Summary
Why is UK productivity lower than in many other countries?
Evan Davis begins a new series of The Bottom Line by looking at the productivity problem. The programme asks what productivity really means and how different sectors go about measuring it.
Evan hears from three chief executives in three different sectors: manufacturing; advertising and health. How can productivity be measured and improved in these diverse sectors? How, for example, should the productivity of a doctor or nurse be measured?
Guests: Dame Julie Moore, Chief Executive of University Hospitals Birmingham Brian Holliday Managing Director, Managing Director for Siemens Digital Factory UK James Murphy, Founder and Chief Executive of Adam and Eve DDB Advertising
Producer: Jim Frank.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, I'm Evan Davis and thank you for downloading this program. |
| 0:03.6 | In this edition of the bottom line, I'm looking at productivity, |
| 0:07.5 | how it's measured, how it can be improved. |
| 0:10.9 | If you ask an economist to come up with a single word, |
| 0:14.3 | just one word that they think is the most important |
| 0:18.1 | when it comes to success or failure in an economy, |
| 0:25.3 | my guess is that many of them would come up with the word productivity. |
| 0:32.2 | It's a measure of how much we produce for the work that we do, what we get out relative to what we put in. |
| 0:38.0 | The best guide to it is the value of an hour's labour. In poor countries, it's low, in rich countries it's high. And getting productivity up is really the only way to sustain higher living |
| 0:43.0 | standards, higher pay and all things nice. There's no shortcut. You have to have productive |
| 0:48.0 | staff in productive jobs managed efficiently. Now, as it happens, Britain scores well on lots of economic measures, |
| 0:55.8 | but not on this one. On average, in an hour, a French worker produces about 30% more than a British |
| 1:03.6 | one. The Brits work more hours. They have more people at work, so we're not poor, |
| 1:09.1 | but wouldn't it be nice if we could be as productive as the French and then take Friday off each week, for example? |
| 1:13.6 | It's a puzzle as to our performance, why our performance has been quite as dismal as it has. |
| 1:19.6 | So today we're giving productivity some well-deserved attention. How do you improve it? |
| 1:25.6 | Well, with me to ponder the productivity puzzle are three people from three really very different sectors, so let's meet them. |
| 1:31.6 | And my first guest is Brian Holliday. |
| 1:33.6 | He's the managing director of Siemens Digital Factory. |
| 1:37.5 | Brian, you're in manufacturing. |
| 1:39.4 | I mean, just explain what Siemens Digital Factory is first. |
| 1:42.2 | It's an industrial and manufacturing technology |
... |
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