media bites
People power
Creating a competitive difference through leadership, simplifying
technology, and expanding analytics with the right team
Competing on Analytics
Finding and maintaining a compeddve advan-
tage is always a challenge, and the margin for
differentiation seenis to get smaller all the
time. The use of analytics can help companies
make better decisions and extraa maximum
value from business processes, to put them
ahead of their competitors.
The authors oi Cmfrpeting on Analytics: The
' ' New Science ofWiiming argue that the frontier
for using data has shifted dramatically, and that leading compa-
nies are doing more than just collecting and storing infonnation
in large quantities. None of this should be new to Management
Accountants in the know — most are well-versed in analytical
applications such as activity-based costing, Monte Carlo simula-
tions and constraint analysis. Most understand the power of busi-
ness intelligence tools in general. The value of this book comes in
its discussion of the link between the technical and human ele-
ment. It describes numerous stages of analytical capability and
what each requires, as well as describing the type of individuals
necessary for a company to make the most of the technology.
By Thomas H. Davenport and Jeanne G. Harris. Published by Harvard Business School Press.
For more information visit wmv.HBSPress.org.
Leading Leaders
Increasingly, in large multi-faceted organiza-
tions, managers lead teams of other managers
and professionals. Li his book Leading Leiuins.,
Jeswald Salacuse shares his experiences as a
leader in the public, university-, and nonprofit
sectors. Leadership is defined by the relation-
ships between a leader and his or her followers.
Salacuse emphasizes the importance of strategic
leadership conversations for enhancing the two-
way flow of information between a leader and each follower.
Salacuse defines seven daily leadership tasks and shows how
strategic leadership conversations aid the performance of each
tasL For instance, the first task, setting and maintaining the
direction of the organization, goes more smoothly when the
leader has a strategic conversation with each follower that out-
lines the follower's wishes for the goals of the organization.
T h e daily leadership tasks of integrating organization mem-
CMA MANAGEMENT 6 June/July 2007
bers, mediating their conflicts, and educating followers, go better
when the leader knows each meml>er well from one or more
strategic conversations. The leader can then use tliis knowledge
in interest-based negotiation and needs-based education.
Strategic leadership conversations outside the organization help
the leader represent the organization, since these conversations
help maintain important external relationships.
Overall, Leading Leaders is a refreshing discussion of the roles
of managers when they are leading professionals and
other leaders.
By Jeswald W. SaUcuse. Published by the American Management Assoriatron. For more
information visit www.amanet.org.
Reviewed by Patrick Buckley, PhD., CMA. Buckley is an Ottawa-based systems analyst
Mobilizing Minds
Despite technological advances, ifs been
made abundantly clear recently that people
still make the difference in any business.
So, how do you make that investment most
effective? Two McKinsey consultants drew
on a decade of research and experience
with Fortune 100 companies to explain how
in Mobilizing Mir)ds: Creating Wealth From
Talent in the 21" Century Organization. The book offers eight
strategies for the mind-powered companies of today
and tomorrow.
The book notes that companies reatizing the greatest returns
overall are raising their per employee profit while reducing their
internal complexity. I t points out that today's technology, while
an enabler, can also add massive, unnecessary complexity to a
company — e-mail overload, task forces to nowhere, pointless
meetings, etc. The authors maintain that if companies want
sustained market capitalization growth, they need to make
organizational design the centerpiece of their corporate
strategy.
By Lowell Bryan and Claudia Joyce. Published by McGraw-Hill. For more informa-
tion visit www.mcgraw-hill.com.