50
summarized the science of
management (which is essentially
the management of business
process) into two factors: enablers
and enterprise capabilities.
Enterprise capabilities stem from
senior management, and include
culture, tight governance
mechanisms, and strategic vision.
Enablers, however, are the task of
middle management. They include
design, infrastructure, process,
protocol, responsibilities, and
performance management. The
enablers turn vision into reality.
Realizing the vision
Hammer claimed that while the
aspiration for business growth
might come out of the boardroom,
it is a company’s infrastructure—
designed and implemented by
middle management—that makes
growth possible. Vision without
infrastructure is just a dream—it
cannot become a reality. Leaders
of growing companies know that,
regardless of their own aspirations,
the building blocks of growth are
laid by middle management.
At the Japanese brewer Asahi,
for example, it was a team of
middle managers who developed
Super Dry Beer, starting a craze in
Japan for dry beer and allowing the
company to capture more market
share. Similarly, a group of Motorola
middle managers was lauded for
successfully developing a new
wireless digital system for a client
in under one year (the process
usually takes two to three years).
Sitting between senior leaders
and operational staff, middle
managers are the communications
conduit through which executives
remain attuned to day-to-day
business and personnel issues.
Middle managers, as the Asahi and
Motorola examples show, are often
at the heart of corporate inspiration
and perspiration—they generate
ideas and they work to realize ideas
in practice. Middle management
is also the driver of functional
efficiency: improvements in cost,
quality, speed, and reliability are
delivered by middle management
and the processes it introduces.Growing the business
As a business evolves, so must the
management processes that enable
it. Whereas initial stages of growth
rely on individual initiative and
entrepreneurial spirit, evolving
ad-hoc practices into sustainable
growth needs to be based onKEEP EVOLVING BUSINESS PRACTICE
lessons learned through business
experience. The true science of
management is the conversion of
experience into repeatable and
reliable process—today’s problems
become tomorrow’s processes and
next year’s capabilities.
Process is the “stuff” of
management. Business processes
are essential to maintaining order;
like a country’s rail system and the
rules that accompany it, processes
are the infrastructure around which
a company organizes. Business
practice must evolve as the business
grows from a single outlet to a chain,
from one staff member to many,
and from national to multinational.Middle management as
a technology enables the
organization as we know it.
Alfred Chandler
US business historian (1918 –2007)Cath Kidston English fashion designer, author,
and entrepreneur Catherine
Kidston was born in 1958. Raised
with her three siblings near
Andover in Hampshire, she was
educated at a number of English
boarding schools, before moving
to London at 18.
After working as a store
assistant, she ran a vintage curtain
business with a friend on London’s
King’s Road for five years. In 1992
she sold the business and a year
later opened a store selling vintage
home goods, wallpaper, and fabric.
With about $23,000 in her pocket,she had to buy her stock
carefully, mixing her own fabrics
and wallpaper with items from
tag sales and fabric from eastern
Europe. Gingham ordered from
Europe arrived already made
into duvet covers and
pillowcases, rather than as a
fabric bolt. Kidston realized she
would have to improvise, so
decided to “cut it up and make
it into other things.” She kept
some of the bedding, but altered
most items into products such
as toiletry bags. The Cath
Kidston brand was born.