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Discusses case examples from organizations which reveal a customer focus. Examples cover retail, airlines, manufacturing and service firms. Places service and quality of service firmly in the forefront of competitive advantage. Considers factors such as the importance of existing customers; the need for a clear view of the customers on whom the company wishes to focus; and methods for building customer relationships.

WHO could object to the concept of Buying British wherever possible? The very suggestion to the contrary seems not only unpatriotic, but damaging to hard pressed British companies complaining that their natural market is rapidly being usurped by foreign competitors.

A Japanese idea for improving product quality in industry is starting to catch on in the UK. Other benefits from the scheme include savings in production costs, more job satisfaction — and a potential boost in status for Britain's maligned factory foremen.

CIVIL SERVANTS may squirm and local authority staff protest, but excessive spending and overmanning in the public sector is the bete‐noire of Britain's economic recession, and consensus on this point is rapidly evolving throughout industry. It is certainly a view which we share as the voice of the wealth‐producing sector of the economy.

Britain's largest and most comprehensive exhibition of office equipment and services, the International Business Show, throws wide its doors at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham on October 18th. The Rt Hon David Steel MP is to open the show and the organisers, BETA Exhibitions Ltd, have arranged with the Institute of Directors to stage a one‐day conference on “Computer Aided Business; how to beat the competition and win new customers”. A multitude of offerings will be on display covering everything from stationery, filing systems and furniture to audio visual aids, microfilm, computers, inter‐communication and security systems. Everything, in fact, that the modern business could conceivably require.

Technology is making it easier to communicate over long and previously impossible distances. The effect of this on marketing and sales is likely to be tremendous in the not‐too‐distant future according to the Institute of Sales & Marketing Management (ISMM) in Leamington Spa which reports that, already, the beginnings of the computerised sales force are in evidence.

This paper comments on the findings of a new survey into the status of internal communication within British companies and organisations. It suggests that while many companies have opened the door to internal communication as a distinct business discipline — even given it a desk and a chair — most have yet to grant its practitioners a seat at the boardroom table. The authors put forward reasons for this, and identify some of the issues that internal communication managers should address to continue to improve their status.

Assess property as a unique component in the success of business and organizations. Advocates the provision of effective property management. There must be contractual arrangements surrounding the property, including its tenure (locational flexibility), flexibility with respect to the building (absorption of change), and the flexibility and change which is borne from the bedrock of total control.

A significant anniversary occurred on March 10, 1981! It was 25 years to the day (March 10, 1956) that Britain regained the World Absolute Speed record when Peter Twiss, piloting a Fairey Delta 2 (WG774), attained an average speed of 1,132 mph, pushing the record up by over 300 mph. This four‐figure record was held for 18 months.

Considerable ignorance exists as to what directors actually do. Increasingly the legitimacy of the board is being challenged. Much controversy surrounds the question of to whom the board should be responsible. The role of directors and the inevitability of stakeholder conflict are reviewed. The merits of different board structures are considered from the international perspective. Major conceptual alternatives are proposed. It is concluded that however mechanistically efficient structure may be, its success will be inhibited by the strategic skills of its constituents.