[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
Enquiries about Holistic Management (fwd)
At 12:44 PM 10/17/97 +0200, Richard Reynolds wrote:
>Thank you for your reply to my enquiry about HRM, however I still
>need an indication of production figures that will allow me to assess
>the final productivity of HRM. I appreciate the fact that HRM has
>numerous benefits as a management philosophy (which your previous
>e-mail assisted in clarifying), however the immediate issue I am
>evaluating is animal production.
>
>The main reason for looking at animal production is to be able to
>give a financial value to the introduction of HRM. The farmers that
>I have spoken to have expressed interest in the concepts, but
>trepidation with respect to financial returns (profitability). An
>unprofitable system will collapse with both good or bad management,
>purely because of a lack of financial viability. I need to be able
>to back up any advice given with numbers rather than creative
>language.
>
>I hope that you will be able to assist me in locating this data
>(which I am sure is available somewhere) and I appreciate any effort
>that you may make in this regard.
>
>Yours sincerely
>Richard Reynolds
>
Richard, I'm sorry but you haven't understood the point I was trying to
make. This is not your fault, but mine. I'll try again, and thank you for
the opportunity to do so. It is important to ask a meaningful question.
Holistic Management is not a PRODUCTION system, but a PROCESS about how to
make decisions. Whether it is profitable or not is impossible to
generalize, but it can assist in making profits if that is part of the
goal, but the profit is only PART of the goal. Holistic management may be
used for managing a non-profit organization, or for managing one's life
when the income is fixed, or if one is independently wealthy living on
income from a trust, or ... whatever one does.
In making decisions, one first needs a description of what is to be
achieved by the decisions. Holistic management in part helps one determine
the goal. It is called an "holistic goal" because it should contain
everything that is important, directly or indirectly, to success of other
parts of the goal. This sounds strange and impossibly complex, but it
actually can be pretty simple. The goal is a reminder when decisions are
made in particular circumstances that achieving immediate objectives affect
many other parts of one's life, to be aware of the broader implications,
and to remind oneself to monitor the incidental effects that may be
contrary to what must happen to achieve the goal. The holistic goal