The Concept of Integral Management

---

From LDM Associates

The American Heritage Dictionary defines Integrity as–the state of being unimpaired; soundness; honesty; completeness.

Integral-- necessary to the whole; complete;

Integrate -- to make into a whole by bringing together all parts; to unify; to unite; to make complete; 

Integral! Integrate! Integrity!  What perfect words to describe the duty of management! 

Sound management practices have all but been eclipsed by the recent and seemingly endless revelations of fraud and excess at the highest level, often aided and abetted by the financial community. The recent carnage is the product of management practices perverted by personal greed, based neither on good corporate governance or good corporate citizenship. This betrayal of public trust has destroyed confidence in Corporate America, its so called independent analysts, and its regulators.

The excesses and collapse of the Dot com driven "new economy" at the turn of the millenium, and recent revelations of corporate fraud by senior management of Enron, Anderson and others did not occur over-night. They evolved during the last 20 years, which saw the junk bond leveraged buy outs of the 80's, and the corporate merger mania of the 90's fueled by over-inflated paper value hyped by Wall Street. These were the harbingers of what was to come.

  "Restoring Trust -The Handbook of Integral  Management"   by L. David Montague was first published on the web in 2001 during the "dot com" implosion before the Enron scandal. It foresaw today’s crisis of distrust in American business and government. 

Restoring Trust is about bringing all the elements of managing together and performing them with uncompromising integrity. Mr. Montague focuses on the effective management of enterprises and projects of all shapes and sizes in today's rapidly changing environment. Building on 40 years of high integrity management success, he sets the stage, examining many management issues and pitfalls, the forces at work and their ramifications over the last 20 years. Restoring Trust builds a foundation of key principles, from the perspective of all the stakeholders in an enterprise of any size, offering specific remedies and management methods proven successful in establishing and maintaining credibility at all levels in the business environment. He calls this approach to enterprise and project leadership "Integral Management".

"Integral Management" is about the relationships among people-- more specifically the stakeholders of the enterprise -- all of them. Integrity is largely about mutual respect. Most people like to work in an environment where they know what is expected and what to expect of their leaders and coworkers. They will take more initiative, and outperform other groups by far. What is it that makes this happen? It is mutual respect, pride, fairness....and trust.