The Anatomy of a Consulting Firm 08 - Structural Trends

By David Maister

Two trends suggest where the bulk of the market lies. First, clients are buying fewer services as if their problem is totally unique. They more frequently want to tap into a firm’s accumulated experience and methodologies in order to benefit from the efficiencies that come from dealing with providers who have done it before. They are buying less brain surgery and more aspirin. (The widespread use of technology also has the effect of allowing complex analyses formerly performed by Brain Surgeons to be conducted by junior staff, thus reinforcing this trend.)

Second, clients are increasingly reluctant to say to their professionals, “You take care of things and report back when it is done.” More and more, clients want to be involved in the process, or at a minimum be kept informed of their options, kept up-to-date on progress and assisted in understanding what is going on and why.

From these two trends, we can hypothesize that the bulk of the market is moving towards Nursing (established, proven procedures with high client contact) and away from Brain Surgery. As reflected by the amount of price competition in most professions, the Pharmacy also represents a high percentage of fees. While critical, the role of Psychotherapist is not a high-volume area. It is filled with those few individuals who have sufficiently earned their clients’ trust and confidence so that, whenever the client has a problem, the Psychotherapist is called in to diagnose what is needed.

Most professional firms put new entry-level people to work in the Pharmacy first, so they can learn the key technical skills of their profession. As time progresses, people have historically moved in one of two directions, either following the technical career path to Brain Surgeon or the client contact career path to Nurse.

Psychotherapists have tended to evolve from the more creative Nurses, although not all Nurses can make the transition to being accepted as the client’s prime diagnostician. While it is possible for Brain Surgeons to become Psychotherapists, it is rarer. Unless a professional learns the basic client contact skills early in his or her career, they are difficult to develop later.

This traditional approach to career development (often called “paying your dues”) is increasingly under attack. Consider the Pharmacy service. Under the traditional career model, the aspirin is being dispensed by professionals temporarily working in the Pharmacy, serving their time until they are promoted to a higher-level service. This method of having the aspirin dispensed by “Brain Surgeons in training” is not entirely aligned with the clients’ interests.

Unlike the Brain Surgeon firm, which can only afford to hire the best and brightest from the top schools, a focused Pharmacy practice would, appropriately, view these as the wrong people to bring in. Not only do they command higher salaries, but their superior intellect may be inappropriate for the service the Pharmacy is trying to provide. If a firm’s business is making hamburgers, it will not want to hire people who are dreaming of the day they can leave and become Cordon Blue chefs. It will want and need people who are excited about hamburgers.

A focused Pharmacy practice should be able to hire people without a formal education in its specific area, since smart people can learn to apply well-defined methodologies and tools. Training and development should be structured and formal to ensure that new people can quickly learn to apply the firm’s established methodologies. (This is exactly what is happening in some management consulting firms, which now hire people with degrees in such diverse fields such as anthropology and liberal arts.)

Employees in the Pharmacy are not promised a fast-track promotion and career path. In fact, there should be no traditional “up-or-out” policy. (This is one reason why the big accounting firms, increasingly realizing that much of their business is Pharmacy, have recently moved away from such policies).

The Nursing practice requires capable people who are not only able to apply methodologies but who are able to work well with clients. One common approach is to hire individuals who have prior industry experience working in client environments in order to maximize the chance that these individuals can empathize with the client situation.

The Anatomy of a Consulting Firm 07 - Ownership and Governance

By David Maister

Among the many things that are affected by the market positioning (i.e., mix of services) of the firm are ownership and governance. The traditional model in consulting has been a privately held partnership, with all significant decisions being made after extensive consultation with the senior group. This model matches well with a Brain Surgery or Psychotherapy practice, which requires significant power and autonomy to be left in the hands of the senior practitioners. A related, but different, part of the partnership tradition is that senior people are rewarded by the income they derive during their time at the firm, and not from the increase in the value of the firm itself. (Many firms transfer their ownership between generations through an “in and out at book-value” system.) Ownership is restricted to those currently practicing within the firm.

However, recent years have seen the emergence of publicly held consulting firms. Theoretically, there is nothing in the corporate form or in public ownership that would prevent the preservation of a “partnership ethos,” with decision making through extensive consultation and the retention of significant autonomy for senior practitioners. However, when a firm has gone public, the value of the shares (and hence the company) takes on a greater significance, and this inevitably affects the process of decision making. A greater emphasis is given to building the systems of the firm to embed value in the firm, not just in the individuals who belong to it, and this often leads to greater codification. It is easier to “own” a chain of pharmacies than a rambunctious group of brain surgeons and psychotherapists.

The Anatomy of a Consulting Firm 06 - The Need to Focus

By David Maister

The categorization scheme used here does not define whole disciplines, but rather different market segments. For example, some clients for a service like market research may (historically) seek out a Pharmacist (the work, in their view, being mostly programmatic and performed with little need for ongoing client contact). However, other market research clients may want pioneering work and require (and request) extensive diagnosis, and also want a great deal of ongoing client interaction. They may seek a provider with demonstrated Nursing or Psychotherapy skills and methodologies. Which box a firm is in is determined less by the profession it practices than by the market segments it is trying to serve.

And therein lies the problem! Suppose that you are a highly skilled tax practitioner who handles complex, frontier tax problems through creative, innovative thinking (i.e., you are a Brain Surgeon). A client comes along who wants to get their basic tax forms completed to ensure compliance with all tax laws. Since this is your client, it’s a tax problem and you’re a tax provider, it is tempting to conclude that you’re the perfect person to help the client.

Wrong! As a Brain Surgeon, you are probably high-priced, and your key talent is creativity and complex problem solving. Completing tax forms and ensuring compliance is a Pharmacy job; it is not work for a Brain Surgeon. A Brain Surgeon may have the tendency to treat all problems as if they required Brain Surgery: The client says, “I’d like to buy some aspirin,” and the Brain Surgeon replies, “Sure! But first, get on the operating table so we can investigate and find out whether it’s aspirin you really need!”

(Of course, the opposite problem is equally unacceptable. If a client says “I have a unique bet-your-company problem,” it is not very sensible to respond by saying, “Let us show you our established methodology based on years of solving identical problems!”)

Even if you as a Brain Surgeon recognize the need to treat a problem as an “aspirin” job, it would still be a misallocation of resources for you to do it, since low-cost, methodology-driven activities are not the Brain Surgeon’s key talents. In fact, everyone will lose if you, a Brain Surgeon, do it yourself: The client will not get low cost, you will be underutilizing your talents (and will probably find the work dull) and your junior staff will be denied the opportunity to perform work that, while old hat for you, might be interesting and skill building for them.

What this analysis points out is that while it may be acceptable for a firm to be a “full-service hospital” with capabilities to meet a broad range of client needs, it is not acceptable for individual professionals to try to do so. It is highly unlikely that any one individual will excel simultaneously at all the virtues of efficiency, creativity, counseling and diagnosis.

While Brain Surgery is the traditional self-image of many professions, the harsh reality is that Brain Surgeon needs probably represent a very small percentage of the total fees paid in any profession. It is also true in “real” health care, where surgeons may be the most glamorous providers but represent only a tiny fraction of the health care needs of society.

The Anatomy of a Consulting Firm 05 - Differences Between Consulting Practices

By David Maister

There is a market for all four of these kinds of providers, and they all represent “honorable” ways of being of value to clients. However, the four services described represent four profoundly different businesses. Virtually everything, from marketing to hiring, managerial styles to economics, key skills to career paths and performance appraisal criteria, varies significantly depending upon which service the firm is trying to provide.

Consider, for example, how each of these providers makes money. The Pharmacist is in a fee-sensitive business where the key to economic success lies in finding ways to dispense the “aspirin” at a very low cost (without compromising quality). This means getting the work done with a minimum of high-priced senior professional time and extensive use of either low-cost (junior) time or time-saving tools such as methodologies, systems, templates and procedures. The Pharmacist is in a low-fee, high-leverage business.

The Nurse also needs to have well-established procedures, methodologies and tools, but if the Nurse has superior counseling skills, then he or she can command higher fees than the Pharmacist. Since the client is buying a relationship with a “primary care provider,” he or she will be less inclined to shop on price and more likely to pay a premium for an advisor they can work well with and trust.

However, since much of the work is likely to involve client contact, there is probably a little less chance to leverage (by using low-priced junior professionals) for the “front-room” portion of the work. The Nurse thus makes money by charging higher fees than the Pharmacist, but probably employs lower leverage.

The Brain Surgeon is paid for innovation, creativity and frontier technical skills. Accordingly, the Brain Surgeon has even less ability to get projects done by leveraging junior resources or established methodologies. Instead, the Brain Surgeon firm makes money if (and only if) it is truly recognized by the market as being a leading-edge practitioner that justifies premium fees. Brain Surgeons make money through high fees and low to modest leverage.

The Psychotherapist (or Family Doctor) has the most unleveraged business of all. Since most of the work is face-to-face counseling at the highest level of the client organization, little use can be made of junior staff (except for background analytical work in support of the Psychotherapist’s efforts).

The Psychotherapist makes money in one of two ways: Either high fees are charged or a diagnosis results in work that can be referred to other parts of the “hospital.” In other words, the Psychotherapist may not be very profitable on a stand-alone basis, but makes money by being a “relationship manager” and generating work for others.

The Anatomy of a Consulting Firm 04 - The Client Marketplace

The Client Marketplace

Degrees of client contact and customization vary from to firm, or even practice area to practice area. Some differences between types of practice are shown in Figure 1. This defines four kinds of professional practice, which for the purposes of example we’ll call Pharmacist, Nurse, Brain Surgeon and Psychotherapist.

The Pharmacist

A Pharmacy practice is one where the client is trying to buy a relatively familiar service and does not require very much counseling, consultation or contact. The client wants the service performed to strict technical standards at a minimal cost. Notice that this type of practice is defined as a standardized process conducted with little, if any, client contact. This does not mean that the result cannot be highly customized, merely that the process to be followed in producing the result is well specified. While this type of work is common in systems installation and other IT firms, it can also be found in high-end strategy firms, where component analyses of cost structures, market shares, competitive positioning and many other studies, as valuable as they can be, have been highly proceduralized and can be conducted with thoroughness and accuracy by junior staff. The method of conducting these analyses does not vary from job to job.

Quality standards, in the sense of “conformance to specifications,” must be high for this work, since the client will be “swallowing the pills.” However, the client does not require that the pill be specifically designed for him or her. The client wants to buy well-established methodologies and procedures, not innovation and creativity.

The client is in effect saying, “I have a headache, and I know that you, along with many others, are licensed to dispense aspirin. Don’t waste your time and mine trying to convince me that it’s brain surgery that I need. I’ve done this before, and I can tell for myself the difference between the need for aspirin and for brain surgery. I want aspirin! What’s your best price?”

The Nurse

The Nursing practice also delivers relatively familiar (or “mature”) services that do not require high levels of innovation. However, it differs from the Pharmacist practice in that the emphasis is not only on the ability to dispense the pill (which still may be required), but also on the ability to counsel and guide the client through the process. This time, the client wants to be nurtured and nursed: “Help me understand what’s going on; explain to me what you’re doing and why; involve me in the decision making; help me understand my options. Be with me and interact with me throughout the process until this is all over. I need a front-room advisor, not a back-room technician.” (The nursing practice can be distinguished from the pharmacy practice by the proportion of total project time that is spent in contact with the client.) Practices that work in this area are those where the consultant’s approach to is to help the client (and the client’s organization) arrive at its own decisions and conclusions, rather than performing independent studies and presenting the consultant’s recommendations. This requires interpersonal and consultation skills in addition to analytical skills.

The Brain Surgeon

The Brain Surgeon combines high levels of customization, creativity and innovation with a low degree of client interaction. The client is searching for a practitioner who is at the leading edge of his or her discipline, and who can bring innovative thinking to bear on a unique assignment. Here, the client says, “I have a bet-your-company problem. Save me! I don’t want to know the details, just find the right answer! If I wake up in the morning, I’ll pay your outrageous bill! I’m not shopping on price, I’m trying to find the most creative or technically superior provider I can.” Consulting firms positioned here tend to be regarded as leading thinkers, and tackle unique, one-of-a-kind problems in the areas of strategy, technology or organization.

The Psychotherapist (or Family Doctor)

Finally, the Psychotherapist (or Family Doctor) practice is one where the client says, “Again I have a bet-your-company problem. This time, I don’t want you to give me the anesthetic and leave me out of the process. I want to be intimately involved in the problem-solving process.

What I’m really trying to buy is someone who can sit down with me, help me understand why my company is falling apart, how I should differentiate between a symptom and a cause, what I must deal with and what I can afford to postpone. Sit down with me and my executive team and help us understand our problem and our options.”

As with the Brain Surgeon, the emphasis for the Psychotherapist is as much about creative diagnosis as it is about execution. When buying the services of a Nurse or Pharmacist, clients know what they want done: they are hiring someone to execute it. But with Brain Surgeons and Psychotherapists, the clients are seeking help determining what needs to be done as well as how to do it.

Psychotherapy practitioners can be found in most high-end consulting firms, since many client projects contain an initial diagnostic component. Except for solo practitioners and other small firms, few consulting firms spend all their billable hours in this activity.

The Anatomy of a Consulting Firm 03 - Leverage and Profitability

By David Maister

A consulting firm’s leverage is also central to its economics. The rewards of partnership or ownership (the high levels of compensation attained by vice presidents or senior partners) come only in part from the high hourly (or daily) rates that the top professionals can charge for their own time. A significant portion of profits derives from the surplus generated from hiring staff at a given salary and billing them out at multiples of that salary. By leveraging its high-cost seniors with low-cost juniors, the professional firm can lower its effective hourly rate and thus reduce its cost to clients while simultaneously generating additional profit for the partners.

The market for the firm’s services will determine the fees it can command for a given project; its costs will be determined by the firm’s ability to deliver the service with a cost-effective mix of junior, manager and senior time. If the firm can find a way to deliver its services at the same quality with a higher proportion of juniors to seniors, it will be able to achieve lower service-delivery costs. (Note that this is true whether the firm bills by the hour or on a fixed-fee basis.) The project team structure of the firm is therefore an important component of firm profitability.

The Anatomy of a Consulting Firm 02 - Leverage and the People Marketplace

By David Maister

The connection between a firm’s leverage structure and the people marketplace can be captured in a single sentence: people do not join consulting for jobs but for careers. They have strong expectations of progressing through the organization, from grinder to minder to finder, at some pace agreed to (explicitly or implicitly) in advance.

While the pace of progress may not be a rigid one (“up or out in x years”), both the individual and the organization usually share strong expectations about what constitutes a reasonable period of time for each stage of the career path. Individuals who are not promoted within this period will seek greener pastures elsewhere, either by their own choice or career ambitions or at the strong suggestion of the firm.

Few firms offer career positions at the middle-level or junior ranks. Partnership or ownership is usually restricted to those who attain the highest levels. In recent years, however, which have seen a people shortage or “war for talent,” some firms have experimented with offering profit sharing, stock options or other financial incentives to allow those who are not at the highest levels to share in the firm’s overall success. This has not removed the expectation that most staff will continue to strive for promotion to the highest levels.

This promotion system serves an essential screening function for the firm. Not all young professionals hired will develop the project management and client relations skills required at the higher levels. While good initial recruiting procedures may serve to reduce the degree of screening required, they can rarely eliminate the need for the promotion process to serve this important function. The existence of a “risk of not making it” also serves the firm in that it puts a degree of pressure on junior personnel to work hard and succeed.

The promotion incentive is directly influenced by two key dimensions: the normal amount of time spent at each level before being considered for promotion and the “odds of making it” (the proportion of juniors promoted.) For any given rate of growth, a highly leveraged firm (one with a high ratio of juniors to seniors) will offer a lower probability of making it to the top, since there are many juniors seeking to rise and relatively few senior slots opening up. A less leveraged firm at the same rate of growth will need to bring along a higher percentage of its juniors, thus providing a greater promotion incentive.

The Anatomy of a Consulting Firm 01 - Leverage Structure

By David Maister

The consulting firm may be viewed as the modern embodiment of the medieval craftsman’s shop, with its apprentices, journeymen and master craftsmen. The early years of an individual’s association with a consulting firm are, indeed, usually viewed as an apprenticeship, and the relation between juniors and seniors is the same: the senior craftsmen repay the hard work and assistance of the juniors by teaching them their craft.

Every consulting project (and hence every consulting firm) has its own appropriate mix of three kinds of people. By tradition, these are called “finders, minders and grinders.” This refers to the three main activities that make up consulting work. Finders (usually the most senior level) are responsible for bringing in the business, scoping and designing the projects, and engaging in the high-level client relations necessary during the work. The main responsibility of minders is to manage the projects and the team of people working on it. Grinders (the lowest level) perform the analytical tasks. Naturally, this is an idealized structure and, depending on the firm, all may participate in analysis and/or junior people may be delegated tasks associated in the ideal model with higher levels.

The required shape of the organization (the relative mix of juniors, middle-level staff and seniors) is usually described as its leverage structure, and is primarily determined by the (aggregate) skill requirements of its work: the mix of senior-level, middle-level and junior-level tasks involved in the projects that the firm undertakes.

Getting the leverage structure right is key to the consulting firm’s success. If a firm brings in a mix of client work that requires more juniors, and fewer seniors, than the firm has in place, higher-priced people will end up performing lower-value tasks (probably at lower fees), and there will be an underutilization of senior personnel. The firm will make less money than it should be making. The opposite problem is no less real. If a firm brings in work that has skill requirements of a higher percentage of seniors and a lesser percentage of juniors, the consequences will be (at least) equally adverse: a shortfall of qualified staff to perform the tasks and a consequent quality risk. Matching the skills required by the work to the skills available in the firm (i.e., managing the leverage structure) is central to keeping the firm in balance.

Hotmail ActiveSync đã hỗ trợ đồng bộ trên nhiều nền tảng

Xuất phát từ nhu cầu chia sẻ và cập nhật lịch công tác của các tư vấn, giảng viên và nhân viên khác trong 2 công ty mà xác suất bố trí trùng lịch làm việc là rất cao do các tư vấn và giảng viên đều tham gia nhiều dự án cùng lúc ở cả hai công ty (trên cả nhiều máy tính và mobile), tôi đã thử nghiệm khá nhiều giải pháp khác nhau kể cả về dịch vụ lịch online (Google) cũng như các giải pháp đồng bộ lịch miễn phí như Google Calendar Sync hay Calgoo Connect cũng như sự kết hợp của những giải pháp này.

Phải đến khi Microsoft hỗ trợ Exchange cho Hotmail và cung cấp thêm add-in Hotmail Connector cho MS Outlook thì mới thực sự đáp ứng được yêu cầu trên, đồng thời giảm thiểu được lỗi do nhiều người cùng tương tác với lịch một lúc. Đáng tiếc là Hotmail Exchange vẫn chưa hoạt động trên các hệ điều hành mobile khác như Windows Mobile hay Android.

Hướng dẫn sync lịch có thể thực hiện như dưới đây.

Sync nhiều lịch trên Hotmail với các máy tính cài Outlook

o Tạo tài khoản hotmail, ví dụ abc@hotmail.com

o Đăng nhập tài khoản này, bạn sẽ thấy có 1 lịch default là abc’s calendar in abc@hotmail.com

o Tạo thêm lịch khác, ví dụ def

o Download phần mềm Hotmail Outlook Connector theo link sau: http://download.microsoft.com/download/3/A/B/3ABEEF03-F48D-4172-A2F7-196C3E97559B/OutlookConnector.exe

o Thoát hắn Outlook (bấm File/Exit)

o Chạy file vừa download về để cài đặt

o Chạy Outlook

o Trên Menu sẽ xuất hiện thêm menu mới: Outlook Connector

o Bấm Outlook Connector/Add new account

o Nhập các thông tin của tài khoản

§ Tên: Tùy chọn

§ Tài khoản: abc@hotmail.com

§ Password: pass

o Thoát Outlook

o Khởi động lại Outlook

o Bấm Send and receive để đồng bộ lịch

o Trên lịch của Outlook xuất hiện thêm 2 Calendar mới:

§ Abc’s Calendar in abc@hotmail.com

§ Def in abc@hotmail.com

o Thêm, bớt, sửa lịch như bình thường.

o Sync nhiều lịch giữa Hotmail và Iphone:

Sync nhiều lịch trên Hotmail với nhiều Iphone

o Trên Iphone, chọn Setting/Mail, Contacts and Calendars/Add Account/Microsoft Exchange

o Nhập tài khoản Hotmail

o Mục Server, nhập: m.hotmail.com

o Chọn Calendars

o Đóng Setting của Calendars lại

o Mở Calendars, Iphone sẽ tự động cập nhật lịch theo từng lớp khi có kết nối Internet

Bây giờ bạn đã có thể đồng bộ nhiều lịch giữa nhiều iphone, máy tính (outlook) và một hoặc nhiều tài khoản hotmail. Cài đặt tương tự cho cả nhóm để đồng bộ lịch giữa các thành viên cả nhóm.

Thay đổi cách quản lý như thế nào

Nguồn: xalo.vn
http://my.opera.com/Quan%20tri%20doanh%20nghiep/blog/show.dml/3145693


Tôi nhận được cú điện thoại của người bạn: hãy giúp anh ấy tổ chức lại công ty sao cho anh ấy đang từ Giám đốc chuyển lên thành Tổng giám đốc, còn các trưởng bộ phận chuyển lên thành các giám đốc. Hết sức bất ngờ, tôi bảo anh đơn giản chỉ cần cho in lại các danh thiếp với các chức danh mà anh ấy muốn, đâu có phải tổ chức lại chi cho lôi thôi. Anh phải diễn giải một hồi nữa tôi mới hiểu: anh định mở thêm một ngành hàng mới, qui mô công ty do đó lớn lên nên phải đặt lại chức danh cho xứng tầm.

Đây là một ví dụ thực tế, hết sức điển hình cho cái gọi là quản lý theo sự thuận tiện, như luật sư Nguyễn Ngọc Bích đã từng đề cập. Cần kinh doanh thêm một ngành hàng, thì chỉ việc đẻ ra một bộ phận mới. Công ty bự ra, thì Giám đốc phải thành Tổng giám đốc, trưởng phòng phải thành Giám đốc. Không ai mất công xác định xem cái bộ phận mới ấy nó phải làm ăn ra làm sao, ông Giám đốc phải làm việc khác ông Trưởng phòng như thế nào? Nói chung đụng đâu làm đấy miễn được việc (trước mắt) thì thôi.

Các ví dụ tương tự như thế thì còn nhiều. Các biểu hiện, tính chất, hậu quả của lối làm việc theo kiểu thuận tiện ấy thì đã có nhiều người nói. Điều đáng mừng là chính các nhà doanh nghiệp cũng bức xúc và thường xuyên có những đột phá với các làn sóng: tái lập công ty, áp dụng ISO, rồi tái cấu trúc, thậm chí cổ phần hoá cũng thành phong trào khi nhiều công ty TNHH lột xác để trở thành công ty cổ phần trong những năm 2001-2003 vừa qua. Nhưng có thể nói cái gốc quản lý của các doanh nghiệp nói chung chưa có nhiều thay đổi. Đa số các doanh nghiệp khi thực hiện các biện pháp chuyển đổi quản lý như trên thường chỉ mang lại những thay đổi về mặt hình thức tổ chức. Một số doanh nghiệp có thu hoạch được các lợi ích khi áp dụng quản lý theo qui trình, nhưng cơ bản cũng chỉ ở mức thủ tục hoá các công việc quản lý cho trôi chảy và thống nhất hơn, chứ chưa thật sự có sự thay đổi về bản chất của cách quản lý, biểu hiện ở chỗ:

- Công tác quản lý vẫn theo tầm ngắn chứ chưa có tính chiến lược: đụng đâu làm đó chứ chưa tính được nước cờ cho những bước tiếp theo một cách có căn cứ. Chú trọng giải quyết sự vụ hơn làm việc có hệ thống. Thiếu đầu tư cho tương lai.

- Quản lý chưa dựa trên thực tiễn (management by fact): thiếu việc thu thập và xử lý thông tin có hệ thống, ra quyết định tuỳ tiện, dựa vào quan điểm và sự thuận tiện cho cá nhân chứ không xuất phát từ việc xác định và giải quyết vấn đề trên cơ sở thực tiễn.

- Hệ thống tổ chức không theo nhu cầu công việc, mà được đặt ra theo thói quen, dựa trên kinh nghiệm (người ta có phòng nọ, thì mình cũng phải có). Cách vận hành tổ chức còn dựa theo hệ thống quan liêu, không theo chu trình công việc; dựa trên cá nhân và quan hệ cá nhân chứ không theo qui định…

Vấn đề cơ bản cần thực hiện, như luật sư Nguyễn Ngọc Bích đã đề nghị: phải thay đổi cách quản lý rồi mới có thể nói đến chuyện tái cấu trúc hay áp dụng ISO được. Nhưng câu hỏi còn bỏ ngỏ là phải thay đổi như thế nào và bằng cách nào?

Theo quan điểm của chúng tôi, áp dụng quản lý khoa học là một chuyện lớn, vì nó đòi hỏi sự áp dụng tổng hợp nhiều kiến thức và cần sự cộng tác của cả đội ngũ trong tổ chức và cần thời gian. Tuy nhiên, có một yếu tố có thể xác nhận sự chuyển đổi cách thức quản lý là việc chuyển từ quản lý theo sự tuỳ tiện sang quản lý dựa trên thực tiễn, hay nói cách khác: áp dụng quản lý theo thực tiễn. Yêu cầu cụ thể của việc áp dụng quản lý theo thực tiễn là: giải quyết vấn đề theo một qui trình khoa học, ứng dụng việc phân tích thông tin về thực tiễn hoạt động của doanh nghiệp vào quá trình ra quyết định. Khi việc này đã thành nếp, thì việc áp dụng khoa học quản lý sẽ trở thành động lực tất yếu.

Trong thực tiễn tư vấn quản lý ở các doanh nghiệp Việt Nam, chúng tôi hiện đang áp dụng các thành phần sau trong một dự án xây dựng hệ thống quản lý:

- Quản trị chiến lược: không chỉ quan tâm đến việc xây dựng chiến lược, mà tập trung vào quá trình xây dựng chiến lược, triệt để áp dụng việc phân tích thông tin vào xây dựng chiến lược, chú trọng tới việc các thành viên của tổ chức nhận thức về các căn cứ của chiến lược như thế nào, chứ không chú trọng tới chiến lược trên giấy.

- Từ chiến lược, xác định các quá trình công việc cần thiết để thực hiện thành công chiến lược ấy. Phân tích các quá trình thành các trách nhiệm cụ thể. Trách nhiệm sau đó được phân bổ cho các bộ phận và chức danh cần thiết, từ đó hình thành tổ chức. Các quá trình công việc đồng thời qui định các bộ phận và chức danh phải phối hợp với nhau ra sao, hình thành cách vận hành tổ chức.

Về cách thức thực hiện sự thay đổi:

- Đào tạo được xác định là một cách truyền thông hiệu quả, giúp cung cấp kiến thức và thông tin đến đối tượng cần thay đổi.

- Quá trình coaching là bước tập dợt và dẫn dắt việc áp dụng kiến thức và thông tin mới. Trong quá trình này, đã diễn ra nhiều tranh luận nhiều khi gay gắt giữa nhà tư vấn và đội ngũ quản lý của doanh nghiệp. Kết quả của nó là sự đồng thuận và cam kết cao với cái mới; còn cái mới cũng được thích ứng để phù hợp với một doanh nghiệp cụ thể.

- Quá trình thực hiện và triển khai cái mới trong thực tế được giám sát và đánh giá thường xuyên, để thúc đẩy việc áp dụng cái mới, ngăn ngừa sự chệch hướng.

Có thể nói việc thay đổi cung cách quản lý không hề là một việc đơn giản và dễ dàng, mà thường đòi hỏi sự nỗ lực rất cao, rất tập trung của bản thân đội ngũ quản lý doanh nghiệp và cần cách thức tổ chức, quản lý dự án rất chặt chẽ, để duy trì sự tập trung và chuyển giao những lợi ích một cách thường xuyên và đúng lúc.