Management Priorities

After more than 20 years of consulting our team formulated what we consider "Managements Top Ten Priorities". This is a combinations of observations, others suggested critical factors and some basic common sense. The Top Ten Priorities are issues, actions and goals that any manager should strive for daily. Putting out fires, while may seem appropriate, is a distraction to dealing with the critical factors that drive success and allow management to continuously review the bigger picture.

1. Reduce Cost constantly and forever: The driving factor is by what methods? Simply cutting budgets is not reducing cost. The most effective method of reducing cost is by cutting out waste and rework. This method requires a new management purpose and use of profound knowledge as the basis of continuous improvement in product and service. Manage by Methods. Managing by budgets results provides no iumprovement in process or system capabilities.

2. Form strategic relations with your key suppliers: Minimize total cost from your suppliers. Move toward a single supplier for any one item, on a long-term relationship of loyalty and trust. Constantly changing suppliers increases cost.

3. Lead change: We're in a new economic age driven by technology and increased customer, internal and external, expectations. Management must learn to lead change by empowering their greatest resource, their people. The aim of management should be to help people use technology to do a better job.

4. Organize people and processes: To improve productivity, reduce cost and improve speed companies must organize people, departments, products and services systemically. Remove departmental barriers that create communications breakdowns, internal competition and delays in product and service delivery. Learn to think and organize systemically.

5. Listen!: Your people, your suppliers and your customers are the core of your companies success. Learn to hear what they see, experience and say is important to long term success. Many companies fail primarily do to a lack of hearing. Keep abreast of changes in the market, be prepared for change by hearing both the voice of the customer and the noise of your "system".

6: Expand your thinking: Think beyond your current business model. What product or service do your customers need but are not getting from your company. Focusing on financial results will not expand your thinking, it will suppress thinking systemically.

7: Measure the critical factors: What are the critical factors for your companies future success. Unless these factors are being measured the only measure factor you have is financial results....to late. Establish a balanced score card of critical factors and be prepared to change those factors as the market and the customer preferences change.

8: Move fast: There has been and will continue to be disruptive changes that have and will continue to reshape entire markets. These changes are happening primarily due to technological advances across all industries. A sense of urgency for change is needed. Embrace change, accelerate change and do so as quickly as possible.

9: Train & Educate: Training is one process, education is another. Institute training and education on critical factors throughout the company. Capture lessons learned for the benefit of education. Train people on process changes.

10: Be obsessed with learning: Success is a factor of wisdom. Wisdom is a factor of knowledge. Without learning knowledge cannot be gained. Without knowledge there is a lack of wisdom. Arrogance is the opposite of wisdom.