Management 2.0: A book review by Bob Morris

Management 2.0: Discovery of Integrated Enterprise Excellence
Forrest W. Breyfogle III
Citius Publishing, Inc. (August 2020)

“There is surely nothing quite so useless as doing with great efficiency what should not be done at all.”

Peter Drucker’s observation offers a valuable reminder to executives who become wholly preoccupied with WHAT, WHERE, and HOW. Simon Sinek insists that “everything begins with WHY.” All decisions about organizational improvement should be [begin italics] purpose-driven [end italics]. Also, the given purpose itself must be crystal clear to everyone involved.

Forrest Breyfogle thinks that all four considerations are very important. In fact, he is the architect of a system — Integrated Enterprise Excellence (IEE) — that can accommodate each of them. The system is comprehensive, cohesive, and cost-effective.  The material he provides in Management 2.0 is introduced within the framework of a business narrative: setting, main characters, key issues, major conflicts, and ultimately resolution or climax.

I prefer to say nothing about the details of the narrative, except to suggest that the plot developments as well as the interaction between and among the characters create a context, a frame of reference, within which to introduce information, insights, and counsel that are anchored in human experience…experience with which most readers can identify.

The term “executive” identifies someone who completes task effectively and efficiently. In a word, “executes.” As Breyfogle correctly suggests, the development of an executive involves an endless journey of discovery that expedites personal growth and professional development.

The system that Breyfogle developed, Integrated Enterprise Excellence (IEE), focuses on three Rs: completing the Right task, completing it Right, and at the Right time. (See Drucker quotation cited earlier.) What I like about the IEE system is that it can be adopted by almost all organizations — whatever their size and nature may be — and can be adapted to accommodate almost all of an organization’s given objectives, resources, and competition.

These are among the business topics that Breyfogle discusses that are of greatest interest and value to me:

o Selection of Lean principles that will best support enterprise architecture as strategy
o Formulation of ambitious but realistic goals
o Division of labor alignment
o Resource allocation alignment
o Creation of a sense of urgency that will maximize buy-in
o Selection of analytics to ensure accurate multidimensional measurement of impact
o Stakeholder communication policies and procedures
o Contingency plan with crisis management capability

All organizations need effective leadership at the C-level, of course, but also at all the other levels and in all the other areas of the give enterprise. Those who provide leadership — with or without the authority of a formal title — must understand thoroughly the given system before they attempt to implement any plan that integrates its principles. Even with sufficient leadership, no organization can achieve integrated enterprise excellence unless it adopts a system such as IEE. That is why Breyfogle wrote both Management 2.0 and Leadership System 2.0. And that is why I suggest reading both, and, reading Management 2.0 first.

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Forrest Breyfogle III is a management consultant, as well as the CEO of consultant and training company Smarter Solutions, Inc. He was the developer of the Integrated Enterprise Excellence system. To learn more about his life and work, please click here.

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