Business Quotes

1. The reason some managers lose control of their workloads and become ineffective, is because they attempt to remain involved in the work of the staff under their control. A good manager should not "do any work" in the sense of remaining in the loop. Ideally, the manager should be able to take a week’s leave at any moment, with no effect on any of the important work being carried out by the team. (Original.)

1. Heller’s The Naked Manager for the Nineties, p. 34, with respect to borrowing: "Surveys by Fortune in the US and Management Today in Britain showed conclusively long ago that the most profitable companies have the least debt and that the most indebted are the most likely to be unprofitable. … Like many earth-shaking management finds, this one enshrines childish logic. If a company generates great profits, it rarely needs to borrow; if it needs to panhandle heavily, the overwhelming odds (as with an individual) are that it is earning too little. In most cases, it never will earn enough, either - the borrowing becomes a permanent burden on the sore backs of management and … shareholders."

1. Heller’s The Naked Manager for the Nineties, p. 84, with respect to personnel policy: "A good Japanese company like Canon will have the following critical elements in its personnel policy: (1) carefully controlled numbers, (2) good, progressive pay, (3) good jobs, (4) excellent training, (5) promotion by assessed merit, (6) continuous and effective motivation programmes, (7) constant communication, (8) highly accessible management, (9) social equity within the company, (10) growth and constant change in products and processes … and so on.

"… Management must, following in the footsteps of the best Japanese and their like, give the labour force a guaranteed acceptable level of earnings; consult fully with its people in changing equipment and methods or anything else, but with management retaining the obligation to lead; create a long-range manpower plan designed to provide steady employment; plan opportunities for promotion and good rises even for the unpromoted; give constant training throughout a man or woman’s career; and equalise fringe benefits between all grades of employee.

"None of this, however, is done because the good management expects good results to fall as manna from heaven as a direct consequence of good labour policies. It won’t. The good company employs people humanely, generously, and thoughtfully because doing so is right and anything else is wrong - in principle, in practise and, almost certainly, in its outcome."

References

Heller, Robert ????: The Naked Manager for the Nineties.