Elliott Jaques is rightly praised for many things: first one to apply the ideas of social culture to the life inside organizations; identified and named the “mid-life crisis” (sorry Gail Sheehy!); led the longest on-site social research efforts at Glacier Metal Company, running some 25 years; and developing a method for building the requisite organizational structure for any managerial endeavor. …
Strategy vs. Execution: Managing Strategic Uncertainty
“Bill Gates has no strategy for Microsoft!” This was the cry of the business and computing press in the late 1980s. It seemed absolutely accurate. Except that it wasn’t. Bill Gates knew something us idiots in the computing world didn’t. Here’s the story.
What Is Real Executive Work? (That Executives Aren’t Doing)
I got some strong comments regarding my post that executives are boobs. I probably should have said “worthless drags on shareholder value who ought to be golden parachuted into a live volcano that resembles the eternal hell they deserve for being lazy good-for-nothings.” But let’s not quibble. Let’s instead deal with what real executive work looks like. And, yes, I’ve …
“The Fearless Executive” by Alan Downs: a quick book review
Alan Downs is a very successful executive coach who has worked the inside of a large corporation himself. He is even the author of an intriguing memoir of sorts about axing huge numbers of the employees for the corporation. The Fearless Executive rejects the very premise of the title: there are no fearless executives, only executives who face and work …