Bata and Amoeba: Successful management systems to maximize corporate performance

Abstract

In the past centuries, management systems as frameworks of processes being used to ensure that a company can fulfill all tasks required to achieve its objectives, have been continuously modified, changed or substituted according to needs specified by customers, suppliers, markets or society. In order to succeed in the ever-changing competitive environment, companies have been always forced to define right strategies and use right management concepts and tools as well as effective and dynamic leadership, cooperation with allied partners, suppliers etc. in order to enhance the corporate performance and compete with rivals. Managers have been continuously trying to find a key to a successful management system that would work not only on a paper but also in reality. A lot of various concepts have been implemented in companies so far; however, due to speed and complexity of changes in the economy, firms have not been able to make necessary modifications in the process of successful execution. One of uncommonly successful and by now inexplicably forgotten management systems which not only worked, but worked on a large scale, is the Bata Management System (BMS). Some scientists believe that what BMS did in the past, the Amoeba Management System (AMS) is doing today, i.e. returning to the commencement of the enterprise with all employees acting as the managers. Enterprises utilizing BMS or AMS have been behaving like living organisms - with learning, adapting and self-organizing features. Companies with that kind of a specific behaviour can denote a transition from the traditional corporate structures of the 20th century into the ones to thrive in the 21st century while using synergy effects, quick information and flexible communication which flows in vertical and horizontal directions. Both systems have been extremely successful in maximizing corporate performance, self-sustainability and competitiveness. What are their secrets to success? And are they the key to a successful management system?