"The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it". Theodore Roosevelt
Much has been written about the art of management for a good many years. Academics, Consultants, Business Gurus and endless MBA classes have all discussed it, amongst countless others, ad nauseam for several decades.
Guy Kingston, Bristol-based entrepreneur, producer and presenter in the UK, whose Management Sushi guest blog appears below, tracks it back much further. So far back in fact that he reckons - with good reason - that Jethro, father-in-law of Moses in biblical times could and should be considered as the very first person to distribute consultancy advice about best practice management. And, so far as can be determined, as Guy says, he even did it for free and without hustling for more consultancy work - on an ongoing basis going forward - as consultants are wont to say!! See below for what Guy has to say on the very first glimmerings of management, delegation and decentralisation.
Firstly, though, a quick look around at current discussions on management practice shows the topic and solutions are just as complex as ever. Management approaches are inevitably ever-changing in continuous adaptation to circumstances, events [such as last year's financial crisis] generational trends and the evolution of new business horizons [such as the increasingly digitised business world and the arrival of social media on the scene with its extraordinary capacity for viral outreach].
Last week's Wall Street Journal saw an article by Deputy Managing Editor Alan Murray - 'Motivating Staffers, are Carrots better than Sticks?' - in which he discussed the tricky concept of attaining best-practice Leadership through a keen understanding of the guiding principles of Followership. As he says ..."To be a great leader, you must understand your followers. What motivates them? What do they want? What do they fear? How do you get them to give their best efforts to the cause?".
One of the world's leading authorities on management, Professor Gary Hamel published his most recent book ‘The Future of Management' in 2007. In the book, he picks up Guy's point about decentralisation and delegation being key to management, and provides a case study on US-based Whole Foods Market stores. They fully embrace this management style but it is nevertheless extraordinary to see Hamel describe their ‘radical decentralization' style allied with freedom and accountability as a 'contrarian management model'! Hamel talks elsewhere [click here to see a recent interview with him on this topic] about the flaws in management designs and how lack of delegation and decentralisation can stifle those very ideas coming from several layers below top management that can help a company both innovate and keep on track.
Similarly, close colleague of Gary Hamel, London Business School Professor Julian Birkinshaw is shortly to publish his own book later this year on the perplexities of management - ‘Reinventing Management : Smarter Choices for Getting Work Done'. Here Birkinshaw talks about how the recent global financial crisis can be closely linked to the failure of management within banks such as Lehman's ["the demise of traditional investment banking was also a spectacular failure of management"] - and goes on to describe a variety of Management Models which, if implemented, could have made all the difference. You can see a short video of Julian Birkinshaw talking about his new book in a recent interview for the HR Directors Business Summit 2011 if you click here.
Back to Guy - and the management wisdom of Jethro. Here's what Guy has to say. Were such a thing possible, it would be extraordinary to tune in to a discussion between Hamel, Birkinshaw - and Jethro - on the the vagaries and challenges of management and the tricky art of delegation!
The First Management Consultant in History
Recently we identified the oldest book on leadership as one written by a Greek in the 4th Century BC, Xenophon of Athens, about a Persian in the 6th Century BC, Cyrus the Great - a leader so great that he also gets a positive mention when he makes a cameo appearance about half way through the Bible.
However, the earliest management advice that has come down to us is found nearer the front of the Bible, in one of the first five books.
The Book of Exodus describes how Moses, the reluctant leader of 600,000 Israelites, is visited by his wise father-in-law, Jethro - who is concerned to see his son-in-law busy from morning till evening deciding trivial matters.
"What you are doing is not good," says Jethro. "You and the people with you will wear yourselves out, for the thing is too heavy for you; you are not able perform it alone."
He advises that Moses selects trustworthy men who hate a bribe, and appoint them as officers in charge of tens, fifties, hundreds, and thousands.
"And let them judge the people at all times; every great matter they shall bring to you, but any small matter they shall decide themselves; so it will be easier for you, and they will bear the burden with you."
There is no better summary of the art of the delegation which is the foundation of all leadership and of the decentralisation which is the foundation of all efficient management structures.
Moses accepts Jethro's advice and it proves successful. Then, like all management consultants after him, Jethro departs and goes on his way, but, unlike his successors, he does not appear to have demanded a fee ... or suggested more consulting...!
Guy Kingston is a producer and presenter.
He went to the newly post-Communist Russia in 1992, where he successfully sold over $1 million of UK soft drinks to Russian importers before starting an international, private postal service, PXPost, in late 1993. At its peak this business employed over 60 people with a turnover of circa $1.3 million.
Prior to that he worked as a stockbroker for 6 years.
He has an MSc in Entrepreneurship from the University of Bristol and is the Vice Chairman of the Federation of Small Business in Bristol.
Currently Guy runs Punch Above Productions, a specialist small business web video enterprise, as well as producing and presenting the Mind Your Own Business Podcast.
