Management magazines: More the merrier

We can see a variety of magazines in a typical bookstore. There can be at least one Management magazine among them. There has been an increased interest in publishing Management magazines in Sri Lanka. Today’s column will focus on two recent attempts in this direction. To be more precise, it is to discuss the details of two new management magazines that hit the local book stores recently.  

Management beyond business

Magazine is a periodical containing a collection of articles, stories, pictures, or other features. Management magazine is a specialised issue focusing on management related areas. We see a dilution here. A variety of business magazines also fall under the category of management magazines. In the global scene, among the top 10 business magazines are Businessweek, Forbes, Fortune, the Economist and the Harvard Business Review (HBR). For me, HBR goes beyond a business magazine in focusing deeper issues on management.

One may argue that business is revolved around sound principles of management. Management is all about achieving results. To be technically specific, it is a set of activities, including planning and decision making, organising, leading and controlling directed at an  organisation’s human, financial, physical and information resources, with the aim of achieving organisational goals in an efficient and effective manner. Describing these elements in detail, with adequate reference to current trends, new developments, research findings, conceptual debates and knowledge exploration go much beyond business matters.

The point here is that you need magazines dedicated to discuss management concepts and practices, touching the fundamentals. It is simply in line with being brilliant on basics. There is a need for a magazine discussing business practices, issues and developments. In the local scene, we have Business Today and Lanka Monthly Digest, to give as examples. The need I see is to move beyond. Channeling complex research findings in the field of management into clear actions digestible to a layman is a felt need in the Sri Lankan scenario.

Two new additions

In this context, it is encouraging to see two attempts to popularise management in discussing complex issues in a clear manner, catering to the local audience.  The first is from the well known Postgraduate Institute of Management (PIM), titled “Professional Manager. The second, is from relatively unknown, Essence Publishers. I must admit that what I am attempting here is neither unbiased review nor irrational praise. The simple reason is I am involved in both these magazines as a contributor. Let’s look into some salient features.

Professional Manager

PIM has so far published three issues of Professional Manager. As Professor Uditha Liyanage, the editor of the magazine wrote in its first editorial:

“Its ambitious, yet compelling intent is to disseminate cutting-edge know-what and importantly do-how knowledge on best management practices. It attempts to do so, because PIM believes that its central mission is to transform management practitioners to thoroughbred management professionals. Clearly, all practitioners of management are not professional managers. One does not inevitably lead to the other”.

Professional Manager, in its latest issue has featured Mangala Yapa, the CEO of Colombo Dockyard PLC, who was one of the two winners of the Platinum Award by the PIM Alumni for the outstanding achievements of its members. Mangala, in his interview shares his heart and mind in discussing how to be a successful manager. As he opines:

“My basic advice to aspiring managers is to be honest with yourself and with others and always maintain integrity. Be focused and work hard. There is no alternative to hard work. It is difficult to prevent a determined person from succeeding. That is my belief and culture”.

Apart from the above interview, there are a wide variety of articles covering several aspects of management. Transforming the Public sector for post-conflict development by Dr. P. B. Jayasundera, Developing effective CEOs for Effective Organisations by Dr. Penelope Hood, Management of Buddhist Temples and Temporalities by Dr. Wickrema Weerasooria are among them.

Management Digest

Management Digest had its soft launch last week, with the involvement of public sector administrators and private sector managers. Anura Siriwardena, the consulting editor of the magazine stated in the inaugural editorial:

“Management Digest shall enlighten you with the wisdom of world renowned academics, industrial experts as well as that of various authorities in the management field. We are dedicated to offer great inspirations to all; at every step of management community including students and scholars. Our aim is not only to help the genius in you to wake up and break the shell, but also to help you to set the foundation for fountains of fresh insights to spring up.”

In the first issue of Management Digest, there is a lead article by Lalith Weeratunga on the Unique Leadership of the President. As the articles unfolds the reality:

“As a person, he is obviously a very sensitive person. Highly emotional in the sense where people are concerned. His relationships are probably his forte”.

Among the insightful articles, Prof. Suddaththa Ranasinghe has shared his thoughts on leading the Generation Y, the new breed of managers. As he observes, “the generation Y employees tend to be averse to control and seek autonomy and independence within their job roles”. Hence, the opportunity to learn, innovate and to continuously improve what is being done is the key in motivating them.

Prof. Uditha Liyanage, as usual, as shared his specific thoughts on management principles tested by time. “Our actions are usually based on fundamental principles, values, beliefs and assumptions. If you want to change the end-result, you must first understand as to how you perceive things.” In brief, his first management principle is “you get what you see”.

The article on Spiritual Entrepreneurship by Dr. Lakshmi Narayanan, an Indian author is also worth mentioning. He argues that people like Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Mother Teresa, Henry Ford, and Thomas Alva Edison all had something in common. As he says, “they were not born any different to me. They did not even perhaps have the charmed life that I lived as a child. They were fearless in failing and were never willing to stop experimenting with life. Even when faced with naysayers all around them, they refused to give up what they had set their hearts to.”

Additionally there are other articles including Mindfulness as an executive skill by Deepal Sooriyaarachchi and How to resolve conflicts in your team by Sean McPheat. An interview with Dr. Lawrence Perera, on his success story of Micro cars also contains valuable lessons for entrepreneurs.

Way Forward

Having discussed the intent and contents of the two local management magazines, it is worthwhile discussing the needed improvements. Both the Professional Manager and Management Digest have attractive layouts with sound combination of text and visuals.

Depth of articles with more relevance to current issues is one area the authors can focus on. Quality and quantity are both needed in each of them in offering value for money. HBR did not reach that status overnight.

As the Chinese proverb says, a journey of thousand miles begins with one step. We clearly see that step with regard to management magazines in the local scene.

Let there be rich content with right context having required reach.

(Dr. Ajantha Dharmasiri is a learner, teacher, trainer, researcher, writer and a thinker in the areas of Human Resource Management and Organisational Behaviour. He can be reached on [email protected].)