ROI on building management capability
Today’s Australian Financial Review (p7) reports on the release of a study funded by the federal government. The report, titled ‘Management Matters in Australia: Just how productive are we?’ demonstrates what we know intuitively..that if a company can lift management performance, it will be a key factor in improving company financial performance. The report found Australia is pretty much in the middle of the field compared internationally across a range of management performance indicators. The article includes the statement:
Investing in improved management practices is the single most cost effective way of improving a company’s performance.
I am in the middle of running a management development program for one of our clients and the article was bought to my attention at lunchtime by one of the participants. He commented that this article was a good argument for why the company was investing in the program and that he could now clearly see what he can do to achieve the promised performance improvement. It’s great to be able to make a difference.
About Mark Schenk
Mark works globally with senior leadership teams to improve their ability to communicate clearly and memorably. He has been a Director of Anecdote since 2004 and helped the company grow into one of the world’s leading business storytelling consultancies. Connect with Mark on:
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Hi Mark,
This is excellent; I too am in the middle of developing a management program. I tried to find the article online but wasn’t able to access it. Is there any way you could share more of the details or where someone might be able to get the report?
Many thanks,
@AmandaFenton
As an Aussie that has worked internationally for the last 12 years I have been surprised to learn that some of my form Aussie colleague’s, who I would hire in a heartbeat, have been unable to secure a suitable job when returning to Oz. These individual felt that their international success was actually a handicap and intimidated those that were interviewing them.
These individuals are not arrogant people who expected doors to be opened. In fact, they were eager to fuse their international experience with the local market knowledge that their potential new colleagues would provide in a way that could create significant competitive advantage.
Having seen some Australian firms try to expand into international markets and fail I struggle to understand why they are not actively trying to recruit returning Aussies with international experience as they are certainly in high demand globally.
In short, I believe that middle management in Australia needs to be able to expand its thinking beyond Australia’s shores as its global competitors are certainly welcoming international talent into their enterprises to further strengthen their businesses
Hi Amanda,
It took a bit of searching, but the report is available here http://www.innovation.gov.au/General/Corporate/Pages/ManagementMattersinAustralia.aspx
Mark
Hi
I like your thoughts
I would be interested in your thoughts on how this latest work synthesizes with the earlier 1990’s which also covered management capability in Australia :
The Karpin Report was not well received and yet over time became very influential – seemed to precipitate Frontline Manager programmes and the like.
So question would be, during the golden pre GFC years, were the Karpin Report’s key messages wrt managers overlooked ?
So now we need to view them through a 2010-2020 lens ?
cheers
@KerrieAnne Christian
ps exporting into overseas markets can be quite interesting & challenging in this post GFC world with the various Protectionist measures eg Technical (aka Non-Tariff) Barriers to Trade – despite the best efforts of the WTO to create level playing fields