Archive for the 'Business Change Consulting' topic

20^th century enterprise management consulting is obsolete

20^th century management consultants unknowingly propagate obsolete 20^th century enterprise management practices that fail to manage the enterprise business. The objective is to organize and manage the business enterprise, rather than the enterprise business. Consultants lay high-cost organization, process, information system, and administration structures over the client business, preventing actual business organization and management.

There is no framework for the 20^th century enterprise management. Any kind of solution can be contrived and laid over the client business. All solutions are by definition bad solutions, because they aggravate and do not solve unsolvable 20^th century management problems discussed here at the Business Change Forum.

There is no model for 20^th century enterprise management consulting and “business” consulting services. 20^th century enterprise management consultants can employ any management practice both good and bad. 20^th century enterprise management consulting creates problems for the client and makes it more difficult for the client to compete against 21^st century business management.

Base your practice on fundamentally-correct 21^st century business management

There is only one method to organize the enterprise business for 21^st century business management, Result-performance Management (R-pM). [more...].

Management consultants and their clients are unable to work together to improve actual business management

Many capital development, business change, and management improvement projects involve management consultants. Since the business is not defined, organized, or managed, management consultants cannot work with client enterprises to improve the actual business. Each management consulting firm has their own approaches and methodologies that are not related to the business and are not familiar to the enterprise client. Misunderstandings often arise over the scope of the project and the responsibilities of the consultant and the enterprise.

Management Consulting today faces many unsolvable problems that prevent scoped and measured business change

20^th century management improvement consulting projects have many fundamental and unsolvable problems, such as:

• The enterprise business is not organized, so there is no framework to scope and plan change projects and services
• The business results to improve are not known or managed for added-value
• The capital solutions to acquire, develop, and utilize are not known and managed
• Performance in the utilization of capital solutions to produce results is not defined or managed
• The specific changes needed for success can not be identified and managed
• Consultant services do not change the business, but change structures laid over the business
• The enterprise must learn new organization, plan, process, system, or performance structures with added terminology and definitions
• Changed structures are implemented to adds costs, but not to create value
• The value-added by consulting services is not measured to know success
• The enterprise lacks the capability to manage the investment in development and change
  
• The enterprise does not lead and participate properly to best take over changes
  
• Human and other capital is not managed for utilization allowing change problems
  

These are some common problems with organization and management structures and management consulting approaches utilized today for capital development, business change, and management improvements. Today, the enterprise client and consultant must work in good faith in an unmanaged business environment to produce ad-hoc changes that may or may not improve business results. Business organization and management consulting services tend to be led by the consultant and the client enterprise awaits a deliverable and then decides whether the deliverable is acceptable.

Enterprise clients and management consultants need to work together in partnership to improve the actual business

The enterprise and consultant need a way to define the development and improvements that will provide clear and measurable benefits to the enterprise. The only way is to base business management improvements and management consulting services on the actual business. A new management consulting model is needed that:

• Provides services to help the enterprise organize, manage, improve and develop the business for measured value-added benefit
• Provides a method for enterprises to lead and participate properly in business change
  
• Provides a clear framework to understand scope and means of participation for both parties
• Provides a way to plan and measure the value added by business change to know the return on specific capital investments
• Provides a method to plan, acquire, develop, improve, and utilize specific capital solutions required
• Provides the organization and approach that eliminates the fundamental problems in current business change
  
• Provides a methods and tools that both the enterprise and consultant understand and use
• Provides a means to plan and measure the value the consultant provides and the value-added success the enterprise achieves.< [more...].

20^th century management consulting propagates the problems that caused the economic crisis

Many capital development, business change, and management improvement programs involve management consultants. 20^th century management consulting services normally add to or change organization, account, or management structures laid over the business. Each consulting firm has their own approaches and methodologies that are not familiar to the enterprise client. Services tend to be led by the consultant, with limited client participation, and the client must await a deliverable. Misunderstandings often arise over the scope of the project and the responsibilities of the consultant and the enterprise. 20^th century management consulting does not enable clients to manage their actual business and propagates the problems that cause the current economic crisis.

21^st Century Business Management Consultants help enterprises prevent problems that cause economic crisis

21^st Century Business Management Consulting is based on helping enterprise clients organize and manage their business in “investments in capital as solutions of worth utilized for costs and effectiveness of performance to produce value and quality in results”. The current economic crisis is caused by one fundamental problem; the failure of financial institutions, corporations, and other enterprises to manage the business. 21^st Century Business Management Consulting is required to help client enterprises to organize and manage the business, and then to optimize the worth of solutions developed, the cost and effectiveness of solutions utilized in performance, the value and quality of results produced by the business, and the return on all capital solution investments.

21^st Century Business Management Consultants have a model to work in partnership with the enterprise

21^st Century Business Management Consultants work in partnership with enterprise clients in enterprise-led result-performance development projects to provide the needed capabilities and resources the enterprise lacks.  The enterprise and consultant define the development and improvements that provide planned and measured benefits to the enterprise, through a 21^st century business management consulting model that:

• Is based on organizing and managing the actual enterprise business
• Provides services to help the enterprise organize, manage, improve and develop the actual business for measured value-added benefit
• Provides a method for enterprise clients to lead and participate properly in business management improvement
• Provides a clear framework to understand scope and means of participation for both parties
• Provides the organization and approach that eliminates the fundamental problems in 20^th century business change and management consulting methods
• Provides methods and tools that both the enterprise and consultant understand and use
• Provides a means to plan and measure the value the consultant provides and the value-added success the enterprise achieves.
  

These standards cannot be met with 20^th century management structures and consulting approaches, since the structures hide the business, and there is no framework to scope change and measure the value produced from the specific scope of change.

Business management consulting organizes the actual business for 21^st Century Management

21^st Century Management Consulting is based on organizing and managing the actual enterprise business as one integrated and transparent business structure. [more...].

Many of us have participated in business change projects. Likely, we share many experiences with the difficulties in gaining successful business change. We have read about many cases of problems and disasters.

Something must be wrong. Why after all this experience and the many stories of unsuccessful business change, do we continue to have problems? Have management consultants with their business change and system implementation methodologies provided the answer? Are the conventional methods we use adequate for business change management?

The real problems are fundamental in the way we organize the business. Conventional methods introduce unsolvable problems, so that no business change method or consultant methodology can work properly.

“Business change” is not change to the business, but change to structures laid over the business

The problems start with the fatal error of 20^th century management; the organization structure. [more...]

Governments around the world are promising programs to prevent future business management problems

After every economic, financial, or corporate governance crisis, governments promise action to prevent problems from happening again. The actions invariably impose more regulations on enterprises, which increase business costs and complexity, and do not address or solve the actual problems.

There is only one problem to solve, the problem of obsolete 20^th century enterprise management

The fundamental problem underlying every economic, financial, and corporate governance crisis is the failure to understand and manage the business properly on the part of managers, accountants and auditors, and government regulators. The problems are inherent in 20^th century management structures laid over businesses worldwide that prevent actual business management.

There is only one solution, organize the actual business with R-pM and apply 21^st Century Management Standards

The solution to the problem is available today with Result-performance Management (R-pM) to assist businesses, professional bodies, educational institutions, business service and solution providers, and government programs to institute and support proper business management. R-pM replaces 20^th century management structures laid over the business, with one business structure for 21^st Century Management.

A government “Business Management Program” will prevent future problems and provide significant economic benefits

The financial crisis proves that serious enterprise management problems exist. Now is the time to open our minds to new actual business management and to avoid repeating past mistakes. Most governments likely will continue the past cosmetic approach to pass new regulations and announce that they have solved the problem. A forward-looking government must take the lead to institute a “Business Management Program” as discussed in the referenced article. Once one government establishes its country as the leader and begins the program, other countries will be forced to follow. But, the lead country will always have the advantages developed by the leader.

A proposed government Business Management Program is outlined in an article in 21^st Century Management Magazine

The essential components of a Business Management Program are described in the article “Government Business Management Program to prevent future Crises and boost Competitiveness” in 21^st Century Management Magazine at R-pM.net. .

Why do we have business change and change management problems

Every business must change to improve and grow. Business change is change to the business for management improvement, new solution or system implementation, a new organization structure, etc. Change management is the management of changes to the business. Why do we have business change and change management problems that have never been solved? If the business is organized, the business changes with each change to the business; business changes are not accumulated for business change and change management projects. The fundamental problem is that business itself has never been organized or managed. If we do not manage the business, how can we manage change to the business?

Enterprises today do not know what constitutes the business

We do not even have a good definition of the enterprise business to know if the business is organized or managed. The most generally-accepted definition of the business enterprise in dictionaries seems to be “the activity of providing goods and services”. According to this definition, we must organize and manage “the activity of providing goods and services”. [more...].

We get questions concerning the background and development of R-pM

People ask how Result-performance Management (R-pM) originated. Some people are concerned about the authenticity and viability of R-pM.

Result-performance Management was developed by Mr. Harry Greene, as personal tools used in business organization and management in process and information systems design and implementation projects, during 40 years, as a management consultant with such firms as Booz Allen and Hamilton, Multinational Management, Price Waterhouse, A.T. Kearney, and Arthur D. Little.

R-pM tools were developed to aid systems development and business change

R-pM first evolved as an aid to business process and information systems design. Later R-pM was expanded to manage business change projects, both the project and the changes to the business as the results of the project. During this experience, it became clear to Mr. Greene that the only solution to business organization and management problems was to organize and manage the business. [more...]9.

Business or Systems analysts work with structures laid over the business

Historically, the business or systems analyst has never had a good business framework for disciplined analysis. The analyst usually works with an isolated problem or set of user requirements and creates a business process or system solution. The solution does not actually manage the business, but is laid over the business. The business tends to change while the solution remains rigid, requiring continuing solution maintenance to align the solution with the changed business.

Most corporations do not understand the role of the business analyst and do not properly organize their business capital. Often the systems analyst is placed in IT, which removes him from the business and provides a computer processing focus, rather than a business requirements focus.

R-pM organizes the Business Structure to provide a framework for analysis

R-pM provides a new environment for the business or systems analyst. R-pM organizes and manages the business, “the activity of providing goods and services”. R-pM organizes the activity as business performance and the goods and services as business results in a simple, easy-to-manage Business Structure defined by only two entities:

• Results: Specific economic outputs that must be produced by business performance
• Performance Solutions: Specific capital that must be utilized in performance to produce specific results

Results are the inputs to and the outputs from performance. A result is a specific accomplishment, like customer order recorded, that can be counted and measured. [more...].

Business Change Project Managers have no foundation and little support

Have you ever managed or worked on a business change or business capital development project. If you have, and were successful, you deserve a big bonus. You deserve a big bonus, because your enterprise did not do its part to provide you with the foundation or environment for a successful project. Enterprises provide a “Rickety Foundation” for business change and capital development.

“Business change” projects do not change the business

“Business change” is a misnomer. “Business change” projects do not change the business. Business change projects change contrived organization and management structures laid over the business and capital development projects lay new systems, processes, facilities, or other structures over the business. Business change and capital development is not integrated with the business. Projects are ad-hoc endeavors that must be created out of nothing and somehow use reassigned personnel to improve the enterprise successfully.

Enterprises often turn business change projects over to consultants

Since there is no foundation for successful change, many enterprises turn the problem over to consultants. [more...].

An article at result-performance-management.com, “Business Change that does not change or benefit the Business” discusses how many of our business change projects are destined to fail before they start. The odds are stacked against successful business change in the 20th century enterprise.

Business change problems start when an organization structure is laid over the business

We start problems when we lay organization structures over the business and do not organize the business. Since the business is not organized, we are unable to manage the business, so we lay strategy and planning, business processes, charts of accounts, performance management, and other structures over the business. Since the business is not managed, we are not able to manage change to the business.

As the article shows, the enterprise business is defined by only two entities:

• Results: The economic outputs that create the value from the business
• Performance Solutions: The capital consumed in performance to generate the costs incurred by the business to produce result value

Business results and performance solutions change continually. In order to manage business change, we must manage business results and performance solutions continually.

If the business changes day by day, why is Business Change a separate periodic undertaking? It is because “Business Change” is not change to the business, but periodic change to rigid structures overlaid on the business to align them closer to actual business results and performance.

R-pM manages business change as the routine when the business changes

Result-performance Management (R-pM) organizes and manages the business through results and performance to change automatically with business change. Business change projects are replaced by result-performance development to develop the new and improved capital needed to produce future value-quality results. The approach is described in the R-pM Community download “How to Manage Business Change“. The download also is included in the R-pM Toolkit.

The 20^th century enterprise has situations that resist or undermine change

The odds of successful business change are stacked against 20^th century enterprises. Invariably, enterprises have situations that resist or undermine change, such as: [more...]