When I look back the last 35 years since I finished my M.B.A. degree, the world has completely changed and it is still the very same depending upon how you look at it. Principles of Management that I learned in my MBA class still hold good. Theory X and theory Y of managing people is still equally true. Maslow's theory of need hierarchy still explains why people work. While MRP turned into MRP II and then ERP, the BOM explosion models in ERP and old time MRP are no different. The basic concepts and challenges of Management have not changed at all. But what has changed completely is the way we deal with these universally true and ever lasting management concepts and challenges. We used to finish the year end accounting closure about 2 to 3 months after the financial year end with 14hours a day slogging. Now we have a reasonably accurate estimate within few hours of year end and accurate finished accounts ready for auditing within a week. No more of writing entries into those enormous accounting ledgers, just click and view Balance Sheet , P&L and hundreds of analytical statements. The net Profit figure is as important to the present day manager as it was 35 years in the past. The process of performing the tasks however has completely changed and that is because of the adoption of technology to each and every management task.
In 70s, the world had accepted the fact that Management is not just art - it's science. The concept that, "Managers are born, we can not teach management in classroom", had lost traction. Managers who were already successful in business were attending Management Development programs to learn the science of Management. The first crop of MBAs like me were in great demand.
At the turn of the century and the millennium, we are again at the similar state of change. Now it is well established that learning the science of management is important to succeed as a professional Manager, but that is not enough. Now the Managers use machines/computers/technology to execute almost all the management tasks. Machines capture the information at each step of the business process, compile, analyse, identify exceptions just about every thing just short of taking decisions. Managers now need to know how to tame these machines, drive them to their full capacity, identify and correct errors. This changing role of Managers begs the question, in the current world "Management is Art, Science or Technology?"
