point
The Smart Techie was renamed Siliconindia India Edition starting Feb 2012 to continue the nearly two decade track record of excellence of our US edition.

Management Master Class

Kishore R Deshpande
Monday, October 1, 2007
Kishore R Deshpande
You would not go to an unqualified doctor to treat a disease nor allow an unlicensed driver to drive you around the city. However, unfortunately, many companies put their financial health and employees’ well being in the hands of untrained managers.

Engineers and architects deal with the exacts: In building a bridge in Australia and Africa the stress limitations and the load factors are the same. Attorneys and solicitors deal with specific sets of rules. Doctors can expect patients with similar problems in different parts of the world to react to similar treatments in the same fashion. But, the ‘manager’s world’ is completely different. Different people definitely do not respond to the same treatment from the same manager in a similar way, and the stress factors and load limitations vary greatly.

Our history
A decade or so ago, it was sufficient for managers to possess a fairly basic set of skills. But now, with the markets becoming more turbulent and the organizational structures more fluid and working relationship more varied and complex, many of the ideas, tools, and techniques on which today’s managers were originally trained up are turning out to be ineffective and insufficient to help them deal successfully with the demands of the new operating environment. Therefore, continuous learning has become inevitable if one has to stay ahead in competition. I cannot resist recalling what Abraham Lincoln once said, “If I had three hours to cut down a tree, I would spend the first two hours sharpening my axe.” The demands on managers today are very different from that a decade, or even five years, ago.
* Traditional hierarchies are being replaced by fast moving cross-functional teams and department management is giving way to project and team management.
* We do not talk of improving our internal efficiency but link every business process to our focus on the customer.
* Success is a result of creativity, flexibility, and speed and not a product of tight budgeting, discipline, and control.
* Competition is giving way to strategic alliances and partnerships.

Share on Twitter
Share on LinkedIn
Share on facebook