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candocontract
Member Since:
12 Feb 2006
Posts:8
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17 Apr 2006 9:26 PM |
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In seeking to discern the future, we tend to look at what is "out there" in our business environments, rather than what is "in here", within our businesses.
My view is that our capacity to compete successfully will be defined by the fundamental internal issue of "how well do our managers manage". I have posted separately (see "Where to from here") some of my views on this. Essentially, they are that the business or other endeavour that has the best chances of future success, will be the one in which all managers:
- (a) maintain a keen understanding of what is happening, how things work in their own business environment (both internal and external), and what defines success for the endeavour, and communicating that understanding;
- (b) exercise skilled decision-making; and
- (c) actively engage in learning for understanding and decision making skills, and to support the key competences they require.
I see these as the essential management tasks, that need to be exercised competently @@ by anyone (at any level) in the endeavour who: (i) has responsibility for resources **; and (ii) is needed to make decisions about the the way they are deployed.
So how does this contrast with current and recent management thinking? In my view it represents an intentional return to basics.
In expressing this, I am not advocating that specialised management tools and techniques be discarded in such diverse areas as customer relations, business intelligence, compliance and governance, assets and investments, supply chains, HR, IT, quality / risk / value / six sigma / 360 degree etc. Nor am I advocating reduced investment in IT. Rather, I believe it is time to focus on
- (a) better integrating them into a cohesive and shared business model, and
- (b) better engaging at all functional levels those who need to make decisions (i.e. everyone whose job can't be automated today) in the course of discharging their responsibilities.
These are pre-requisite to managing in the complex, competitive, information saturated, turbulent and disrupted business environment that managers today are finding so overwhelming.
** Resources in this sense can include: in addition to usually accounted tangible and intangible assets, items such as
- relationships - e.g. with customers, suppliers, managers / investors, regulators, the industry, and the public, especially service relationships; people resources, especially employees [and including oneself], who can impact on the endeavour and its success;
- systems, procedures, plans, strategies, policies, records and IT;
- projects and operations;
- tacit knowledge
@@ In order to support these essential tasks, managers need a spectrum of competences that I would categorise broadly in terms of relating, analysing, and actioning. These deserve separate discussion.
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michaelhopkins
FM Editor
Member Since:
06 Dec 2005
Posts:82
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17 Apr 2006 10:09 PM |
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Cando.... Good question.
I'll be curious to see what attention it attracts, since it explores legitimate FutureMonitor territory but from a different, more generalized angle. (By which I mean: your question is "evergreen." It could be asked at any time in management history, BUT it could/should perhaps be answered differently at different times in management history--though Peter Drucker, for one, would disagree with that.)
In any event, I'm not sure exactly what you mean by a "return to basics." Do you think managers these days aren't trying to be good at "understanding," "skilled decision making," and "learning"? Hard to picture. Or are you saying instead that they're trying, all right--they're just not coming close to succeeding? Why not?
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