolvent companies with particular reference to small firms: and explains the changes introduced by the 1985 and 1986 Insolvency Acts and the Company Directors Disqualification Act 1986. Considers the practical effects of the new law, referring to relevant cases; and stresses the psychological barriers which directors erect against facing the risk of failure and taking action to avoid it. Notes that the Insolvency Act 2000 allows directors to be disqualified without the need for costly court proceedings and makes practical suggestions on how they can protect themselves. Describes four stages of organizational crisis from denial to collapse, pointing out how managerial decision making becomes impaired in this situation and referring to relevant research. Calls for further research to “inform future legislation”.

The aim of this study was to develop a multi‐professionally agreed list of adverse events, which may act as a prompt for clinical incident reporting in trauma and orthopaedics and to determine what healthcare professionals understand by the term adverse event. A modified Delphi process with healthcare professionals working in trauma and orthopaedics (242) in three NHS trusts was performed. The process involved initial brainstorming sessions, a two‐round Likert‐style postal questionnaire and final focus group discussion. The initial brainstorming sessions generated a list of 224 adverse events to be included in the first round of the postal questionnaire. They included 83 causes of adverse events, 36 health and safety related adverse events and 105 clinical adverse events. Following the second round questionnaire and focus group discussion, a final list of 20 adverse events was produced. There were variations between professional groups in terms of validity scoring of individual adverse events. Overall, medical staff gave a lower rating to the adverse events than the other two professional groups. There were also variations between professional groups in terms of response rates. The modified Delphi process proved to be a successful tool for generating a multi‐professionally agreed list of adverse events and for understanding what healthcare professionals understand by the term adverse event.

The first phase of this study developed a multi‐professionally agreed list of adverse events for clinical incident reporting in Trauma and Orthopaedics. This follow‐up study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of the adverse event list.

Two follow‐up questionnaires were sent to healthcare professionals working in Trauma and Orthopaedics in two of the participating National Health Service (NHS) Trusts (n=247 for the first questionnaire and n=240 for the second questionnaire). Trends in routine incident reporting data were also monitored over a two‐year period to determine the impact of the adverse event list on levels of adverse event reporting.

The questionnaires indicated that awareness about the adverse event list was good and improved between questionnaires. However usage of the adverse event list appeared to be poor. Multiple regression analysis with the dependent variable count of orthopaedic incidents suggested that the adverse event list had little, if any impact on levels of reporting in Trauma and Orthopaedics.

The results of this study suggest that a practical tool, such as the adverse event list has little impact on incident reporting levels.

Looks fundamentally at the reasons for vertical integration. Specifically addresses the question of why vertical integration and close contractual equivalents have arisen in the petrol and brewing sectors of the UK. Reports the results of a comparative case study. Considers the ability of power and efficiency explanations to account for both the current pattern of vertical integration and its changes over time. Principally concludes the following: the recent history of vertical integration is better accounted for by efficiency rationales in the case of petrol and by market power in the case of brewing. Nevertheless, elements of both are present in each industry. Given the strong similarity in vertical and horizontal industry structure between these sectors, this implies that a case by case approach is preferable to a form‐based approach.

States that the mid‐Kent area of Kent Social Services has been engaged in a programme of organization development for the last three years. The objective of this initiative has been to provide high quality services to the vulnerable people who need them. There was early recognition that the organization needed to be more responsive to those who used its services, but also to its staff. Explains how agreement was reached on the content of a learning organization policy. Sets out how, by asking two key questions of staff and listening and responding to their replies, it was possible to introduce a programme of personal development and performance management, along with an assessment programme which is helping to develop the behaviour of managers and supervisors. Gives practical examples of the opportunities created by staff to share their learning, demonstrate initiative, effect change and enjoy recognition for their efforts.