Tom Breur
3 July 2016
Some people enjoy working in small and hyper nimble
organizations, others prefer working large corporations. Both have their pros
and cons. Many people complain, or are displeased with the relative
sluggishness of big companies. Having worked in a few myself, I can definitely
relate to that.
Peter Drucker is said to have invented “management as a
discipline” (see for instance his 1966 classic “The
Effective Executive”), and has often asserted that we owe much of our
wealth and prosperity to advances in management. Doing more with less, getting
the most output from your resources (within certain ethical and moral
boundaries). Large corporations showcase these advances in management.
I always find it an amusing historical artifact that Friedrich Engels, a
close friend of Karl Marx
(author of the Communist manifest “Das
Kapital”), was also at the time (mid 19th Century) the manager
of one of the largest factories in the world (a mill in Manchester, UK): about
300 employees. This, at the time, was the most we knew how to “manage”…
Big companies, and management, in my opinion, have greatly
contributed to our current day standards of living. 100 years ago, people
worked longer hours, six days a week, and had less vacation. It is quite
amazing how our quality of life has improved. So big companies must be doing something
right… They leverage existing structures, and it is therefore only natural that
they “resist change”: they have something to loose!
The maximum “healthy” (prudent) rate of progress (change!)
isn’t only tied to the size of a company. An innovative credit card start-up,
or asset management fund, is still tied to the existing structures of financial
markets. Similar for supply chain management in retail, etc. Often “slowness” of
change, says as much about the patience and persistence of change agents, as
anything else…
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