The incorporation of management development in strategic management

In view of the increasing demands on managers and the corresponding scarcity of managers of high quality, management planning and development begins to emerge as one of the most important management techniques. In this paper, the authors advocate a procedure which incorporates the establishment of dynamic function profiles (based on the future function requirements) and dynamic manager profiles (based on the likely and desired development of the managers). The future gap in the quality and quantity of the company's management is found by comparing the two sets of profiles. The description of this gap is the basis for recruitments and other MPD actions. The procedure is closely synchronized with the strategic planning procedure and can therefore be considered as part of the strategic management concept. Experiences with the procedure in a multinational company show that it can be successful provided that the system is open to the managers and non‐bureaucratic. Furthermore, it should not affect the normal powers of line managers with respect to their team formation. Despite all the attention it attracts, management planning and development (MPD) is still an underutilized management tool in many companies. Procedures are often either lacking or too bureaucratic. Reasons for this are the inherent limitations to planning with human beings and, on the other hand, the availability of a safety net in the form of a market of managers.