Closer inspection revealed that the model was of William Shakespeare wearing a hard hat and that the Bankside site

Closer inspection revealed that the model was of William Shakespeare wearing a hard hat, and that the Bankside site - supposedly actor-producer Sam Wanamaker's vision of a rebuilt Globe - was little more than a hole in the ground. WHEN Robert Erith first became aware of the Globe Theatre project, the prognosis did not look good. The subjects of all those studies really will be living by the notion that - as Towers Perrin puts it - "only through effective development and deployment of people will companies create a virtuous circle ... in which delivering more value to customers funds growth, enables cost reductions and leads to greater profitability".But if they do not, all those chief executives and their sound words about having faith in their people will resemble nothing so much as Gordon Brown and his words on ending "boom and bust".. First, innovation is still something with which British companies, in particular, have difficulty. Second, one of the factors behind the worsening economic outlook is the exposure of companies from Britain and other industrialised nations to emerging economies.Moreover, organisations are often good at talking about cutting costs, but less effective at doping it. As a straggler, it was always going to find things hard when competitive pressures bit.But a good many organisations these days are as lean and mean as they can get without hiving off whole operations.And there are encouraging signs that the knee-jerk down-sizings of the past will not be repeated.

Sacking full-time employees and taking on contractors, often at higher rates, is just one example.Finally, customer service is hardly a strength in Britain or any European country.But the real issue is that we are only at the top of the downward slope. If in the months ahead companies resist the urge to cut still further into the bones, the gurus will have something to shout about. For example, a survey published last week by the management consultancy Towers Perrin indicates that European companies "are looking to innovate and grow at the same time as reducing costs and improving customer service" - rather than down-sizing.That all sounds grand, but it does give rise to certain concerns. Rover, meanwhile, has - in spite of dramatic improvements in working practices - struggled for years. In recent days, for example, hundreds of City workers have lost their jobs and the spectre of factory closure is looming over the Rover workforce But will others follow suit?Not necessarily The City has always been a special case. Increasingly, the banks operating in this world find themselves walking a tightrope between huge gains and equally substantial losses, and the US hire-and- fire approach has readily taken route there. This - though mainly noticed for its comments on stakeholding - is actually largely about recognising the importance of people to corporate performance. Of course, when the going is good, it is easy to say that cutting jobs is not just bad for communities but bad for business.

History indicates that companies are less inclined to take such an approach when conditions become tougher.So now that increasing numbers of commentators are convinced we are facing some kind of recession in the months ahead, what are the chances of the prosper-through-growth approach winning out over the cut-and-cut-again attitudes of the past?On the face of it, the omens do not look good. ALMOST since the last recession, the pundits have been agreed that the route to sustained success lies through innovation and growth rather than through a concentration on cutting costs. The idea has even caught on with some company executives, hence all the kind words about such initiatives as the RSA's "Tomorrow's Company" project. "When companies adopt new technologies and subsequently adapt their business processes to fit, it is vital that board members responsible for IT recognise their responsibility to develop a corresponding approach to IT governance.". Care must also be taken to design and manage the mechanisms that hold this type of alliance together.Mr Nixon says that technology's use as a driver of business change will lead to opportunities and innovative organisational forms But it also means new responsibilities. For example, the introduction of ticketing kiosks by airlines brings together several processes and partners, such as ticket sales, flight reservation, seat allocation and credit card authorisation. In some cases, IT and the product are inseparable, as with on-line banking.Nevertheless, few organisations have learned how to integrate the formulation of business and IT strategy successfully.

For this to work, integrated management is vital."As business change becomes increasingly led by IT, it is essential that disparate technology suppliers are drawn together in as seamless a way as possible, in order to ensure the end product is customer-friendly," says Mr Nixon.It is essential that the customer is presented with a simple way of dealing with the supplier, no matter how complex the operation. In the past, strategy was seen as driving everything else, with IT following. As he points out in the latest edition of the firm's journal, Consulting Matters, this reverses the previous practice and blurs the distinction between IT and business strategy. However, these are no longer distinct entities, but two sides of the same coin. "As technology providers move towards forming alliances with organisations across sectors, an increasing number of products are being developed and implemented as joint ventures." As a result, he says, technology is becoming a more important driver behind organisational development.

TECHNOLOGY is fast becoming the main driver behind business strategy, says KPMG Management Consulting. Graham Nixon, a partner specialising in IT strategy, claims that many organisations are adopting new technologies and then altering businesses' processes and structures accordingly. The idea behind the workshop is to demonstrate - through four of the programme's projects - what sorts of tools and techniques other organisations are finding useful.For example, academics from the Manchester School of Management have developed a "knowledge-management audit tool" through looking at the practices of such companies as Hewlett-Packard, ICI and Ove Arup.The idea is that the tool enables other organisations to carry out a "health check" on how knowledge is shared and disseminated within their research and development departments, and then benchmark it against some recognised leaders.A team from the University of East Anglia will be describing a just-finished analysis of the use in the UK of "hoshin kanri" - a Japanese concept that follows on from Total Quality Management in aiding the integration of strategic objectives and day-to-day operations.This is always a challenge for organisations and the tool is seen as a method of aligning people to a common cause and instilling an organisational adaptability so that managers always know how they are faring with regard to executives' objectives as well as what is happening in their markets.In many ways, this project encapsulates the message that the Innovation Programme - currently halfway through its five-year life - is seeking to get across.Dr Steele says: "There's a balance between fire-fighting and trying to take a lateral view and step back from the day to day to ask, where do we want to go and what are our competitors doing?". Nevertheless, there are things organisations can do to gain confidence. The Design Council and the Economic and Social Research Council's Innovation Programme are holding a one-day workshop on managing innovation.Fiona Steele, the programme's director, says there is a tendency in business "not to take a holistic view".