The Eight Pillars of Management: A Practical Approach to Enterprise Management

By JB Van Niekerk

I think that the question “How do I....?.” is probably one of the most frequently asked in the business world today. Sometimes asked out of pure frustration due to lack of knowledge, sometimes asked to postpone difficult situations or to buy time, sometimes asked to shift responsibility, but also sometimes asked by the diligent manager to ensure success.
This book does not claim to be a revelation on business techniques, but rather a guideline on how to “Analyse”, “Plan”, “Communicate”, “Implement”, “Monitor”, “Report”, and “Audit” the activities within your business. This will ensure that each element in a business interacts seamlessly with one another. This is why each section (PILLAR) is so important to master, and use, in creating a successful business.
In this book we start with the question “How do I successfully manage my Business?” A broad field indeed, but by using the EIGHT PILLARS OF MANAGEMENT it will soon be revealed that this logical approach to Business Management will place success in the hand of the diligent manager!
With me on this journey, I was supported by Dennis Jelliman and Vivian Fourie, two very knowledgeable individuals. They opposed, argued, criticised, listened, commented and believed in the concepts offered in this book. Also with me on this journey I was blessed with the comfort and unselfish understanding of a spouse like Ann, who believed and supported me without question or doubt! Thank you all!!

“He who needs to dwell amongst crocodiles must build his house on solid pillars!
The better the pillars, the safer the house!

• Language: English
• Publisher: JB Van Niekerk
• Release date: Mar 11, 2021
• ISBN: 9781005904623

JB Van Niekerk

JACOB BAREND VAN NIEKERK WAS BORN IN 1948 IN SOUTH AFRICA. SINCE HE MATRICULATED IN 1967, HE WASEMPLOYED IN THE SOUTH AFRICAN AIR FORCE AND SERVED IN A NUMBER OF MANAGEMENT CONSULTANCYPOSITIONS OVER A PERIOD OF 45 YEARS.THE FRUITS OF HIS LABOUR REGARDING A BROAD SPECTRUM OF MANAGERIAL ISSUES AND THE SOLUTIONS THERE-OF,AS WELL AS VARIOUS TRAINING OPPORTUNITIES, PREPARED HIM WELL TO UNDERSTAND THE COMMON PITFALLS ANDMISTAKES THAT USUALLY TRIPS UP THE UNWARY MANAGER. THIS BOOK IS THE PRODUCT OF HIS UNDERSTANDING OFWHY THINGS GO WRONG AND HOW TO PRE-EMPT SUCH CALAMITIES BY ASKING THE QUESTION “HOW DO I.........”

Book preview

Contents

Foreword

Introduction

Part 1: Establish the Enterprise

Chapter 1 -First Pillar: Analyse and Strategize

Determine needs and Analyse expectations

Develop a strategy

Develop a vision

Determine ethical values

Define a mission

Chapter 2 - Second Pillar: Plan

Develop a plan to address expectations

Strategic plan

Execute a swot analysis

Develop a concept of operations

Develop a business plan

Execute a raci analysis

Chapter 3 - Third Pillar: Communicate

Advertising, Marketing and influencing

Advertising

Marketing

Influencing

Part 2 Operating the enterprise

Chapter 4 - Fourth Pillar : Deliver on the Promise

Realise the strategic plan

The essence of a process

Levels of management

Manage the pentagon of resources

Analyse personnel requirements

Plan the HR component

Chapter 5 - Fifth Pillar: To measure is to know

What to measure

Monitor the process

Monitor the HR component

Monitor the equipment component

Monitor the doctrine component

Monitor the finance component

Monitor the time component

Chapter 6 - Sixth Pillar : Maintain the effort

Attending to risks and deviations

Attend to risks

Address deviations

Chapter 7 - Seventh Pillar: Spread the news

Report on progress, deliverables and achievements

Reporting formats

Decide on report content

Determine when to report

Chapter 8 -Eight Pillar: Archiving

Admin, Archiving, Filling

About the Author

Foreword

I think that the question How do I….?. is probably one of the most frequently asked in the business world today. Sometimes asked out of pure frustration due to lack of knowledge, sometimes asked to postpone difficult situations or to buy time, sometimes asked to shift responsibility, but also sometimes asked by the diligent manager to ensure success.

This book does not claim to be a revelation on business techniques, but rather a guideline on how to Analyse, Plan, Communicate, Implement, Monitor, Report, and Audit the activities within your business. This will ensure that each element in a business interacts seamlessly with one another. This is why each section (PILLAR) is so important to master, and use, in creating a successful business.

In this book we start with the question How do I successfully manage my Business? A broad field indeed, but by using the EIGHT PILLARS OF MANAGEMENT it will soon be revealed that this logical approach to Business Management will place success in the hand of the diligent manager!

With me on this journey, I was supported by Dennis Jelliman and Vivian Fourie, two very knowledgeable individuals. They opposed, argued, criticised, listened, commented and believed in the concepts offered in this book. Also, with me on this journey I was blessed with the comfort and unselfish understanding of a spouse like Ann, who believed and supported me without question or doubt! Thank you all!!

"He who needs to dwell amongst crocodiles must build his house on solid pillars!

The better the pillars, the safer the house!

-Unknown-

Introduction

I often wondered why it is sometimes so hard to be successful in the one or other endeavour. I mean, if it really was as easy as many people will advocate, why are we not all millionaires? Or why are we not all in some state of euphoria/happiness? Okay, so maybe everyone is not business orientated and may feel their success should not only be measured in money! They may even feel the disillusionment of an effort that did not live up to expectations and wondered what went wrong!

This aspect of being successful in what one does started to haunt my thoughts for some time and I decided that I really want to explore these success/failure phenomena in more detail. I read a number of books on successful people. I talked to a number of both successful and unsuccessful people from all walks of life! I even studied literature from the old masters!

At the end I still cannot say that I fully comprehend all the facets of success and failure in business. What I do understand though, is that success and failure are the sides of the same coin so to speak! If you are not successful, you failed! If you did not fail, you attained success!

It is with this simple sentence that I found my first topic of the investigation. How do I know if I am Successful or not? Certainly, there must be some kind of measure that serves as a cut-off of what can still be accepted as success before declaring a failure?

Similarly, I was also troubled with the thought of whether success and failure characteristics will be the same for the business person as for someone pursuing totally other goals? This presented my second topic! What are my goals? If a goal is not clearly defined, how do I stay focussed?

A happy marriage may also be a very worthy goal! When should we be satisfied with what a happy marriage actually entails? To be financially successful sounds very nice, but what is considered financially successful? When is a business that provides a service, successful? When it makes money, or when clients are satisfied, or according to its increased market share? Maybe it’s the sense of fulfilment and achievement!

All these aspects created even more questions and I slowly started to understand why the impulsive entrepreneur sometimes fails to achieve success. Success, even in marriage, is really a pre-determined end-state. Most failures are considered not having achieved that end-state. Unfortunately, many entrepreneurs declared a state of being rich to be their desired end-state, but somehow very seldom attained happiness in the process! Should happiness and fulfilment be the desired end state then?

I decided to pen down some of the aspects which I consider non-negotiable truths. The first truth that I considered was, I must know what I want to achieve. I must have some picture in my mind that depicts the end result of my efforts. To have a lot of money is very rarely the end-state, but rather a condition of what one wants to do with the money, that will bring satisfaction. The reason for my effort must be clear, but the reason why we do something, is not the final expectation that underpins the success of the endeavour! Success manifests itself by the effect of our endeavours.

Let me explain! The reason why one sells a specific product (Consumer need) may well establish a business, but very soon only the effect of making a quality product available at a reasonable price will ensure the future of that business!

The second truth is, Success must be measurable. If I cannot measure my success, how will I ever know at what stage I slipped up so much that my success