Plan, Act, Review The Basis of Management Science

Built Into Front Office Box

The basis of just about all management theory published over the last fifty years has been the work of a Frenchman, Henri Fayol.

Fayol was one of the most influential contributors to modern concepts of management, having proposed that there are five primary functions of management: (1) planning, (2) organizing, (3) commanding, (4) coordinating, and (5) controlling (Fayol, 1949, 1987). Controlling is described in the sense that a manager must receive feedback on a process in order to make necessary adjustments. Many of today’s management texts including Daft (2005) have reduced the five functions to four: (1) planning, (2) organizing, (3) leading, and (4) controlling. Daft’s text is organized around Fayol’s four functions. The more pragmatic management consultants have translated this into Plan > Action > Review.

Big company software has this philosophy built in, particularly in the Enterprise Resource Planning genre – one of the reasons companies spend $millions on licenses and $10s millions on implementation. It gives a shape to the business, and a method for managing it.

Small businesses don’t get to benefit from software like this. It’s far too expensive and complex. They have to go without the benefit of a built in management process. Not any more!

Front Office Box provides them Plan > Action > Review without them having to do anything, or change anything. The concept is built into the way the application works, but subliminal so it doesn’t get in the way.

This explains why people, when they’ve used it for a few weeks, say they can’t explain how, but they suddenly are much more organized. Their customers recognize the change in improved service. Our customers recognize the change in having more time, and feeling more “in control”.

In future releases we’ll be interpreting more best practice and building it into the way Front Office Box works.