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Management Issues

How does it feel to be a manager in the 21st Century?

If you are typical of our profession, the most prevalent feeling is probably one of increasing or unrelenting pressure. Some of us experience this as a continuous flow of challenge and opportunity, others as ever growing demands and difficulties. But in both cases, the expectations of our role are as high as they have ever been, and they are still rising.

Management’s response has been to rise to the challenge, to dig deeper, work harder, and win through – or sometimes not! Sometimes the challenge has been too great, and some managers have simply clung on, done what they could, and hoped for the best.

Winners and losers you might say? Perhaps. But maybe that is a misleading division – maybe the only real difference between ‘winners’ and ‘losers’ is a few years and the next big challenge. Maybe some of today’s ‘winners’ are simply ‘losers-in-waiting’.

But some winners win because they are playing a different game. They have changed the rules! And they have changed the rules, because they understand how to. They have learnt lessons from how other professions work at a different level and have adapted this to their own needs.

In this section, we look at this in more depth:

• In Increasing Pressure: we look at the causes of management pressure, the reasons why it will continue to increase, and how traditional management approaches will ultimately fail to cope
• In Professionalism: we look at how professions that are most linked to high levels of change and complexity have developed strategies which rise above the change
• In Systematic Approach: we look at how management can adapt the principles of these professional approaches to not only rise above change, but to actively use this as a competitive strategy

Please click on the links above to explore these areas in greater detail (or if you have loaded ‘site navigation’ click the appropriate sub-headings).

QFD Transforms performance by 140%
(case study)

Managing by Design-book now on release
(purchase on line)

New Out!
The Big Picture
(resources)