MANAGERISM

The Managerism initiative promotes responsible and accountable business leadership: it is a private, independent, open and non-commercial project -- started and supported by a network of individuals. It offers an alternative German/Austrian perspective on management topics and the matrix business/economics/society.

Please note: The following are English translations of essays from our German website www.managerismus.com

 

 

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NEW CONTRIBUTIONS

 

Lesson Number 51 — Now online

The Lonely Crowd: Human Beings as Digitally-Controlled 'Expert Machines'

Is there a law that says bad work drives out good? No, and yet digitalization reduces and simplifies traditional work until, ultimately, it can be automated. Many employees face the prospect of becoming mere 'human sensors' and semi-skilled operatives in an automated process. The working lives of people in manufacturing and service industries will be marked by deskilling, estrangement and isolation, unless corrective measures are taken. This essay considers the dangers of digital Taylorization and denounces the drive for total efficiency. More

 

Thinkpiece Number 27 

Decline and Fall of Management Gurus

For over thirty years now, business management teaching – while claiming to be professional and scientific – has simply been a follower of fashions and trends. It is surprizing how many managers, organizations and well-established corporations have been fooled. This essay gives a first-hand account of the guru game: it exposes the guilty gurus, their disciples, the willing victims, and most important – offers essential, unique and valuable lessons for today`s executive managers. More

 

Thinkpiece Number 31 Part II 

Limited Liability (Part 2): The Total Economic Cost

If limited liability did not exist, would you invent it? It creates business uncertainty, corporate failure and loss of trust in managers; has no commercial or economic benefit; private gain but great public cost; it is unjust and inefficient; serving the interests of capital owners and managerists but not the common good. Some remedies are proposed. More

 

Lesson Number 55 

Keeping the Siemens spirit alive!

Worldwide companies should not be citizens of nowhere. They must protect the unity and identity of the company, out of pure self-interest. This is a lasting mandate for executive managers and supervisory boards: to be not only a servant of capital markets, and their short-term interests, but to be a good steward of the company.  More

 

Thinkpiece Number 31

Limited Liability (Part 1): Heads I Win, Tails You Lose

Limited liability in truth means — No liability. The limited liability corporation is a business model that harms others. Corporate managers are incentivized by bonuses to take unreasonable risks that can lead to bankruptcy. Risk and accountability have become detached. In nineteenth-century Britain, bankers and factory owners opposed limited liability. What is a limited liability law for? Who is it for?   More

 

Lesson Number 49 

Leadership Culture: An Analog Dilemma in a Digital Age

Digitization directly impacts business leaders by transforming how they manage employees. Managers must adapt, by choice or by force, to a new workshop culture and say goodbye to multiple layered, tightly controlled organizations. However, that does not mean trying to copy Silicon Valley. This essay explains what has to change and also describes some organizational innovations at major companies in Germany. More

 

Thinkpiece Number 20 

The Decline of Moral Behavior — How Can Companies Prevent It?

Ethical behavior is having a hard time, especially within the harsh constraints of a globalizing and increasingly nominal economy. The risks of misconduct are much higher for (too) big companies and conglomerates. Reports of unethical business practice are on the rise. This essay describes the action that management must take.   More

 

Lesson Number 50

Werner von Siemens (1816 – 1892): Insights of a Great Entrepreneur

The 50th Lesson of the Managerism series is dedicated to Werner von Siemens:
a great entrepreneur of the industrial revolution in Germany. This essay makes the case for studying some of the great entrepreneurs of the past: men like Robert Bosch, Reinhard Mohn and Berthold Leibinger, to name a few outstanding German business entrepreneurs. That is a good way to discover the true essence of business leadership and bypass the fashion trends of management teaching and consulting.  More

 

Thinkpiece Number 21 

The Proliferation of Parabusiness

Parasitic embrace and wealth extraction by consultants, investment bankers, auditors and other 'helpers'. Organic growth is sustainable and healthy, whereas tumor growth is parasitic. This can progress in different ways: by using processes and systems purposely made increasingly complex, by using constantly changing concepts, by willfuly destroying that of proven worth. One kind of tumor growth is parabusiness: what this includes, what business models are used, and how the entire parabusiness branch can be trimmed to a healthy size, are dealt with in this Thinkpiece. Further essays on the topic will follow. More