May 19, 2005
Management Candy– "M&Ms"
I have mentioned on several occasions the concept of “main things”.
I call the notion of “main things” Management Candy or "M&Ms". It is the concept that the right way to do things is to do the Main things with the Minimum resources necessary to achieve the objective. It emphasizes that effectiveness (right things) is more important than efficiency (things right).
You can’t be tops in anything without concentration. Excellent businesses practice the rule of the fewest. They concentrate on the fewest of everything at any point in time—customers, products, distribution channels, transactions, etc. Concentration is "management candy" at work, doing the main (fewest) things with the minimum (fewest) necessary resources to achieve the objective. For a law firm, that means having the fewest clients, the fewest lawyers and staff, the fewest practice areas, the fewest rates, and etc. Why? Because “things” have cost and consume resources.
Given the same level of fee revenue, less clients versus more clients will have a lower administration cost, less time and cost invested in relationship building, fewer bills to issue, fewer accounts to collect, etc. Likewise, fewer employees mean less facilities cost, less HR issues, etc. You get the idea. Per dollar of revenue, less is more! So you want to achieve your objective, but with the minimum resources necessary to achieve that objective.
This concept of M&Ms is why an essential part of planning is separating the main things from all the other things across which we could dilute our efforts. The concept of the minimum resources necessary is, also, important to convey that there is always an encore waiting in the wings. Once we have accomplished our current objectives, new objectives move up to the main thing list. Pursuing them requires some dry powder.
Related posts
Filed under Management, Planning by Tom Collins