Archive for the 'Corporate Governance' topic

Separate organization and management structures have always been laid over the business causing complexity

Since the beginning, enterprises have implemented organization, process, account, performance, project, IT architectures, administrative functions, and other structures. Each of these many structures must be maintained and managed producing business complexity. Many conflicting entities that define each structure produce information complexity, prevent consistent and accurate management information, and require high-cost information technology overheads. Each structure is fixed and rigid and conflicts with the ever-changing business. Periodically, reorganization and change management is required to bring the fixed structures into closer alignment with the business.

Experts have wanted to find one structure to organize and manage the enterprise as one consistent whole

Over the years, there have been many efforts to create one simple and consistently-defined structure for complete and consistent business data capture, reliable communications, accurate management information, use of common solutions, business collaboration, and other needs. The answer, so far, is to lay higher-level management structures over existing structures to reconcile data from various unrelated structures and to consolidate information. However, until now, no one has defined the one integrated structure that can replace all existing structures and be used to organize and manage any enterprise in any industry.

The one integrated structure has existed all along; it is the business

There is one structure. It has been there all along! That structure is the business itself! [more...]f!

20^th century enterprise management does not enable governance of the corporate business

20^th century enterprise management used by corporations today prevents actual governance of the corporation business. Organization and management structures are laid over the business preventing actual business management. Corporation management receives mountains of reports against structures laid over the business. The reports are inconsistent since each structure defines the corporation differently. The reports are incomplete since actual business data is not captured and reported. There is no consistent framework for business management and governance. The corporation strategy map or corporate plan is different from business processes, projects, and functions, used to direct the corporation, which are different from the chart of accounts, activities for costing, or quality structures used for corporation control. These structures may have their own reporting that is different from corporation management reporting through various performance management control panels, scorecards, etc. The structures laid over the business prevent good corporate governance of the actual corporate business.

Corporate governance is through compliance with rules and regulations

Since the corporation is unable to manage and govern the actual business, corporate governance is not positive in ensuring that the business is properly governed. [more...]s

20^th century management lays reporting structures over the business

Since the business is not organized or managed today, the actual business cannot be reported. Management reporting is against the myriad of organization, management, administrative, and other structures laid over the business. Each structure employs its own terminology and information systems to produce reports on the structure. This produces a myriad of unrelated management reports for plans, business processing, resource planning and utilization, manufacturing, supply chains, customer relationships, accounting, quality control, financial management, human resource management, information technology management and on and on. The reporting possibilities create information complexity with no specific framework to relate all the reporting. Despite all the reports and complexity, there is no direct reporting on the actual business.

We try to bring together information from the diverse structures by adding special 20^th century reporting structures, such as:

• Performance management: Control panels, dashboards, scorecards and various other structures to capture and report information
• Strategic enterprise management: Structures to consolidate defined information from specific information systems
• Data reconciliation: Structures to gather and redefine inconsistent data from diverse systems
• Decision support and drill down: Structures to allow management to search and find information in diverse systems
• Categorization: Structures laid over information to reconcile and restructure information and to manage records, documents, reports, content, and other information sub-sets

These various reporting structures and supporting information systems constitute a large overhead and contribute to rather than solving information and business complexity problems. Management information produced is inconsistent, inaccurate, and incomplete in terms of what is actually happening in the business.

Business management reporting must be against the current and planned business

In order to report the business the actual business must be organized, planned, directed, and controlled as explained in previous articles. Actual business reporting is provided by reporting the three components of the business:

• Results: The economic outputs of value and quality produced across the business
• Capital: The investments in capital as specific solutions that must be acquired and developed to provide the capability to produce future results and that must be utilized in business performance to produce actual results
• Performance: The deployment and utilization of a specific capital solution to incur costs and provide effectiveness in producing a specific result in a performance domain

The business can be reported only by organizing the actual business as current results produced, invested capital available to the business, and performance in the utilization of a capital solution to produce a result. [more...].

20^th century enterprise management lays structures over the business to control the enterprise

The operations and development of the enterprise today are controlled by structures laid over the business for:

• Financial and statistical accounting through a chart of accounts structure
• Financial control through actual compared to budgeted measures
• Cost accounting through activity, center, and product structures
• Capital development control through project structures and asset registers
• Quality control through TQM, six sigma, and other quality structures

The control provided by each of these structures is limited to certain entities and known measures. Financial control covers capital for tangible assets and finances for cash receipts and expenditures against plans or budgets. Cost control is limited to known costs against arbitrary entities like activity or center. Non-financial control is sporadic depending on individual management. Quality control focuses on performance producing selected end-product results.

Accounts record accrued and actual receipts and expenditures from point money comes in to the point money is spent. There is no control of the business cycle from the point money is spent until value is created to enable money to come in. Accounting control is enforcement of rules and principles rather than providing accurate information for business control.

Capital development lumps costs together as a project or tangible asset. The specific capital solutions developed are not controlled and may be lumped together as one large asset or classified as intangible assets. No method or information is provided to plan and control return on specific capital solution investments. Projects are not organized to capture investment costs for implemented solutions and plan value-added to the business from solution utilization. Capital worth numbers are sporadic for some asset and liability solutions, but real capital worth in the capability to produce future business value is unknown.

Each structure is separate from other structures and uses its own terminology and definitions to describe the enterprise. Each structure introduces high costs and much effort to collect and report information. But, none of these overlaid structures can control the actual business.

The actual business must be controlled for each component of the current and planned business

In order to control the business the actual business must be organized, planned, and directed as explained in previous articles. [more...].

Reorganization is one of the top 10 problems of 20^th century enterprise management

The enterprise organization structure is the fatal error of 20^th century enterprise management

Why do we have to reorganize every few years? Why not organize just once and reorganize gradually as the business changes?

There are many 20^th century business organization theories and methods. Hundreds of books have been written on how to organize the enterprise, organization development, and organization change. There are many so-called business organization methods and structures, but these structures organize the enterprise and are laid over the business. The structures do not organize the actual business, causing the unsolvable reorganization problem. If the business is not organized the business cannot be managed. Additional management structures must be laid over the business to manage the enterprise. This is why the enterprise organization structure is the fatal error of 20^th century enterprise management.

Organizes the business for one business organization structure used for all business management

The business enterprise is defined commonly as “the activity of providing goods and services“. [more...]

Corporate Governance is one of the top 10 problems of 20^th century management!

Corporate Governance problems are “solved” my more imposed governance

The economic crisis and corporate failures of the past year exposed serious problems in cooperate governance. Governing the corporation is a big problem because we cannot manage the corporate business. We lay a myriad of contrived structures over the business to organize and manage the corporation through various entities like units, functions, activities, processes, objects, jobs, etc. Corporate governance itself may be through a contrived corporate governance structure laid over the business to extract and reconcile information from other overlaid structures.

Corporate governance problems are “solved” by adding to the problems with more stringent and costly requirements for outdated 20^th century accounting, auditing, and compliance reporting.

Corporate governance problems must be solved through governance of the actual corporate business

Corporations will be governed effectively only after corporation businesses are organized and managed. The strategic corporate business must be defined as strategic results and the new and improved capital solutions utilized in performance to produce the strategic results. Result goals and performance expectations must be established period by period to the strategic horizon. Corporate governance can then manage actual result value creation against goals and strategic estimates, corporate responsibility for actual business practices, and corporate information capital as part the actual business. The solution to the corporate governance problem is provided by Result-performance Management (R-pM) to organize the corporate business for 21^st Century Management. Review the article “Seeking Good Corporate Governance by strengthening Bad Governance” at Result-performance-Management.com.

The Corporate Governance Problem

We lay structures over the corporate business, and fail to organize the business

We do not organize the business. Instead, we lay many structures over the business for organization, strategy, planning and budgeting, business processes, information systems, performance management, accounts, administration, etc. We gather data on all the entities used and compile a wide variety of management and statutory reporting, but we cannot capture actual business data. Each overlaid structure creates business and information complexity, obscures the view of the business, and compounds the problem of corporate governance. [more...].

Minimize capital investments and business performance to produce essential business results

Many socially-responsible enterprises are looking for methods to utilize capital assets effectively to reduce waste, conserve energy, and provide an innovative work environment. The basic way to do this is to directly organize and manage the business in the utilization of capital assets in business performance to produce valuable economic outputs in business results. Result-performance Management (R-pM) provides the knowledge and procedures to organize the business for socially-responsible 21^st century management

Capital assets are managed directly to produce results

The managed business replaces administration with capital management and organizes all tangible and intangible capital assets as specific capital solutions to be utilized to produce specific business results. All capital is organized to be professionally-managed by those with the capability. The objective is to minimize performance and to maximize the value and quality of results. So, all capital is utilized effectively to prevent waste. All performance costs and captured and charged to the result value produced from the performance. Capital not required by the actual business is placed with another enterprise that can make use of the capital.

The managed business reduces overheads and waste

The managed business eliminates 20^th century enterprise management structures laid over the business. The most costly structures are the monolithic business processes and information systems laid over the business. [more...].

The fundamental problem of 20^th century enterprise, the failure to organize the business

The generally-accepted definition of the enterprise business is “the activity of providing goods and services“. Therefore, the activity of providing goods and services must be organized in order to organize the business. However, 20^th century organization theories organize “the enterprise” into organization units, positions, functions, reporting relationships, etc. to produce a contrived “enterprise organization structure” that is laid over the business. The organization structure is the fatal error of 20^th century management. Once an organization structure is laid over the business, the business can never be managed.

The business must change continually, while the “enterprise organization structure” remains rigid. The rigid organization structure hampers business change, creates change management problems, and eventually creates pressure for reorganization to contrive a new “enterprise organization structure” that is aligned closer to the actual business. If the business was organized, the organization would change with business change.

The solution is to organize the business for 21^st century management

The only way to manage the business properly is to organize the activity of providing goods and services into a business structure. [more...].

Business owners and investors lose the most due to the unmanaged business

Business enterprises today manage the enterprise as a company, corporation, or other form of organization. The business owner and shareholder profits are reduced due to the waste and inefficiencies involved in managing the enterprise using structures laid over the business. The enterprise invests in capital, but the capital investments are not defined or managed as part of the business. The enterprise must produce specific goods, services, and other output results to be successful, but these results are not defined and managed as part of the business. The capital investments must be utilized in business performance to produce specific results but business performance is not defined or managed. The rigid enterprise organization, corporate plan, financial account, cost account, business process, performance management, and other structures, used for enterprise management, conflict with the changing business causing unsolvable 20^th century enterprise management problems.

Business owners have the most to gain from directly managing the business

The business is “investments in capital as solutions of worth utilized for costs and effectiveness of performance to produce value and quality in results”. The business can be organized only by organizing specific capital investments in the business as specific human and other capital solutions of managed worth to be utilized in business performance, organizing specific output results of managed value that must be produced by business performance, and organizing business performance in the utilization of specific solutions to produce specific results to manage costs and result value-added across the business. Organizing the business for 21^st century management slashes costs and compounds competitive advantage.

Business owners, from small businesses to corporate investors, have the most to gain by organizing and managing the business. [more...].

Does your organization structure organize your business?

If you ask most managers if their enterprise organizes the business, they will answer “yes”. However, if you ask them to described how the business in organized they will say that the business is organized into departments, functions, regions, etc. But, is this organizing the business?

Look up the definition of business enterprise. You will likely find that the business is “the activity of providing goods and services”. When you organize your business, do you organize “the activity of providing goods and services”?

20^th century organization theories organize people and responsibilities

20^th century business organization theories provide all kinds of ways to organize people, regions, responsibilities, etc. but they do not organize the business. Instead, they contrive different kinds of organization structures that are laid over the business. [more...].