Executives of a multinational corporation mandated the roll-out of the Balanced Scorecard (BSc) throughout the organisation. Departments such as Sales, Marketing, Research & Development (R&D), Human Resources, Manufacturing, Logistics, & Purchasing were required to present key performance indices (KPIs) to upper management and show corresponding targets & action plans. Department managers immediately attended BSc seminarsContinue reading “Beware the Balanced Scorecard and Other Buzzwords”
Tag Archives: leadership
Strategic Planning as Problem Solving: Why Not?
We sometimes create problems more than we encounter them. A large conglomerate builds a huge packaging facility in the outskirts of Manila. When I visited the plant, I asked the operations manager why such a big facility was built? “We built the facility to attract customers,” the operations managers said. “So, it was built,Continue reading “Strategic Planning as Problem Solving: Why Not?”
The Basic Tasks of Management vs. The Basic Tasks of Engineering
Management is the predominant means in how we run our organisations. It’s been like that since the late 19th century, when we adopted capitalism into our society to cultivate the prosperity & wealth resulting from the Industrial Revolution. Business was getting more complex when it came to all the money we were earning. We neededContinue reading “The Basic Tasks of Management vs. The Basic Tasks of Engineering”
What Now?
It’s a question I encounter at the end of every seminar: What Now? Where do we go from here? How do we start? Where do we start? What do we do? Most seminars end with people praising the principles learned but then hardly applying them in real life. Why is it so hard to applyContinue reading “What Now?”
Management is Not Leading, and It Isn’t Staffing Either
First thing I was taught as a management trainee at a large multinational corporation in 1985 was that there are four (4) basic functions to managing. These are: Planning, Organising, Directing, Controlling. In 2021, when I search for “management functions” on the Internet, the results mostly are: Planning. Organising, Leading, Controlling, and Staffing. Leading hadContinue reading “Management is Not Leading, and It Isn’t Staffing Either”
Ellery's Essays 