Management

Many of you have heard me hold forth on management in conversations along the way.  I'm going to write some about it today but I need to give a disclaimer. 

As a person with prophetic tendencies, I am looking for things to be the way that they are meant to be.  That comes from the spiritual world where prophets call the people of God back to the way God wants it to be.  We are always seeing things that are out of place and calling them into place.  Like all of us we have the seeds of the garden of Eden and the perfection of God's creation deep in our hearts.  With that comes the longing to have things be the way they were before the fall and the way they will be in eternity.

I am amazed at the lack of management I see throughout our world of business and government.  I might as well add Christian ministries to that list.  My perspective has been from the place of small, entrepreneurial businesses who have to be managed well or they don't survive.  During my work career (that I hope is not ended) I have seen businesses of all sizes managed poorly.

In particular I remember going after the weekly inserts from a new Kroger store in New Philadelphia, OH.  It was an early super store.  I was working for the Bargain Hunter at the time and we were able to put their weekly inserts of food specials into specific neighborhoods to insure peak performance.  I was amazed that they had built this huge new store and didn't know where they were expecting their customers to come from and therefore couldn't tell me which neighborhoods they wanted to place their flyers in.  It was no surprise that the store closed within a couple of years of opening because the business they wanted wasn't there.

Another business I'm aware of came through a very good business climate and apparent success...with debt, outdated equipment and disorganization.  It's amazing that they can continue in business.  They should have money in the bank, all the latest equipment and a well oiled management team in place to take them into the future.  Instead, their future is questionable.  They felt good about what they had accomplished but it was far less than their potential.  The potential was wasted and so were the resources that passed through their hands over the years.

So what if a company isn't managed well?  As long as the owners or stockholders are being paid well and have what they want does it really matter?  It matters.  Poor management wastes resources.  In the case of a small business if they don't manage their resources well they don't produce the profit they should.  Or to put it another way they don't adequately cover their expenses in a way that allows them to rightfully provide for their employees who do the work for them.  They don't generate enough resources to fund giving back to their communities, to the poor or to others who have needs.

I'm still reading through the Time/Life series on WWII.  In the most recent volume I am reading I came across a report by Ernie Pyle, a familiar correspondent during the war.  He had discussed the cost of war with some of the troops who were fighting to take Italy back from the Germans.  They figured in some rough way that it cost $25,000 per German that was killed.

Think about that.  Think about the cost of war...in capital, human resources, natural resources, time.  Even wars that aren't managed properly (if you can even get your head around that) cost incredibly more than they need to.

I'm passionate about managing things well.  I don't like to see things wasted.  I think it is a crime to waste things...and people.  I'm sad that persons like myself who are gifted and have much to offer are instead sitting at home drawing unemployment.  I don't think that would be happening if things in our world were managed well.  I've never had enough that I felt like I could just throw it away.  My hope is that I can work out the rest of my life helping others manage resources well and providing for those who aren't able with the surplus.