Spring Clean? Useful Management Tools & Trends..

Wherever you look these days there is survey about something or other, but the Bain & Company's annual study I always find interesting, as it so international and well researched. As Interim Management gathers pace outside of the UK, even in the US it is useful to understand the global drivers where potentially Interim Managers are increasingly able to play a critical role. I have included the summary below:

Bain & Company's has released the Results of Bain & Company's Management Tools & Trends 2007 study which they conduct annually.

Over the past 14 years, we have completed 11 surveys, assembling a database that now includes 8,504 respondents from more than 70 countries in North America, Europe, Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America.

This year, we received 1,221 completed surveys from a broad range of international executives. We also conducted personal follow-up interviews to further probe the circumstances under which tools are most likely to produce desired results.

This year's trends analysis highlights

Executives are recognizing the impact of soft issues - Executives are looking beyond cost cutting to be successful. Nine of ten executives agree 'Culture is a important as strategy for business success' and seven of ten feel 'Environmentally-friendly products and practices are an important part of our mission'. The concern with environmental issues is especially true among executives in China and other emerging market countries with 77% of them agreeing versus 59% of executives in established markets.

Companies are looking outside to grow - Companies are acknowledging the impact of globalization as five of ten feel 'Working with China and India will be vital to our success over the next 5 years' and four of ten agree 'Cross-border acquisitions will be critical to achieving our growth objectives in the next 5 years'.

While executives overall are bullish on the economy, those in China express the most concern - Companies looking to China and India for growth may be in for a challenge as more executives in China (45%) are planning for an economic slowdown than executives in any other region (27% North America, 18% other Asia-Pacific, 15% Europe, 10% Latin America).

Innovation remains a priority - While an issue with fewer firms than in 2004, companies continue to struggle with innovation. Eight of ten respondents believe that 'Innovation is more important than cost reduction for long-term success'. Yet, as we saw in 2004, the majority of executives confess that 'We could dramatically boost innovation by collaborating with outsiders, even competitors'.

IT continues to be seen as beneficial - Nine of ten executives believe that 'Information technology can create significant competitive advantages'. The majority of executives feel their company is investing wisely in IT as only 3 of 10 feel 'We rarely achieve expected paybacks from our IT investments'.

The view on management trends

The top twelve management trend as described in the report are:

The 10 Most Used Management Tools

To qualify for inclusion, a tool had to be:

• Relevant to senior management
• Topical (as evidenced by coverage in the business press)
• Measurable

The ten most used management tools included:

1. Strategic Planning
2. Customer Relationship Mgmt.
3. Customer Segmentation
4. Benchmarking
5. Core Competencies
6. Mission and Vision Statements
7. Outsourcing
8. Business Process Reengineering
9. Knowledge Management
10. Scenario & Contingency Planning

I thank Bain & Company for giving me the inspiration for this posting.