What is Management Quality? Practically all management development is aimed at individuals. Management Quality is an organizational concept, which describes organization's capacity to meet high quality objectives in its management functions. This leads to better customer satisfaction and financial and other performance. Many enterprises and organizations have programs for Total Quality Management. These are supposed to cover management quality, as one of several topics. In practice, however, improvements in this area are often given a lower priority, than within processes, more directly concerning flows of products and money. To apply quality concepts and methods to area of management includes measuring present level of quality, establishing desired goal and necessary actions, and finally measuring progress. It is not sufficient to address symptoms, obvious deficiencies; you must also consider fundamental values, policies, systems, processes and programs, i.e. quality assurance. Management quality is not synonymous with Quality management (to manage quality improvement). Nor is it synonymous with Quality of managers (a narrower concept, often represented as "wish lists" of desired personality traits). Is Management Quality really important? All enterprises or other organizations with competition and/or pressure to reduce costs must find means to improvement, that continuously give customers, clients and other stake holders more value for money. The most common way is to simply cut costs, which directly hits employees and indirectly customers. In area of management there is a great, unexploited area for improvement. Such improvement has a direct and positive impact on results. Those organizations that are pioneers in using this opportunity will create greater value for customers and clients, a better working environment and competitive advantage. There are no real arguments for not taking advantage of this opportunity.

Management Quality - is there need for improvement? Consider following illustrations as "evidence": Evidence 1. I have conducted benchmarking studies in more than 10 major Nordic and multinational organizations representing industry, commerce and government. On a 1000-point scale for management quality these enterprises end up in 350-550 interval. The study includes companies with an excellent reputation in areas of general management and human resource management. The conclusion is that even those that are considered leading edge today have substantial room for improvement -and there are thousands who are lagging far behind. Evidence 2. Ask any group of employees if, during last year, they have observed examples of lacking management quality, which have directly and negatively impacted performance of organization. Almost all hands come up. Then ask how many who, during last three months, personally have had such negative experiences, resulting in decreased motivation or possibility to do a first rate job. About half group will confirm this. Evidence 3. Consulting companies have conducted studies, reported in press, indicating that variations in management quality result in productivity differences as high as 25 %. Evidence 4. Other calculations show that value of good management quality, as compared to poor quality, is 1,8 MUSD per year in a marketing group of 10 people. Corresponding numbers for a manufacturing group is 0,3 MUSD annually, and for an administrative group 0,2 MUSD. Evidence 5. In hundreds of interviews with employees and managers I hear statements like: "Personnel policy is non-existent in this division. I am not making an effort anymore" "Decisions are taken and orders are given, but everyone does whatever he likes to do. There is no follow-up, no questions asked." "You cannot trust top management. Decisions are often reversed, without explanation. I am not motivated to act strongly and promptly", said one manager. Each of these and many other statements are real-life examples of negative impact on business of poor management quality.

How good is your Management Quality? "How good is management quality of your organization?" When I ask this question, most often I get an answer. But answer varies from one person to another, and is based on subjective impressions and feelings. In some cases, reference is given to Personnel surveys. Such surveys, at best, give an indication of how immediate manager is perceived, and only from employee perspective. The Management Quality benchmarking mentioned above is a continuous project, all time open to new participants. The result is a comprehensive review of management quality of organization, a detailed list of identified potential improvements, and sharing of best practices with interesting organizations. You can make a first estimate by making simple Self-assessment, below. (It is designed for senior and Personnel management. Interpret questions "from their position" - or give them a copy. Use a scale from 1 (I do not agree at all) to 5 (I fully agree)).

SELF-ASSESSMENT A. WE KNOW THAT OUR MANAGEMENT QUALITY IS EXCELLENT 1.Every employee can identify their own and company's customers are and their expectations. Everyone can describe his/her own responsibility and mission.

The Rhinoceros is a majestic animal. Be it maybe ugly to some, but majestic no less. When Rhino wants to get somewhere nothing can stop it. A Rhino has a skin so thick that arrows cannot penetrate it. A Rhino will run over whatever is in his path to get to his goal.

I believe a Rhino is really and entrepreneur in disguise. When a Rhino has set a path nothing can deter him from its goal, tunnel vision of sorts. A Rhino doesn't absorb arrows shot at him, they just bounce off tough hide. The Rhino isn't rude just committed and single minded. A Rhino doesn't know how to be dishonest!

Remember games you played as a child? Were they games that mimicked what your life watched? My five sisters and I had a schoolhouse or hospital, depending on how we felt that day. We built it out of old beds that we dragged from a garbage dump about a mile from our house, (Parents weren't too happy with that) and we taught each other everything we knew which, happened to be what we had absorbed from our parents or teachers. Sadly none of those lessons were how to be successful at business because we did not see that in our parents. My father was a farm labor/share cropper and knew nothing about business either. My mother was busy having and raising children so she had no outside business sense. So as I grew I started watching people I admired and began to work at figuring out how to get where they were. I spent lots of years in that mode. I did not know how to ask any one of them to be my mentor… At play I learned about Rhino and fell in love with it as an example of life. As I grew older I truly learned Rhino lessons that taught me how to succeed!

A true Entrepreneur gets an idea then goes at it with tenacity and stick-to-it-ive-ness, and rightly so if he/she wishes to succeed, just as a Rhino after food or water. Something I've learned over years that puts me in same category, when an article pops into my head or an a ad that can't be forgotten I go for it and nothing or no one can stop me until it is in my computer, to my husbands chagrin. He thinks I'm a loner and maybe there is some validity there as I need space and time to put it all together in my head then into my trusty computer. Anyone who doesn't write or isn't an entrepreneur at heart cannot possible understand.

We are born with innate sense of entrepreneurial ship and a glow of desire sits in ALL of us as a child until world/family says, "You can't do that." Without realizing that we are being programmed to fail by our friends and family, most of us listen and believe. Have you chosen to listen to those that say, "You can." or those that say, "You can't"?

Are you an entrepreneur or striving to be an entrepreneur? Do you have this burning desire to succeed and don't know how to get there? Above all things there are some rules you must follow to get there and that is, hurt no one, be honest with all people but most of all be honest with yourself! Find right program/product/service that you can feel that Rhino passion for. But one of most important goals in that travel is to find a mentor who has been where you want to go that is willing to help you get where you want to be!