Be brilliant on the basics to challenge tough times

Dr Uditha Liyanage at TMC presentation:

Continuing the "The Way Forward" series, The Management Club (TMC) had their most recent event at the Galle Face Hotel with PIM Director Dr Uditha Liyanage addressing them on a very appropriately titled presentation "Tough Times? Be brilliant on the basics".

Dr Uditha Liyanage

The presenter clearly emphasized the need to be brilliant on the basic management principles which have stood the test of time, how to recognize and give priority to what is more important in the long run than attending to what seems to be an urgent matter at a given time. Not attending to an urgent job may end up posing a problem but by not attending to what is important one may still survive, but lose all opportunities for improvement.

Dr Liyanage said the concept of the Management Club implies three things - work play and learn - reminding of work one thinks of factories, play tends to make you think of Clubs and learning sends our thoughts back to school. He commended the Management Club as an entity that combines all these three aspects of life in a very balanced manner.

Top companies are always brilliant in their basics irrespective of which industry they belong to, they make no mistakes in their core activities and take great pains in perfecting their basics. This leads to being positive even in tough times to take advantage of the good times when better times are around.

In what one may call "denominator management" of matching expenses against the turnover which brings about a knee jerk reaction by companies when some times in the name of cutting costs, some companies may cut the "arteries" in place of the "fat".

Dr. Uditha Liyanage described what he called Great Management Principals and Key Managerial Roles that one needs to perform to follow these great management principals.

Here is a summary of those Great Management Principals (GMP) and the Key Management Roles related to them as described by Dr Uditha Liyanage.

1. You get what you see

If you change the way you see things, the way you focus on your objective then only you will be able to change your course of action to achieve the desired result.

Key managerial role here is "Manager as Assumptions buster".

2. You get what you focus

As Managers many of us tend to focus on what is urgent and forget to exploit the opportunity by doing what is important in the long-term.

The key managerial role is - " Manager as Time Allocator".

3. You get what you hire - Talent vs Training

You must hire a person for what he is , his natural ability, and then train him for the skills that he can acquire - Managers should be able to clearly differentiate between the two aspects of "won't do" and "can't do" in their team members. 'Won't do' is an attitude problem whereas 'can't do' is because the person does not have the skill to do the job.

The key managerial role here is "Manager as Talent searcher".

4. You get what you believe

The difference between the ability in a person and the capability of performing a task is the extra element of inner challenge - the can do attitude that one must have.

The key managerial role is "Manager as Capacity Builder".

5.You get what you measure

It is only those things that get measured that will get done.

Key performance indicators such as nett profit, gross profit, turnover, debtors etc are not factors that are within your control but rather the customer perception on your products / services and the expenses you incur to achieve that are what you can influence with your actions.

In other words one step above the 'Top Line' and one step above the 'Bottom Line' are what can be controlled or influenced.

The key managerial role here is "Manager as Principal Monitor".

6. You get what you reward - what gets rewarded will get done

It is those actions that are rewarded that will get repeatedly performed rather than those that are not rewarded. Rewarding the wrong behaviour in employees will never help and can be disastrous but any behaviour that brings good results must be rewarded to improve one's performance.

The key managerial role here is "Manager as Reward Giver".