Maximizing Return on Investment Using ERP Applications

THE WORKFORCE AS A LEARNING ORGANIZATION

Senior leadership positions play important roles in organizations and have to create a balance in skills and assignments such that all crucial competencies are covered. As we move fully into an integrated business environment, one of the skills areas that must be staffed and led properly is the subject of this book. The sensitivity and attention to this critical aspect of business leadership must be included in the traits of key leaders. We know that personnel are staffed in an organization to help the executive team make decisions that leverage the power of these tools to produce business results. It appears as though this is already being done, but evidence that it is done effectively is difficult to find.

Getting back to my personal story from the Preface for a minute, I was introduced to my first computer (other than gaming systems) in about 1984, when I was 40 years old. My manufacturing plant had acquired an Apple III and placed it in the accounting department, where it sat and gathered dust. Actually, what was lacking was the ability to conceptualize how one might use this new tool in order to produce something of value, often a problem that still exists today in the “cool tools” approach covered in Chapter 7. The two software packages I remember that came with the new computer were PFS (Personal Filing System) and VisiCalc (an early spreadsheet program).

My immediate need was to track absenteeism and tardiness in my workforce of ...