Madonna is no dummy

Manchester United, Lego, EasyJet and pop queen Madonna have been named as the four best-planned business organisations in the UK. A new book, Business Plans for Dummies, by Colin Barrow from the Cranfield School of Management, says the 40-something “Material Girl” is a model to other businesses.

Mr Barrow says the way she has expanded, planned, managed her image and kept her customers – the fans – satisfied is particularly praise-worthy. “She manages her own career, chairs her own group of companies and charts her own path based on an uncanny instinct for knowing what the public wants and what it will tolerate.”

Manchester United, which is reporting its full-year results on Monday, is praised for “developing an organisational culture based on winning everything it does”.

Mr Barrow says this culture is now so embedded at Old Trafford that winning is “simply expected”.

Source: Manchester Online.