Archive for February, 2008

Business Complexity is one of the top ten problems of 20^th century management!

Business complexity is the opposite of business simplicity. The simplest way to organize and manage the business is to organize and manage the business.

Business complexity includes complexity in structures laid over the business and different information in each structure

Instead of organizing and managing the actual business, today’s enterprises lay organization, planning, directing, control, and reporting structures over the business. These rigid structures conflict with each other and the actual changing business creating the business complexity problem. Each structure defines the enterprise differently using inconsistently-defined entities and various information systems, producing the information complexity problem. Different structures used by different enterprises prevent business collaboration and integration.

Result-performance Management (R-pM) organizes and manages one business structure

Result-performance Management (R-pM) organizes one business structure for all planning, directing, control, and reporting. Existing capital is organized as part of the business and overlaid structures are left behind. The business structure produces one set of complete, accurate, and consistently-defined business management information, including actual business information on result value, capital worth, performance costs, and result investment returns that are unknown today.< [more...]

Processes and systems are monolithic entities laid over the business

Over the past 15 years, corporations and other enterprises have implemented business process and packaged information systems, like ERP, SCM, MRP, and CRM. These processes and systems are laid over the actual business and provided general improvement, but usually still include extra costs and inefficiencies. Often old performance problems remain after new process and system implementation. Many enterprises want to improve their process and system utilization, but lack a fundamentally-sound method. This subject is explained further in the article “How to maximize Benefits from existing Processes and Systems” published in 21^st Century Management Magazine.

R-pM can make significant improvements to existing processes and systems

R-pM provides the method by identifying and managing the actual business that lies hidden under the processes and systems. Performance problems are inherent in specific performance solutions. R-pM redefines processes and systems as value-quality chains, so the enterprise knows the specific results produced and performance solutions utilized along the chain. R-pm integrates the business and system processing as the business process solution and separates other solutions utilized. The enterprise can then solve performance problems with specific solutions, and minimize the performance and maximize the result produced at each link in the chain. This enables the enterprise to solve problems, reduce performance costs, and manage result value and quality across existing processes and systems.

Analyze existing processes and systems as a value-quality chain

The only method available to redefine existing processes and systems is explained in the download “How to Build Value-quality Chains“. The only method to manage business change effectively is explained in the download “How to Manage Business Change“. The only method to manage a business change or capital development project properly is explained in the download “How to Manage Projects in the 21^st Century“. The full details to improve existing processes and systems are provided in The R-pM Toolkit, your 21^st Century Management Manual. These downloads are available now at Result-performance-Management.com. .

Performance Management is one of the top 10 problems of 20^th century management!

The definition of performance and performance management is a fundamental 20^th century management problem

Performance is defined as both the actions and results of performance. The definition prevents management of results separate from performance and restricts enterprise management to one confused performance dimension. Performance Management is a big part of 20^th century management, with a variety of structures like processes, dashboards, and scorecards laid over the business. Key performance indicators (KPI) mix result volumes and performance levels. Business process re-engineering focuses on business process management and performance quality to produce a process output. Many performance and productivity methods and consultants redefine costs out of the process and into other capital utilized in the business.

R-pM separates results from performance to enable 21^st Century Management

Result-performance Management (R-pM) separates results from performance to organize the enterprise business in results produced and capital utilized in performance solutions. The enterprise business changes each time management decides to produce a new result, close a finished result, or utilize a different performance solution. Performance management provides and maintains cost-effective performance solutions. [more...].

20^th century management cannot capture and report essential business management information

20^th century management lays separate structures over the business for management organization, planning, direction, control, and reporting, such as:

• Organization charts, reporting relationships, and job descriptions for organization
• Strategy, corporate plan, investment, and budget structures for planning
• Work flow, function, project, process, and system structures for direction
• Financial and statistical accounting, activity and project costing, and quality structures for control
• Financial statements, performance management, and strategic enterprise management structures for reporting

Each structure defines inconsistent and conflicting entities like business unit, department, center, function, activity, project, responsibility, etc. The overlaid structures can produce enormous amounts of information producing business and information complexity. But 20^th century management cannot capture and report essential business management information.

20^th century management does not define the entities that contain cost, value, worth, and return

In order to capture data and report information about an entity, the entity must be defined and recorded. 20^th century management attempts to report cost, value, worth, and return without defining the entities that contain cost, value, worth, and return.

Costs are attributed to some known tangible assets and collected against contrived entities like activity, project, and accounts that were not produced by the costs. Numbers for value are produced by certain contrived methods and formulas to lay value chains over the business, without defining and managing the entity that contains value. Worth is defined by arbitrary depreciation formulas for fixed assets, but ignored for human and other capital. Much high-worth capital is labeled as “intangible assets” and not accounted for or managed. Capital development does not identify the precise capital items that are being acquired and developed or the planned utilization of the capital in the business to provide return on investments. [more...].

Administration is one of the top ten problems of 20^th century management

20^th century management includes wasteful and counterproductive administrative functions

20^th century administration performs a function involving fixed routine tasks. Responsibility is for the function or the process of administering, rather than producing results. Administration is responsible for managing enterprise capital, but few administrators recognize this responsibility, in effect preventing proper capital management. Much capital is assigned to centers or labeled as “intangible assets”, removing it from professional management. Other capital is loosely administered through functions, instead of being specifically managed to produce benefit and achieve a return on the enterprise investment. The emphasis is on administrative performance rather than capital result management.

R-pM converts administration to professional capital management

Result-performance Management (R-pM) organizes all enterprise capital for professional 21^st century management for operation, support, development, and utilization to produce results. R-pM replaces administration with capital management. Capital managers must produce capital management results to develop, maintain, and improve the worth of capital to provide specific solutions. Performance management, within capital management, deploys and maintains solutions to produce revenue, capital, and investment results.< [more...]

When business started, the actual business was managed

The common definition of a business enterprise is “the activity of providing goods and services”. In other words, the business is “the utilization of capital in performance to produce value in results”. We all manage our actual personal business to utilize our capital in performance to produce value in results naturally, using common sense.

Several hundred years ago, all business was in individual or small enterprises that managed actual business activity in the utilization of capital available in humans with capabilities and knowledge of the business, business practices followed, management methods and intelligence on customers, and facilities in business locations, equipment, tools, money, and supplies available. They used this capital to produce output results in goods they had to buy, goods produced or improved and relocated, final results in goods and services they had to sell, and money received from sales.

They managed their business naturally by managing utilization of capital in performance to produce value in results. Common sense told them that costs were in the consumption of capital in business activity or performance, and that value created was in results leading to the final goods and services results sold. They realized that customer willingness to pay placed value on the total of raw material results and results in their chain. They realized that profit results came from result value-added that exceeded performance costs. They realized that they had to invest in capital as specific performance solutions to be able to produce results, and that result value had to increase to repay the investment. They realized that performance in capabilities and tools had to be effective to produce a high-quality result. They realized that capacity in time, capabilities, and facilities limited the volume of results produced. They realized that performance uncertainty in producing results as needed posed risk that final results would not be produced as planned. To reduce risk, they managed the performance utilized to produce each result one by one in the chain of results needed to produce final results for their customers.

When businesses grew, enterprises were organized and managed rather than the business

In recent centuries, as businesses grew, the complete sets of capital employed and results produced became difficult to manage. There were no information systems to help manage the actual business. So, enterprises in companies, associations, and institutions were formed. New structures were contrived to manage the business enterprise, rather than the enterprise business. [more...].

Capital Development Project Management is one of the top 10 problems of 20^th century management

20^th century management cannot plan, manage, or repay capital development projects

We have unsolvable problems in 20^th century capital development project planning, management, and return on the project investment, so we cannot:

• Plan and manage operations and development as an integrated continuum that is part of the business
• Itemize, plan, and achieve specific benefits from development projects
• Clearly and systemically understand what we must be implementing from projects as part of the business for ongoing management and return on investment
• Planning the output results to be produced from the project in specific capital items to be implemented and utilized by the business
• Utilizing users and administrative staff in proper roles in the project
• Utilizing contractors and consultants as solutions in an enterprise-managed project
• Documenting and recording the project so that all capital developed is fully documented and that knowledge required for use is created
• Managing the capital to be consumed in the project
• Managing the capital development project as part of the business
• Recording accurate development costs by capital item developed
• Implementing project results as capital items for direct utilization by the business
• Measuring the actual return of capital development investments

The unsolvable 20^th century management problems hamper project management, particularly for enterprise internal capital development and management improvement.

R-pM plans, manages, and repays projects by separate management of results and performance

Result-performance Management (R-pM) provides new breakthroughs for planning and managing enterprise capital development and planning and managing the capital development project.

Capital development develops two things:

• The capital to be utilized as performance solutions that incur costs
• The results to be produced by the developed capital to provide benefit and return

When we plan and manage a capital development project, we must plan and manage two things:

• The results to be produced by project performance
• The capital to be consumed and performance solutions to be utilized to perform the project

R-pM provides the methods to do both. [more...]

Investment Analysis is one of the top 10 problems of 20^th century management

20^th century investment analysis cannot plan the actual return on investments

How does your company analyze strategic investments in capital development? Does your company perform a cost-benefit analysis? Are all the specific investments needed for business success planned? Are the costs of the investment analyzed, itemized, and scheduled? Are the benefits of the investment analyzed, itemized, and scheduled? Is the value to be added to the business planned and set up as goals to menage the return on investment?

For the most part, 20^th century investment management cannot itemize the costs or benefits of investment, particularly investments in management improvement and business change. Costs are project expenditures rather than investments in specifically-identified capital items. Benefits are usually estimates of increases in revenues or reductions in costs.

R-pM plans and manages the return on all investments through Result-performance Development

Result-performance Management (R-pM) manages the economic outputs of the business as specific results and manages the invested capital utilized to produce results as specific performance solutions. The benefits of development investments come from adding value to specific existing or new results. The cost of investments come from developing the capital needed as specific performance solutions to produce each result. The return on investments come from [more...]