Management Review Actors

A Management Review (MR) is a team task. All participants must understand their roles and responsibilities.

CEO: As indicated in prior posts, the MR is the Chief Executive Officer’s (CEO’s) meeting. He sets the goals and objectives and the scope and content of the meeting. The CEO designs his brief to 1) tell company staff and technical leaders how much he appreciates their hard work, 2) make clear, using graphs and charts, how their efforts have driven company growth, 3) offer his view of the challenges the company faces, 4) present his view of the future, and 5) suggest new initiatives.

If this is his meeting, why should the CEO be limited to just a single brief?  It is his meeting, but he is here to learn. During the preparation phase, he makes clear what he needs to hear from the other briefers. His brief may even reflect information he has seen in a preview of other briefs.

Facilitator: The Facilitator acts as the CEO’s agent and MR advisor. He coordinates the MR phases. During the preparation phase, he comes to agreement with the CEO on all briefing formats; the starting point for the formats is the ISO 9001 requirements. Once those formats are established, the Facilitator works with all MR actors to assure that their briefings deliver on the promise he has made to the CEO; this activity is critical to MR success.

The Facilitator also prepares and delivers a brief. Subject to CEO concurrence, the Facilitator may discuss the following in his briefing: ISO 9001 in general and MR goals and philosophy in particular; generic business development principles as supported by the MR; and customer satisfaction, employee morale, and continual improvement. The Facilitator will harmonize these and any other topics with the CEO and COO briefs.

COO: The Chief Operations Officer (COO) is responsible for day-to-day company operations. For example, he may represent the indirect (overhead) part of the company. In his brief, the COO might introduce the indirect staff, explain how they support the company, and help PMs understand how they can help the support staff meet internal obligations (e.g., payroll) and contractual obligations (e.g., status reporting). He may discuss company training policies and opportunities, human resources, and other topics by agreement with the CEO.

BDM: The Business Development Manager (BDM) addresses customer relations and proposals. It is important that the MR yield useful information for the BDM such as SWOTs and technical areas addressed by each program/project. The BDM also presents, to the extent possible, the calendar of Requests for Information (RFIs) and Requests for Proposals (RFPs). And, depending on sensitivities, he may discuss teaming by agreement with the CEO.

PMs: Each Project/Program Manager (PM) represents a business area. The format and content of his brief will be guided by three factors: 1) company needs; 2) a business focus; and 3) ISO 9001 requirements (which are time-tested and may later enable certification). These briefs, the heart of the MR, convey the status, challenges, and opportunities that “on-the-ground” project teams see daily. They will take most of the MR briefing time. It is critical to MR success that they be business briefs; while a technical overview will be part of each brief to put the project in context, the MR is a business review rather than a forum for addressing technical problems. That said, technical strengths and weaknesses should be noted and business opportunities and threats arising from changes to technology should be raised.