Copyright (C) 2009 Henry J. Mantz, All Rights Reserved
A Few Things About Us
- Some of Our Values and Guiding Principles
- Some of Our Values and Guiding Principles
The consultant does not know how to run the client’s business better than the client’s managers. If he did, he would be managing
the client’s major competitor. The true consultant has experience, knowledge, skills and abilities that when imparted to the
client , will allow the client to run a better business. If a manager ever meets a consultant that can run his business better
than he can, then he should hire that consultant on the spot (no, not retain—HIRE!) Put them on the permanent payroll immediately
or shoot them in the parking lot when he leaves, but do not let that consultant get to your competition.
Top management will
drive the organization no matter what is happening in its bowls. That drive may be “down the tubes” but whatever the direction,
the driver is top management. Every employee wants to be successful and looks to his or her immediate superior to determine
(or guess) what to do to be successful in the organization. This is true throughout all levels. This daisy chain effect
works all the way up through the executive committee to the top. Every organization, and each level of an organization, reflects
its leader. When the bottom of the organization does not perform as the top desires, there is something failing in the daisy
chain of management. And usually that failing is not recognizable from inside the organization (or it would have been fixed
already).
Tools, techniques and processes can be very effective in organizations but only when fully understood by all managers
and totally integrated into the real running of the business. Employee Involvement, Team Building, Statistical Process Control,
Total Quality Management, Re-Engineering, Kaizen, and Paradigms can be very powerful if properly implemented but generally result
in huge costs and little benefit. If the only tool a man knows how to use is a hammer, he will have trouble teaching his son
to change a car tire. If he does not know how his car runs, he is totally at the mercy of his mechanic. If the nuclear
plant manager does not understand radiation, he will not be able to tell his people what to do when the alarm goes off. If a
CEO does not understand the difference between profit and cash flow, he will probably drive his company to bankruptcy. If a
manager does not understand normal variation, he will never control his processes or his people. This all relates to what Dr.
W. Edwards Deming called “profound knowledge.”
Henry J Mantz & Associates
Consultants to Senior Management
Double-click book to enter HJMA Blog