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Uncertainties, technological disruptions, M&As, and new waves of competition will find corporations scrambling for quick-fix management solutions. BT peers into the future to pin-point the manager's millennium fads.
Probably because they sound knowledgeable or because they actually work, management buzzwords have a way of taking on a life of their own. Whoever thought that quality management wouldn't mean product quality alone, but "total quality". Or that lean manufacturing was not just about reducing inventories, but about putting the whole organisation through a diet course. Or that learning organisations, re-engineering, one-minute management, management by walking about, core competence, excellence, chaos, team-based management, matrix-based management, continuous improvement, value-based management...the list simply goes on...would all become words you, the manager, would need to mouth to keep your job.
If buzzwords fail it is because the companies and managers implementing those concepts haven't done a good job. May be there was a lot of resistance to change, and the top management did not try hard enough to counter it with a "how-it-will-help" programme. In the 21st century, competition will get tougher; there will be a scrabble for new ideas and more skilled employees and, of course, the consultants and management gurus will have a field day coining new buzzwords. BT takes a look at some of the words that will spawn a whole new set of management jargon that will invade the managerial lexicon of tomorrow. Virtual: Expect everything to be virtual: your organisation, employees, customers, suppliers, associates, and even the value chain. Not only will the word be praised as a virtue, but it also will be used as a benchmark for corporate hipness; the more virtual, the hipper it will be. Of course, the driving force behind the quasi-real business of tomorrow will be the growing connectivity. Employees could exist, and yet not exist; the employer could have a name, but not address, you could have vendors you've never met, and customers whom you only know by the ID number assigned by your server cookie. Knowledge: Grey matter will fetch a premium. There will be an array of knowledge officers, knowledge capturing and leveraging systems, and knowledge centres. The objective: to come up with better products and services, and better ways of (don't laugh) servicing customers. Since everything ordinary will be passe, the pressure will be on to create things unique. Quirkiness will be celebrated, and mavericks rewarded. The pay you take home will be in proportion to your ability to add value. Alliance: Let's face it: if you can beat 'em, it makes a whole lot of sense to join 'em. Ergo, there will be a general scramble to avoid competition by tying up with your competitors (existing or potential); suppliers who are liable to join the rival camp will be retained with promises of fairplay and equality; customers will also get allied with, simply because it gives marketers somebody to part share the blame with whenever a product does badly. That apart, there will be a whole bunch of weirdoes they call transnational colleagues to ally with. (Re)Re-engineering: This ain't going away in the new millennium. As new communication technologies change the rules of organisation and work, re-engineering will emerge as a bigger Dalal/Wall Street bait. After all the logic of re-engineering is impeccable: if your company is constantly being put through changes, you can't blame the CEO for missing those super-profits projections. Give him a break, people. Enabling: That's what they'll say to sound good. Your CEO or boss won't be giving orders anymore; instead, he'll simply enable or facilitate an environment where you can work yourself to death. That's the organisation's way of telling you: "Hey, we did stay out of your hair, didn't we?" In other words, if things don't work out, you can't look to a team to share the blame with. You take the fall-alone. |
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More often than not, such buzzwords prove
to be shortlived, either because they came up short on their promise or
simply were overwhelmed by a newer catchphrase that better captured
tomorrow's concerns. Fads are bad, but buzzwords aren't. For example, few
companies can claim that total quality management does not lead to
long-term improvements in all-round quality: the product, the processes,
work management, people relations, vendor relationships, and time to
market. In fact, it's safe to say that even the most hysterical buzzword
has its positives. Take chaos and excellence, for example. The first
focuses the management's attention on the disruptions in the business
environment: new technologies, new products, and new ways of doing
businesses--all of which can kill a slow-moving corporation. Similarly,
excellence is another way of saying the organisation must strive for
superlative results in whatever it does. Nothing faddist about it, right?