The Visible Hand

‘The Visible Hand’ for a firm grip on Accountability, Benchmarking & Control.

The world of governance is crying out for a solution to the disappearance of accountability – the plague of corruption and inferior performance. Here it is!

It is largely through measurement that people and their performance can be made to ‘measure up’. Measurement exposes people and ventures to competition and is the very essence of performance management, accountability and service delivery.

‘The Visible Hand’ is an entertaining yet instructive compendium of business tools and why they work or fail. It is a practical ‘toolkit’ for practicing managers, business consultants and government officials.

The common thread of a controlling hand asserts its authority across a wide range of potential entrepreneurial quagmires from productivity to problem solving; from meetings to manpower; and from projections to project management. The focus is on real tools that have yielded and continue to provide cogent and impressive results.

How to develop and apply appropriate norms and control standards in your own context; how to identify flawed ratios which so often creep into benchmarking and how to reinforce performance management by using ‘rational ratios’; these are delightfully explained and supported by, often, amusing real life cases.

The author explains ways in which the computer can be better utilised to apply many ratios and benchmarks to measuring and enhancing productivity. The use of a CD marketed with the book provides a simulation model as a practical tool in preparing core viability assessment in entrepreneurial ventures.