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 44 is now online

Practical Knowledge is an Undervalued Asset

For some time now there has been much talk about the inexorable advance of digitization, all-pervading algorithms and modeling. So where does that leave practical knowledge? This thoughtful essay explains why practical experience must not be neglected. More

 

Lesson Number 59

Women Quotas Are Bad For Business

Women quotas on supervisory boards are controversial, but they are spreading fast. Now gender balancing is also being proposed for management boards. There are many causes of gender gaps and each deserves a remedy. However, the women quota is the wrong solution. It is a bad idea — bad for women, and bad for business. More

 

Thinkpiece 38 – Part 2 

Boeing – Bad Managers and GE-Style Culture (Part 2) 

CEOs and their methods. The GE-Boeing malady began twenty years ago. Boeing is suffering from a managerial disease, at first latent, then progressive, and now perhaps fatal. The 737 MAX crashes were sure signs of a sick management culture. Boeing executives and shareholders will be hoping that too-big-to-fail status and the coronavirus pandemic would justify US government intervention if necessary.
This thinkpiece Part 2 investigates the causes and the causers. More

 

Thinkpiece 38 Part I 

Boeing – Bad Managers And GE-Style Culture (Part 1)

How a disastrous corporate culture grounded Boeing
Why the Boeing 737 MAX dream machine became a nightmare. This Thinkpiece (Part 1) hosts comments by insiders and observers on the total failure of a once renowned and exemplary corporation. More

 

Lesson Number 51 

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

  

Thinkpiece Number 31 Part I

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 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