A Press Luncheon Illuminates a New Managerial Creed
On 26 December the airy courtyard of the École supérieure de gestion et d’administration des entreprises in Brazzaville filled with the quiet clatter of cutlery and the hushed expectations of journalists. At the end of the luncheon, Professor Roger Armand Makany, founder and director-general of ESGAE, rose to introduce his ninth book, eloquently entitled “Le management par les détails: les clés de la performance managériale à travers l’attention aux détails”. Published by Hemar, the 148-page volume is at once a practical guide, a philosophical reflection and a gentle provocation aimed at policy-makers, executives and students alike.
Why the Marginal Often Becomes Pivotal
Makany’s central thesis is disarmingly simple: durable performance does not spring from lofty slogans or strategic crusades but from deliberate vigilance over seemingly marginal elements. Drawing on episodes as diverse as power-supply breakdowns, water leakage, forensic investigations and the interpretation of a pupil’s report card, the professor shows that organisational failure germinates in neglected microprocesses, not in programme documents. “The globally satisfactory is a dangerous illusion,” he warned while presenting the book, insisting that an error deemed insignificant can trigger cascading costs.
Rethinking Africa’s Journey Toward Emergence
The author’s critique acquires particular resonance within African development debates. For Makany, the continent too often embraces a culture of approximations, celebrating respectable aggregates while overlooking the operational minutiae that transform indicators into reality. Such an attitude, he contends, delays the attainment of emergence thresholds. By reinstating the detail as a managerial lever, leaders could, in his view, bridge the persistent execution gap and reinforce public trust.
From Micromanagement to a Culture of Foresight
Lest his advocacy be confused with suffocating micromanagement, Makany dedicates an entire chapter to drawing the line between pathological control and strategic foresight. The ‘manager of details’, he writes, does not spy on subordinates; rather, he or she anticipates dysfunctions, contracts risks and memorialises lessons that might otherwise vanish. Attention to detail becomes a transversal competence: it clarifies communication, refines quality benchmarks, accelerates conflict resolution and preserves time—this scarce resource modern administrations cannot afford to squander.
An Architecture in Six Chapters
Organised in six tightly argued chapters, the book opens by defining the notion of detail and closes with a roadmap for institutionalising its oversight. Case studies and reflective inserts punctuate the narrative, making the argument both accessible and empirically grounded. Marcel Mbaloula, ESGAE’s secretary-general, summarised the structure in three propositions during the launch: details are never anecdotal; mastering them is indispensable; and the method proposed is a philosophy of governance, not a managerial fad.
Contractualising Risk, Cultivating Excellence
Throughout the text Makany enumerates instances in which tiny lapses can erode reputations, inflate budgets or imperil safety. His solution is to contract—literally to formalise—each potential breach, thereby transforming diffuse vulnerabilities into accountable tasks. The resulting discipline, he argues, moves institutions from the realm of the ‘essentially acceptable’ toward the horizon of ‘detail-driven excellence’, a standard he deems both attainable and sustainable.
ESGAE: An Incubator of Applied Thought
Makany’s authority on the subject derives from three decades of academic and managerial stewardship. ESGAE, the school he founded, holds three Eduniversal Palmes of Excellence and is the first private Congolese institution to enjoy public-utility status—evidence that theory can indeed fertilise practice. Hemar’s publication of the present volume thus extends a tradition of scholarship rooted in Congo-Brazzaville yet outward-looking, mindful of benchmarks across Central Africa and beyond.
Toward a New Standard of Public and Private Governance
“Excellence is not decreed; it is cultivated day after day,” Makany reminds his readers. By repositioning the detail at the heart of decision-making, the book offers administrators, entrepreneurs and citizens a compass for navigating an increasingly complex environment. In an era where agility and credibility define competitive advantage, the lesson resonates far beyond boardrooms: nations striving for inclusive growth may also need to inspect the proverbial fine print of their policies. Makany’s blueprint, if embraced, could help align African governance with the meticulous standards that global investors and domestic constituencies now legitimately expect.