Crap business management – the elephant in the office (2). Where’d he come from?

Probably the bowls club. The bad manager elephant we like to ignore at our cost is likely to be male, and an old one at that.

Woman and the young (well, under 55 – nice to be called young) are more inclined to improve their management skills than anyone else, according to a Massey University study into management capability in NZ’s small businesses.

Nearly everyone who took part in an associated survey said they didn’t do much formal management training (with woman doing slightly more), but when it came to the more popular “informal” and “incidental” training, woman were much more committed.

Same for age. The so-called young were into it, those over 55 markedly less so. The age thing is concerning because a large percentage of our managers and owners (62% for larger business) are “old”.

If our managers were as crap as everyone else in the world, it wouldn’t matter, but they are, despite apparent improvements of late, at the back of the field.

There are reports of international business deals falling through because of a lack of confidence in the New Zealand management end. New Zealand businesses are seen as having low business capability and acumen by their foreign counterparts according to New Zealand Trade and Enterprise research into perceptions of New Zealand businesses in leading international markets.

So why so bad? In no particular order or attempt at completeness (basically just what BigCake finds interesting):

• Do it yourself: The predilection for informal and incidental training – good old Kiwi DIY – must be part of it. According to the Massey survey, 61% of small business owner-managers learn by doing and being a bunch of tight wads spent an average $1000 a year on developing their managerial skills. The Massey report comments that this cold-shouldering of formal training in large numbers is of continuous concern for policy makers, but it adds the informal stuff also needs to be acknowledged.

• The best managers leave. Too many of the most competent, most ambitious, most forward thinking just scarper. This is mostly anecdotal, but BigCake’s seen it in many enterprises. The best leave and all too often, because the talent pool is so shallow, are replaced by lesser mortals. New Zealand is seriously haemorrhaging managers. Specialised managers topped a list of occupations of Kiwis heading for Australia by 30%.

• Businesses can’t get rid of bad ones. Even “reasonable” employers shy away from sacking incompetent managers because of the fear they’d lose any challenge to the dismissal. Most small businesses don’t have the resources to put up a fight, so they just suck it in.

• The 3Bs. I’ve got my boat, BMW and bach so ‘why the hell would I need to go to the trouble of doing any training?’

Soon I’ll look at what our managers are bad at.