Business Sphere

     Like the noblest victory of the master samurai, which is winning without fighting or conquering your enemy without drawing your sword, the master manager, the professional manager, manages “without managing.”

     Yesterday we talked about the samurai and the manager, and we have found out that the samurai’s mastery of swordsmanship went beyond acquiring proficiency in the technique of the art. The same can be said about the art of management, or any other art for that matter.

     Our discussion revolves around an article written by Rene T. Domingo, which recounts about an illuminating anecdotes concerning one of Japan’s greatest samurai swordsman, Tsukahara Bokuden (1490-1572), who wanted to give the final test to his three sons after having trained them in the art of swordsmanship. The colorful saga of Tsukahara Bokuden as a great samurai was told  by Japan’s foremost authority on Zen Buddhism, Daisetsu Suzuki in his best-selling book Zen and Japanese Culture.

     The true master of the art of management, like the eldest son of Bokuden, avoids wielding and using the bag of management tricks and techniques he has mastered by understanding and managing situations and relationships, rather than confronting and managing problems. 

     Like Bokuden’s eldest son, a good manager has the extraordinary sense of knowing and anticipating what can bring about disruptive situations; he corrects situations and not problems. With this knowledge, he puts everybody and everything in their proper places at the proper time-so that he does not have to manage. To emphasize, like the noblest victory of the master samurai, which is winning without fighting or conquering your enemy without drawing your sword, the master manager, the professional manager, manages “without managing.”

     In many companies today, we see numerous examples of managers, like Bokuden’s third son who was declared a disgrace to the family, who mistakenly consider their daily problems-solving feats as accomplishments of exemplary managership deserving a pat on the back, a bonus and a pay increase.

     We see finance managers performing daily an exciting balancing act called “cash-flow management” running after over-due accounts receivable and running away from over-due accounts and loans payable.

     We see production managers gaspingly trying to beat daily delivery schedules.

     We see personnel managers endlessly engaged in an arm-wrestling contest with labor unions, which we call “industrial relations management.”

     We see marketing managers desperately struggling to meet sales quotas during the last few days of the month.

     The busy managers above are not managing for they have no time to plan, organize, lead, and control, much less, think. Like Bokuden’s third son, they enjoy splitting the pillows and problems that fall on them.  And this frantic schedule will go on forever unless they start managing and preventing the pillows from dropping.

     Therefore, as managers, it is our first and foremost task to manage our organizations, to be proactive, and not to create problems by our less managing and reacting unto them. This way, we add value to our business and achieve our organization’s objectives.