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Management 3.0 and the Printing / Document Industry

I participate in a Big Data Think Tank at Innocherche. Our Think Tank has a companion that focuses on Management, and I found their latest piece quite interesting. I wanted to share it with you and discuss how it may affect our industry.

They first start with a reminder of the various generations of Management thinking. The current thinking and definitions are Management 3.0

 

Classical management (1.0) comes straight from World War II and was the mantra of business schools until 2000 or even later. It comes from the Eisenhower « Control & Command » practice. To its credit, it enabled, all Western countries to reconstruct themselves over a 30-year period, post WWII.

Its main characteristic is that the whole information goes upwards, where the best individuals with an above average ability to synthesize, will establish a strategic plan. It then generates an operational plan and creates tasks and processes. Workers with no say in the matter will carry out the tasks (ref Charlie Chaplin). This is the period where INFORMATION is POWER.

In the 80’s there was a desire to make sure these processes were enforced and followed in order to reproduce them perfectly and ensure quality of product and delivery. This was compounded by the advent and installation of ERP software, sold to CEOs by heavyweight consultants, from companies such as SAP and Oracle. It was the heyday of ISO 9000, where in the final client’s name, every employee was asked not to deviate from the plan, as everyone was afraid it might impact the quality of the final product.

Investors were happy, as it was a promise of reproducible results. Control was everywhere. Company processes were transmitted through generations of employees. It was all about improving and refining – but please do not innovate nor disrupt.

It was a happy era where Pension Funds promised their future retirees predictable incomes. Predictability became the mantra of CEOs of quoted companies under the various Funds’ guidance.  A lot of M&A activity was generated to hide the lack of organic growth. The reason for acquisitions was the reduction of costs, thanks to ever-refined processes applied at a greater scale of business. In most cases, these deals have destroyed value rather than created any.

On next Thursday, discover about the Management 2.0: the Millennials (or Y generation) entered the work force significantly as from 2005 and asked WHY?

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This article was written on 28 Jan 2016, and is filled under Point of View.

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