Process-driven management is the bane of modern companies, says Milne

“Process-driven management abolishes the need to think,” Milne told EW at last night’s Elektra Awards where he won the Lifetime Achievement Award.

Once everyone in a company is fixed into certain directions, resource requirements and goals it becomes difficult for an individual to implement a change in any of those things.

But circumstances may require change. Opportunities may arise which require change.

So how does an enterprising individual, recognising the need for change, seek to get change implemented in a process-driven managed company?

“Boards are terrified of people who don’t follow the process,” replies Milne.

If, at a management meeting, someone comes up with a new opportunity to invest or a change to strategy, there’s only one response. “They are asked to write a report about it,” says Milne.

And that usually kills it off.

Which probably explains why today’s boardrooms are full of cautious men who are terrified of responding to outside changes and so don’t.

Which may also explain why so many formerly rock-solid companies like Intel, HP, Sony, Alcatel-Lucent, STMicroelectronics, Nokia, RIM, Sharp etc are falling apart at the seams after having neglected, for so many years, to respond to changed circumstances and new opportunities.