Enabling productivity through good management

Improving productivity is one of the key challenges facing many businesses today, from large multinationals with operations spanning the globe down to local-level SMEs.

Fundamentally productivity is about getting more from an input of limited resources. But productivity is not about simply working harder or putting in longer hours.

Rather it is about changing mindsets and working smarter – using analytics and data – to raise output.

At a recent forum on the issue at NUS Business School, Professor Hum Sin Hoon opened discussions by examining the question of whether good management can drive up productivity.

A member of Singapore’s National Productivity Council, Professor Hum, said the impact of management is often given scant attention simply because the answer to the question is generally assumed to be simple – yes.

Hum Sin Hoon: If you want people to be productive on the ground, you must be able to tell them what to doIndeed, he said, that assumption is backed up by the data. But by overlooking what makes goes into making good management itself, firms are at risk of failing to understand the real game-changing lessons for productivity.

“The first question we have to ask is ‘what is good management?’ Then we need to know, have we practiced it?” Hum said.

“Then you can say, OK if this is good management, I’m going to design it, I’m going to put it into action, I’m going to put it into systems and procedures.”

Good management, he said, starts with communication.

“If you want people to be productive on the ground, you must be able to tell them what to do.”

Next, Hum said, “once you’ve told them what you want them to do, you must pay attention to whether they do it or not.”

That comes down to effective monitoring, identifying the right measurements that allow you, the manager, to assess whether targets are being met and to facilitate improvement.

After that, effective managers recognise, reward and incentivise their employees to achieve their targets – as well as ensuring they have the skills and resources to do so.

When you raise the bar with a higher target, people will figure out new ways of doing things and therefore reach the bar again.

Prof. Hum Sin Hoon,
NUS Business School

“But you can only do that if you consciously measure, consciously figure out, that they are actually achieving their objectives that you set in the first place,” he said.

Finally, good managers look for ways to raise the bar, and raise it again, as a way to increase productivity.

“You then try to be smarter, you try to figure out what else can I do to reach a higher target.”

That doesn’t mean working longer hours, Hum said, but rather working smarter to build a cycle of continuous improvement.

“When you raise the bar with a higher target, people will figure out new ways of doing things and therefore reach the bar again.”

These four measures – setting targets, monitoring, managing people, and continuously raising the bar – form a management foundation for improving productivity, Hum said.

In turn that enables everyone, from top managers to frontline staff, to know what is expected of them as individuals and as a firm.

An early role model, he said, was Chinese admiral Zheng He, who led a vast fleet of hundreds of ships and tens of thousands of sailors on several voyages across Asia in the early 15th century.

Organised by NUS Business School, the seminar Enabling Productivity through Good Management featured: Professor Hum Sin Hoon, Deputy Dean, NUS Business School Richard Chua, Managing Director, Yamato Asia Pte Ltd and Ian Wilson, Senior Vice President of Hotel Operations, Marina Bay Sands Singapore as speakers for the event.

Hum has done extensive research on the business lessons from Zheng He and is author of the management book Zheng He’s Art of Collaboration.

In an era before satellites and electronic communication, Zheng He relied on an elaborate system of sight and sound to communicate with his fleet. Using flags, bells, gongs, drums and lanterns the system allowed the fleet to operate flawlessly and efficiently across thousands of kilometres of ocean.

That system, Hum said, was an example of good management working smartly with available resources – the technology of the time – to build a communication simple system that was clear for all to understand and execute their roles smoothly.

What that translates to today is the equivalent of standard operating procedures (SOPs).

“It is about formalising and standardising processes, as well as communicating and teaching their people to do things well,” Hum said.

In Zheng He’s time and today, the benefit for employees from such systems is that they will find it easier to learn and get up to speed on processes.

“This is what we call professionalisation of management,” Hum said.

“A company grows to a certain point but in order to break through to the next level you need to put the processes in place, the SOPs, and Zheng He did that way ahead of his time.”