Mark Huijben

Inspiration meeting lasting from one hour to approximately half a day about Managing Overhead, based on his publications on the subject. He tailors this to the issues present within the organisation. Target audience: for example, executives and management teams. The presentation contributes to a shared vision and approach to managing overhead.

Topics include: what is overhead? What makes it so elusive? How do you determine the right size? Which rational and irrational factors determine the size? What is the relationship between size and quality? What can be said about management and organisation? How do you ensure that costs and value are balanced? What developments are occurring?

This is based on his book ‘Check Your Business Management – practical approach for the 10 strategic themes of every organisation’. Meeting lasting from one hour to approximately half a day. Mark preferably starts from issues present within the organisation. If internal documents about business management are available, he is happy to include these to address during the meeting.
Every organisation faces important questions directly related to good business management. According to him, the core of good business management lies in these ten strategic themes:

– New themes: become agile and shock-resistant, work hybrid and data-driven, shape digital transformation and become sustainable.
– Timeless themes: remain effective and productive, keep your foundation in order, remain an attractive employer and consider your own role as responsible for all this.

The theme of business management is therefore broader than overhead, as it involves themes that run throughout the organisation. The staff departments play an important role in this, as do the executives and line management. It requires collaboration across departments.

This presentation focuses on the major bottlenecks of the government in public service delivery, such as the complexity of laws and regulations and the poor data exchange between government agencies. This leads to an increasingly large Civil Service that becomes gridlocked. Using concrete examples and international best practices, he discusses the problems and shows where and why it becomes stuck. Consider the complex system of Allowances and Taxes, the handling of earthquake damage, healthcare, asylum, physical infrastructure….

At the same time, there are also promising practices from the Election of Best Government Organisation and Innovation. Participants gain insight into current problems and possible future scenarios and are challenged to think about solutions for a more efficient and better functioning government.