Award winning benchmarking, sourcing and
transformation advisory firm, Alsbridge, Inc., today released a report “The Wisdom of Your
Line Managers Can Save Your Bacon,” which emphasizes how line managers’ wisdom
can make the difference between success and failure when heading out into the
brave new world of sourcing or M&A.
“Mergers
and acquisitions, sourcing for services and product maintenance – all are
viable means of advancing the company strategy faster and with broadened
expertise,” says Ben Trowbridge, Chairman and CEO, Alsbridge Inc. “However you choose to engage partners for core or commodity services,
do yourself a favor and engage the levels of your employee base who know those
operations best.”
Even
if an executive leader came through the operational ranks to reach their
esteemed position, they must realize that they are no longer in touch with the
challenges and success factors associated with those operations. Analysis and recommendations on how to
sustain, improve or innovate business operations are best left to the line
managers and subject matter experts who live them every day.
Executive
leadership is in place to maintain a cross-company perspective, and with
consideration of shareholders, committed financial performance, the
marketplace, industry trends, etc.; to set the direction for the company’s
future success. They cannot and should
not relinquish any portion of that responsibility to a consensus driven
decision making process because lower level management will never have the
50,000 foot view necessary to make the tough calls. In the same vein; however, the executive
levels will never have the 500 foot view that reveals operational roadblocks,
work arounds, improvement opportunities and people issues that affect every
change program at that level.
Commercial
history bears out the premise that innovation, quality, process efficiency and
thus, cost reduction ideation is best generated at the middle management level
and below; analyzed in many well-known books and journals on the subject. The rationalization of those ideas and
determination of funding sources for the winners is best carried out at the senior
management or executive levels. When
considering engaging a partner as a process improvement or transformation strategy, trust the professional talent available to you and pull expertise
from deep in the organization to gather perspectives before making a
commitment.
For
further details on how your line managers can help you source it right the first
time, download the complete report The Wisdom of Your Line Managers Can SaveYour Bacon.
About
Alsbridge Inc.
