Traditionally, management has not made serious distinctions between productivity and profitability. They have measured productivity on the balance sheet, if profits are adequate to meet the desires and wants of the owners (shareholders), no productivity problems existed.
Increased competition has forced managers to realize that it is no longer satisfactory to be doing things which simply “work.” It is important, worth the effort, and may involve survival to know the difference between just what works and what works best and to implement the improvements. Management is learning that the productivity problems are theirs -- not labor's, not technology's -- and that these problems can only be solved by the substitute of management momentum for management inertia.
