Louis Bonfils

2013

What Management means to me

The three most important areas that I can apply to my business and my personal life
LOUIS BONFILS

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Louis Bonfils

Contents
Structure : Change and Innovation ......................................................................................................... 2

TV5 Monde & CRT Informatique ............................................................................................................. 4

Team : Managing a cross-cultural team .................................................................................................. 5

Isabelle Langlois & Rubicon .................................................................................................................... 6

Motivation : Is Engagement a cure-all ? ............................................................................................. 7

Why motivation ? .................................................................................................................................... 8

Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................... 9

Louis Bonfils

What management means to me

The three most important areas that I can apply to my business and my personal life

Management is a concept so wide that several definitions can be applied to this notion. However the several definition of this concept carry the print of the works done by the previous theorists; Management is the coordination and oversight of the work activities of others so that theirs activities re-completed efficiently and effectively. This definition emphasize of the notions of efficiency (doing things right) and effectiveness (doing the right thing); however, it also contains the essence of the work done by Henri Fayol, summarised with the Planning, Organizing, Lead and Control concepts. Those are the 4 key basics elements of management; The 20th century, and more specifically the second part of this century has seen the Management notion being developed in several fields, such as Marketing, Research & Development, Human Resources The management is also a very empiric science, based mostly on experiences, and trial-and-errors situations. In this essay, I will relate to personal situations, both professionals and personals, where three concepts of management seen in class has been applied. I will introduce each concept with a small and concise theoretical background, and the experience that I had gathered during the small case-study.

Structure : Change and Innovation

The management of Change and Innovation identify all the problematic regarding the environment of an innovative organisation. This concerns both the stability of the organisation, the human behavioural responses to such changes, and the discovery of dysfunctions. It also impact the structure of the company.

Louis Bonfils

Change and Innovation impacts mostly on three levels: 1. The organisation itself, impacting the mains goals of the Organisation. 2. The individual organisation members, the individual goals, such as the career and others aspirations. 3. The combination of these members, impacting the internal politicking of the organisation1. The development of innovations impacts the development of new organisational forms. In innovative organisations such as start-up or companies in new technologies industries (Information Technology, Electronics, Web based services) companies must face a very competitive landscape, and quick shifts. And very often these changes occurs without the benefit of experienced management of the new needs of the sectors. How does company response to change and innovation? Service industries does innovate, but this kind innovation doesnt impact the company the same way it impact manufacturing companies. Unlike manufacturing companies, change management is very unsystematic. While some companies have special innovations departments, most of the Small and Medium businesses manage, successfully for some of them, these changes through management consultancy, or collective actions. Collective actions is easier in companies of less than 10 employees, due to the limited amount of individuals, implying a reduction of different goals and aspiration. However, these aspirations can be gathered through motivation management. It is also very important to point out that the relationships between customers and Service based companies are very close. Very often, the client, and more specifically the client needs are what triggered the decision to adopt innovations processes. But that doesnt imply that the company undergoes the shifts on its market. Most companies tries to understand what are their clients needs, and try to anticipate them. In some case, some company try to incorporate theirs clients in their innovative process. Overall this case is very rare, and is not systematically bound to success.

The Management of Innovation Tom E. Burns & G.M.Stalker (1961)

Louis Bonfils

TV5 Monde & CRT Informatique

From September 2012 to January 2013, I did a five-month internship in an IT service company, called CRT Informatique. This company was providing IT outsourcing services for its client. Among these services, the company was an internet provider and developed and marketed a software able to map the network of its client. This service could show on several devices (I-phone, Android based systems, TV screens) the network, bandwidth and amount of devices connected to the network. Everything was in real-time. It was critical for the company to deliver a real-time service and to be able to provide internet. The company was only an intermediate as an Internet provider, and could only rely on the network of a state owned company. However the company was doing well, mainly because of the good relationship between the company and its client. Amongst the biggest client of the company was the global television network TV5Monde. This television network is transmitting French spoken broadcast all around the world. CRT Informatique was developing a custom version of their software in order to fit to the specific needs of TV5. Among the specific, there was the huge amount of data transmitted (especially since the TV channel was beginning to emit high definition program), the far distance between the different devices presents in the network, the formation to this software to the TV5 technicians It was a win-win situation and partnership for both parties. TV5Monde was running a project in order to have a tailor-made software, fitting exactly their needs, at a relatively low price. For CRT Informatique, this partnership was the occasion to discover in precision what could be the needs of this particular company. Plus they could find the funding of theirs own R&D department. A big part of the R&D budget of the company came from this specific project with TV5Monde. This internship was the occasion for me to discover how a French small and medium business was funding its R&D department and what kind of management style is applied to innovation. The structure of the sub-organisation (i.e. the project teams) was a direct application of the companys goal.

Louis Bonfils

Team : Managing a cross-cultural team

Globalization and multi-cultural teams implies to rethink the way teams, and more specifically multicultural teams are managed. The manager of a cross-cultural teams need to understand not only the differences between cultures, but how these differences are made. The diversity offers various advantages to a team, but it can as well be very difficult to manage. Every day, managers discovers new cultures, beliefs that spread beyond national barriers. The globalization, and the liberalization of markets (both industries and locations) implies opportunities of growth, but as well some challenges. For instance, the development of the Asian market appears as both an opportunity of growth but the culture present here can appear as difficult to understand. It is very clear that the path of the future economy is toward internationalization, and more specifically, in eastern Asia. In order to develop in this market a good understanding of the market zone and the culture present in these very market are very important. This can also apply to human behaviour and relationship. Teams in companies become more and more mobile and managers can assist to a melting pot of culture within theirs organisation, and sub-organisation. Facing these evolutions, how can the manager operates in this complex and global environment? For the Top Management, the issue is inside the elaboration and the planning of a valid strategy, in concordance with the needs of a market, and the expectations of the individuals within the market. For the organisation itself, and the middle management, the problematic is the nature of the relationship between the Top management who decide and the employees who operate. The corporate culture, the national culture, religion and sometimes even regional culture are guiding the cooperation process. As for the business development, the challenge is to find is to succeed to find synergies and international alliances, and capitalise of the strength of each actors, partners and individuals. This is particularly important for global brands.

Louis Bonfils

Isabelle Langlois & Rubicon

From June to august 2012 I did an internship in a French Jewellery. The store was owned by a French designer, who had two brothers. One was in Bangkok, Thailand, where he managed a workshop in and another one was in Paris where he managed a jewel trading office in Paris. My mission was to discover the brand, the values and the spirit of the jewel before going two month in Thailand in order to print a luxury book of the brand. It was my first experience abroad, and I really liked it. In Bangkok, all of my colleague were either Thais, or Indians. Some of them were Buddhist, and other were Muslims. Even if my internship was very short, I really enjoyed working with them. It really was an interesting experience as I was working in a tight schedule that couldnt suffer from any delays and with some of my colleagues who couldnt understand English. But the job was done. I had to be concise, in order to be understood. My instructions had to be precise, but not too arrogant. I had to be sure that I was understood in a country where its very shameful to say no (actually, there is no translation for the verb no in Thai). The Thais are very proud of their culture, and its one of the only country that hasnt be colonized in its history. The Indians are more open to the western culture, but dont react to strong management. The key was to give strong instructions and no room for interpretation. If something was wrong, I had to present it as a way to improve someone whereas as miscomprehension of the employee. In the latter case, the employee would feel shameful and wouldnt propose new proposition by fear of appearing a wrong. In the former case, the employee would feel as he learned something, and thus, being more intelligent as before, and more engaged in the project.

Louis Bonfils

Motivation : Is Engagement a Cure-All ?

Several authors tried to find a definition for Motivation. Motivation is being moved to do something. This notion contains the extrinsic motivation, and the intrinsic motivation. The extrinsic motivation is performing a task for a reward, may it be tangible (money, prize) or intangible (congratulations). The intrinsic motivation is doing an action for its inherent satisfaction rather than some separable consequences.2 The intrinsic motivation is a much powerful force. This is what drives us to practice our hobbies, for reading, playing, with no other rewards than the action itself. For this particular reason, intrinsic motivation has been in the center of several studies. In order to understand it, trigger it, and then to control and stimulate it. Motivation is a very close factor to engagement. Engagement is a positive emotional connection an employees work. Its an affective and normative commitment to an organisation. An engaged employee is inspired to go above and beyond the call of duty to help meet business goal. Building engagement, stimulating motivation are two key elements to achieve an effective workforce. But this doesnt limit to the sole productivity of the employee. It is as important as building trust, synergy, and find pride in ones work. Intrinsic motivation rely on the different aspirations of each workers. Some care about the environment, and the social relationship of the workplace. Others want to make as much money as possible, in the quickest way possible. How can a manager stimulate motivation when all the aspiration from the members of its team differs so much? One can be tempted to say that engagement is a cure-all. It has been shown that if engagement is an important factor, in only counts for 40%3 of observed performance

A meta-Analytic review of experiments examining the effect of extrinsic rewards on intrinsic motivation E L Deci, R M Ryan & R Koestner (1999) 3 Driving performance and retention through employee engagement Corporate Leadership Council (2004)

Louis Bonfils

improvement. Others key elements such as the access to relevant job information, the allocation of better resources.

Why Motivation ?
Unfortunately, I dont have a concrete example of motivation, now. However I am really interested in this notion as it is a very important one. My personal experience comes mostly from internship in small businesses. I have noticed than in comparison to other bigger structures, the forces behind motivation and engagement are not similar. Employees from a bigger structure tend to favours external motivations such as promotions or raises in their salary whereas employees from SMB are more engaged in their company. My first impression was to think that engagement is stronger in SMBs because of the small hierarchy. I personally prefers working in a small team, giving me more room for initiative. Reading from business literature, I found that three elements are the pillars of motivation. Self-direction, the ability to be free to organize its own work, Mastery, the feeling to learn a new skill or to gain new insights, and finally Purpose, the feeling to make a contribution. But how do these elements apply in other cultures? Surely those elements have to apply and conform themselves to the specificities of each culture, but I remain convinced that there is a powerful tool that can be used to reduce cultural differences. As I intend to work abroad, among an intercultural team I know that I will have to work with colleagues from an others countries, with whom I dont share the same language, the same beliefs, the same norms and values. But all the culture share the same motivation and engagement toward their work.

Louis Bonfils

Conclusion
The Management notions that I chose, Structure, Team, and Motivation are the three main notions that, to my mind, will have an impact on my work. Those are the key elements I want to focus on. I want to work abroad. For patriotic reasons, I would like to work for a French company, because I am proud of my country, of my culture, and the history of my country. But I want to share this culture abroad. I want to find a way to be an efficient manager in a more complex world. The last problematic from my third notion, motivation remains unanswered, yet. I want it to be my problematic of my thesis. My personal objective is that in one year, I want to be able to operate in a multi-cultural team. We all have so much to give. But yet, why is it so difficult to build something? Lets make another Babel Tower.