A Brush With The Art Of Management

The Age

Friday June 27, 2008

THERE has been some comment recently about whether management is a profession, a science or an art. Having spent most of my working life managing factories, businesses, organisations, and as national president of the Australian Institute of Management, I believe management is an art. It is closely allied to leadership and psychology. Like most occupations, it is largely common sense.

It is the art of combining the efforts of diverse people to achieve a common end while keeping each person satisfied with their contribution. That is when people give their best.

Running a factory is relatively easy. You make a plan and you can reasonably control what people are doing. You go through foremen and you can watch the outcome. If you don't like the results, you can usually correct them.

Managing several business units becomes more difficult with increasing distance. The farther away, the more you have to rely on the local chief. The hardest thing is to pick him or her in the first place. If you pick the wrong person, the sooner you face it, the better.

I remember visiting three Canadian subsidiaries of a company. The factories were in Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal. I was a non-executive director. The Australian business had two dozen licensees and partnerships around the globe. I found their communications with Canada less than satisfactory. The Melbourne managing director left communications almost entirely to his head accountant, who did not understand Canadian politics. The second difficulty arose from having the Melbourne chief accountant demanding daily detailed information from managers on the other side of the world. They felt they were being treated as schoolchildren.

When I got home, I had a lot to say. But it was too late. A new managing director was installed. But our competition decided this was the time to act and a successful takeover offer was made.

I recognise the additional problems of running businesses half a world away. It is not easy getting half a dozen independently thinking managers, who are all successful business heads, working as a group.

Ernest Rodeck

Kew