Management & Innovation Pocket-book E-Book

Miguel Agulló

• Herausgeber: Marcombo
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 127

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2025

Beschreibung

The Essential Keys to Successful Management and Driving Innovation Would you like to improve your leadership skills, make better decisions, and transform your approach to management? This book is the practical guide you need. The business world is a constantly changing environment, where fast decision-making and the ability to innovate make the difference between success and stagnation. Many professionals feel that, despite their training, they lack practical tools to lead effectively, manage teams, and anticipate challenges within their organisations. There is an overload of publications on methodologies, but a lack of clear, synthesised concepts that can serve as a true reference. *Practical Keys to Management and Innovation* is not just another theoretical manual—it is a clear, concise guide packed with proven strategies to help business owners, managers, entrepreneurs, and young professionals strengthen their management and leadership abilities. With this book, you will learn how to: * Make strategic decisions quickly and confidently in any business setting * Manage people and teams effectively, fostering motivation and commitment * Understand the essentials of innovation to adapt to change * Avoid management mistakes that can lead to project failure * Lead with ethics and resilience, becoming a role model within your organisation It doesn't matter whether you run a large company, lead a startup, or simply want to improve your decision-making and management skills—this book provides the essential tools to successfully face the challenges of management and innovation. Don't miss the opportunity to learn from the successes and failures of those who have already walked the path. Start managing better and innovating with impact after reading this book.

Leseprobe

Management & Innovation Pocket Book

© 2026 Miquel Agulló

First edition, 2026

© 2026 MARCOMBO, S. L. www.marcombo.com

Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes 594, 08007 Barcelona

Contact: [email protected]

Typesetting: D. Márquez

Translation: Dónal Cregg

Copyediting: John Ryan

Production manager: M. Rosa Castillo

No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, publicly communicated or transformed in any form without the prior permission of the copyright holders, except as permitted by law. For photocopying or scanning permissions, please contact CEDRO (Centro Español de Derechos Reprográficos) at www.cedro.org.

Paperback ISBN: 978-84-267-4087-8

E-book ISBN: 978-84-267-4145-5

Production of the e-book: booqlab

This manual is dedicated to the generations of young people preparing to succeed their predecessors in the world of work.

INDEX

Cover

Title

Copyright

INDEX

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

FOREWORD

MANAGEMENT

1. MANAGEMENT

1.1 WHAT IS MANAGEMENT?

1.2 DECISIONS

1.3 INFORMATION

1.4 ANTICIPATION

1.5 MANAGING PEOPLE

1.6 COMPANY CULTURE

1.7 THE JOB POSITION AND THE CANDIDATE

1.8 SALARIES

1.9 ADMINISTRATION

1.10 BUDGETING

1.11 VALUE ANALYSIS

1.12 THE LAW OF THE ASYMPTOTIC CURVE

1.13 ON EXCESSIVE LOGIC

1.14 LEADERSHIP

1.15 THE ANTI-LEADER OR ANTI-MANAGER

1.16 MANAGEMENT IN PRACTICE

1.17 CHANGING MANAGEMENT

1.18 QUALITY

1.19 SIX SIGMA

1.20 PROJECT MANAGEMENT

1.21 SAFETY: ALWAYS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING

1.22 CALCULATION

1.23 COST CONTROL WITH THE CLIENT

1.24 THE SUPPLIERS

MARKETING

2. MARKETING

2.1 WHAT IS MARKETING?

2.2 DESIGN

INNOVATION

3. INNOVATION

3.1 WHAT IS INNOVATION?

3.2 MINI-GUIDE TO INNOVATION

EPILOGUE

Guide

Cover

Title

Start

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This work, a summary of my experience and knowledge in the fields of innovation and management, wouldn’t have been possible without the support of various foundational pillars throughout my years of professional practice.

I’d first like to express my gratitude to the management professors I had during the final two years of my Doctorate in Industrial Mechanical Engineering, who are also outstanding professionals from the prestigious consulting firm ICSA in Barcelona: Torrens Ibern, Ruiz Devilla and Gutiérrez. Their teachings have always been of great value to me.

Likewise, I’d like to thank all the engineers who are part of the teams at my client companies in the automotive sector, as well as those in other companies I’ve worked with. The ongoing mutual feedback of knowledge and experience has been integrated into this work. The hours of pleasant collaboration between us, working on the creation and innovation of various products, remain a treasured memory.

I wish to remember María Clara Torrens, a fellow engineer, who introduced me to the business incubator at UPC. My experience with young entrepreneurs and business incubator programmes at prestigious European universities such as Cambridge, Warwick, Aachen, UPC Barcelona, Coimbra and others gave me the strong conviction that there’s much to offer, both useful and practical, to young engineers, incubators, medium-sized enterprises, and management bodies in general.

In the development of this book, it’s especially important to mention Gian Lluis Ribechini, Chair of the Business Management and Innovation Committee at the College of Industrial Engineers of Barcelona. After reading the first lines of this manuscript, he advised me in many areas, especially encouraging me to include elements of my personal experiences. His interest in the book has been a great source of motivation.

Finally, I want to thank my wife, Rosa, for her invaluable companionship during our travels to numerous countries. Her personality, language skills and empathy have always enabled her to connect with people everywhere, making her an invaluable source of help. And above all, her patience; being married to an engineer with many responsibilities is no small burden. She has been a fundamental support in the creation of this manual.

FOREWORD

For some time, after a long career in industry, I had been toying with the idea of writing a short guide to support young university graduates who suddenly find themselves faced with the realities of the business world.

The general concepts I aim to present in this work are applicable to anyone who must take on even a minimum level of responsibility in carrying out their role within a company. Therefore, this manual has, in my view, a broad universality in terms of its field of application.

The concept of management is so universal and extensive that it encompasses countless ideas and methods that have been thoroughly and brilliantly developed by many experts. These individuals are an inexhaustible source of knowledge, advancing business management at all levels. Many models have been successfully applied in large organisations, which, because of their scale and complexity, are among the most challenging to manage.

However, stepping down a level, to small and medium-sized enterprises, or even to individual management, is no easy task, either in theory or in practice. At these levels, there simply aren’t the same human or financial resources available as in large organisations. These resources cannot be spared in sufficient quantities, and as a result, there’s a pressing need to identify which efforts truly matter and which tasks must remain under firm control. I believe that many of the aspects emphasised in this book are equally valid for large organisations.

The second part of the book focuses on other elements of management that may serve as useful points of reference.

This work doesn’t aim to be a manual of management techniques, of which readers can find many examples, but rather a summary of ideas and concepts that form the underlying framework that keeps a company running. The intention is to analyse why things can go wrong or, to put it another way: what I’ve seen done poorly and the consequences that followed.

We’re currently living in a time when, due to haste and early retirements, one of the oldest relationships in the working world, the artisan–apprentice dynamic, is no longer consistently upheld in companies. This book seeks to address that gap, attempting to bridge the need for communication between those with experience and the young people who need to learn. It’s clear that the career path and creativity of the apprentice must and will be different. However, the better the guidance and foundational knowledge they receive, the richer and more brilliant both will become. It’s entirely up to the apprentice to choose what they take away from this teaching–learning process.

To help orient the reader, the author presents his professional background: I’ve worked my entire career in the machine tool industry, with most clients being major firms in the global automotive sector, and my company exported 80% of its production. For a long time, the supply chain in the automotive industry was made up of many small and medium-sized enterprises, many of which later disappeared, grew larger, or merged. Understanding why many of them fell by the wayside, and the reasons behind their failures, is just as important as knowing why others succeeded. That’s why real anecdotes are occasionally included throughout the book: to help clarify and contextualise the concepts being presented.

The book also serves to provide guidance on what managers should expect within a company, and how they should establish their relationships with others and with their own work.

Finally, I’d highlight that many of the aspects described here can also be applied to managing the reader’s personal affairs. As these are general principles, they’re not limited to the world of business and can be useful in many areas of private life management.

The author

MANAGEMENT

1  MANAGEMENT

1.1 WHAT IS MANAGEMENT?

Managing any task is management. This concise definition highlights the main attributes that underpin its functioning: decision-making, foresight, people management, and administration.

The fundamental factors in managing a business are as follows:

Making decisions

Anticipating

Selecting and managing people

Administration

The concept of management is so broad and has evolved in so many directions that it now carries the same weight and complexity as words like science, art, or literature.

For a university graduate today, it means that after dedicating significant effort to obtaining a solid academic foundation, they’re often expected to spend an additional one or two years pursuing an MBA (Master of Business Administration) or similar qualifications in order to be recognised as a capable manager by prospective employers. It’s paradoxical, however, that while great importance is placed on management at the higher levels of an organisation, its significance seems to fade as one moves down the organisational chart, or when smaller organisations are examined.

It’s evident today that the management of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is a concern for a large portion of the population, given their prevalence. Indeed, many large corporations have restructured into smaller divisions in order to operate more efficiently. Furthermore, the subject has gained renewed relevance with the rise of start-ups and companies born from university incubators or driven by individual entrepreneurs. Many of these ventures are founded by brilliant minds who must streamline their management processes to bring their ideas and businesses to life. The first questions they’re likely to ask themselves include:

What are the most important aspects I need to focus on, given that I cannot delve into every detail?

How should I select and manage my collaborators?

How should I make my decisions?

These questions help guide the identification of the essential aspects of management. Another way to explain it is to highlight the areas where mistakes or inadequacies are most commonly observed: errors that can have serious, sometimes fatal, consequences for a company.

Of course, any attempt at synthesis runs the risk of omitting something important, but the aim here is to provide an effective and simple tool, even if it isn’t exhaustive.

Once students finish their studies and enter the workforce, they quickly learn that everything is a compromise and a balancing act between various possibilities. The ideal world of ‘correct solutions’ exists only in academia.

In the following chapters, I’ll develop these solutions and relate them to different areas and techniques within management. Each of these factors will also be explored through its own key components, described in order to support understanding and emphasise what truly matters.

Books will also be referenced that may help the reader to deepen their knowledge in specific areas. These will be particularly useful when circumstances call for expanded insights or alternative perspectives.

All the factors described are key to most roles within an organisation. Overall performance depends on the degree to which these factors are embraced as important by people at every level of the company. When the importance of these principles isn’t recognised across the board, management is often forced to increase bureaucracy in order to organise and maintain control. In short, systems and techniques must then be introduced to compensate for the shortcomings that inevitably arise, with uncertain outcomes.

SUMMARY

Management is the act of managing any task. We define what we believe to be the key factors.

The various elements are interrelated and influence one another: decision-making, anticipating, managing people, and administering. This holds true at all levels.

1.2 DECISIONS

While the mediocre wise man is still deciding what to do, the intelligent wise man has already done it.

Aristotle

The complex path of decision-making doesn’t end with the simple act of making a decision: one must be clear about who’s responsible for making it, who’s obliged to act, and how the necessary instructions must be implemented to execute it effectively. All of these factors are key elements in the construction of a sound decision.

Everyday life clearly shows the inherent difficulty of making decisions.

Who hasn’t waited in a shop queue behind someone who simply can’t decide what they want, much to the frustration of the cashier and those waiting behind?

Or encountered an official demanding endless paperwork just to avoid the slightest mistake?

How many people miss out on job offers, business deals, or even holidays simply because they struggle to make a decision?

Some people decide and never look back. Others act, then constantly look behind them, analysing repeatedly what went wrong, what they or others did wrong: sometimes to the torment of themselves and those around them.

It’s clear that if everyone in a company, at every level, made decisions continuously and systematically, organisations would function far better. However, in the real world, resistance to decision-making is easily cultivated and, once embedded, becomes chronic.

Some individuals have a natural tendency to avoid taking risks, postponing decisions in the hope that circumstances will change and relieve them of the need to act. This phenomenon is often seen in public sector organisations, where large sections of personnel cannot be dispensed with.

Often, the problem originates from the company’s own leadership. True leadership lies in leading by example. If a company wants a workforce that’s effective in decision-making, its leadership must model that behaviour by making sound and timely decisions.

There are several common mistakes made by those responsible for making decisions:

Delegating too much: expecting subordinates to make decisions they’re not equipped to handle.

Delegating too little: over-concentrating decision-making due to a lack of trust in others.

Delegating poorly: refusing to tolerate mistakes, being overly critical of how subordinates carry out tasks, or providing inadequate information beforehand, thus hindering the effectiveness of the assignment.

Failing to give clear and defined instructions

In the first scenario, the consequences can be particularly burdensome for lower levels of staff. This gives rise to what is known as the hinge person: a frustrating position for anyone caught in it. The hinge person is someone onto whom their superiors delegate excessively without deciding much themselves, while those below refuse to take the initiative.

However, if approached with the right mindset, this experience can become a valuable training ground for future growth.

An important piece of advice is not to accept a job permanently if it places you in the role of a hinge person. It should only be seen as a temporary opportunity for learning and development, used to your advantage.

From a management perspective, it’s essential to recognise the importance of not creating hinge person roles within the organisation.

Clearly, if no one is willing to take on this hinge role and the leadership makes few decisions, a crisis is bound to emerge before long.

As for delegating too little, this unfortunately occurs frequently and acts as a major brake on the growth of a company or department. Admittedly, this can be a comfortable situation for team members in the short term, but in the long run, it becomes unsustainable and leads to a decline in the overall quality of the team.

It’s worth remembering that if you’re part of an organisation that doesn’t allow you to make decisions, your value as a professional will gradually diminish.