Intelligent Management

Deming and Theory of Constraints for CEOs and Executive Teams for the Age of Complexity. Ess3ntial Critical Chain Project Management

Expand your company sustainably.

  • Most organizations are built on an outdated model — fragmented, siloed, linear. We work with CEOs and founders ready to make a step change: turning their organization into a synchronized, high-performance system capable of sustainable growth.
  • Focus on a strategic leverage point to multiply revenue and profit

Scale as an interconnected network

The problem we solve

Our approach: The Decalogue

Built on the combined work of Dr. W. Edwards Deming and Dr. Eliyahu Goldratt, two of the most important management thinkers of the 20th century, and refined through decades of real-world application in private, public, family-owned and listed companies across Europe and North America.

01 Gain a systemic perspective

An introductory session to shift how you see your organization — as a network of interdependent components, not a collection of departments. This is the lens that changes everything.

1 online session · 4 hours

02 Build the foundations

Leadership teams develop the knowledge and skills to lead systemically: managing variation, synchronizing through a constraint, and measuring what truly drives performance.

8 sessions · 3–4 hours each

03 Identify your unique leverage point

Through deep self-assessment, discover exactly what is blocking your company’s growth and map a clear, strategic path from where you are to where you want to be.

8–10 half-day sessions

04 Implement and transform

A detailed plan with monitored milestones. We walk alongside your team through the full transformation — resolving obstacles, reinforcing the systemic mindset, and sustaining momentum.

6–36 months accompaniment

Ready to become a step ahead?

The starting point is a four-hour introductory session. It costs you almost nothing. It could change how you run your company for good.

I want to explore working with Intelligent Management. What is the first step?


Since 1996, in Europe and North America, we have transferred to companies a method for managing complexity to achieve sustainable and significant growth within one to three years. Dozens of organizations, small and not so small, private and publicly listed, family owned and management driven, for-profit and not, from smokestack to hi tech, have been closely guided by us along a managed path of transformation.

The work always starts with overcoming mental models and self-limiting beliefs (inherent conflicts) that are keeping the organization stuck. Then we assist the leadership team to identify and roll out systemic solutions that boost company performance and build sustainable growth. The results have been rarely disappointing, usually very good, sometimes truly excellent. From all these experiences we have learned and continuously refined an approach to change that is highly sophisticated and yet eminently practical.

Our team has been together for a very long time, and our competencies span from theoretical physics to contemporary literature. We have produced our results by leveraging our talents as physicists, mathematicians, computer scientists and writers, and an understanding of the humanities permeates everything we do.

Schedule an introductory call with us

Learn How a Systemic Approach to Management Can Boost Your Company’s Performance

Over the years we have communicated our approach to systemic management in a variety of ways. At the end of the 1990s, the unique blending of Deming and Goldratt into a methodology was first fully described by Domenico Lepore and Oded Cohen in ‘Deming and Goldratt: The Decalogue’. North River Press, 1999, translated into several languages and recommended reading in universities around the world. This was further developed after a decade of implementations by Lepore et al in ‘Sechel: Logic, Language and  Tools to Manage Any Organization as a Network’. Intelligent Management Inc., 2011.

Intelligent Management books

Our most scientific publication is a chapter we were invited to contribute to a volume on Complexity from Springer: ‘Managing Complexity in Organizations Through a Systemic Network of Projects’. Chapter in ‘Applications of Systems Thinking and Soft Operations Research in Managing Complexity’, Springer, 2015.

Following in the footsteps of Dr. Goldratt, we chose to narrate an entire  novel about management in 21st century based on some of our major case histories. Bought in 43 countries so far, ‘The Human Constraint’ is a Business Novel with knowledge base. Exclusively available here: www.thehumanconstraint.ca

We were invited by CRC Press to give a complete summary of the Decalogue approach for complexity aimed at leaders and C-Suite executives. ‘Quality, Involvement, Flow: The Systemic Organization’ 2016 is available from CRC Press, New York.

Our latest book is ‘Moving the Chains: An Operational Solution for Embracing Complexity in the Digital Age’ The digital age is reshaping value chains and interactions. Dr. Domenico Lepore provides an operational solution for  transformation.

Intelligent Management Founder, Dr. Domenico Lepore, presents a transformational organization design for the Digital Age:

A new scenario requires more evolved tools

Thinking and acting against the backdrop of complexity requires not just a shift in the way we perceive and operate our organization but also the way we support it technologically.

Enter Ess3ntial.

No, we are not asking you to trust a piece of software to manage your organization. You never should. The question becomes, how can our company make the most out of our leverage point, the constraint? How can we take the maximum out of our ability to generate value through the most effective use of our time and our competencies? This is the purpose of technology – to alleviate limitations.

What’s Ess3ntial about?

 

Ess3ntial is an elegant solution – a bold approach and a simple one. As such, no one said it will be easy. It is not meant to be used just as a Critical Chain software. It provides a missing piece – a tool to nudge the organization towards acquiring the collaborative spirit that Critical Chain is meant to bring forth, but with a boost: project planning based on competencies. To me, this is the breakthrough and standout element. I believe it shifts our focus from just projects and outcomes to people and culture.

Dr. Javier Arevalo

Partner / Director Goldratt Consulting,
Latin America

VISIT ESS3NTIAL AND REQUEST A FREE TRIAL

 

Twenty years after the ground-breaking book ‘Deming and Goldratt: The Decalogue’, Dr. Domenico Lepore returns with ‘Moving the Chains’.

The way we design and work within our organizations is profoundly impacted by digital technologies and complexity. Speed of flow is critical for innovation, production, communication, and delivery. Silo-based, functional hierarchies are failing to guarantee the necessary speed of flow as well as quality, and involvement of people. Applying techniques is insufficient. What is required is a radical rethink to compete and thrive. Nothing less than a new way of understanding ­- an epistemological framework – will do.

‘Moving the Chains’ aims to provide such a framework and show how we can break free from silos and silo-thinking through a truly systemic approach. It presents an operational solution that allows organizations to effectively adopt digital technologies and reap their benefits. It highlights the new kind of leadership that our increasingly network-based and distributed business world requires to achieve sustainable prosperity.

 

Buy now

 

View Book

Now from Taylor & Francis, our fast-paced, informative business novel:

The Human Constraint

How Business Leaders Can Embed Continuous Innovation, Conflict Resolution, and Problem Solving Into Daily Practice

a book about personal and business transformation

by Angela Montgomery, PhD

 

“I think the book is brilliantly written, much more engaging than the Goldratt books. It sort of captivates one with a sense of wanting to see what’s going to happen next.” GENE BELLINGER, SYSTEMS THINKING WORLD

– A fast paced story inspired by case histories in fictional form

– Theory of Constraints and Deming’s management approach

– New section on systemic management and the Thinking Processes described in a way you’ve never heard before

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Our Blog

  • The Theory of Constraints: What Is Its Hard Core?
  • Beyond Cross-Functional: A Solution Your Teams Already Know
  • From Exile to Freedom: Transform Your Organization’s Potential into Reality
  • Mental Models and Why Organizations Need Explorers
  • Break the Leadership Bottleneck Without Losing Control

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