077Acta všfs, 1/2012, vol. 6
Modern Trends in the Understanding
of Theory and Practice of Management
Moderní trendy v chápání teorie
a praxe managementu
OTAKAR NĚMEC
HAVLÍČEK, Karel. Management & controlling malé a střední firmy (SME Management & Controlling).
Praha : Vysoká škola finanční a správní, o.p.s., 2011. 212 pages. EUPRESS Edition.
ISBN 978-80-7408-056-2.
Readers of this book, particularly from among expert community and students, are presented
with not only a technical but also pedagogical text about the management theory
and practice, a text that is worth paying attention to for several reasons.
The author of the book is a person who has both managerial experience and the ability to
theoretically express, describe and analyse the facts relating to the current reality of the
operation of organisations, with a predominant focus on the business sector of small and
medium-sized enterprises. There are numerous outstanding managers and numerous outstanding
theorists. However, only few of those can combine their experiences, share them,
use literary language, generalise and, where appropriate, flesh out the complex reality
with respect to the current level of knowledge. In this book, the author presents readers
with management theory, often general, abstract and sophisticated, by using numerous
real-life examples from approximately thirty, mostly domestic, SMEs. Nevertheless, the
author is doing so with an explanatory comment relating to the relevant theory rather
than just making a statement or a description. This method very effectively animates and
clarifies particular management topics – i.e. strategy, marketing, finance, innovation, etc.
Naturally, this improves the text readability and intelligibility because the author is thus
‘telling’ management stories mostly from his own or acquired experience.
The content of this publication could be evaluated from multiple aspects, including comparisons
to the best-known and most frequently published works, which are mostly used
as higher education textbooks. However, let us have a look at where the added value of
the book, i.e. of its text, lies. The whole publication is permeated with two words – management
and controlling, consistently in all chapters, albeit this approach is not at all
usual for certain topics. The book is structured in 9 chapters, where business management
is seen as the unity of management and controlling, and includes 6 main areas, which
virtually any firm needs to understand and master – i.e. marketing, sales, finance, quality,
innovation and human resources. An important aspect to understand the message of the
book is the perception of the unity and difference of management and controlling. The
publication sees management as the management of plans and objectives, research, missions
and visions. Controlling is described as the permanent monitoring and assessment
of objectives, identification of deviations, and proposals of risk management measures.
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Why such an emphasis on the unity of management and controlling? Because the huge
changes and turbulent developments in the global economy, with an impact on individual
national economies, create an unusually strong competitive environment. This is
breeding-ground for marketing wizards with great soft skills, the capability of precisely
creating an advertising campaign, and the art of communicating with customers. To
that effect, we should state that the crucial activities in a firm include the management
of marketing, innovation and human resources. However, this is just one view, just one
side of the coin. The logic of the function of market relationships and the profit principle
clearly indicate that business is about outcomes, about market success, about economic
effects, expressed in specific figures. This is where accounting and tax specialists, financial
analysts, risk managers, i.e. people with exact hard skills, gain ground. Even the best
knowledge of the market, skilled staff and innovation potential are useless if a firm fails to
generate enough cash. That said, a well-balanced implementation of both management
methods, i.e. management as well as controlling, is crucial for the competitiveness and
success of a firm.
Chapter 1, Process Management of a Business, which outlines the essence of the whole
publication, can be seen as a methodically crucial chapter of the entire book and, as
a matter of fact, the topics contained in other chapters are methodically based on that
chapter. What is it about?
The author puts it as follows: “Thus the process management of a business can be expressed
as a Management Control System, which encompasses a comprehensive view
of business management, on the basis of management accounting, management theory
and HR management. It is an interdisciplinary management system, where the boundary
between the start and the end of another process is not the most important; more importantly,
one should understand the essence of managing a business as a whole, master the
management tools and controlling tools, and understand that a successful business may
only work if we can grasp all of its processes and understand the links between them.”
(page 17)
From this definition, which sees business management as a comprehensive process management,
based on the balance between management and controlling and on the interdisciplinary
concept of management, we can derive the following additional implications,
to name a few:
	the process model of business management is a guide to management which the•	
model strives to see in mutual relationships,
	the process model of management creates a system of categories, which are the cor-•	
nerstones of the theoretical approach to management,
	the process model of management in the periods of economic crisis tackles the rela-•	
tionship of management versus controlling, by making more intense comparisons of
the plans and objectives to the reality and the measures proposed,
	the process model of management opens up the possibilities of a  compre-•	
hensive view of teaching the business management and business finance
subjects.
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As concerns the innovative approach to crisis management we can highlight, for example,
the inclusion of what is known as the crisis tooling funding model, the analysis of
the processes of operational and financial restructuring. Some of other pioneering deeds
contained in the book include the strict distinction between the strategic approaches,
which represent the qualitative view, and the flexible approaches, which represent the
quantitative assessment. The book is the first to include the breakdown of controlling into
the marketing, sales, financial, HR, innovative and quality types.
The book reviewed complies with today’s business management requirements while providing
practical instructions for tackling such management. Nonetheless, some recommendations
for the next edition, if any, can be made:
	it is advisable to complete the comprehensive management with the view of the•	
information system and technology management (the IS/IT units and the use of IS/IT
for the SME management in HR, marketing, finance…),
	it is advisable to complete the sales and marketing management with the procure-•	
ment and logistics management,
	an inclusion of a  separate chapter on project management is also worth•	
considering,
	the question is whether to prepare a separate introductory chapter to deal generally•	
with the SME sector, the position of this business in the EU, its importance for the
economy, statistics, trends; to include a SWOT analysis of the SME sector, and consequently
to show the mistakes in managing the SMEs, with this to be followed by the
chapter on the process model of management.
Contact adress / Kontaktní adresa:
doc. Ing. Otakar Němec, CSc.
University of Finance and Administration / Vysoká škola finanční a správní
(nemeco@vse.cz)