We are proud to present the latest edition of Key Management Models. This third edition is once again a comprehensive book on management models, introducing them, explaining them, praising them and criticising them as necessary. Our selection includes the best-known models and you will also find some lesser-known ones that will perhaps surprise you.
Although this book is about management models, in our consulting practice we often hear phrases like ‘We were well prepared for the rise of this competitor, as the analysis with the Porter model had shown us that...’, or ‘We have been very busy lowering our prices to keep up in this climate of stiff price competition, but according to the BCG analysis, we...’, or even ‘The Berenschot strategic dialogue model helped us to get strong support for this decision’. When events put the survival of the organisation at risk and management is stuck running the day-to-day operational business, many people turn to management models for some common sense and information on why things have turned out the way they have – as if management models provide the sole truth and the ultimate solution. To us, management models are nothing more and nothing less than useful tools – useful for problem-solving, for analysis, for supporting and facilitating decision-making and/or for improving efficiency and effectiveness of organisations and teams. In short, management models are, in our opinion, tools for resolving common problems and challenges in business. Unfortunately, no management model, or group of models, can guarantee that a manager or consultant will deal with an organisational problem objectively and to the best of his or her ability. At best they will provide a new way of seeing a situation that will, as a result, enable positive change to take place.
Models can nonetheless provide valuable insights and a sound framework for making appropriate business choices. Management models and theories can help managers and consultants to gain clarity in business by reducing the complexities and uncertainties involved – nothing more, but definitely nothing less. The 2007–2014 crisis has made that very clear. Everybody knew that the crash in the financial system, the worldwide economic crisis, ongoing globalisation and the fact that the internet was here to stay would mean huge challenges: different businesses, different business models and different demands on authenticity (practise what you preach), transparency (proof that you practise what you preach) and flexibility (an ability to change your practice quickly). With the right type of management models, these events and their impact might have been seen up-front, and/or analysis and assessment of the underlying threats and possibilities of these events could help to identify the options and solutions available to your organisation to deal with them.
However, the vast array of management models on offer can be bewildering, for both managers and consultants alike. Being so commonly available, management models are used very frequently. But all too often only a handful of internationally known models are used, e.g. models from famous authors such as Michael Porter and from large firms like McKinsey & Co. or the Boston Consulting Group. What about all the other models? Are they unknown? Probably not, but their application is perhaps unknown. Or it might not be clear what their purpose is or in which context they can best (or cannot) be used.
The selection of models in this third edition builds on the comprehensive selection in our previous editions. There are some revisions and some updates, but the book is still, first and foremost, a comprehensive anthology of management models. The selection includes both well-known models and some lesser-known ones that could surprise you. In the first edition of Key Management Models, published in 2003, our colleagues (Steven ten Have and Wouter ten Have, alongside contributions from Frans Stevens) rose to the challenge and were among the first to present in an orderly fashion the most commonly used management models. In the second edition, published in 2008, we (together with our distinguished colleague Marcel van Assen) revised, updated and further grew the initial selection to 60 management models that were most frequently used in practice.
For the selection of management models in this third edition, we asked managers and consultants from various disciplines and working in our offices around the world to tell us which models they use in their work. We also conducted surveys among readers of the previous editions to find out what models they would like to see in a new edition (e.g. which ones were missing). As a result, our compilation reflects ideas and insights that are ‘proven technology’ and is largely the result of practical rather than literary research. The criterion for inclusion, therefore, was not whether the models selected are scientifically or technically profound, but whether they actually work. Some of the models selected in this book might still stand up to a high degree of scientific scrutiny, but are simply selected as they have proven to be great memory aids or great tools for use in day-to-day business.
To arrive at the final selection, we assessed all suggestions with regard to whether they met our definition of a management model: a tool that can be employed (either for process and/or analytical purposes) to enhance the daily functioning of a business, by improving both management methods and the performance of the organisation, or to solve related problems.
This book presents the 75+ models we selected. In order to give you an overview and to provide an easy point of entry to choose a model to apply to your situation, we have grouped the models into eight functional categories (see the next section, ‘Using the book’). This classification has been changed from the previous edition. Where the previous edition grouped the models according to the area of management where their use is most appropriate, this edition presents the models by functional category. We chose to do this because of the greater number of management models included and to identify more clearly the variety and function of the models and the differences in their scope. It also allows us to emphasise some functional disciplines, which, in our modest opinion, have become more relevant in recent years. We want to give special attention to finance, e-business (internet) and cultural management (globalisation). Next to these, strategy, governance, marketing, HR, innovation, leadership and operations are still, of course, also important functional areas for any organisation.
Each of the models is introduced with a description, followed by an explanation of how and when to use it, in order to reduce the risk that managers will be tempted to view a currently fashionable model as the ultimate solution to their organisational malfunctions. To put it clearly, this book is intended neither as a ‘top 75+’ of popular management models nor as a prescription for ‘good’ management and organisation – it is intended as an anthology of a wide variety of useful management models that have proved their value in practice. For the ‘diehards’ among our readers, we have again included recommended further reading and have drawn attention to the potential limitations or shortcomings of each model.
It is with both pleasure and pride that we present this compilation once again. We are confident that the managers and consultants who use it will possess the necessary maturity, intelligence and discernment to place the models we have included into perspective, and will use them to act on sound, creative, consistent management and advice. It was never our intention to produce a comprehensive overview of all management models; our aim is rather to supplement the readers’ existing knowledge by providing additional ideas and insights through sound, easily comprehensible descriptions of actual and frequently used models. Thus enriched, managers and consultants will be able to determine quickly which model is the most appropriate for a given situation, while also recognising its limitations. We view this book as a means not only of giving expression to this complexity, but also of making it more manageable, by providing models to reduce complexity and visualise reality, so that management issues can be discussed based on a ‘common language’ and dealt with properly and swiftly. Use the models wisely in your own specific context: structuring reality is completely different from managing reality!
It is impossible to thank all those people who have been involved in the publication of this book personally. We would like to thank all our colleagues involved for their valuable efforts and commitment. We would also like to thank our employer, Berenschot, for the time and support given to rewrite Key Management Models. The company has remained the front-runner amongst Dutch consultancy firms since its foundation in 1938. Special thanks goes to our publisher, who after two successful previous editions again knew how to encourage us and has facilitated the writing of this edition superbly.
To all of you who read this book, we wish you lots of wisdom and pleasure – and, above all, many constructive results from applying the models to your own organisation.
Gerben van den Berg and Paul Pietersma