HENLEY ALUMNI ASSOCIATION –
MALTA
NEWSLETTER – 20 June 2009
Issue No: 201
A fortnightly newsletter to keep Henley Alumni Association – Malta (HAAM)
members informed with latest management practices and with news and
activities of HAAM.
The contents of this edition are:
Introduction
Management Concepts
Hoshin Kanri
Leading Management Thinkers
Kenichi Ohmae
Members Section
News from Henley Business School - Alumni
Events
News from HAAM
Future activities
AGM – 17th July 2009
Introduction
This e-Newsletter is designed as a Web page so as to facilitate navigating
through its pages. Using Word for Microsoft 97 or later versions, you should
be able to browse through this document by clicking on the underlined links.
These will take you to the relevant sections of this newsletter and also to
Internet resources. To achieve the latter you would have to be connected to
the Internet.
Your feedback and contribution (for example sending relevant research
papers, Internet sites of interest to Alumni) would be appreciated. E-mail
your feedback or request for further information to the following address:
haam@henleymc.ac.uk
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Management Concepts
This section contains a quick rundown on some essential business ideas.
Remind yourself and get to grips with key management concepts in a
language that's easy to understand.
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Hoshin Kanri
Hoshin Kanri is a corporate-wide management approach that combines
strategic management and operational management by linking the
achievement of top management goals with daily management at an
operational level. It is particularly associated with change management.
Hoshin Kanri has its roots in two well-established management techniques:
management by objectives (MBO) and total quality management (TQM). At its
core lies the Hoshin, which comprises of an strategic objective, a statement
on how to achieve that objective and description of how implementation of the
objective is to be monitored.
The etymological origins of the term hoshin kanri is instructive. Hoshin can be
divided into two parts. Literally translated Ho means direction and Shin means
needle. This gives direction needle or ‘compass’. Kanri can also be divided
into two parts; Kan which means control and Ri which means reason or logic.
So we have reasoned control and management of the organization’s direction.
The metaphor of a number of ships using a similarly aligned compass is one
often used to describe hoshin kanri, as are phrases such as ‘policy
management’ or ‘policy deployment’.
The concept dates back to Japan in the 1960s when Japanese industry went
through a sea-change during which it took management practices such as
Management by Walking About and Statistical Quality Control and blended
them together into what would become Total Quality Control. Hoshin kanri has
come to the West largely through the practice of Western divisions of
Japanese company, through its adoption in a small number of forward
thinking western companies and through the writings of Yoji Akao.
A number of innovative western organizations have adopted the practice, the
first probably being Hewlett-Packard where it is known as “hoshin planning”.
Hoshin kanri is less a management tool than an organizing framework. At HP,
for example, using hoshins alongside what HP calls business fundamentals
forms a relationship where the closeness of the hoshin plan to daily
management provides a multi-perspective, distinctive way of doing business.
Hoshin planning was introduced into all Hewlett-Packard businesses in 1985,
linking the company’s TQM efforts and its well-known commitment to MBO. In
the HP approach, senior management in its “hoshins” specifies vital concerns
that must be addressed organization wide. Lower-level management then
incorporates these into their own hoshin plans as hoshin objectives.
The success of Hewlett-Packard brought the concept to the attention of other
major US corporations. Since Hewlett-Packard implemented its “hoshin
planning” several major corporations have implemented their own systems,
often under a different name. So what was hoshin kanri in Japan and hoshin
planning at Hewlett Packard became “policy management” at Florida Power
and Light, “managing for results” and “policy deployment” in different parts of
Xerox, “goal deployment” at Exxon and the original “hoshin kanri” at Digital
Equipment and the western divisions of Japanese companies. Othe
companies that deployed a similar concept included Rover cars in the UK,
and IT companies such as Lucent Technologies and Texas Instruments.
Research conducted into the application of Hoshrin Kanri has identified a
Hoshin framework(1) similar to the Plan, Do, Check, Act (PDCA) cycle
introduced by W. Edwards Deming and used in TQM except that it operates
over the much longer timeframe of a year. The Hoshin cycle involves:
FOCUS – This corresponds with the Act phase. It is the stage during which
strategic objectives are identified by the company and its management. An
important aspect of this phase is the fact that only a few essential objectives
are identified and focused upon. Rather than a general formulation of
strategy.
ALIGNMENT – Corresponding with the Plan stage this phase is about
alignment of the corporation’s resources and priorities of individual business
units towards achieving the identified objectives. In this phase the vital
objectives are iterated in the form of “hoshins” or policies. The hoshins are
agreed through a series of discussions or meetings between various
managers. It is a cross functional process. It is also consensual, with the final
version of the hoshins arrived at through general agreement.
INTEGRATION – Corresponding with the Do stage this phase involves
integration the hoshins into everyday management practice. The hoshins are
woven into an implementation plan. In turn this forms part of the company’s
annual plan or integrated business plan.
RESPONSIVE - Equivalent to the Check stage in the PDCA cycle the
responsive phase is where implementation of the hoshins is evaluated,
monitored, and amended if necessary. Quality audits, either annually or on a
more frequent basis, may assess the progress of hoshin implementation.
Feedback from the RESPONSIVE phase will then be factored into the next
annual cycle.
(1) Butterworth, Rosemary and Witcher, Dr. Barry, The Hoshin Kanri Method (A position
paper) The Quality Journey, the second World Congress for Total Quality Management, June
1997, Sheffield Hallam University 'The Use of Hoshin Kanri as a Planning Tool to Implement
and Align Strategy in Operations'. Economics and Social Research Council
Key Reading
Akao, Y. (ed.) (1991) Hoshin Kanri: Policy deployment for successful TQM, (originally
published as Hoshin kanri katsuyo no jissai, 1988), Cambridge MA: Productivity Press
Bechtell, M. L. (1996) The Management Compass: Steering the corporation using hoshin
planning, An American Management Association Management Briefing, New York: AMA
Membership Publications Division
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Leading Management Thinkers
This page gives a short profile and backgrounder on the leading management
thinkers, past and present.
__________________________________
Kenichi Ohmae
William Ouchi described by the Financial Times as “Japan’s only successful
management guru,” Dr. Kenichi Ohmae (b. 1943) is an acclaimed Japanese
management strategist renown for his work on globalization and the
borderless economy. Bright does not begin to describe Ohmae’s intellectual
powers. He is a concert playing flautist, a nuclear physicist, would-be
politician, McKinsey consultant and much more.
A graduate of Waseda Unversity and the Tokyo Institute of Technology,
Ohmae joined McKinsey consultants in 1972 after the completion of his PhD
at MIT. He spent 23 years at McKinsey where he cofounded its strategic
management practice, eventually leaving to stand for the Governorship of
Tokyo in 1995.
In his recent book The Invisible Continent: 4 Strategic Imperatives of the New
Economy (2000) Ohmae examines the relationship between old economy
“Titans” like IBM and new economy “Godzillas” such as Dell and Cisco and
identifies four basic forces influencing the new economy.
William Ouchi is Professor of Management at the Anderson Graduate School
of Management at UCLA, where he has been based since 1979. He formerly
taught at the Universities of Stanford and Chicago. Ouchi is the author of the
1981 bestseller, Theory Z. Ouchi’s book was a major contributor to the
fascination in the 1980s, and later, with Japanese management. Ouchi subtitled the book ‘The Japanese challenge’, and took as his starting point
Douglas McGregor’s unfinished contemplation of the theory beyond Theories
X and Y. In the Japanese practices of lifetime employment and company
values, Ouchi found a rich source of material echoing many of the ideas
initially contemplated by McGregor. Ouchi is also author of The M Form
Society (1984).
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MEMBERS SECTION
This page is dedicated to the contribution of our members. Members are invited to contribute
to this page by submitting e.g. their own profiles, research studies, job opportunities,
product/service advertisements, etc. All contributions must be in Word 97 format and not
greater than 200K Bytes so as to facilitate distribution through this Newsletter.
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June 2009
Events:
16 June 2009 - The London & SE Group - Summer Garden Party with special
guests! An opportunity to bring your partners and guests to a networking
event in the gardens of the Athaenaeum, London
25 June 2009 - 'Business and Sustainable Development' - James Smith,
Chairman of Shell UK - Keynote Lecture Series sponsored by Accenture, tba,
London.
SUNDAY 05 July 2009 – Alumni Members' Day at Greenlands, Henley. Still
time to book for this great family day out. Boat trips are nearly fully booked! A
couple of places are available on the last boat trip at 17.30.
16 July 2009 - Sustainable Business Group - Not Stupid in 'The Age of
Stupid'? A chance to see this highly acclaimed film and join a panel
discussion with Dr Sally Uren, Deputy Chief Executive of the Forum for The
Future: The UK's leading think tank on sustainable development and Dr Andy
Wood, Managing Director of Adnams the beers, wines and hotels group.
7 July 2009 - London Pub Walk - The London & SE Group. An evening spent
walking around the historic streets of London with an entertaining and
informed guide. Please contact amanda.proddow@henley.com
25- 26 July 2009 - Emerging Markets & International Business Forum Negotiation Skills in Emerging Markets with a special focus on the Gulf and
South & South East Asia with speaker Shahzad Bhatti from Khazamah
(Malaysia Sovereign Wealth Fund) Greenlands Campus, Henley; contact
amanda.proddow@henley.com
For details of events organised by our International Alumni Associations
please click here
For the many alumni who know Liza Castro Christiansen, former Chairman of
the Henley International Alumni Association and Chairman of the Henley
Alumni Association Denmark Liza has produced a presentation reflecting on
her last 9 years involvement with HAAD! Do take a look - there are lots of
photos - you may well be in it!
Dates for your diary:
4-5-6 September 2009 - BSAR 2009 - click here for details of how to join the
sailing group and enter this year's business schools alumni regatta.
10 September 2009 - eBusiness Alumni group meeting is pleased to
announce Nick Kirkland Chief Executive of CIO Connect will be presenting up
to date finding on their current research in changing business demands of
Chief Information Officers. The presentation will be followed by group
discussions. Held at the Athenaeum club, London. Contact
amanda.proddow@henley.com
8 October 2009 - The London & SE Group - Annual Dinner - with guest
speaker Professor Christopher Bones, Dean of Henley Business School;
contact amanda.proddow@henley.com
02 November 2009 – Pharma Forum Winter Meeting – “Customer Marketing
Challenges in Pharmaceuticals” with Professor Merlin Stone who is a leading
expert on direct and relationship marketing, customer care, customer loyalty
and customer information systems – venue to be advised ; contact
irina.woodford@henley.com
08 December 2009 - The London & SE Group - Christmas event; contact
amanda.proddow@henley.com
Warm regards,
The Henley Alumni Team - Chris, Amanda, Irina & Laverne
Henley Business School
Email: alumni@henley.com
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NEWS FROM HAAM
Latest news, appointments, events can be found in this page.
Future Activities
HAAM has a number of sub-committees working on a program of activities for
the rest of the year. These include traditional activities (AGM, Boat Trip,
Summer BBQ, Film & Meal, cultural activities) and other more adventurous
events such as Treasure Hunt which is being planned for October. We also
strive to bring you educational activities as opportunities arise.
HAAM’s Annual General Meeting is planned for 17th July. We are making
arrangements to have Dr. Carol Print (Associate Professor of Accounting and
Finance Subject Area Leader) from Henley Business School to give us a
presentation on Family Controlled Businesses and Shareholder Value.
Details of events will be communicated to you as soon as they are finalised.
We forward to your feedback as this help us to maintain a strong network
among our members.
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