If you close your eyes and picture a firm a hundred years ago, you most likely picture something like this: a vast factory hall, filled with looming, loud machines, the scent of oil and iron, conveyor belts and manual labourers busily running back and forth. These days, that picture would likely be different: a row of computers in an open-plan office, the clacking noise of fingers on keyboards, conversations on headphones with colleagues across the country. The typical UK firm is in services (or service-heavy manufacturing) and a large part of its capital is the knowledge, the training, and ideas inside its employees’ heads.

Read Jakob’s essay Managing to Succeed: What We Know, and What We Don’t, about Management in Great Britain.