A map does not just chart, it unlocks and formulates meaning; it forms bridges between here and there, between disparate ideas that we did not know were previously connected. – Reif Larsen
Business organisations need management practices to manage their business. Today, businesses are facing increasing challenges to stay afloat. Water levels are rising. There are economic challenges, and there are industry challenges to multiple challenges posed by not just domestic but global competition. Organizations have to be constantly alert and keep anticipating the threats to stay ahead in the business growth curve. Their current ways of working can take them so far and not farther. They are in constant need of new ways to work their way out of such business challenges. They need new tools, new methods, and newer technologies to stay competitive, better engage their employees to serve their customers much better.
Management needs new frameworks to reframe their working. Organizations cannot apply the old rules to fight the new battle. Not just the playground, but the ground rules for the business game being played has changed and changing rapidly, organizations simply cannot apply the same framework to work their way out. There is a class difference. Large enterprises are able to access global best practices and quickly adapt to new ways of doing things. That is not to be the case with Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs). Majority of the SMEs are facing multiple problems in terms of accessing the global market to credit financing to talent retention.
Managements are requiring new ways to work their ways. Innovation is the new order and not just in designing products and processes but the array of practices in management. Over the last half a century, management models have evolved to help manage the management practices in organizations. We have models like Total Quality Management (TQM) to Balanced Scorecard (BSC) to Business Excellence Model (BEM). These are different from the enterprise applications like Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) to Supply Chain Management (SCM) to Customer Relationship Management (CRM).
These two mechanisms are different means to achieving our business goals but many of us aren’t able to differentiate and put them in proper perspective. Organizations have been using both the means but there exists a fundamental difference. Knowing the difference is essential. Management is too busy managing their business but very few managers are able to reflect on how the organization is getting managed. There are tangible things which are visible and can be measured and hence managed. But there are intangibles which are not visible, cannot be measured and hence remain a challenge to be properly managed. The production output to sales transactions can be captured and managed by technology tools like ERP. Whereas the part of business planning and organization design cannot be easily captured or merely programmed by such technology tools. These facets are highly intangible in nature, and we need to be cognizant of such invisible aspects of management at work.
Unlike the business processes and products which are tangible and measurable the management practices are not. We keep talking about management practices. We keep referring to best practice which keeps the large enterprises at their best state of affair compared to these small and medium sized organizations.
Hence, we come to these moot questions. How to create a level playing field? How to make organizations stay competitive in these large playing grounds irrespective of their size? It is here that most organizations need a new management framework to reframe their ways of managing things and work their way out to being efficient and competitive.
Almost every other day, all of us in some way or the other are using the GPS map to guide us in going to our destination in the best possible way. But when it comes to our business organizations, we don’t have a map to guide us and get us to reach our business goals in the best possible way. Managements are virtually struggling. Businesses are becoming tougher by the day. Organizations are finding it tough to organize themselves in the ever-increasing challenges posed by market, industry, and the economy.
Management needs new methods and new tools to manage themselves in the best possible manner. They are in dire need of a map framework much like the GPS map to reframe their working, guide them with repository of best practices and show them how to reach their business goals in the best way, not just once but on a continuous basis by mapping their ways of doing business in a much more structured and systematic manner.
MAP INDEX has been conceptualized keeping this very fundamental need of management in mind and it is a management framework to work for the management by the management and of the management. The objective is to democratize the management of practices in organization so that management is decentralized and reaches the grassroots of every organization. However, the control remains with the management, but the management practices are with every manager managing the business organization.
Everything we do is practice for something greater than where we currently are. Practice only makes for improvement. – Les Brown.
About the Author
Nihar Pradhan is the Founder and Practice Evangelist of MAP INDEX Consulting. As a creative writer he has published many books like MAP Index and written articles in leading newspapers and magazines. He also runs the Knowledge Portal "Makeup & Breakup" to break the barriers in mind and make a difference in people's thought by uniting knowledge.