Corporations are all about maximizing the Returns on Resources. Finance people will also recognize this as Return on Investment (ROI), Return on Capital Employed, (ROCE), etc.
Leaders and managers have to consider the wider spectrum of investing than just money and budgets.
They must deal with everything about people, facilities, equipment, budgets, timing, workloads, and much more. It’s an art that comes with training and experience. Some of it intuition; some, practice; some operational mathematics; and some just pure luck. But the great ones make this all come together in harmony such that budgets are met, but not exceeded. Projects are delivered on time and done professionally so. Along the way managers must delegate, instruct, cajole, command, motivate, apportion, apply more resources where needed and withdraw some resources where early signs of waste may be discovered.
It’s about applying the right amount of everything, each component that goes into allowing an employee under his or her direction to succeed. Enough resources to achieve success. Not too many resources that some goes wasted on what could have been otherwise applied to other workers or projects. It’s about striking the right balance and ensuring a commitment of “just enough”.
Some of that comes with training, time and experience. Some can be enhanced by the mathematics of optimization. However it is done, the company comes to rely on the leader and manager to get it done with just enough resources to make it all possible.
A good manager or leader learns to decide and measure, “just enough”. Workers at all levels can also benefit by applying “just enough” thinking to their tasks and responsibilities.
Well, I think I wrote just enough about this Nugget. So will end it here.
