Future of Management

Principles of Management
Sharon M (MBG 1505032)
MBA-Gen,IMK

Sharon M, Institute of Management in Kerala

Introduction
• The world is fast moving, with new technologies entering every day. The
market trends are changing rapidly. The only thing that doesn’t change is
change itself!

Gary Hamel, in his book ‘Future of Management’ points out

that despite the revolutionary changes in associated technologies,
management in most companies still follows the traditional philosophies
formulated by pioneers of management in the early 20th century. Many
technologies that we enjoy today, or the trends and challenges of the
present-day environment weren’t even imagined back people then.
In short, to thrive in the future ,companies must reinvent management. In
the following slides, we will see how a future manager and employee
should be.
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• According to Jacob Morgan of Forbes, the future of management is the
combination of the features of :

• Future Manager

• Future Employee

• Future Company

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The future manager

Sharon M, Institute of Management in Kerala

The Future Manager
1. Is a leader
2. Follows from the front
3. Understands technology
4. Leads by example
5. Embraces vulnerability
6. Believes in sharing and collective intelligence
7. Is a fire starter
8. Gives real-time recognition and feedback
9. Is conscientious of personal boundaries
10. Adapts to the future employee
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1. Being a leader

• Traditionally, managers have been considered as dictators and leaders as

visionaries. In the future, the manager must be a leader.

• Manager should earn followers and not command respect.

• A manager should not be assigned that position simply because they bring in
the most money or are they best at delegating.

• Instead, the managers must be chosen on the basis of their leadership skills
also.
 2. Follow from the front

• Traditionally, managers ‘lead from the front’.

• That means, whatever decisions the manager takes, the others are supposed to follow.

• But in the future, a good manager must be ready to follow his employees as well, i.e, he
should be open to the suggestions and recommendations of his subordinates rather than just
commanding them.

• He should be in the front to remove the obstacles from the path of employees. The purpose
of the existence of the manager is to make his people more successful and not to have his or
her people serve them. When a manager follows from the front, he paves way and enables
team members to become successful
3. Understands technology
• Technology has became a crucial part of everyday life. Even though its
not necessary for the managers to be technology experts, the future
manager should be able to grasp the technologies that have the
potential to benefit the organization as well as the technologies that
may emerge in the future.

Future manager must keep a good pulse on technology.

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[Link] by example
• Traditionally the manager used to lead by delegating and ordering.
But the future manager can leady only by demonstrating. A manager
must be the first person to demonstrate a new behavior, to support a
relevant technology, or to embrace a new concept.
• The future managers will take themselves to the frontline, be the
guinea pigs and will be the ones who will help drive change.

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[Link] vulnerability
• The stereotype is that managers are the gods of the institution. They
are the ‘know-it-alls’. It would be uncommon for a manager to request
help or admit that his lack of knowledge.
• The future manager must be ready to embrace vulnerability- he
should be ready to ask for help, he should be ready to accept his lack
of knowledge, he should be ready to accept his mistakes.

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[Link] in sharing and collective
intelligence
• A future manager understands and embraces the fact that they may not
have all the answers or make the best decisions nor should they want or
expected to. A manager knows that it is far more effective to rely on the
collective intelligence of a team instead of the directions of one.
• This manager also acknowledges the benefit and value in sharing
information instead of hoarding it, something which is largely being made
possible with collaborative technologies.

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[Link] a fire starter
• Traditionally, managers are accustomed to maintaining the status quo
i.e, they prefer continuing whatever was happening in the company
and are normally against major changes. In short, traditional
managers are credited with ‘putting out the fire’.
• The future manager should be the exact opposite. He should be the
one to start the fire, that is to a spark a new idea, to challenge the
convention and to experiment new ideas.

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[Link] real time recognition and
feedback
• All companies traditionally rely on annual reviews to discuss the
shortcomings and achievements. But this is no longer a suitable
option as the changes and its effects have become more
spontaneous.
• Thus, the future manager must focus on giving the team real time
feedback and recognition through collaborative technologies and
platforms and through regular, short, periodic check-ins instead of
once in a long time, lengthy reviews.

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[Link] conscientious of personal
boundaries
• Traditionally, there was no respect for the personal space of the
employees. The meetings or official events fixed were seldom flexible.
Meetings or projects during the time of a personal event (marriage,
hospital etc) causes emotional burden on the employees.
• The future manager must be flexible enough to reasonably
accommodate the personal space of the employees. The personal
space covers both physical space as well as digital space. A manager
must be be aware of whether its okay to ‘friend’ someone through
social channels or is it okay to schedule a 10 PM meeting.

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[Link] to the future employee
• The future manager must be ready for the future employee.

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The future employee

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The future employee
• 1) Flexible work environment
• 2) Customizable work
• 3)Shares information
• 4)Shift from knowledge worker to learning worker
• 5)Learns and teaches at will

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1. Flexible work environment
• Traditionally, employees worked on a rigid time frame. There will be
uncompromised time schedules for them to work on. However, with the
technological advances, it would be possible for employees to have a
flexible work environment.
• This has been put into effect in some sectors (IT). Instead of coming and
working for a particular time interval (eg-10 to 5) in a pre-assigned
spots (cubicles), some IT companies allow their employees to work
flexibly to fill their specified weekly work hour quota in anywhere they
choose.
• With the advances in technology, this will be expanded to many other
fields in the future.
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[Link] work
• The general perspective is that, once an employee is hired, he will do
basically the same job for the entire length of his career. However, the
future employee will be able to customize his work. He may choose
different career paths each time for achieving goals.

• The improved peer-to-peer cooperation coupled with revolutionary

improvements in communication will allow workers to try different
sub-areas each time, thereby improving his level of knowledge and
avoiding boredom.

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[Link] information
• The traditional “knowledge is power” mentality encouraged
employees to hoard information so that nobody else take credit for
their ideas. In the future, this has to change. The new mentality
should be “sharing is power”.
• The employees who share their ideas and information and use
collaborative techniques and internal social networks are going to be
the ones who succeed.

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[Link] worker to learning
worker
• A traditional employee seldom learns anything new from his career- he
is fully focused on using his knowledge to do his job. A machine
operator will continue using his knowledge on machine operation till his
retirement.
• But, in the future, each employee will be learning throughout his career.
The machine operator will constantly update himself on the changing
technologies, various other related areas such as machine maintenance
etc.
• This will be mutually beneficial for the company as well as the
employee. The employee will not find himself obsolete whereas the
company can avoid employee lay offs.
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[Link] and teaches at will
• The traditional way to learn and teach was largely guided and dictated
by organizations who set out training manuals, programs and courses.
• However, with the advances in technology, the future employee is
more connected, the learning and teaching takes place within peer
groups and can happen at anytime, anywhere.

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The future company

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Future companies
• Future companies must do just one thing to strive in the future.
That is :

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Future of companies
 Instead of having a rigid hierarchy, there should be flexible lattice

 No bosses, but plenty of leaders

 Sponsors instead of bosses

 License to experiment

 Strong personal bonding

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Challenges
• >How to involve everyone in the process of innovation?

• >How to make sure that management’s beliefs doesn’t strangle

innovation?

• >How to create space and time for innovation?

• >How to ensure steady flow of new options?

• >How to retain discipline and focus?

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The answers
• Definite, ‘to-follow’ answers to these questions are yet to be
found,as the futuristic management of companies are highly
unpopular. However, a handful of companies have already
applied these techniques, and have found out their own unique
answers to these questions.

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How to involve everyone in the process of innovation?

[Link] tackles this challenge by :

• >Removing hierarchy

>Continually reinforcing that innovation can come from

anyone

>Collocate employees with diverse skills to facilitate diverse

products

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How to make sure that management’s beliefs
doesn’t strangle innovation?
• W.L Gore:

>Management’s approval isn’t a prerequisite

for initiating new projects

>Minimal influence from hierarchy

>Peer-based process for allocating resources

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How to create space and time for
innovation?
• W.L Gore:

>10% of staff time utilized for ‘off-project’ activities

>Allow plenty of percolation time for new ideas

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How to ensure steady flow of new options?

• How Google tackles this challenge:

>Give employees plenty of time to

experiment,minimize number of approvals

> “Test and Learn” instead of “Plan and

Execute”

>Give great rewards for individuals who come

up with game-changing ideas
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How to retain discipline and focus?

• Whole Foods Markets:

>Accountability for results

>Give employees a large amount of

discretion

>Provide them with information they

need to make a wise decision
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>Stringent recruitment processes
Conclusion
• Management must constantly evolve to cater to the change in
technologies, life styles and aspirations. Companies which have
innovates in their management has always been ahead of its
competitors.
• The examples of Kodak and Nokia are glaring examples of how
neglect towards innovation has caused downfall of companies.
For companies to grow in future, there should be steps to make the
future manager, future employee and the future company itself.

Sharon M, Institute of Management in Kerala

Thank you

Sharon M, Institute of Management in Kerala