Management Philosophy - basis for Management Success 

The philosophy behind "Make Your Management System Work" is relatively simple. In essence it really comes down to "good management practice". Or, come to think about it, maybe we should rather be talking about "best management practice" or even "better management practice". I would prefer the last one as it implies progress, moving towards becoming better, one step up from what others may refer to as "good Management Practice". 

Management Philosophy is Better Management Practice

The management philosophy of Better Management Practice (BMP) boils down to doing the right things better. Better Management Practice is good management with the objective to reach identified goals.

BMP, within the context of my website, is directed at eliminating potential problems, reducing accidents, incidents and other unwanted events and their possible consequences/losses. Reducing losses require management activities to:

1. prevent unwanted events from happening (problem/risk elimination; purchasing of goods and services; design of installation, product, workplace; hiring and placement of people; management of change; etcetera)
2. allow early detection of deviations from accepted standards (audits, inspections, observations, incident recall, accident imaging, etc.)
3. cope with the results should the unwanted event nevertheless occur (emergency preparedness, post event plan)
4. learn from those events to carry out remedial actions to eliminate or reduce future occurrence of same or similar events 

Basically this is simple: if you want to be somewhere, you need to do something. Or rather: you need to carry out well-defined activities in a well-defined manner by well-trained people. Results can only be obtained if you:   

• know more or less where you are
• know where you want to be or at least have some idea about it
• establish objectives and the time path 
• find out what needs to be done, when, by whom and how, to reach objectives  
• provide the environment that stimulates cooperation of all involved to reach desired goals 
• make sure that what needs to be done is properly done and that results are being obtained 
• do it better and over again if results are less than expected  
• keep on doing and improve as appropriate even if results are what they should be

You need these ingredients for success: 

• MOTIVATION and LEADERSHIP to move from where you are now to a better future 
• PLAN containing what needs to be done, by whom, when and how
• TRAINED people to assure they now how to do what is to be done
• DO what is in the plan, including periodic assessments to assure that the plan is properly carried out and results are being obtained

These four ingredients are visualized in the Platform Model.

Management Philosophy - Top-down AND Bottom-up

Any major change or improvement in an organization is best done through a combination of top-down and bottom-up activity in which the appropriate people will play their specific roles. Bottom-up cooperation is obtained by top-down leadership. Such an approach is in line with business excellence practice that is represented in various models and approaches such as TQM and EFQM.

My simple "management philosophy" is that, if you want to be somewhere, you will have to work at it. Most things that come by themselves are things you do not want like unhappiness, illness, pain, sadness, poverty, accidents, losses. If you do not want that, you have to work at it, even though it may be difficult and you may not be successful in the beginning. The same is true for bottom-up involvement; if it comes by itself you may not want it BUT if you want to benefit from the knowledge, experience and cooperation that is available throughout the organization, you have to work at getting it; ask for it, let your actions show that you want it, walk the talk - you have to earn it!  

To remain successful controlling accidents, incidents and other unwanted events you need  a management system containing all necessary activity areas and related activities. You need to set it up and maintain it in such a way that it will be effectively used by those who have control over the other unwanted events, their causes and their consequences, at the point where control can be most effective. 

Basically it comes down to :

• a management system with the proper content and the right structure
• the 17-step process to set up this management system with the involvement of all concerned for system development as well as implementation

In fact the 17-step process is a guide to get the involvement of people at all necessary levels in the organization when preparing, making and executing the management system effectively.

The book that I make available through this website addresses the following issues:

• the basic models of the improvement process
• the description of the 17-step process to build an effective management system
• the content of what should be in a management  system
• the structure that the management system should have to stimulate implementation and improvement
• a rating system allowing you to put a numerical value on the improvement process of your company or that of your client 

The contents of my book are also on this website, however in less detail. The detail will save you time to start using the concepts mentioned on my website.