User:Gcouch

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Name: Graeme Couch

I am privileged to have worked in the Management Consulting industry for 16 years, all but two as an independent free-lancer, at the end of a full, fortunate and successful 40 year career in public utilities (in engineering and management, covering short-term operations and production coordination, and long-term planning), research and government administration (policy formulation and implementation).

Management experience,

- now as a Certified Management Consultant, covers

- business, government, and not-for-profit endeavours, with

- assignments in Australia and in Southern and Central Asia.

Degree qualifications cover,

- Science (Physics and Mathematics),

- Engineering (Electrical and Control) and

- Law,

- - plus training & accreditation in conflict resolution, corporate governance and value chain management (see supply chain management), and

- - experience in the applications of Economics, particularly in Microeconomic Reform.

Particular interest areas, as time and opportunity permit, include:

- the study of Complex Adaptive Systems, and the applications of Complex Adaptive Systems Thinking in management

- The theory (both art and science) of management and its applications in the conduct of all types of human and business endeavours

- Current affairs, particularly as they can illustrate and inform the understanding and practice of the above two items.

These interests merge. An understanding of Current Affairs provides illustration and information to a manager about two broad subjects:

(a) the environment of the endeavour he or she is managing, and

(b) the way in which socio-technical systems (or Complex Adaptive Systems) behave.

In these two subject areas, understanding (a) what is happening, and (b) how things work or connect, learned and developed in the course of doing management, is critical to the competent manager's art and science.

My approach to the theory and practice of management, has novel features (of which I will say more later) and has been built over an extensive career in management (including engineering, business and public sector management). Some features include (see also Talk:Gcouch :

- Seamless linking of strategy and governance with operations and resource management.

- Convergence of the "hard" side of technical strategy, and process, project and operations management, with the "soft" (as sometimes considered) aspects such as HR development, corporate social responsibility, knowledge management etc.

- Attention to risk and uncertainty, particularly in adaptive and even hostile environments that need to be managed (e.g. ranging from markets and competition, to turbulence and disruption, vexatious regulatory stress, stakeholder activism, sabotage or terrorism, and other perverse behaviours that can jeopardise survival, and compromise value of the endeavour)

Professionally, and in the course of my management advisory work, it is my wish to explore, develop and articulate this practical, "learned" approach to management, to interact with others having similar or complementary interests, and in due course as it is accepted, to see the views contributed to wider readership and use. While these are longstanding aspirations, the articulation of thinking on them is embryonic. Early thoughts are being set out in the web site and blog at Couch & Associates.

Recurring themes in the delivery of my advisory services are:

1. While difficult, sound management is simple, with a few key principles to apply. When the going gets tough, people tend to be distracted by extraneous details, lose sight of the fundamentals, and become prone ot making errors.

2. Everyone is a manager (not just "management"). Everyone has custody or oversight at some time of critical resources, whether a customer relationship, an item of machinery, or a management policy. Everyone needs to make judgements about what they are doing, how well, and at what resource costs. You can't supervise every decision directly, but need to ensure that all decisions add value.

3. When anyone is not managing strategically, your enterprise is losing value, and forgoing opportunities for success.

4. Don't waste time and money on unnecessary training, mission and vision statements, SWOT analyses, meaningless communications, which only mask the key issues. Invest in action learning, so that your managers know how to make sound, impleemntatble and accountable decisions in their areas of responsibility, are accountable for results, learn from their own and others' management efforts, develop skills and pride in their contribution to your business' success, and become more valuable people.