Archive for the 'Strategic Management' topic

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

Most managers think that they manage their business

Do you manage your business? What is the definition of the business that you manage? Ask a manager if he manages his business, and the normal response is yes. Ask for the definition of the business they manage, and they do not have a precise definition. Most will describe the enterprise rather than the actual business.

No company, corporation, institution, or other enterprise manager manages the actual business today. The managers employ 20^th century enterprise management to administer the enterprise. It is impossible to manage the business today, because the business has never been defined or organized properly.

The business to manage has never been defined and actual business management has never been taught

What is the enterprise business? There are many conflicting and imprecise definitions for the word “business”. Proper definition of the business is hampered by the definition of performance to include both the utilization of capital in actions executed and the results accomplished. Business schools and management books teach 20^th century management to administer structures laid over the business, and do not define the actual business or teach us how to manage the actual business.

Outside of our explanations of business management, there is no source of information on the real-life fundamentals of actual business organization and management. Since there has never been a precise definition of the business or teachings or books on actual business management, managers do not know what to organize in order to manage the business.

Business management provides a precise definition of the business

So today, results, capital solutions, and performance in the utilization of capital to produce results continue to be confused by the definition of performance. We must separate results and capital utilized from performance in order to define and manage the business. [more...].

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...].

20^th century enterprise management used today lays various plans over the business

20^th century enterprise management cannot plan the business directly because the business is not organized. The enterprise is planned through various structures laid over the business. These overlaid planning structures include:

• Strategic plans using such structures as maps and corporate plans
• Financial plan and budget structures
• Information technology plans and enterprise architectures
• Capital development plans and investment analysis structures
• Human resource hiring and development plans
• Other operational plan structures

Each of these planning structures uses its own set of entities to describe the enterprise, uses different information systems, and requires its own support staff. Each plan must be maintained and updated with actual progress against the planned entities, and reported. The plans plan the enterprise in various ways depending on the particular structures implemented.

None of the overlaid plans plan the actual business

Since the business is not organized, the business cannot be planned. The results produced by the business cannot be planned as an interrelated set. Some results may be planned in isolation as separate entities such as product sold and revenue received. The plans are usually created from estimates rather than a period by period build up from the existing business. Since the business is not planned actual business data is not planned for actual measurement; such as performance costs, performance effectiveness, result value, result quality, capital worth, investment returns, etc.< [more...].

20^th century enterprise management plans the future enterprise and does not plan the business

20^th century enterprise management used today develops strategies and plans using maps, corporate plans, budgets, etc that are laid over the business. Corporate plans plan the corporation and are unable plan the strategic value to be created by the business and the capital development needed to create strategic value. The business is not planned and strategies and plans become invalid as the business changes. New plans try to bring the enterprise plans in closer alignment with the current and future business.

The business strategy plans the actual future business needed for success

Business management defines the enterprise business as “the utilization of capital of worth in performance to incur costs to produce value in results”. This definition includes the current business that must be conducted every day to utilize capital the enterprise invests in to produce results needed for business success. The definition also includes the future business that must be the objective or the business strategy to produce strategic results utilizing capital that must be available when needed?

The management strategy plans the business at the strategic horizon

The strategic business is “the utilization of capital of worth in performance to incur costs to produce value in results at the strategic horizon”. The strategic business is described as management strategy capital. The business strategy, strategic business structure, and business plans to execute the strategy are management strategy solutions.< [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...].

Rule No. 6 of the Ten Rules for 21^st century business management states: Plan and govern the transition from today’s value to approved strategic value. This rule requires the development of management capital in strategy to plan the strategic business, in tactics to evaluate and assess progress of the current to strategic business, and in intelligence to anticipate opportunities, threats, and new developments. The rule must be followed to ensure good corporate governance.

20^th century strategies are planned and described by laying structures over the business

Strategies are planned today by laying structures over the business such as corporate plans, maps, investment analyses, budgets, etc. Separate and unrelated plans are often prepared for operations, finances, information technology, capital development, human resources, and other areas. The strategic business is not defined and strategies do not relate to the actual business. Goals and value creation are estimates and projections rather than the planned transition from the existing business. The rigid structures laid over the business conflict with the actual changing business and do not provide a foundation for good corporate governance.

Corporations govern by enforcing rules, because they cannot govern the business

Corporate governance is an unsolvable 20^th century management problem that arises because corporations do not organize and manage the business. [more...]

The fundamental cause of the economic crisis is failure to manage the business

One major problem causing the economic crisis was the lack of accurate management information on the actual business of investment institutions, banks, corporations, and other enterprises. Financial institutions cannot manage “asset value” in the worth of capital, companies do not know full costs or customer value provided, and corporations can not consolidate actual business information from the various units in the corporation.The fundamental problem is the lack of one complete and accurate set of information on the actual business, due failure to manage and measure the business.

20^th century management reports against structures laid over the business

The generally-accepted definition of enterprise business is “the activity of providing goods and services”. In order to organize and manage the business, we must organize and manage the activity of providing in the utilization of capital in the performance required to provide. We must also organize and manage goods and services as output results provided to customers.

20^th century management used today does not provide a structure to do this. Instead of organizing the business, an organization structure is laid over the business to define organization units, functions, and positions. Since the business is not organized, management structures must be laid over the business. A business strategy defines visions, objectives, maps, owners, and other entities. The chart of accounts defines centers, objects, and codes. Business processes, activity costing, performance management and the many other structures laid over the business produce information complexity and hide the actual business.

Overlaid structures capture vast amounts of data and report mountains of information, but not on the actual business

None of these structures captures actual business data or reports actual business information. [more...].

The Chief Executive Officers and their management methods are being criticized

The economic crisis is generating criticism of the Chief Executive Officers (CEO) and the 20^th century management structures they use. CEOs must heed this criticism and take a new look at current 20^th century management structures and the limitations imposed on their own performance by the structures.

The Chief Executive Officer is responsible for the quality and value of results produced by the corporation businesses from suppliers to the customer, value creation in the enterprise strategy, the full costs incurred from the utilization of tangible and intangible capital, the real return from each capital investment and capital development project, the worth of human and other capital employed, the current worth of financial investments to produce income and growth results, and value-added across the businesses to create shareholder value. The CEO must do this in spite of the fact that 20^th century management used today, does not provide the means to manage any of these CEO responsibilities.

The only solution for the Chief Executive Officer is to manage the actual corporation business

The actual business that must be managed is “investments in capital as solutions of worth utilized for costs and effectiveness of performance to produce value and quality in results”. Each business, within the corporation must be managed and the separate businesses must consolidate into one corporation business. In order to manage the business, output results must be defined and managed as one complete data set. Capital investments in specific solutions that can be utilized to produce results must be defined and managed as another data set. The implementation of capital solutions to produce specific results and subsequent utilization in performance must be defined and managed as a third data set. Fortunately for the CEO the actual corporation business can now be managed. [more...].