Management control system

In the 1995 HBR article "Control in the age of empowerment" - Simons argues that management control systems are broadly classified into 4 categories and all these categories need to work in work to ensure organization's growth. These categories are Belief systems, Boundary Systems, Diagnostic systems and Interactive systems.

Belief systems explain organizational values. For example, integrity, customer service etc. One implementation of belief system is where upon joining a company an employee is given training on organizational values and failing to hold those values will result in dire consequences.

Boundary Systems explains organizational boundary. For example, not dealing with money laundering etc. Essentially, these systems cover what an organization would not do. This ensures that such message has been explained to everyone in the organization and people are expected to behave accordingly. One example is Enron where boundary systems collapsed miserly. In the movie "The smartest guys in the room" - it was explained that Enron wanted to make money at any cost. Hence, people were behaving in irrational manner such as bringing California power grid down in the middle of the day resulting in many people being stuck in lifts etc.

Diagnostic systems are essentially the performance management systems and more metric driven. These systems help track how organization is tracking on its set objectives. Balanced Scorecard, management dashboard are all example of diagnostic systems.

Interactive systems are concerned with ongoing improvement i.e. ensuring that strategy remains relevant in continuously changing world.

Book Review: One Page Project Manager

Though the title suggests that the topic of book is overall project management. However, this book is mainly about building a project status report that is presented on a one page and has all the project information i.e. scope, time, cost, resources etc.

This book provides interesting and novel concept for project communication management. I think if not for anyone else, this kind of report can help me get a handle on the projects easily.

The only restriction I have from using the books concept with large audience is that audience may not find this format easily palpable. Hence, may add training burden on the project.

Manager as a resource integrator

Recently, I kept asking myself what is a manager's role? Upon introspection and multiple readings, I have been able to firm up my opinion that a Manager is in fact a resource integrator. Though different jobs have different resources and require quite different integration skills but almost all managers mainly act as resource integrator in their day to day lives.

However, the way a manager integrates resources highlights manager's job effectiveness. In my opinion, there exists 3 kind of managers. First, who just integrate resources to achieve desired results. Nothing more, nothing less. Such managers fall in "MANAGE" buckets.

Second, who integrate resources with the aim to gain optimum utilization. These managers fall in "OPTIMIZE" bucket.

Lastly, their exists managers who aim to improve the overall efficiency. These managers fall in "IMPROVE" bucket.

I think, based upon one's management experience and type of project/task - a manager can fall in any of these categories. Imagine a project manager managing multiple projects - where he might fall in "IMPROVE" bucket for one project but would fall in "MANAGE" bucket for another project.

Recruiting: Importance of integrating new employees

HBR May'09 article about "Recruiting in Good and Bad times" captured my imagination and helped me further firm up the need to integrate new employees. I have always believed that as a hiring manager your job does not end upon candidate selection. In fact, once the new employee joins the organization, as the hiring manager - one must ensure that the candidate is adequately integrated within the organization i.e. the candidate understands the culture, norms and processes of the organization. Therefore, hiring managers must take special interest to ensure candidate feel adequately informed for smooth integration.