Checklist Management? Gerberian paradigm shift. And now, a great paradigm shift in management. American Michael Gerber’s mega-bestselling book The E-Myth Revisited contains the most revolutionary management idea that has appeared in the field of management in the last 100 years. From the latest Internet news, the book has sold more than 2 million copies. And this is not fiction.

I’ve read the book at least 2 times, word for word. I have also tried to catch the essence of every chapter of the book, condensing each so that I can put the book's ideas on only one sheet of paper. I always do that when I like a book, condense what the author is trying to say. I know that if I do that, I will be forced to understand what Gerber is saying and where he is coming from.

So, I can say we have a new management guru; move over, Peter Drucker and all the others. For the first time, management is doable by non-management graduates, by non-geniuses, by those who never had any previous training in management. Finally, management is simplified, beautified, satisfying and not terrifying, a reward and not a punishment.

And so, everyone can now succeed in management: the creative person (non-technical, non-managerial), the technician (non-creative, non-managerial), and the entrepreneurial mind (non-technical, non-creative).

What has Gerber wrought? He doesn’t have a name for it, so anyone is free to suggest. And since I don’t want to discuss something nameless, I have decided to call it checklist management – the name says it all. As far as I understand it, there are 7 separate checklists for a successful small business:

Checklist for the Vision – What is it? Does everyone share it?

Checklist for the Objective – What is the mission that will help bring about the vision? What is everyone’s objective to accomplish that Mission?

Checklist for the Organization – How big do you want the enterprise to be? What is the organizational structure?

Checklist for the Supervision – How will the enterprise deliver on the product or service? Are all the routines in writing and being followed?

Checklist for the People - Do the people working for the enterprise have the heart for the business? Do they do what they are supposed to do everyday without fail?

Checklist for the Marketing – How will the marketing and sales people succeed without fail? What are the protocols?

Checklist for all the Systems – How are all the vision, the objective, the organization, the supervision, the people and the marketing integrated into one whole?

Those are only sample questions, but you get the idea. Gerber’s book, not aptly titled, lists down what we must do to succeed in managing a small business. Watch out – when he says ‘small,’ he means as small as $1 million or as big as $500 million company. In fact, there is no limit to the idea of ‘small’ – the limit in business is how you manage using the Gerberian paradigm.