A positive contact centre culture is the core to providing great customer service. But what is culture and why is it so important that we understand it and work to improve it in contact centres?

To many, ‘culture’ is a fluffy term, commonly used but rarely understood. What we should all know about culture in relation to contact centres is that it is often the cause of long-standing issues that have had a negative impact on the company’s reputation for customer service and consequently, its bottom line.

Lean management is often perceived as something just for large organisations. Glyn Finney, product leader at global management consultancy firm Simpler Consulting, outlines the opportunity for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to reduce costs, increase efficiency and improve customer service using lean.

Top-down strategy is dead. Modern strategy is middle-up—involving cross-functional teams and interactive workshops. Paul Christodoulou, a strategy leader with 22 years’ experience in blue-chip companies and a Sainsbury Management Fellow, discusses this new approach to strategy development that can tap the hidden strategic ideas within your senior team to constantly refresh your competitive advantage (whilst saving a fortune in consultancy fees).

Sandalwood is possibly the most valuable wood on the planet; and in Australia the first commercial and sustainable harvesting programme ever devised is just a couple of years away, as Alan Swaby discovers.

Life is not easy in the construction industry, even in South Africa; but Protech Khuthele’s history is an object lesson in how to entrench and expand a niche capability.

It’s taken Spark ATM Systems under five years to deploy a nationwide network of ATMs across South Africa, using cutting-edge technology and based on a strong ethos of customer service. Managing director Marc Sternberg talks to Gay Sutton about the innovations behind this success and the plan to capture 50 per cent of the market in the next two years.

US sportswear and equipment supplier NIKE has reported revenues of $20.9 billion for the fiscal year ending 31 May 2011, a ten percent rise over the previous year.

Diluted earnings per share for both the quarter and full year hit record highs.

“In fiscal year 2011, we delivered exceptional results in extraordinary times,” said Mark Parker, president and CEO.

Chinese regulators have approved Diageo’s acquisition of an additional four per cent stake in Sichuan Chengdu Quanxing Group, a Chinese white spirits company.

The deal is worth £13 million, Diageo said.

Once completed, the four per cent transfer will bring Diageo’s holding in Quanxing to 53 per cent.

Diageo has agreed to facilitate financing for Quanxing of up to approximately £193 million for the development of its main business.

Jeff Daniels looks at an emergency service that knows no bounds to its possibilities.

Like many an African country, Botswana has a few large-ish urban centres where a sizeable but minority proportion of the population live, and then lots of wide open spaces where the remainder of the two million inhabitants are to be found (if you look hard enough—Botswana still has around 10,000 Bushmen living a nomadic life, much as they have for centuries).