What makes eminent business sense? A balanced treatment of all stakeholders, continuous improvement in business processes and respect for people is the most desirable scenario in any business.

However, conventionally-managed businesses support only continuous improvement efforts and totally ignore or disregard the respect for people principle. This puts paid to a company’s efforts to benefit from the gains that can come out of continuous improvement, said Mr A.P. Venkatesh, Senior Manager, Quality Assurance, Automotive Division, Greaves Cotton Ltd, while delivering a BL Club guest lecture presented by Central Bank of India to the management students of Ganadipathy Tulsi’s Jain Engineering College, near Vellore.

Quick fix

Referring to lean management principles, he said people working in traditionally-managed systems often see lean as a quick fix programme or a way to increase the company’s stock price. Or, they apply it only in operations or as a cost cutting tool for a better bottomline. Rather, he said, it’s better to embrace it as a comprehensive management system.

A management system needs to handle intense competition now and as well as the likely increase in intensity in the business in the future.

Mr Venkatesh said that most products today are selling in a buyers market, where most often the price is decided by the buyer. However, business leaders in a company align their business processes, principles and practices in a way which are appropriate for a sellers’ market, where price is decided by the manufacturers or a monopoly.

Dissonance

He said that the dissonance between the market and management methods create a lot of confusion among the key stakeholders - employees, suppliers, customers, investors and communities.

This equilibrium requires an evolutionary change in the mindset and thinking of senior managers from being deeply rooted in conventional management practices to become a skilled lean thinker and practitioner.

Related Topics
comment COMMENT NOW