A manager is someone skilled in knowing how to analyze and improve the ability of an organization to survive and grow in a complex and changing world. This means that managers have a set of tools that enable them to grasp the complexity of the organization's environment.

A management system describes the organization and the set of significant interacting institutions and forces in the organization's complex and rapidly changing environment that affect its ability to serve its customers. The firm must continuously monitor and adapt to the environment if it is to survive and prosper. Disturbances in the environment may spell profound threats or new opportunities for the firm. The successful firm will identify, appraise, and respond to the various opportunities and threats in its environment.

The management system can be conceptualized on two levels. The first level involves the organization's internal environment. Internally, an organization can be viewed as a resource conversion machine that takes inputs (labor, money, materials and equipment) from the external environment (i.e., the outside world), converts them into useful products, goods, and services, and makes them available to customers as outputs.

The second level of the management system involves the organization's external environment. It consists of all the outside institutions and forces that have an actual or potential interest or impact on the organization's ability to achieve its objectives: competitive, economic, technological, political, legal, demographic, cultural, and ecosystem.

Environmental forces create challenges and opportunities for the organization. Managers must react and adapt to changes in their internal and external environment. Globalization is an example of an opportunity for an organization. Improving technologies, such as transportation and communications, have enabled companies to expand into global or worldwide markets. Globalization affects how organizations are managed. Managers must learn to deal effectively with multiple cultures and political systems in the midst of rapidly changing markets and technology. They must be able to anticipate this changing environment and develop the vision and competencies at all levels in their organizations to embrace this dynamic future.